Two Turkish generals reject report on EU report on Turkish Armed Forces

A project which has set out to examine the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), has created some controversy in the team assembled to prepare the report. The project, which was financed in entirety by the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry during the period when the Netherlands held the presidency of the EU, was an international effort which included work by diplomats, members of armed forces, and academics from many countries in the EU and Turkey. The report, which concludes, among other things, that the TSK does not have enough transparency, and that it has too much control over Turkey's political mechanisms, suggests that more control be passed on to the Turkish Parliament. Two high ranking former members of the TSK, General Armagan Kuloglu and General Edip Bashar, have removed themselves in protest from the group helping to prepare the report.General Bashar, explaining his discontent with the report, said "We tried to explain the situation in Turkey. I decided that it wouldn't be appropriate to sign the final version of a report which didn't give enough space to the subjects that I had explained as being important." Bashar also noted that he disagreed with the report's assessment that the TSK should be linked immediately with the National Defense Ministry, rather than the Prime Ministerial Offices.  Sources say that the report itself, entitled "Relations between Turkish soldiers and civilians and the EU" is ready, and that it will most likely be published in October, around the date that the EU start talks with Turkey are scheduled. One of the heads of the EU team preparing the report, Professor Peter Volten, said that he was unclear as to why exactly the Turkish generals has removed themselves from the process, and noted that similar reports had been prepared with EU funds for former East Block countries joining the EU, and that the reports had been beneficial.Â