Daring and Caution in Turkish Strategic Culture

Daring and Caution in Turkish Strategic Culture

Also by Malik Mufti SOVEREIGN CREATIONS: Pan-Arabism and Political Order in Syria and Iraq

Daring and Caution in Turkish Strategic Culture Republic at Sea Malik Mufti Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Tufts University, USA

Malik Mufti 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-23638-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-31444-7 ISBN 978-0-230-25115-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230251151 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

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Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I Taking Root 1 Imperial Legacies 9 Russian expansion 9 Western ambivalence 10 Domestic dysfunction 11 Into the inferno 14 2 Republican Foundations 17 Atatürk innovates: Peace at Home, Peace in the World 17 The CHP legislates: the Six Arrows 22 3 Cracks in the Edifice 29 The counter-paradigm surfaces 30 Domestic strains 36 External strains 41 Part II Taking Sail 4 Turgut Özal and the Gates of Desire 49 The TAF in crisis 50 Özal 58 Iraq (1990 1991) 65 Aftermath 80 Part III Floundering 5 The Years of Living Dangerously 87 Toward the open seas? 87 The second time as farce 93 Iraq 97 Iran 102 Syria and Israel 105 vii

viii Contents Turkey and Russia in the Caucasus: back to imperial competition? 109 The Balkans 118 6 Dead Ends 123 Dogmatic Islamism: the rise and fall of Necmettin Erbakan 123 Unbridled commercialism: Mesut Yılmaz 129 Indian summer: Bülent Ecevit s last term as prime minister 137 7 Paradigm Crisis 149 Identity politics returns 149 Iraq again 151 Strategic options 156 Democratic Islamism 164 Republican choices 167 Conclusion: A Second Sailing? 173 Appendix: National Election Results 179 Notes 180 Bibliography 208 List of Interviewees 221 Index 222

Acknowledgments I am grateful for the help of many people in the preparation of this book. In addition to those mentioned in the List of Interviewees, all of whom generously took time to share their insights and several of whom also helped me in contacting additional sources, I wish to thank the following for commenting on my drafts or providing other forms of assistance: Feroz Ahmad, Cüneyt Cezayirli, Consuelo Cruz, Ertuğrul Oğuz Çırağan, Rob Devigne, Emre Kayhan, Kemal Kirişci, Zeynep Mufti, David Pervin, Michael Reynolds, Harold Rhode, Aytek Savaş, Sabri Sayarı, Tony Smith, Elin Suleymanov, Hasan Ertuğ Tombuş, and M. Hakan Yavuz. It is also my pleasure to express gratitude to the Smith Robertson Foundation, which provided me a one-year grant to conduct research; and to Tufts University s Faculty Research Awards Committee, which provided me with a summer grant. The epigraph on page 1 is from Sun Tzu: Art of War, copyright 1994 by Ralph D. Sawyer, reprinted by kind permission of Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. The epigraphs on the title pages of the three parts of this book are from Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War after the translation by Richard Crawley (1840 1893) published in 1910. MALIK MUFTI ix