Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

the tempering of the kemalist revolution 63The 1960 Military Coup and Its Political ConsequencesDespite what on balance must be seen as a very limited conciliatory attitude ofthe part of the DP toward Islamic groups, the policies permitting greater religiousactivities in public space convinced the Turkish military that the Republicand its Kemalist program was in danger. Consequently, the military carriedout a coup against the DP government on May 27, 1960. The military sought topurify not only the state but also its own ranks by purging two thousand oYcers,along with 147 university professors. The military coup derailed Turkey’sgradual evolution into a full-Xedged liberal democracy. The political system, ineVect, failed to cope with the massive increase of popular political participationand the political mobilization of an Islamic identity it had engendered.The 1960 military coup created a set of political institutions that were intendedto preserve the ideological purity of the state from perceived leftist andIslamic threats. 13 The 1961 constitution embodied two competing principles.First, it tried to depoliticize society by increasing the power of bureaucrats sothat they could balance that of elected oYcials and thus reduce socioeconomicissues to “technical” problems that could be solved by rational planning. Second,it ironically deepened associationalism, which reduced the monopoly onpolitical life enjoyed by political parties.The new constitution presented a reinvigorated (and left-leaning) Kemalistideology as being the main source for public policy. Article 4 redeWned sovereigntyand argued that sovereignty is exercised through “Parliament and authorizedagencies as prescribed by the principles laid down in the Constitution.” Itestablished the Constitutional Court, with the power of judicial review over thedecisions of Parliament and the cabinet. Most signiWcantly, Article 111 establishedthe National Security Council—consisting of the chiefs of the land, air, navy,and gendarmerie forces, as well as the chief of staV, and the secretary of theCouncil, who is also a three-star general—to “inform the cabinet of its relevantopinions by the way of assisting in the taking of national security decisions andproviding coordination.” 14 (A 1971 amendment replaced the terms “by the wayof assisting” and “is to inform” with “is to advise.”) The constitution also recognizedthe autonomy of the Turkish military by removing the chief of StaV fromthe supervision of the civilian Ministry of Defense. The 1961 constitution addeda second chamber to the legislative body, the Senate, which was created from amix of permanent members from among the coup leaders to counterbalancepopular representation. Moreover, the state-run Directorate of Turkish Radioand Television Board (TRT) and universities theoretically were made autonomousfrom peripheral political pressures but not from those of the state.The coup bitterly divided Turkish society, as it led to the purging of pro-DPlocal leaders, including some Kurdish tribal chiefs and 485 Kurdish politicians.However, the junta’s most disturbing act was the hanging of the popular primeminister Adnan Menderes and his two top ministers. The coup leaders in themilitary reimposed a strict implementation of Kemalist secular dogma in publiclife. The tomb of the charismatic founder of the Nurcu religious movement,