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31. Insights of Intelligence Insiders on (Non-) Sharing Intelligence Behaviors

Author:
Musa Tüzüner
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This study surveys the Turkish intelligence community’s (non-) sharing intelligence behavior. The factors affecting failures to share intelligence and how to increase intelligence sharing practices are examined based on the views of Turkish intelligence insiders. These insiders’ views reveal that the complexity of bureaucratic structures, lack of trust, compartmentalization, power, egoism, fear, informal groupings, lack of reciprocity and lack of feedback are the causes for non-sharing of intelligence. Policy solutions for shifting from non-sharing towards intelligence sharing behaviors is discussed in a new framework including respective government willingness, enhancing capacity of intelligence collection, building intelligence aquariums, creating rules for establishing new intelligence sharing, opening up new communication channels, training, and support for sharing culture. This framework argues that policy change should start first at the agency level, then at the community level and finally at the international level.
Topic:
Security, Intelligence, Reform, and Intelligence Sharing
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

32. Good Governance of the Security Sector in Turkey

Author:
Willem van Eekelen and Merijn Hartog
Publication Date:
01-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
The Centre for European Security Studies (CESS or the Centre) in the Netherlands has conducted three consecutive capacity-building programmes on civil-military relations and good governance of the security sector in Turkey since 2004. This was done in close cooperation with local partners from Ankara and Istanbul and financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. As the last programme, which commenced in 2010, draws to a close, the time has come to reflect on the outcomes of the work of CESS in Turkey.
Topic:
Security, Governance, Military Affairs, and European Union
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

33. Turkey-NATO Relations at the 60th Anniversary

Author:
Sofia Hafdell
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Global Political Trends Center (GPoT)
Abstract:
After 60 years of membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Turkey’s role in the alliance stands strong amid new security threats and challenging regional change. It also largely corresponds to the New Strategic Concept of the 2010 Lisbon Summit, outlining the range of principles to which the members must adopt in order to continue effective cooperation and meet new responses, capabilities and partners (NATO, 2010). In light of this, Turkey’s strategic geography is crucial for the new security environment in the Euro-Atlantic region and beyond. Taking the recent examples of the intervention in Libya and the missile defense system, this policy update will highlight the importance of Turkey’s role within NATO regardless of initial foreign policy disagreements with the alliance and recent negative trends in Turkish public opinion towards the West.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, NATO, International Cooperation, Public Opinion, and History
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Mediterranean

34. La fabrique politique d’une frontière européenne en Méditerranée. Le « jeu du mistigri » entre les Etats et l’Union (The political fabric of a European frontier in the Mediterranean: The “jeu du mistigri” between the States and the European Union )

Author:
Evelyne Ritaine
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
The political determination of the Mediterranean border of the European Union seen from the perspective of the Southern European countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta) illustrates the symbolic and political importance for these nations of maintaining control of the border. It has a significant impact on the types of controls that are enacted and the interplay between national and European decisions. Placing this question on the agenda brings to light a Mediterranean perspective regarding the exterior borders of the European Union that is largely determined by the conditions of integration of the different countries into the Schengen area. This new border regime is the result of complex political games and is seen as a security issue. The actual set of controls seems to be less planned and legal-rational than simply erratic and the result of tensions between internal tactics, nation state strategies and attempts at bringing within the ring of EU.
Topic:
Security, Migration, European Union, Regulation, Borders, and State
Political Geography:
Greece, Balkans, Spain, North Africa, Italy, Western Europe, Mediterranean, European Union, and Malta

35. Disrupting the Shield of Impunity: Security Officials and Rights Violations in Turkey

Author:
Mehmet Atılgan and Serap Işık
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
This report addresses the issue of impunity, which has virtually become the norm, as far as the rights violations committed against citizens by law enforcement units in Turkey are concerned. As the authors of this study, Mehmet Atılgan and Serap Işık reveal the issue of impunity stems from a complicated penal law structure whose existence still prevails in administrative, legal and practical areas. In addition, as pointed out in the “Just Expectations: Compilation of TESEV Research Studies on the Judiciary In Turkey” report (2011), the state institutions’ protection by the judiciary in Turkey is an outcome of a certain mentality. Not only have the members of the judiciary but also many actors among the media and the civil society in Turkey demonstrate this statist mentality. Considering the multi-layered socio-political landscape of Turkey, it is not realistic to expect that the issue of impunity will be resolved in the short run or quickly. Hence, a stronger and more extensive struggle awaits the social actors who want to eliminate the issue of impunity. In Turkey, there are many dedicated lawyers and human rights organizations carrying out this struggle either through collectively organized campaigns or through individual efforts. In order to understand the structure of the struggle in this area and to produce solutions to rectify the shortcomings, TESEV Democratization Program (DP) held three meetings between November 2010 and April 2011 with a group of lawyers experienced in defending the rights of victims in lawsuits related to human rights violations committed by law enforcement units. In addition, the project team also attended the December 2010-July 2011 hearings of the court case of Temizöz and Others being administered at the Specially Empowered 6th Heavy Penal Court of Diyarbakir. Court cases that reverberated in the public domain, such as the Hrant Dink Murder, Engin Çeber and JİTEM (the Intelligence and Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Gendarmerie) cases were also addressed within the scope of this report. Of course, in terms of the issue of impunity, these court cases are nothing more than striking examples, as similar instances can be seen in the near future of Turkey. The state officials who are being tried as defendants in these lawsuits are charged with serious offences such as establishing an armed organization, committing torture in detention, unsolved murders, and enforced disappearance of persons. A significant part of these crimes are related to the extrajudicial executions known to be carried out against civilian Kurdish citizens in 1990s as part of the security policy of the state. Hence, these court cases are also of vital importance in a quest for the resolution of the Kurdish Question in a peaceful way. Additionally, these are court cases where the dissident intellectuals, revolutionist dissidents, and the asylum seekers whose rights are deprived of any guarantees under the national laws are also victimized. On the other hand, these cases are very important in terms of the civilian oversight of security institutions in Turkey, and the civilianization process which gained pace in 2000s but still seems to be at a far distance on Turkey’s horizon. The quest for justice through these lawsuits can only be successful if supported by the victims and witnesses of such cases. It is our hope that the studies carried out by TESEV DP will bring more public visibility to these court cases and encourage a wider population to seek their rights.
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, Law, Accountability, Transparency, Justice, and Judiciary
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

36. Euromed+15. New paths of cooperation across the Mediterranean

Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
On the occasion of the 15th Anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration, the EuroMeSCo Network and the IEMed jointly organized the 2010 Annual EuroMeSCo Conference, in which distinguished experts and practitioners were convened to debate the future of Euro-Mediterranean politics in the light of the on-going institutional changes within the European Union and the new geopolitical context.
Topic:
Security, Politics, European Union, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
Europe and Mediterranean

37. Security Sector Policy Report 1: The Security Sector in Turkey: Questions, Problems and Solutions

Author:
Hale Akay
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
Security has been and is a problematic and contentious area in the Turkish political system due both to the structural, functional and organizational significance of the security sector within this system and to the autonomous and leading role that the security sector plays. This report discusses the various problems within the Turkish security sector by focusing on the armed forces and includes an analysis of the scholarship created by TESEV’s “Security Sector and Democratic Governance” Almanacs. It may be asserted that Turkey’s civil-military relations and the corresponding institutional structures possess three interrelated qualities: 1) An administrative and legislative structure that is constructed through historical continuity; deepened with every military intervention; institutionalized around a broad and ambiguous national security concept; and on several occasions, concealed behind a veil of secrecy. 2) A form of tutelage where the military sphere expands and the political sphere contracts; where the relationship between authority and responsibility is reversed; and where the military acts as the regulator, not the regulated. 3) An autonomous, institutionally isolated, and over-centralized organizational structure within the military. The analysis in this report primarily highlights these three qualities as well as the security-centered organizational structure in Turkey, and yields the following conclusions: Although significant progress towards civilianization has been recorded since the beginning of the reform process in the 2000s, particularly in the National Security Council (NSC), the definition of national security, on which the NSC and the Secretariat General of the NSC frameworks are based, remains unchanged. Prompted by a national security concept within which the bounds of internal and external security threats are still vague, NSC continues to operate as a center of power where official policies addressing a vast policy universe are made. Despite civilianization of the Secretariat General of the NSC (SGNSC), news stories on some personnel appointments indicate that the military retains its strong hold over internal security matters. At the same time, traditionally ambiguous concepts, like national security, and conventional practices, such as psychological operations, are passed down to new domestic security institutions by their ancestors. The informal mechanisms employed by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) to exercise political influence, coupled with the allegations, currently addressed through judicial processes, against the TAF of planning direct military inventions and social engineering schemes, show that the tradition of military guardianship is intact. While some new regulations were introduced to the military’s organizational structure, the practices of concentrating decision-making power in, and of granting autonomy to, the center of the organizational hierarchy is still dominant. The militarization of the field of internal security resumes because secret by-laws and practices that lack legal justification or basis continue to prevail; and the confusion among security sector institutions regarding their corresponding authorities and responsibilities ensues. The changes that need to be implemented to resolve the above issues are grouped into three categories: 1) Regulations involving the redefinition of national security and the abolishment of the military’s role as the regime’s guardian; 2) proposals to change the autonomous organizational structure of the military; and 3) civilian capacity building measures that particularly include increasing the parliament’s powers to oversee the security sector.
Topic:
Security, Politics, Democracy, and Institutions
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

38. “The Indivisible Unity of the Nation:” Nationalisms that Tear Us Apart in Democratization Process

Author:
Ferhat Kentel, Savas Genc, and Meltem Ahıska
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
This study examines Turkish nationalism as a nationalism that is reproduced while being consumed, regenerating in a different form, while considering it as stratagem set forth as a nationalism that is in the process of transformation. Thereby, the study argues that the strategy of modern secular nationalism endeavors to gain ground in the face of globalization and to control its existing status. Globalization provides individuals with a wider range of opportunities, while at the same time, it gives rise to an acute sense of insecurity. As a result of this insecurity, nationalism – as the ideology of the nation-state – is reproduced with different contents by adopting the discourse of “reunification” on the level of identity pertaining to the terms of class and culture and through religious and ethnic classes and identities, even encompassing regional and urban identities reflecting varying contents. After examining the manifestation of these different creations in terms of individuals, the study analyzes their relationship with religiosity. The path religiosities traverse in daily life practices also sheds light on the practices of nationalism. Neither a “real” nor “correct” religion exists in the “actual” practices of religion, nor is a “real” or “correct nationalism” present within the “actual” practices of nationalism. A fortiori, “how” nationalism is exercised and the “ways” and methods individuals utilize gain more importance.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, Nationalism, and Kurds
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean