Turkey after the transition to a multiparty system: the coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980

Before 1946 there was just one functioning political party in Turkey - the Republican People’s Party (RPP) (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), established by Atatürk. Yet between 1946 and 1952, 28 new political parties were created. Obviously, the most influential of these was the Democrat Party (DP) (Demokrat Parti), established in 1946 and led by Celal Bayar. The DP won the 1950 general election with some 55 % of the vote. This marked a new era in Turkish politics. After the transition to a multi-party system was completed, Turkey experienced periodic breakdowns in the form of direct and indirect military interventions, demonstrating just how problematic regime change in terms of democratization of a political system is. This paper focuses on the period after the transition to a multi-party system and competitive politics in Turkey and, in particular, discusses the coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980 and their implications on the development of democratization processes in the country.