Legislation to Reduce Army Influence: A Case Study of Turkey

Abstract

Most of the developing and under-developed countries are facing army dominance in political matters. Turkey is also facing this challenge but it’s case is different in the way that here the army has ruled systematically through constitutional provisions. Contrarily, The Grand National Assembly of Turkey has been trying consistently to reduce army influence through legislation. There have been total 21 amendments in Turkish Constitution of 1980 till now. Especially, the amendments passed in the year 2010 are historical achievement which paved the way for the trial of last two alive members of 1980 coup, General Kenan Erven, the leader of the coup and Tahsin Şahinkaya for their criminal activities in 1980. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the constitutional amendments passed by GNAT to abolish systematic control of Turkish army over civilian government. Hence, a brief account of civil-military relations since the Ottoman Era, founding ideology of Turkey and armed forces’ perception of being the sole guardian are also being given in this paper.