ABSTRACT
In August 2001, the leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP) and then Deputy Prime Minister, Mezut Yilmaz, stated that Turkey was suffering from a ‘national security syndrome’ and that national security issues were used to block democratic reforms that are necessary for Turkey’s desire to become a full member of the European Union (EU). The harsh response to Yilmaz from both the military leadership and veteran politicians such as Prime Minister Ecevit and former President Süleyman Demirel indicated that the ANAP leader had indeed hit a sore point (Turkish Daily News, 9, 17 and 23 August 2001). In Turkey, the concept of national security is, at the same time, both narrow and wide. It is narrow in its strict military notion, having the integrity of the nation-state and its ruling elite as almost exclusive referents; and it is wide in the sense that it does not distinguish between external and internal threats, having the tendency to securitise any aspect of political, economic, cultural and social life. It is partly for this reason that the Turkish military acquired the power to draw the limits to politics in a much more general way (Candar 1999: 131).
