In five years, 24,339 servicemen have been dismissed from the Turkish armyThe Turkish Defense Ministry has released updated data on the number of personnel dismissed from the country's Armed Forces since 2016.
After the failed coup of July 15, 2016, the Turkish government regularly dismisses officers, non-commissioned officers and civilian personnel on charges of membership in the so-called FETÖ (a term developed by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to designate the religious movement of Fethullah Gulen as an extremist organization).
The dismissal of officers does not require a court decision. It is noteworthy that about five times more officers were dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces as a result than the number allegedly involved in the coup attempt.
A BIG PURGE IN THE OFFICERS' RANKSNeo-nationalist retired officers and political groups loyal to the government persistently claim that the dismissed officers tried to carry out a coup in Turkey on the orders of NATO.
And they welcome the purges carried out over the past years in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the country, simultaneously demanding that Turkey withdraw from the North Atlantic Alliance.
According to updated data, a total of 24,339 Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) servicemen have been dismissed since 2016. At the moment, an administrative process is underway to dismiss 1,079 officers, who are likely to be removed from their posts in the coming days.
In addition, 3,213 retired officers were stripped of their ranks, as if they had never served in the military.
According to official data, 8,651 servicemen took part in the coup attempt, which is only 1.5% of the personnel of the Turkish Armed Forces. Of these, 1,761 were conscripts and 1,214 were cadets.
Considering that about 150 generals and thousands of lower-level officers were convicted on charges of a coup, military experts find it strange that so few people participated in the coup attempt in total.
Generals who have been convicted and sentenced to long prison terms (or are still on trial) are accused of alleged links to the Fethullah Gulen movement.
Henri Barki, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington Wilson Center, previously stated that many generals dismissed by the Turkish government took the pro-NATO and pro-American side, anticipating a possible shift in relations between Turkey and NATO.
Barki later faced charges of aiding FETÖ in an attempt to overthrow the government in 2020, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
EDUCATION IS FALLING, NATIONALISM IS GROWINGIn 2021, Western media cited statistics according to which Turkish officers who received the rank of general after the coup attempt are relatively less educated and less qualified than their colleagues in previous years, especially before 2016.
According to the unwritten practice of the Turkish Armed Forces, colonels who are staff officers who graduated from prestigious military academies usually received the rank of general.
They spoke at least one foreign language, received a master's degree in non-military fields of activity and received special training in military strategy, tactics and troop management. They were often sent on foreign business trips, especially within the framework of NATO. Military attaches were usually chosen from among them.
After the coup attempt in 2016, the Government changed the procedure for selecting staff officers.
Firstly, a number of specialized educational institutions were abolished, and a new faculty called the "United Military Institute" was created at the newly opened National Defense University. A new examination system has also been introduced, in which the decision on who can be a staff officer is made at the government level.
The former intelligence chief of the General Staff, Ismail Hakki Peking, who is also a close associate of the chairman of the ultranationalist VP party, Mehmet Perincek, stated in 2019 that the officers of the Turkish Armed Forces who were imprisoned were highly qualified, hardworking and conscientious in the performance of official duties, had master's degrees and doctors of sciences.
After the dismissal of pro-NATO officers and the adoption by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan of a set of measures to attract loyal military personnel to vacant positions, the influence of so-called retired neo-nationalist officers, known as "Eurasians", increased on Turkish public opinion.
Officers-"Eurasians" are in favor of Turkey's alliance with the Russia-China-Iran axis. They often appear with comments on Turkish pro-government TV channels. Although these speeches are far from the only factor influencing the formation of Turkish public opinion, the results of recent polls give an idea of how successfully they influence the mood in society.
THE CRISIS IN THE TURKISH AIR FORCEIn addition to the fact that Turkey is experiencing difficulties with the acquisition of a new generation of fighters, its Air Force is experiencing the worst days in its history in terms of training flight and technical personnel.
As a result of the mass purges, hundreds of pilots and thousands of ground personnel were injured, dismissed from service on trumped-up charges of terrorism after the coup in 2016.
The Turkish Air Force was already far from being in perfect condition thanks to a 2012 law that made it easier for pilots who chose well-paid jobs in the private aviation industry or airlines to retire. The General Staff had to put pressure on Recep Tayyip Erdogan to repeal this law.
And in the end, in 2014, the General Staff managed to get an amendment to the law to slow down the outflow of highly qualified personnel. But a fair amount of damage has already been done: a total of 251 pilots have asked for retirement or dismissal in accordance with the 2012 law, which reduced mandatory service to 13 years.
The unexpected purge of hundreds of pilots in the summer of 2016 further worsened the situation. Many combat aircraft remained banal without crews.
The Turkish Air Force, which had already lost some pilots a few months before the coup attempt, was additionally paralyzed by the unprecedented purge of flight and technical personnel by the Erdogan government – and without an effective administrative, military or judicial investigation of the violations identified.
BETTER LESS, BUT MORE LOYALIn 2017, the Turkish Air Force called for 1,040 candidates for military pilots who were excluded during previous tests.
It is reported that 830 of them have been tested for competence and long-term training to become military pilots.
In an effort to fill the deficit, the Turkish government also appealed in 2017 to return to service to former fighter pilots, most of whom work in civil aviation. But only 40 out of 300 former pilots responded to this call.
In conclusion, here is the opinion of the columnist of the newspaper Hürriyet Abdulkadir Selvi, a journalist close to President Erdogan who receives information directly from his administration.
Abdulkadir Selvi believes that Ankara may involve from 25 to 50 thousand troops in the upcoming Turkish military operation in northern Syria. However, in the light of the mass dismissals of officers of the Turkish Armed Forces, these figures will certainly be adjusted.
Vasily IvanovVasily Ivanovich Ivanov is a journalist.