The Turkish Deep State: State Consolidation, Civil-Military Relations and Democracy by Mehtap Sooyler

Author:Mehtap Sooyler [Sooyler, Mehtap]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General, Social Science, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317668794
Google: CcKgBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-02-11T17:14:11+00:00

5 The rise, decline and restoration of the deep state

The rise of state-banditry relations

This section traces the first part of the negative feedback mechanism that began after the 1980 coup and ended with the 1997 coup by memorandum, and which rose again as an equilibrium restoring the deep state. It covers the 1980s, which were marked by the rise of the deep state in the context of the transition to a liberal economy; the next section covers the 1990s when the deep state was transformed into “the state” in the context of low-intensity warfare and the transition to a neo-liberal economy after 1989. First, this section analyzes the 1982 Constitution and the consequences of the coup for the party system. Second, it examines the increasing returns mechanism with respect to the military-industrial complex that gathered pace after the transition to economic liberalism. It also elaborates the parallel redemocratization and liberalization, and the impact of these transitions on cleavages. Third, this section claims that the “modern bandits” were upgraded in the service of the state and deeper involved in organized crime. Furthermore, it contends that the Kurdish question paved the way for the emergence of new autocratic cliques for state consolidation. Finally, it starts to explore the cyclical process that began to reproduce organized crime and low-intensity conflict in this decade.

During the “interim period” between 1980 and 1983, the MGK cabinet immediately struck at civil rights. The military tribunals of the junta punished both the left and right with heavy sentences. 650,000 people were detained and tortured; 171 people died from torture; 230,000 were tried; 7,000 people were tried with capital punishment, 108 prisoners condemned to death penalty, and 50 people were hanged; 30,000 fled the country; 14,000 were excluded from citizenship. A total of 1,683,000 people were blacklisted.1 Military tutelage stripped politics from the dimensions of accountability and representation. Furthermore, the political sphere was deprived of debate and contestation. The 1982 Constitution was made by an assembly, as was the 1961 constitution; unlike the 1960 assembly, whose members were elected on a limited basis, the members of the assembly in 1982 were appointed.

The 1982 Constitution extended the Janus-headed feature of state institutions by further strengthening the MGK at the expense of the legislative and executive branches; the president’s veto powers also controlled the parliament. The president presided over the executive organ. The wide-ranging rights and duties of the president were excluded from judicial control. The legal competences of the president empowered the executive organ to exert leverage over the judiciary and jeopardized its independence. State Security Courts (DGM) with military members extended the Janus-headed judiciary. DGM were supervised by the Supreme Council of Judges and Public Prosecutors (HSYK). HSYK and the members of the Court of Appeals were appointed by the president.2

The 1982 Constitution and the Law on Political Parties deepened perverse institutionalization. Repeated military interventions led to low-level institutionalization of the party system. The waning ties between the parties and the voters, as well as the organizational strength of parties, strengthened personalism and unentrenched power of the party leaders.

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