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
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