Reply #3: A pro-Russian Turkish general?

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A retired general and former head of the National Security Council (MGK) Tuncer Kılınç, speaking at a meeting in London organized by the Kemalist Thought Association (ADD), declared that Turkey should leave NATO. He said “to emancipate us from Western hegemony and colonization Turkey should put an end to its NATO membership.” The retired general also added that the US is not Turkey’s friend or strategic ally. His speech received huge applause form the ADD crowd at the meeting.

Such a call by a Turkish general who has served at the top post of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), an armed force that has been deeply integrated into NATO structures for last 50 years, may be shocking to many. But as I wrote some two weeks ago, “it would be a mistake to assume that the military’s commitment to the Western alliance is as solid as it used to be.”

Co-speaker at the conference in which Kılınç made this remark was another retired general, ADD President Şener Eruygur. We remember Gen. Eruygur from the allegations that he was planning a coup against the government in 2004 when he was the commander of the gendarmerie.

An increasing number of critical statements have been coming from the security establishment against the West. This is certainly an important trend that is becoming increasingly visible. Given the fact that the ADD -- an NGO very popular among the retired army officers -- is now headed by a retired general, I wonder if Gen. Kılınç’s call for abandoning NATO reflects the view of a significant portion of the Turkish military. Does this call have anything to do with the claims of the Washington-based journalist Yasemin Çongar, who argued the other week that there are pro-Putin generals in the military? It is hard to believe this, but she points to the unusual practice of broadcasting the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Munich speech challenging the US in global politics on the TSK Web site.

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