Abstract

One of the major problems of Turkey’s democratic consolidation has been the heavy impact of the armed forces on civilian politics. Since the country’s transition to a multiparty system in the mid-1940s, the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) have complicated democratic processes by their outright interventions in 1960, 1971, and 1980; by forcing the government to resign in 1997; and by restricting the authority of civilian governments. Moreover, there have been a number of coup plans and attempts that were aborted thanks to the vigilance of the higher echelons of the military hierarchy.