Turkish coup d'état may refer to illegal or constitutional military takeovers or takeover attempts in Turkey. There have been several. From the founding of the Turkish Republic until

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, the Turkish military was very involved in Turkish politics. The army was strongly

Kemalist Kemalism (, also archaically ''Kamâlizm'') or Atatürkism () is a political ideology based on the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History. Ne ...

and considered one of its roles to be the ultimate guardian of

Atatürk's reforms Atatürk's reforms ( or ''Atatürk Devrimleri''), also referred to as the Turkish Revolution (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Türk Devrimi''), were a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes, designed ...

including

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

, and of cooperation with the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

generally. The Turkish constitutions of

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, and

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

formally specified that the army's role was to protect Turkey against internal as well as external threats. The army was popular and prestigious as the guarantor of the Turkish state and of Turkish multiparty democracy (after its effective establishment following World War II). The army first exercised its reserve power in the

1960 Turkish coup d'état The 1960 Turkish coup d'état (), also known as the 27 May Revolution ( or ''27 Mayıs Devrimi''), was the first coup d'état in the Republic of Turkey. It took place on 27 May 1960. The coup was staged by a group of 38 young Turkish military ...

. There had been economic stagnation, a perceived rise in political Islam, and in 1960, unrest and protests against the ruling Democrat Party. Some Army officers, saying they feared further unrest and the decline of Kemalism and democracy, staged a successful coup. The other successful coup d'états happened in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, and

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

. Turkey was soon returned to civilian rule, but until the failed 2016 coup, the army was effectively not under civilian control, and either governed Turkey directly at times or loomed as a threat to the civilian governments that did. Elements of the army staged or attempted several interventions, either coups or ultimatums backed by threat of a coup, to force the state to act more in accordance with the wishes of the army, or that portion of the army staging the intervention. Each coup or threat has been presented as an intervention to restore democratic order, justice, and national unity. Whether or not each coup or threat, or any of them, was justified is subject to debate. In 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power, and party leader

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

soon became the strongman of Turkey. As well as being most authoritarian, Erdoğan was more pro-Islamist than any previous leader of the Republic. The first showdown came in 2007 with the E-memorandum, when the army hinted another intervention into civilian politics since the AKP government was not doing its best to uphold republicanism and secularism. Erdoğan and the AKP won the political crisis, and in an alliance with the Gülenist movement, purged the military of secularist officers. In

, the army attempted to overthrow the government, though significantly the putschists were not identified as Kemalist officers (the Turkish government claims that Gülenist elements in the army were the instigators). This failed, and Erdoğan conducted another purge of the armed forces, which are no longer considered an independent force in Turkish politics or a threat to the government, and back under civilian control.

Turkish coups d'état

* 1971 Turkish military memorandum *

1980 Turkish coup d'état The 1980 Turkish coup d'état (), headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been the 1960 coup and the 1971 coup by memorandum. During ...

1997 Turkish military memorandum The 1997 military memorandum (, "28 February"; also called ''postmodern darbe'', "post-modern coup") in Turkey refers to a memorandum, in which decisions issued by the Turkish military leadership on a National Security Council meeting on 28 Feb ...

Attempts and uprisings

* 1962 Turkish coup d'état attempt * 1963 Turkish coup d'état attempt * * * 2007: E-memorandum *

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt In the evening of 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted ...

Cases associated with coups

* 1925: Law on the Maintenance of Order * 1926: İzmir plot * 1958: * 1961: * * 1993 alleged Turkish military coup * 2008–2016

Ergenekon trials The Ergenekon trials or the Ergenekon conspiracy, were a series of high-profile trials which took place in 2008–2016 in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Erge ...

** Sarıkız, Ayışığı, Yakamoz and Eldiven ** Sledgehammer (alleged coup plan) ** Operation Cage Action Plan * 2021 Montreux Declaration, by 103 retired admirals but likened by some to a military memorandum

Ottoman coups d'état

* 1446: Buçuktepe rebellion * 1512: Ascension of Selim I * 1589: Beylerbeyi incident * 1618: First Deposition of

Mustafa I Mustafa I (; ‎; ; 1600/1602 – 20 January 1639) was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 22 November 1617 to 26 February 1618, and from 20 May 1622 to 10 September 1623. He was the son of sultan Mehmed III and Halime Sultan. Earl ...

* 1622: Regicide of

Osman II Osman II ( ''‘Osmān-i sānī''; ; 3 November 1604 – 20 May 1622), also known as Osman the Young (), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 26 February 1618 until his regicide on 20 May 1622. Early life Osman II was born at Topkapı Pa ...

* 1623: Second Deposition of

* 1648: Regicide of Ibrahim * 1687: Deposition of Mehmed IV * 1703: Edirne Incident * 1730: Patrona Halil rebellion * 1807-1808:

Ottoman coups of 1807–1808 The Ottoman palace coups of 1807–1808 refers to several coups and rebellions deposing or restoring to the throne three Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, sultans, that took place as a result of the attempted reforms of Se ...

* 1826:

Auspicious Incident The Auspicious Incident or Auspicious EventGoodwin, pp. 296–299. ( in Constantinople; , "Event of Malignity" in the Balkans) was the forced disbandment of the centuries-old Janissary Corps by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826.Kinross, ...

* 1859: Kuleli Incident * 8 – 11 May 1876 Insurrection * 30 May 1876 Ottoman coup d'état * 31 August, 1876: Deposition of Murad V * February 1878: Retraction of the Ottoman Constitution * May 1878: Storming of the Çırağan Palace * 1881: Yildiz Trials * 1895 Sublime Porte memorandum * 1896 Ottoman coup d'état attempt * 1897 Ottoman Syria plot * 1903 Ottoman coup d'état attempt * 1908:

Young Turk Revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908; ) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Revolutionaries belonging to the Internal Committee of Union and Progress, an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II ...

* 1909: 31 March Incident * 1912 Ottoman coup d'état * 23 January 1913:

Raid on the Sublime Porte RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical data storage components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redu ...

* 25 January 1913 conspiracy * March 1913 conspiracy * June 1913: Ottoman coup d'état attempt * 1919: Amasya Protocols * 1920: Military Occupation of Istanbul * 1920: Retraction of the Ottoman Constitution * 1922: Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate

References

{{set index article Turkish nationalism Human rights abuses in Turkey Turkish Land Forces Political violence in Turkey