Depoliticization of Military Power in Turkey: Between Ottoman and

Erdogan

Written by: Muhammad Raihan

Turkey has a long history in developing their military warfare. Their military power used to

be feared by the entire world due to its might. As the great empire as well as Islamic

caliphate, Ottoman military power brought Turkish people to the golden age. Its territory

spread out from Hungary to Hejaz and from North Africa to Crimean Territory. All of these

conquests cannot be achieved by mediocre-class army. Ottoman was well-known innovator

when it comes to warfare management. One of the best of Ottoman innovation in armed

forces is Janissary.

Janissary is one of the Ottoman royal forces whose loyalty is only for sultan. This kind of

armed forces was established approximately by the time of Orhan Gazi rule in 13th century.

However, according to Uzuncarsili, there is no proof to back up this claim since in Orhan’s

son era, Murad I the evidence of Janissary’s existence cannot be found.1 Aside of the

controversies regarding of their origin, Janissaries are nevertheless one kind of soldier that

technologically well developed. They, together with Sipahi, a cavalry warrior with a long

spear created such kind of devastating wreck in the battle. The conquests of Istanbul, Balkan

territories, Hungary, Crimean territories cannot be achieved If they are didn’t exist at the

very first place. Their might were made by a strict military education system called devsirme.

Devsirme is a strict military education that recruited or shall I say kidnapped millions non-

muslim kids from all of region of Ottoman. This is because in Islamic Law, slaving Muslim

by an Islamic law is forbidden. However, slaving non-Muslim is an exception in this era.

Those children were Islamized by Ottoman and after that, underwent a very strict military

                                                                                                                         1  Zafer  Karademir,  “The  Janissaries  in  The  Social  and  Economic  Life  of  Rum  (Sivas)  Province  in  The  Middle  of  18th  Century”,  The  Journal  of  International  Social  Research  Vol.  7  Issue.  9,  page.  1  

         training.2 These kids will not be the same anymore and will be a loyal sultan’s royal army

whose loyalty can only be for sultan. Ottoman military campaign, If we uphold to believe

that Janissary is actually founded in Orhan’s era, already have a great triumph over

Byzantines, Vlad III Dracul, Mamluks in Egypt, and not to mention a long-standing war

against Safavid, Habsburg, and Russian Empire in which they have got small victories from

some battle against them even though at that time, Ottoman’s strength as a huge empire

were depleting. Thus, devsirme system is actually an effective military recruitment.

However, this system is proven to be calamity to the entire empire. This corps was given

special authorities as sultan’s royal guardian but they abused their privileges. The fact that

many historians like Mehmed Esad Effendi and Ahmed Lutfi Effendi has recorded

regarding to Janissary’s act of committing crimes and their lack of disciplines. Furthermore,

it never met the standard of trained armed forces anymore since European western army at

that time was very organized and well-trained.3 Therefore, If those armies attack Ottoman

who only guarded themselves with unprofessional armed forces, they will gain undisputed

victory.

This is the reason why Janissary must be reformed. The urgency of this reformation is the

Ottoman’s might in Europe which was decreasing day by day. However, the question is how

do sultan, vizier, or whoever who can reform the army while the army itself does not want to

be reformed at the very first place? Perhaps, Ottoman Empire as a nation have a right to

impose reform policy in janissary institution but the problem is, Janissary seemed to be

immune to sultan’s pressure on reforming them.

The answer is not lies on whether or not this special force can be reformed but, the answer

is the political influence of the janissary is influential enough to even develop into strong

political faction. This is quite interesting. The usage of devsirme is supposed to minimize

Turks or a Muslim child to be a killing machine and to eradicate the possibility of political

                                                                                                                         2  Kadir  Ustun,  “Rethinking  Vaka-­‐i-­‐Hayriye  (The  Auspicious  Event):  Elimination  of  Janissaries  on  The  Path  of  Modernization”  Master  Thesis,  Institute  of  Economics  and  Social  Sciences  of  Bilkent  University,  2002,  hlm.  19  3  Ibid,  hlm.  3-­‐4  

         interest within those kids by assigned them with a holy duty to protect sultan. The truth is

these aims cannot be reached because Janissary had created a faction in the realm of

Ottoman’s politics.

When they became unprofessional and their loyalty was questionable, any attempt to reform

them meant one thing, death. Osman II knew that this kind of institution is killing the

Empire so he decided to reform it. The problem was raised when he decided to wage a war

against Poland even though Janissary faction is against the idea. When sultan marched to the

battlefield in Chotin, there was a mutiny against his order that caused Ottoman’s achieved

nothing but a great loss even though he decided to stay on the battlefield. His lost made him

want to abolish janissary corps and cost him his life. When janissary knew this plan, they

executed Osman and placed his uncle again as a Sultan to ensure the stability of the nation.4

Ottoman could only manage to repel Janissary’s influence in 1826 in the era of Mahmud II.

He managed to abolish Janissary system and modernizing Ottoman military forces.

Honestly, he did not have any intention to abolish this system. All he wanted to do is just

reforming the system due to their lack of competency and their tendency of disobeying

sultan and law. However, Janissary, as usual do not want to be interfered by sultan’s decision

seemed to deter this attempt and also, the fact that Ottoman already waging a war with

Persia and there is an insurgency in Greece made a reform of Janissary is impossible. Thus,

the only way to reform Ottoman military warfare holistically is to abolish Janissary system as

a whole.5

Logically, this attempt did not come that easily. It was almost impossible to make an

intervention attempt with Janissary’s business. History already recorded that even sultan

could not slow Janissaries wrath down. Osman II already made an attempt to reform

Janissary due to his anger towards losing against Polish Forces but, Janissaries had him

executed and put his mentally-unstable uncle to the throne to make the situation is stable at

                                                                                                                         4  Colin  Imber,  The  Ottoman  Empire,  1300-­‐1650:  The  Structure  of  Power,  New  York:  Palgrave,  2002,  hlm.  27-­‐78  5Ustun,  Op.  Cit,  hlm.  14    

         least for their interest. The reason on why Mahmud II could abolish Janissary is that there

was a forerunner before him who already weakened Janissary faction. In the Era of Selim III

(1789-1807), a small yet more powerful and disciplined called Nizam- i- Cedid.6

Nizam- i- Cedid’s invention is actually has its own story. Like I have mentioned before, the

situation of Ottoman military at that time is totally messed up. Janissaries, whose role was

supposed to be one of the powerhouses in the realm of elite military unit, had already lost

their might. They usually got into commercial business, rarely train their combat skills, and

trapped into elite political game as they have created political faction who sought power

from their privileges as sultan’s royal guardian and started to spread their influence towards

sultan. After seeing these kinds of catastrophe, Selim III have two option to solve this

problems, (1) abolishing Janissary corps and create new armed forces, (2) create new armed

forces without abolishing Janissary. Selim opted the second way.7 It seems like Selim have

learned from his predecessor’s mistake about underestimating Janissary faction’s power.

Selim already knew that If he wants to create reformation within Ottoman military units, he

has to do it in a softer way. Selim was not only creating new armed forces but also, building

a foundation of new concept of modern Turkish armed forces and setting a milestone of

eradicating Janissary’s influence in the Ottoman’s politics.

Uniquely, the Depoliticization within the military institution in Turkish history has not

stopped with the abolition of Janissary. It perhaps solved Ottoman’s problem but not

Turkish problem. Turkish military institution in post-Ottoman era is surprisingly does not

changed much. They created strong faction in Turkish politics. Ataturk created such kind of

informal negotiation with army which resulting TSK to be ideological vanguard of

Kemalism. This had caused a military supremacy within politics thus, made executive

candidates who bring subversive values that contradictory to Kemalism to be abdicated.

Hundred years later, this phenomenon happened once more in the different form.

                                                                                                                         6  Veysel  Simsek,  “Ottoman  Military  Recruitment    and  The  Recruit:  1826-­‐1853”,  Master  Thesis,  The  Department  of  History  of  Bilkent  University,  2005,  hlm.  20  7  Ustun,  Op.cit,  hlm.  5-­‐6  

          No one could predict Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) or Justice and Development Party in

English can actually tear down military apparatus domination over Turkish politics. They are

basically a bunch of Muslim politicians who never want to acknowledge themselves with

Islamic politics label even though everybody knew Islam plays a huge role on their platform.

Usually, this kind of party is the one who should be overthrown easily by TSK. TSK can

easily having Adnan Menderes executed, did coup d’etat to Turgut Ozal, and at the end, the

last coup d’etat to Necmettin Erbakan. Three of them have one thing in common. They are

accused for bringing another ideology afloat to challenge Kemalism which is Islam. All of

them had been wiped out by TSK without a second thought. Crushing AKP should be as

easy as that for TSK. However, fact has proven otherwise.

If in the pre-AKP era, politics became a goldmine for TSK to collect their power, the arrival

of AKP in Turkish political scene change the scheme of the game. In 2004, Government has

reformed MGK (Turkish Security Council). MGK used to be ruled by high-ranking military

officer. Their numbers were 950 people. After AKP reformed this institution, the number of

MGK members decreased to 250 people and the majority of them come from non-military

background.8 That is not the end of military apparatus’s fiasco. They also circumcised

military court authority and amend the 1982 constitution about impunity of coup d’etat

actor. Not only change the rule, they also charged those who responsible for past coup to be

brought to trial. At the end, they also prohibited TSK to get involved in politics. There were

so many more actions from government to domesticate TSK. Surprisingly, TSK did not

fight back.

According to Alfan Alfian, it is AKP approach that contributes to depoliticization of military

in Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister from AKP has a smooth yet sharp

approach to TSK. He cleverly takes a chance on every rare moment such as Turkish

applicant for European Union. In EU, If your country want to be part of them you should

democratize your country. Country like Turkey will not be called as democratic country

                                                                                                                         8  Alfan  Alfian,  Militer  dan  Politik  di  Turki:  Pergeseran  Politik  dan  Terpinggirnya  Militer  Pasca-­‐AKP,  Bekasi:  PT  Penjuru  Ilmu  Pustaka  Sejati,  2015,  hlm.  140  

         unless military apparatus get back off from politics. Thus military institution should be

reformed.9 At the other side he tries to “seduce” TSK with military business to make sure

that his plan to get rid of them successful. He did the same thing as Selim III did to janissary.

He let TSK to get busy with something while AKP slowly but surely move towards the

throne. TSK now ruling a military corporation that not only beneficial for them but also

boosting economic growth in Turkey.10 This is proof that it is not impossible to conquer

strong military faction in politics in Turkey. It is the matter of approach that determined the

success and apparently, non-confrontational approach seems to work in the both cases from

different era.

Now, after facing 2015 election, Surprisingly AKP’s vote has decreased to the point that they

should form a coalition with another party. This has becoming an obstacle for Erdogan, who

is now Turkish President to revise the constitution to make Turkish political system become

presidential and enlarging his power as a president. Unluckily, he also failed to create a

coalition. So, is there a hope for military apparatus to raise their power once more? Will they

take a chance to usurp the throne? Assume, that they finally did thrown AKP off the throne,

will there be another contender for military institution? The relation between military and

executive in Turkey will never stop to move dialectically.

Daftar Pustaka

Alfian, M Alfan, 2015, Militer dan Politik di Turki: Pergeseran Politik dan Terpinggirnya Militer

Pasca-AKP, Bekasi, PT Penjuru Ilmu Sejati

Imber, Colin, 2002, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power, New York: Palgrave

                                                                                                                         9  Ibid,  hlm.  139  10  Today’s  Zaman,  Turkey  Defense  Industry  Set  to  Boost  Economy”,  May  27th    2012  

         Karademir, Zafer, “The Janissaries in The Social and Economic Life of Rum (Sivas)

Province in The Middle of 18th Century”, The Journal of International Social Research, Vol. 7

Issue. 9

Simsek, Veysel, 2005, “Ottoman Military Recruitment and The Recruit: 1826-1853”, Master

Thesis, The Department of History of Bilkent University

Ustun, Kadir, 2002, “Rethinking Vaka-i-Hayriye (The Auspicious Event): Elimination of

Janissaries on The Path of Modernization” Master Thesis, Institute of Economics and Social

Sciences of Bilkent University

Sumber Berita

Today’s Zaman, Turkey Defense Industry Set to Boost Economy”, May 27th 2012