The coups: 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997
Turkey's army, seeing itself as guardian of Atatürk's republic, overthrows or forces out elected governments four times in less than four decades.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- The Making of Modern Turkey — Feroz Ahmad, Routledge (1993)
- The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey — Soner Cagaptay, I.B. Tauris (2017)
Turkey became a multi-party democracy in 1950, when Adnan Menderes’s Democrat Party swept the Republican People’s Party from power. On 27 May 1960 officers overthrew Menderes’s increasingly authoritarian government; after trials on the island of Yassıada, Menderes and two of his ministers were hanged in 1961. In March 1971 the army forced a government out by memorandum amid street violence between left and right.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- The Making of Modern Turkey — Feroz Ahmad, Routledge (1993)
The bloodiest came on 12 September 1980, after years of political killings that cost thousands of lives. General Kenan Evren’s junta detained hundreds of thousands, widespread torture was documented, and dozens were executed. Its 1982 constitution, approved in a referendum, restricted rights, and Kurdish was banned in publications and recordings.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- The Making of Modern Turkey — Feroz Ahmad, Routledge (1993)
On 28 February 1997, in what came to be called a “postmodern coup”, the generals forced out the Islamist-led coalition of Necmettin Erbakan without tanks, and a strict ban on headscarves in universities and public offices followed.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey — Soner Cagaptay, I.B. Tauris (2017)
The armed forces stepped in reluctantly to save the republic from chaos, political violence or creeping Islamism, and handed power back to civilians each time.
- The Making of Modern Turkey — Feroz Ahmad, Routledge (1993)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
Each coup crushed democracy and its own victims: Menderes and his ministers were hanged, a generation of leftists and Kurds was tortured after 1980, and pious women were driven out of universities after 1997.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey — Soner Cagaptay, I.B. Tauris (2017)
Why it matters today
The coups left deep scars on the left, the pious and the Kurds alike, and a widespread sense that the will of the voters could be overridden by an unelected elite. Erdoğan's movement drew strength from that memory, and the constitution written after 1980 still shapes Turkish law. For older secular Turks, by contrast, the army was long the most trusted institution in the country.