The late night posting on the website of the Turkish general staff on 27th April was a shock, even in a society used to surprises. In a short message, the military reminded the Turkish government and the world of its role as “defender of secularism,” and warned that it would act “when it becomes necessary.” Turkish columnists argued about whether this was a new style of intervention: the “e-coup.” It certainly had an impact, bringing to a halt the process of electing a president and triggering early elections on 22nd July.
Ever since the one-party regime established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the 1920s gave way to multiparty democracy in the late 1940s, Turkish politicians have operated in the shadow of possible military intervention. Turkey’s first coup, in 1960, ended with the execution of the country’s first elected prime minister. A second coup in 1970 saw mass imprisonments. When generals stepped in again in 1980, they detained 180,000 people, hanged 25 and drafted an authoritarian constitution that gave them the right to control most aspects of Turkish society. A “soft coup” in 1997 saw politicians, including the current prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sent to prison on trumped-up charges. By early 2007, however, many believed that these interventions belonged to the past: the Turkish economy was growing fast, the government was popular, and the country was in the middle of negotiations for membership of the EU.
Not everybody was shocked by the e-coup. A group of “authoritarian feminists” argued that Turkey’s generals were protecting the rights of women. Nur Serter, vice-president of the Atatürk Thought Association, told a flag-waving crowd in Istanbul that “we line up in front of the glorious Turkish army.”
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