Deputy PM heralds Turkey's smaller military

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey should have a smaller, more expert, military, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday in the wake of the July 15 attempted coup.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara, Kurtulmus said reforms to the military were underway to create a more specialized military “whose only aim will be to protect the country.”

Turkey’s conscription military is the second-largest force in NATO. According to the Global Firepower website it is the eighth most powerful military in the world with more than 596,000 personnel.

Ankara has already taken steps to increase civilian control over the military since the failed coup -- raising the number of ministers on the Supreme Military Council and strengthening links between the government and military commanders.

The attempted coup saw conscripts, who serve a maximum 12 months in uniform, ordered on to the streets of Istanbul and Ankara alongside more seasoned troops. More than 10,000 military personnel have been arrested since the bid to overthrow the government.

They are suspected of having links to U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, who is said by the government to have masterminded the plot.

Turkey has called for Gulen’s extradition from Pennsylvania to face trial. Kurtulmus called on the U.S. to respect Turkey’s “friendship and alliance” by handing him over.

In a weekly media briefing, Kurtulmus also criticized German “double standards” in swiftly banning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from addressing a rally in Cologne on Sunday to celebrate the defeat of the coup while the trials of suspected neo-Nazi murderers have dragged on since May 2013.

“The NSU cases have been continuing for years,” he said, referring to the National Socialist Underground. “These courts would always be extended, they would not be decided. However, our President’s planned speech was quickly decided in less than 24 hours and it was banned. Bravo to German justice. This is a clear double standard.”

The NSU is believed to be behind the murders of 10 people, including eight Turkish immigrants between 2000 and 2007.