News

What's the most significant development under way in the Middle East? Hint: It's not the events in Iran, the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraqi cities or efforts to relaunch Arab-Israeli peace talks. No, the development that could change history for the better is taking place quietly in Turkey: the gradual control of the military by the elected civilian government.

Specifically, it is the discussion among leading political parties in Turkey's parliament to amend the constitution to allow the trials of military officers who carried out coups that toppled elected civilian governments in the recent past.

The slow-motion bid for control of Turkey's military represents an instance where the power of military, police and security agencies is being checked by democratically elected civilian authorities. This is important because the single most debilitating influence on the development of peaceful, prosperous and secure societies in our region has been the lack of accountable, effective governance systems - due mainly to the dominance of autocratic leaders linked to military and security authorities. The vicious circle must be broken if our societies are to aspire to any kind of normal life.

Having civilians - rather than army officers - running governments is crucial if we are to overcome the various sources of national tension and distortion throughout the Middle East, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, foreign interference, natural resource imbalances, ethnic strife, economic mismanagement and corruption. As long as security agencies and generals run our countries, we will never enjoy stable governance systems based on credible forms of representation, pluralism and accountability.

The Turkish transition to a stable democracy in the past dozen years has been fascinating for many reasons. The single most important one has been the gradual assertion of power by the elected civilian government, and the armed forces' slow retreat to their barracks to play their role of protecting the country, rather than running it.

Now an even more significant step is about to be taken, as parliament ponders amending the constitution so the generals who led a 1980 coup against an elected government can be put on trial. This is important because it would provide an example of how Middle Eastern countries could control the behaviour of their military and security sectors, and end the impunity that army officers, police forces and intelligence agencies now enjoy in doing virtually anything they want within their borders.

Holding the military accountable for overthrowing a civilian government would be a refreshing precedent. It would provide the only kind of deterrent - homegrown constraints and legal accountability - that could possibly sustain long-term development of rational, stable, humane governance systems in the Middle East.

Foreign invasions, coups and street agitation will occasionally change governments and rulers, but they usually do not generate the kind of indigenous constraints on abuse of power that are effective and legitimate. Putting generals on trial for overthrowing an elected government would do that, and would probably reduce - and ultimately eliminate - the chances of other autocrats trying to seize power unconstitutionally. Generals are usually smart, and they react rationally to legitimate power that is used to generate stability.

The constitutional amendment issue is one of several dramas being played out in Turkey between the civilian government and the armed forces. Another pertains to accusations that some in the military continue to plan coups or destabilizing acts against the elected government.

How these two issues resolve themselves will be historically important for the entire Middle East. They might help end the legacy of out-of-control military, police and security systems that have long dominated the modern states of the Middle East, resulting in the dysfunctional nature of many of these states that are little more than graveyards for human rights and constitutionalism.

The Arab world has not always had a happy history with Turkey. But, in this case, this Arab is cheering on the Turks and wishing them strength and success in achieving what the rest of us in the Middle East have failed to do: Assert civilian control over our police, intelligence and military sectors, rather than allow them to run our societies and define the limits of what citizens can do and think.

Rami Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star and director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.