ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Monday accused dozens of retired admirals of eyeing a “political coup” by
attacking his plans for a canal linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
اضافة اعلان
Police have detained 10 of the former navy commanders and
ordered four others to turn themselves in after they published an open letter
critical of the proposed Canal Istanbul over the weekend.
Turkey’s post-Ottoman history is littered with putsches by a
military that views itself as the last guarantor of secularism in the mostly
Muslim country.
Erdogan’s fury was directed at a letter published by 104
former admirals over the weekend urging him to abide by the terms of the 1936
Montreux Convention.
The treaty is aimed at demilitarizing the Black Sea by
setting strict rules on warships’ passage through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles
straits.
But Erdogan’s plan to build a new 45-kilometre shipping lane
running to the west of the Bosphorus leaves open the question of whether the
old treaty will apply to the proposed canal.
The retired admirals said the 1936 treaty “best protects
Turkish interests”.
Erdogan told them on Monday that “the duty of retired
admirals — 104 of whom come together — is not to publish declarations that hint
at a political coup”.
“In a country whose past is filled with coups, (another)
attempt by a group of retired admirals can never be accepted,” he said after
chairing a meeting with his top aides.
Father of sea doctrine
The Ankara chief prosecutor has accused the former commanders
of “using force and violence to get rid of the constitutional order,” NTV
broadcaster reported.
The wording is similar to what prosecutors have used against
other Erdogan critics jailed in a crackdown that followed a failed putsch in
2016.
The retired admirals detained on Monday included some of
Turkey’s most famous naval commanders.
They included Cem Gurdeniz, often described as the father of
Turkey’s controversial new maritime doctrine known as “Blue Homeland”.
Gurdeniz is known as a “Eurasianist”, a group also believed
to be present in the Turkish military.
Eurasianists’ approach to foreign policy is anti-Western,
advocating improved relations with China, Iran and Russia, which could
undermine Turkey’s position within the NATO military alliance.
Some analysts believe the proposed canal poses a threat to
Moscow because it could offer NATO powers unfettered access to the Black Sea,
where Russia has seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
The project is of concern to Russia because it “could
introduce any amount of warships at any time into the Black Sea”, Paul Goble
wrote for the Jamestown think-tank last year.
This would “both encourage other littoral states to look
away from Moscow and ostensibly threaten Russian national security,” Goble
said.
‘Reinforce our sovereignty’
The retired admirals worry that the new canal’s construction
would result in Turkey abandoning the 1936 treaty, angering Russia and losing
its neutrality in the volatile region.
Erdogan said it was “completely wrong” to link the proposed
canal to the treaty.
But he added that the proposed canal “will reinforce our
sovereignty”, hinting that Turkey could withdraw from the pact at a later date.
“We don’t have any intention to withdraw from Montreux now,”
Erdogan said in televised remarks.
“But if the need emerges in the future, we could revise
every convention to help our country get better.”
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