Civil-Military Confrontation in Turkey: The 1973 Presidential Election

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Abstract
Much has been written recently about the severe domestic problems which Turkey has been experiencing since 1970. Instability in the form of worker strikes, student demonstrations, parliamentary stalemate over reform measures, and above all, urban guerrilla terrorism prompted the armed forces to intervene in March 1971 and impose a nonpartisan coalition government in order to put an end to what they deemed “anarchy, fratricide and social and economic unrest.” The following month, at the instigation of the armed forces, a state of emergency was declared and martial law was instituted in eleven of Turkey's sixty-seven provinces. Thousands of suspected “anarchists” were arrested and stood trial, with the result that an uneasy calm returned to the surface of Turkish affairs. Many civilian politicians in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (GNA) were restive under martial law, how ever, decrying their loss of independent action and demanding a loosening of the tight military control.

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