The Turkish military and the Republican People's Party

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to analyse the evolution of the relationship between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Republican People’s Party (RPP) between 1960-1983. The analysis will be done by refemng to the three militaiy interventions of 1960, 1971, and 1980. The reason for focusing on the three militaiy interventions is that they reveal to a great extent the nature of civil-militaiy relations. The origins of the great alliance between the RPP and the Turkish military that lasted until the 1970s can be traced back to the War of National Independence. The RPP, which was closely identified with Kemalist state, shared with the Turkish military the role of guardianship of the republican regime. However, after Ismet Inonu’s death in 1973, the RPP under Bulent Ecevif s secretary-generalship gradually dropped Kemalism and took a position totally opposed to the basic tenets of the republican regime, thus moved the party from its traditional role as the guardian of the state. Consequently, the military rule of 1980, unlike the one of 1960, reflected the collapse of the grand coalition between the RPP and the Turkish military.