1980 Turkish coup d'état

1980 Turkish coup d’état is the third coup in the history of Republic of Turkey led by Kenan Evren, which overthrew the 1980 government of Turkey. Before the 1980 coup d'état, there were two other coups carried out in 1960 and 1971. The coup d’état of 1971 and 1980 took place due to similar motivations as they aimed to fix the country’s economic and political problems. The political problems specifically included political instability caused by the violence between left- and right-wing political groups. However, the political violence between left- and right-wing political groups was only lightened after the coup of 1980.

On 12th September 1980, the coup was carried out. As the consequence of the coup, martial law was declared and Kenan Evren became the new president of Republic of Turkey.

In the aftermath of the coup, large scales of human rights violations were carried out. These violations were later on discussed within the international arena.

## Before the Coup 
### Political Instability 
The political problems that motivated the coup was due to the political instability in Turkey between the period of 1970-1980. The political instability was shaped by the violence between left- and right-wing political groups and therefore the coup aimed to ease the violence between these groups. The army's stance, which carried out the coup, towards this political violence was more in support of the reduction of the left wing ideology and groups. The second reason why the army had an unfriendly view about communism was because of the Turkey-NATO relations.

### Economy 
The Turkish economy between 1970-1980 was deteriorating. This economic depression led to lack of access to oil, basic goods like food, and high levels of unemployment. The depression was due to Bulent Ecevit’s unsuccessful economic policies, 1973-74 Oil Crisis and U.S. embargo on Turkey after the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation. Secondly, after the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation, Turkey was embargoed by U.S. In addition to the already existing economic issues and the oil crisis, the embargo put more pressure upon the Turkish economy. Despite the debate that the US established the embargo as an outcome of the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation, Ecevit claims in an interview that the embargo has already been established by the U.S. before the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation was carried out. However, for a U.S. military force to be deployed in Turkey, the U.S. believed that Turkey needed to obtain a more stable economy and political environment. What U.S. found problematic about the political environment of Turkey is argued to be the rise of communist movements in Turkey. Therefore, U.S. believed that such a coup also aiming to ease the communist movements is highly important for the efficiency of the U.S. army to be deployed in Turkey. The 1980’s coup d’état led to the suspension of democracy and a shift into an authoritarian military rule. 
The parliament was dissolved and the existing political parties were abolished. Trade unions were closed down since they were seen as communists threats.   Although the National Security Council that overthrew the government declared that it would eventually return the power to democratically elected civilians, Turkish Military ruled the country for 3 years.

### Human Rights Violations 
Many people were arrested on the morning of 12 September 1980. After coup d’état the cases of torture in Turkey rapidly increased and first executions in ten years were carried out in a month. After a global pressure, the state opened an investigation. According to the report in 1982 published by the Turkish State authorities, only four of the alleged 204 deaths were caused by torture. This programme enforced the cohabitation of leftist and rightist prisoners. This was perceived as a mental torture by some prisoners, while the others believed that they were all the victims of the coup d’état.
The Constituent Assembly, consisting of 160 members, implemented a new constitution which strengthened the military’s power and state authority.

### January 24th Decrees 
It was a programme designed to help Turkey overcome the economic crisis before the coup d’état. With the guidance of International Monetary Fund (IMF), the purpose of the programme was to encourage foreign investments and trade. The provisional government kept following the programme. Furthermore, the designer of the programme, Turgut Özal, was appointed as the finance minister of the military government.

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