Military Intervention and a Crisis of Democracy in Turkey

ISBN: 9781848857780 出版年：2014 页码：313 Mogens Pelt Bloomsbury Publishing

Adnan Menderes' election to power in 1950 signalled a new epoch in the history of modern Turkey. For the first time a democratic government ruled the country, taking over Kemal Ataturk's political heirs, the People's Republican Party (CHP), and challenging the Kemalist elite's monopoly on the control of state institutions and society itself. Howevewas short-lived. In 1960, Turkeya coup d'etat and Menderes was hanged the following year. Here, Mogeby examining the era of tDemocratic Party, aits downfall. Among the chief accusations raised against Menderes by the army wundermined the principles of the founder of modern Turkey, Ataturk, aexploited religion for political purposes. Military Intervention and a Crisis Democracy in Turkey furthermore, and crucially, examines the legacy of the military intervention that brougdemocratic rule to an end.Although the armed forces officially returned power to the civilians in 1961, this intervention - indeeof democracy - allowed the military to become a major player in Turkey's political process, weakening the role of elected politicians. The officer corps claimed that the army was the legal guardian of Kemalism, athe right and duty to intervene again, if the circumstances proscribed it and when it deemed that the values of Ataturk were threatened. Indeed, these were preciseon which the armed forces justified its coup d'etats of 1971 and 198exploration of the Menderes period sheds new light on the shaping of post-war Turkey and will be vital for those researching the Turkish Republic, and the influence of the military in its destiny.