Turkey

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4

Army Coup of 1980

The government (1979-1980) of Süleyman Demirel chose to retain Turkey’s close alliance with the West in the hope of developing the private sector of the economy with foreign assistance. The Republican People’s Party reacted by advocating socialist control of the basic means of production and the establishment of new alliances with the Developing World and the Communist bloc. Extremists on both the left and the right turned to political assassinations and other forms of violent acts. On September 12, 1980, the army took over the government and suspended the constitution. The new rulers imposed martial law, banned political activity, restricted the press, and jailed thousands of suspected terrorists.

The army governed through the National Security Council; the council’s head, General Kenan Evren, was Chief of State, and Admiral Bülent Ulusu became prime minister.

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5

Civilian Rule

A major step towards civilian rule was taken in 1982, when a new constitution was enacted, under which Evren became president of the republic. Parliamentary elections in November 1983 resulted in an upset victory for the conservative Motherland Party (the army had favoured a more right-wing group), and party leader Turgut Özal became prime minister. In 1989 Özal was chosen as Turkey’s first civilian head of state since 1960, and Yildirim Akbulut replaced him as prime minister.

Akbulut was replaced by Mesut Yilmaz in 1991, and was himself replaced by Tansu Çiller, an economist, in 1993, who headed the True Path Party (DYP). Turkey supported the international effort to oust Iraq from Kuwait during 1990 and 1991, although no Turkish troops fought in the Persian Gulf War. After the war, in the wake of an unsuccessful uprising by Iraqi Kurds, hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees crossed the border into Turkey. Many were kept near the border under the temporary watch of allied troops.

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6

Kurdish Resistance

Since 1984 an unofficial war has raged between successive Turkish governments and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Marxist terrorist group trying to win autonomy for the country’s 15 million Kurds. The conflict is mostly confined to the south-east of the country, where the highest concentration of Kurds lives. In March 1995 the government of Çiller, announcing its intention to wipe out the PKK separatist movement, mounted one of the biggest ever attacks against the rebels, penetrating 40 km (25 mi) into what was the UN protection zone for Kurdish areas of north-eastern Iraq.

Turkey has been criticized by Western governments and international human rights organizations for apparent abuses against the Kurdish community. Çiller’s government attempted to pass more liberal laws bringing Kurdish nationalists back into the body politic and allowing Kurdish schools to re-open.

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7

Growth of Fundamentalism

The pro-Islamic Welfare Party made gains in the general election in December, prompting left- and right-wing secular parties to forge an anti-Islamic alliance. In April 1996 Çiller’s True Path Party and the Motherland Party formed a power-sharing coalition government. Corruption charges against Çiller, however, threatened the survival of the coalition. In July 1996 Necmettin Erbakan, of the Welfare Party, became the new prime minister of Turkey, following a coalition agreement with the True Path Party. Many people feared a move in the country towards Islamic fundamentalism following many decades of secular progress and pro-Western policies. Turkey showed support for the Bosnian Muslims in the war in the former Yugoslavia.

Erbakan resigned in June 1997 under pressure from the armed forces. Tansu Çiller, who had a power-sharing arrangement with Erbakan, made a bid to lead a caretaker government. President Demirel however, invited Mesut Yilmaz to form a government, which Tansu Çiller refused to join, citing Demirel’s invitation as undemocratic. The continued defection of deputies from the True Path Party was seen by many observers as having negative implications for Çiller’s political future.

In August the Grand National Assembly passed a controversial education bill that extended the length of compulsory elementary education from five to eight years, thus effectively raising the minimum age of enrolment at Islamic schools to 14. It was thought that the bill would substantially reduce the number of enrolments at Islamic schools and ensure that those who did enrol did so at a less impressionable age. The constitutional court began hearing a suit that aimed to dissolve the former ruling Welfare Party that had been led by Erbakan. The chief public prosecutor had filed the suit on grounds of protecting the secular Turkish Republic from being undermined by Islamic fundamentalism.

A new offensive against the Kurds took place in September, when bases in northern Iraq were attacked. In October Turkey was found to have breached its commitment under the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining six former deputies of the pro-Kurdish Democracy Party, and was ordered to pay them compensation. A decision by Cyprus to hold extensive war games and invite participation by Greece, increased tension between Greece and Turkey.

The charge against the Welfare Party was upheld by the constitutional court in January 1998, when it outlawed the party and banned its leader, Necmettin Erbakan, and six party officials from holding political office for five years.

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8

The Ecevit Government

Some 100 members of the outlawed Welfare Party regrouped in February 1998 to form the Virtue Party. It became the largest opposition group in the legislature. The government of Mesut Yilmaz collapsed in November following corruption allegations and defeat in a vote of confidence. President Demirel asked the deputy prime minister Bülent Ecevit to form a caretaker government prior to elections in April 1999; but after three weeks of negotiation Ecevit was unable to form a coalition. Yalim Erez was asked to form a government by President Demirel in late December, in a move that ended a long-standing convention that the leader of the largest party in the legislature was appointed prime minister. Erez failed in his attempt to form a government, however, and in January Bülent Ecevit was sworn in as prime minister. After the April 18 elections a coalition government was formed by Ecevit—it included the Democratic Left Party, the far right National Action Party, and the centre-right Motherland Party. The National Assembly approved the Ecevit government by a vote of 354 to 182 on June 9.