Five ways Erdogan has destroyed Turkey’s military
There are five main reasons to be worried about the future of Turkey’s military, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has fatally undermined with his ambition, ideology, transformative agenda, and paranoia.
First, the aftermath of last year’s abortive coup attempt has decimated the ranks of the military. Whether the coup was sponsored by followers of Erdogan friend-turned-foe Fethullah Gülen, was an inside job precipitated by Erdogan himself, or was the brainchild of other interests and ideological strains upset with the direction Erdogan is taking Turkey, one thing is clear: the extent of the subsequent purge is massive and corrosive to Turkey’s military morale and readiness. Turkey now has two F-16s for every pilot not in prison, and perhaps one-in-four flag officers are in prison.
Second, Erdogan has squandered decades of hard-won experience in counter-terrorism and technical fields by firing any officer who does not subscribe to his increasingly extremist vision. Turkey has no shortage of enemies and has always faced myriad threats. Usually, the security forces have shut down terrorist plots before they could succeed. Today, however, terrorists smuggle bombs into Istanbul and Ankara as easily as in Sivas or Van, and insurgents can strike in northwestern Turkey almost as easily as 1,100 miles away in southeastern Turkey.
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