Does Ennahda control the army and police portfolios in Tunisia with Turkish help?

Ali Ragab

With Ennahda, the Brotherhood-affiliated party in Tunisia that came first in the parliamentary elections, coming close to forming the next government, the file of the party’s plan for the Brotherhood in the army and police has returned to the forefront.

The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said on Friday, November 8 that it had written to Tunisian President Kais Saied and the parliament speaker regarding the final results of the legislative elections in which Ennahda collected 52 seats out of 217, which shows that the Ennahda is closer to bringing the file of the Brotherhood in the military and security services back to the forefront.

Ennahda is set to take the lion’s share of the next ministerial portfolios, if not the premiership, and the movement’s eyes are on the portfolios of defense and interior, the spokesman for the General Union of Tunisian Students, Riyad Jarad, told the Reference.

He added that the Brotherhood’s plan was plain and hidden, and there were “reverberations” by Ennahda on the Tunisian street.

“Parliament must recommend security and military leaderships before they are appointed,” Abdellatif Mekki, a leader of the Ennahda movement and head of the Tunisian parliament’s security and defense committee, told a session of parliament in May 2018. Tunisian activists considered this a scheme by Ennahda for the country’s military and police Brotherhood members.

Tunisian activist Ajami Emam said that there are plans for Ennahda to control the national army and security institutions, but these plans will fail thanks to the awareness of the Tunisian people.

Ajami stressed in a statement to the Reference that the Brotherhood of Tunisia will not be able to pass up on their plans for the army and the police, because the state and army leaderships are aware of these plans. During the years of the revolution, they could not penetrate those agencies, he said, stressing that any plans of the Brotherhood will fail.

Turkish engineering

Ajami’s statements are confirmed by the Turkish move to support Ennahda in controlling the military and security services in Tunisia. In June 2013, Tunisia ratified a cooperation protocol in the field of police training. Then, in October of the same year, the two countries signed a security cooperation agreement, followed in April 2014 by the conclusion of a protocol in the field of security, which was signed in Ankara.

May 2015 saw Turkey’s announcement of a deal to sell 100 Kirpi (Hedgehog) armored vehicles to the Tunisian armed forces, making the Tunisian army the first military institution to buy armored vehicles from Turkey, which has only been able to find markets in Brotherhood-ruled countries.

The Turkish move to support Ennahda in the army is not over. It was only the beginning when the governments of Tunisia and Turkey concluded an agreement in December 2015 on military and financial cooperation. The signing included an executive protocol for financial assistance.

In December 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Tunisia, and his defense minister at the time, Nurettin Canikli, signed a military cooperation agreement with his Tunisian counterpart, Abdelkarim Zbidi, at the presidential palace in Carthage, which included a protocol in the field of military training.

In 2018, Turkey allocated $200 million to finance the supply of Turkish security and military equipment and weapons to the Tunisian army, allowing it to penetrate the Tunisian military establishment.

The year 2018 also saw the Turkish defense manufacturing company Nurol announce the establishment of two units for the Turkish defense industries in Tunisia, one for the manufacture of bulletproof armor and the other for the manufacture of other military equipment.

Tunisia’s army and police are in danger

Meanwhile, Riyad Jarad said that the Brotherhood has been able to penetrate state institutions, including the Ministry of Interior, where it was able to recruit members of the security services to provide them with security reports or participate in operations for their benefit.

Jarad told the Reference that since the formation of the Ennahda movement in the 1970s, it has gone by various names, starting as the “Islamic Group” and later changing to the “Islamic Trend” and then to the “Ennahda Movement”. The movement directed its students to the non-commissioned officers’ schools, and they later formed the first nucleus of the military and security apparatus for the organization. The students also tried to attract new elements to the apparatus from among their colleagues, especially those showing signs of religious commitment.

Ennahda has spared no effort since its inception to be located within the Ministry of Interior and the security services by planting its elements, Jarad said, adding that a man like Abdullah Grace may have played a decisive role in the security of the group, providing it with security reports and police movements through his position as a security officer in the intelligence services. The disclosure after Ben Ali came to the National Security Department was a severe blow to the group.

“The mosques were a fertile and attractive space for the movement to attract young security elements and to establish friendships and human relations with them, which soon developed into intellectual and organizational implications,” Jarad stated.

The Tunisian activist said that the Brotherhood’s scheme for the army and security service is going according to what Ennahda wants, recalling the statements of the head of the movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, after the movement won a majority in parliament in 2011, when he said that “the army, police and state institutions are not guaranteed,” which confirms that Ennahda has the intention to create a Brotherhood-natured army and security service.