The Memorandum

On February 28, 1997 General Staff ordered a notice to the government on the rising reactionary and separatist activities in the monthly meeting of the National Security Council. After the notice, the coalition government led by Islamists was dissolved and a new coalition government was formed by secularist parties (the post-modern coup d’état). Then, state held activities against Kurdist and especially Islamist groups started to take place. In 2000, a deputy from the Islamist party (Virtue Party) made public the existence of a memorandum that suggests a set of activities against certain newspapers, journalists, and political parties. General Staff accepted the existence of the memorandum. On March 9, 2007, the weekly magazine Nokta brought out another memorandum which was produced within the General Staff again. The title of the document is as follows: The Reevaluation of Accredited Press Organs. Memorandum evaluates certain press organs and journalists in terms of their credibility and it classifies them as anti-TAF (Turkish Armed Forces) or pro-TAF.
According to the memorandum, journalists who do not have credibility must not be invited to any TAF press activities because of the fact that they can make disinformation campaigns, they can collect secret information on TAF and convey it to separatist groups, and finally they can attack military staff or facilities. In other words, “some” journalists can be a spy of the terrorists or even a suicide bomber. It would seem that the main criterion of the credibility is just making criticism of TAF. Because journalists criticized TAF for adopting a soft stance and journalists criticized TAF for not fully supporting Turkey’s EU membership and democratization reforms, are both labeled as anti-TAF journalists.
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Turkish Commander Requested Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister to prove his Turkishness

The leading government party in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the Republican Turkish Party (RTP) held its party conference on March 18, 2007. The commander of the Cyprus Turkish Peace Forces Lieutenant General Hayri Kivrikoglu protested the Prime Minister and head of RTP Ferdi Sabit Soyer and refused to shake his hand in a meeting held that evening. Kivrioglu asked him why they held a party conference on the memorial day of martyrs, why they did not play the Independence Anthem (the Turkish National Anthem), or did not hang th poster of Ataturk and Turkish flags in the party conference. Finally, Kivrikoglu requested Soyer, the Prime Minister to prove his Turkishness.
The Prime Minister was shocked to hear a commander from Turkey question his Turkishness in his country. He replied that there were posters of Ataturk and Turkish flags in the conference and he underlined the fact that playing the Independence Anthem in party conferences is not compulsory. Soyer protested Kivrikoglu and stated that nobody could question their Turkishness, they do not need authorization from any circles because they are the representatives of the people of TRNC. According to TRNC Constitution, the state is to follow Ataturk’s principles and all deputies have to swear that they will follow Ataturk’s principles as well.
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The Kemalist and nationalist circles are complaining about the fact that a headscarfed First Lady will lead to a regime crisis in the country

The Present Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s term of office will end in May and the presidential election process will start in April. Who will be the ruling party, AK Party (Justice and Development Party)’s candidate and who will be the new president is one of the heatedly discussed topics in Turkey nowadays.
Today’s state structure was mainly invented by the military rule that came after the coup d’état of 1980. The current distribution of powers on the one hand gives important powers to the President like vetoing the laws, vetoing the appointments of high bureaucrats and diplomats, assigning the Chief of General Staff. On the other hand, s/he is totally irresponsible and unaccountable. As a responsible and accountable person, the Prime Minister has to share the executive powers with the President.

The Regime Crisis
AK Party is coming from the political Islamist tradition yet they identify themselves as “Conservative (not Muslim or Christian) Democrat” and the party itself resembles a wider coalition that includes politicians from right to central left. They are in favor of economic and political liberalization which boils down to Turkey’s European Union membership in practice.
However, the party is being heavily criticized by Kemalists and nationalist circles for encouraging reactionary attitudes and not preserving national interests. The secularist President Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoed some reform laws of AK Party like laws on reforming the education system. Kemalist and nationalist circles are concerned about the possibility of the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan becoming the new President. The disaster scenario for them is the following: If Erdogan or one of his men becomes the President and AK Party will be the only ruling party after the parliamentary elections in November, there will be a serious regime crisis. Also the idea of having a headscarfed first lady is a symbolic part of the disaster. In the previous Parliament, the presence of a headscarfed deputy led to huge protests from Kemalist and nationalist politicians.
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