The Twinges of May 27 Military Coup and the Liquidations of the Military Abstract

Abstract

Military Coup Culture which has crucial place in Turkish political life as means to achieve power is a cult that its tradition comes from Ottoman State tradition. The formation and development phase of this cult inherited The Republic of Turkey by statist elite. Bab-ı Ali government coup were still fresh in minds, May

27 military coup in 1960 that made by Turkish Armed Forces was the beginning of a new era in the country’s politics. In addition to political and social developments after the May 27 military coup in the country, significant fractures experienced in the military field. The main backbone of these fractures were related to psychology that produced by power-sharing. In particular, political and military movement of army by military coup to take power from hands of civilians opened the way for the traditionalization of military coup in Turkey.

This study is focused the main axis of the power struggle between members of the military in the years 1960-1964. With the descriptive approach of study, the impact of democracy crisis on the army will be examined. Military officers as AlparslanTürkeş and MuzafferÖzdağ were sent to oversea mission for the purge. This development revealed the gap between supporters of civilian power and coup supporters in the army. There were military coup attempts officers who did not like civilian governance or power in Turkish Armed Forces, even after the establishment of interim government in 1963. So much so that the military hierarchy was generally taken in the second plan, in coup attempts. 235 general, 4171 officers and 1459 cadets were expelled from the army for the reason of coup attempts. In summary, overall, these purges were made in army for obtaining central power.