CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 50

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
out to eliminate one issue or one party; the coup was carried out because
of multi-layered issued in the socio-economic life of Turkey and the mil-
itary required more time to fi nd solutions for those issues. The military
intended to undertake multidimensional changes and only after that re-
turn power to the civilians. 26 The coup was followed with mass arrests
and the fi rst targets were leftists and nationalists. The military aimed to
end terrorism in the country and prevent the further emergence of such
groups. Left and right radicals were heavily punished and already in Oc-
tober 1980 a number of people were sentenced people were sentenced to
death. 27 Within two months after the coup 7945 people had been arrested
for participation in terrorist actions. 28 These actions led to the decline of
terrorism, however, it must be mentioned that under the veil of fi ghting
against terror the military was trying to uproot movements which they
deemed dangerous for Kemalist Turkey. During the transitions period af-
ter the coup 1 million 683 thousand people have been interrogated, law-
suits were fi led against 650 thousand people 230 thousand of which were
arrested. Death penalty was demanded for 7000 people out of which 517
were sentenced to death and 50 people were executed. 388 thousand peo-
ple were deprived of their passports, 14 thousand people lost their citi-
zenship, 30 thousand people were dismissed from jobs because they were
considered “dangerous”, 30 thousand people left the country as political
refugees, 23 thousand 677 organizations were forbidden, 3854 professors
were dismissed, 171 people died in prisons due to abuse (this is accord-
ing to offi cial statistics, in reality that number is believed to be 300. 29 The
purges were mainly directed towards leftist movements, which suff ered
a massive blow from the military. Thousands of people were sentenced
because they “were part of the organization”. Major sanctions were also
imposed on the media during the transition period.
As had become usual in Turkey, the 1980 coup was followed by the
adoption of a new constitution. The military presented the new constitu-
tion in 1982 and it was passed with a referendum. This was one of the
main outcomes of the 1980 coup. One of the main features of the 1982
constitution was that it signifi cantly decreased the democratic rights and
freedoms. Strikes and lockouts were forbidden. Parties were not allowed
to have youth, women’s and similar fractions. Membership age for par-
ties was raised to 21, so was the voting age. These were done in order to
keep the youth apolitical. Another important feature of the new constitu-
tion was it signifi cantly increased the powers of the president. This was
26
27
28
29
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
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