10 facts about Turkey’s history with military coups

The Republic of Turkey though a relatively young nation, founded less than a century ago,  has seen more than its fair share of coups.

Turkey has had a long and illustrious history as a regional power the Ottoman Empire, ruled from Istanbul, was long a major power.

However in practice over the years democracy was often easier said than done. The years that followed were not free of further attempts by the military, citizens and government to sort out, with varying levels of success and varying levels of violence, who best upheld the constitution. That disconnect evidently continues to this day.

READ ALSO: 60 killed and over 700 detained in Turkey military coup

On Friday, July 15, a military statement said the army had seized control of the country because of rising autocratic rule and increased terrorism.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said “a minority” within the military has attempted a coup and urged citizens to take to the streets to support the government

The military in Turkey enjoys respect and vast economic resources, and it is also a rite of passage for almost all men, who serve as conscripts.

Naij.com has gathered 10 facts about Turkey’s history with military coup:

1. The military has staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, a pious Muslim mentor of Erdogan who was disliked by Turkey’s secular establishment, out of power in 1997.

2. In that 1960 coup, General Cemal Gursel was named President, Premier and Defense Minister, leaving the world with hopes that the nation was on its way back to true democracy.

3.  In 1980, it happened again. After a long stretch of political infighting without a working parliamentary coalition, no laws had been passed for months and a series of unprevented terrorist attacks, the military “took matters into its own hands,”

The democratically-elected government was ejected by a council of six generals, who moved during the night to detain the nation’s opposition leaders, announcing that they would control everything until it was possible for a working government to resume.

4. In 2007, the military threatened to intervene in a presidential election and warned the government to curb Islamic influences, but the action backfired and Abdullah Gul, the candidate favored by a government with Islamic leanings, took office.

5. The Turkish military has traditionally seen itself as the guardian of Turkey’s old secular establishment, a legacy of national founder and former army officer Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, as well as an enforcer of order in times of civil unrest and weak civilian leadership.

6. The history from 1960 and 1971 suggests that: each coup the military would put civilians back in charge within a few years.

7. Turkey’s location in the turbulent Mideast region, straddling the Asian and European continents, has made it a critical player in international conflicts in the past.

READ ALSO: Military coup: Army, president struggle for control

8. In 2003, Turkey barred U.S. forces from opening a northern front in the war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in a stunning rebuff to Washington that raised questions about whether the politically powerful Turkish military had undercut a civilian-led initiative to help the Americans.

9. Turks have a conflicted relationship with their military, an institution that is cloaked in the lore of sacrifice but also tarnished as a past symbol of repression.

10. Military coup leaders in the past drew on the support of Turks who saw them as saviors from chaos and corruption, but they were often ruthless.

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