Turkish Politics and the Military

Turkish Politics and the Militaryexamines the role of the armed forces in contemporary Turkish politics. William Hale argues that as political actors, the Turkish military has behaved quite differently from militaries in other Third World states. In some ways, it has acted as a guardian of the state, committed to economic and social modernization. Hale places Turkey's contemporary politics in perspective by examining the evolution of the army's political role. He looks back to the end of the eighteenth century and the military structure of the Ottoman Empire in its decline. He traces the role of the armed forces through the establishment of the Turkish Republic, the military coups of 1960 and 1980, the gradual return to civilian government in the later 1960s and 1980s, and the military disengagement from politics in 1983. This historical analysis reveals much about the modern Turkish political scene.