Turkish coup d'état

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, the Turkish military was much involved in Turkish politics. The army was strongly Kemalist and considered one of its roles to be the ultimate guardian of Atatürk's reforms including secularism, and of cooperation with the Western world generally. The Turkish constitutions of 1924, 1961, and 1982 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. 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.

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 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 2016 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

 * 1960 Turkish coup d'état
 * 1971 Turkish military memorandum
 * 1980 Turkish coup d'état
 * 1997 Turkish military memorandum

Attempts and uprisings

 * 21 Ekim Protokolü
 * 1962 Turkish coup d'état attempt
 * 1963 Turkish coup d'état attempt
 * 20 Mayıs 1969 askerî müdahalesi
 * 1971 Turkish coup d'état attempt
 * 2007: E-memorandum
 * 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt

Memorandums
Memorandums are demands for significant policy and leadership changes made upon the civil government by the armed forces, backed by implicit or explicit threat of a coup. The following are military memorandums which were not attempts to overthrow the government.
 * 27 Aralık Muhtırası
 * 2021 Montreux Declaration, by 103 retired admirals but likened by some to a military memorandum

Cases associated with coups

 * Dokuz Subay Olayı
 * 1993 alleged Turkish military coup
 * Sarıkız, Ayışığı, Yakamoz and Eldiven
 * Ergenekon trials
 * Sledgehammer (alleged coup plan)
 * Operation Cage Action Plan

Ottoman coups d'état

 * 1446: Buçuktepe rebellion
 * 1512: Selim I's accession
 * 1589: Beylerbeyi incident
 * 1618: First Deposition of Mustafa I
 * 1622: Regicide of Osman II
 * 1623: Second Deposition of Mustafa I
 * 1648: Regicide of Ibrahim
 * 1687: Deposition of Mehmed IV
 * 1703: Edirne Incident
 * 1730: Patrona Halil rebellion
 * 1807-1808: Ottoman coups of 1807–1808
 * 1826: Auspicious Incident
 * 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 Çırağan Palace
 * 1881: Yildiz Trials
 * 1895: Kâmil Pasha petition
 * 1896 Ottoman coup d'état attempt
 * 1897 Ottoman Syria plot
 * 1903 Ottoman coup d'état attempt
 * 1908: Young Turk Revolution
 * 1909: 31 March Incident
 * 1912 Ottoman coup d'état
 * January 1913: Raid on the Sublime Porte
 * 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