1UpInfo - A Portal with a Difference

Home     Contact Us    Disclaimer     Privacy     Links Directory

You are here >1UpInfo > Country Study & Country Guide > Turkey
 

-- Country Study & A Country Guide --

 


Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Afghanistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Albania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Algeria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Angola

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Armenia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Austria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Azerbaijan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bahrain

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bangladesh

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Belarus

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Belize

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bhutan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bolivia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Brazil

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bulgaria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Cambodia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Chad

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Chile

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. China

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Colombia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Caribbean Islands

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Comoros

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Cyprus

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Czechoslovakia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Dominican Republic

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Ecuador

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Egypt

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. El Salvador

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Estonia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Ethiopia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Finland

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Georgia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Germany

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Germany (East)

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Ghana

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Guyana

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Haiti

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Honduras

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Hungary

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. India

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Indonesia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Iran

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Iraq

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Israel

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Cote d'Ivoire

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Japan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Jordan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Kazakhstan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Kuwait

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Kyrgyzstan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Latvia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Laos

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Lebanon

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Libya

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Lithuania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Macau

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Madagascar

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Maldives

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mauritania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mauritius

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mexico

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Moldova

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mongolia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Nepal

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Nicaragua

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Nigeria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. North Korea

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Oman

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Pakistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Panama

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Paraguay

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Peru

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Philippines

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Poland

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Portugal

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Qatar

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Romania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Russia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Saudi Arabia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Seychelles

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Singapore

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Somalia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. South Africa

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. South Korea

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Soviet Union [USSR]

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Spain

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Sri Lanka

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Sudan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Syria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Tajikistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Thailand

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Turkmenistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Turkey

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Uganda

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. United Arab Emirates

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Uruguay

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Uzbekistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Venezuela

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Vietnam

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Yugoslavia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Zaire


Site Partners

1UpHealth.com
1UpTravel.com

Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey

Turkey

Military Intervention and the Return to Civilian Rule

Military Interlude

The summer of 1980 was a chaotic time in Turkey. Political violence and sectarian unrest mounted in the cities and spread through the countryside. The work of parliament had come almost to a standstill, and the country was left without an elected pres ident. On September 5, Ecevit aligned the CHP with Erbakan and his NSP to force the resignation of Demirel's foreign minister, Hayrettin Erkman, whose strongly pro-Western views had won him the approval of General Staff officers. The next day, the NSP spo nsored a massive rally at Konya, where Islamists (also seen as fundamentalists) demonstrated to demand the reinstatement of Islamic law in Turkey, reportedly showing disrespect for the flag and the national anthem. These acts were regarded as an open renu nciation of Kemalism and a direct challenge to the military. On September 7, General Evren met secretly with armed forces and police commanders to set in motion plans for another coup.

In the early morning hours of September 12, 1980, the armed forces seized control of the country. There was no organized resistance to the coup; indeed, many Turks welcomed it as the only alternative to anarchy. Whereas the 1960 and 1971 military coup s had institutional reform as their objective, the 1980 action was undertaken to shore up the order created by the earlier interventions. A five-member executive body, the National Security Council (NSC--see Glossary), was appointed. Composed of the servi ce chiefs and the gendarmerie commander, it was headed by General Evren, who was recognized as head of state. On September 21, the NSC installed a predominantly civilian cabinet and named Bülent Ulusu, a recently retired admiral, prime minister. A 160-mem ber Consultative Assembly subsequently was appointed to draft a constitution for what would become Turkey's Third Republic.

The first order of business for the military regime was to reestablish law and order in the strife-torn country. Martial law was extended to all the provinces. Suspected militants of all political persuasions as well as trade union and student activis ts were arrested, and party leaders were taken into custody along with a large number of deputies. Demirel and Ecevit were soon released but told to keep a low profile. When Ecevit began to publish political articles, he was rearrested and jailed for seve ral months. The Grand National Assembly was dissolved and its members barred from politics for periods of up to ten years. Political parties were abolished and their assets liquidated by the state. The trade unions were purged and strikes banned. Workers who were striking at the time of the coup were given substantial pay raises and ordered back to their jobs.

Altogether, some 30,000 people were reported arrested in the first few weeks after the coup. Figures are uncertain, but a year later about 25,000 were still being held, and, after two years, an estimated 10,000 remained in custody, some without having been formally charged. Türkes and nearly 600 of his followers from the MHP were tried on charges of committing or abetting terrorist acts. A number of those found guilty of terrorism were hanged. Erbakan and Türkes were subsequently convicted of election tampering and given two-year prison terms. Turkey's international reputation suffered as a result of charges of political repression, arbitrary arrest, imprisonment without trial, torture, and other human rights violations. West European governments appe aled to the military regime to restore parliamentary rule, and a portion of the OECD's relief package for Turkey was withheld. The European Community also suspended financial assistance, and Turkish delegates were denied their seats in the assembly of the Council of Europe.

The performance of the Turkish economy improved significantly in the first two years after the military intervention. The new regime saw to it that the economic stabilization program introduced by Demirel was implemented under the direction of Özal, o ne of the few members of the former government retained after the coup. Austerity measures were strictly enforced, bringing the inflation rate down to 30 percent in 1982. Disagreement developed within the government, however, over the strict monetarist po licies promoted by Özal, which were seen in some quarters as running counter to Kemalist principles. Özal was forced to resign as minister of state in July 1982, when the country's largest money broker, the Kastelli Bank, collapsed.

Data as of January 1995

Turkey - TABLE OF CONTENTS


Go Up - Top of Page


Print this Page

Content on this web site is provided for informational purposes only. We accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information published on this site. We encourage you to verify any critical information with the relevant authorities.

Information Courtesy: The Library of Congress - Country Studies

Home     Contact Us    Disclaimer     Privacy     Links Directory

©1UpInfo All Rights reserved. Site best viewed in 800 x 600 resolution.