ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the different Turkish military interventions indicates that not only do these fail to square entirely with any universal theoretical schema, but also that there are considerable variations between one Turkish example and another. In the case of Turkey, such an approach indicates that from the start political institutions have been encased in the coat of armour provided by the military, and that this structure has been carried over from one to another of the various states which the Turks have established. The army was nonetheless effectively in power, and this soon gave rise to internal military cleavages, factions and clienteles. A military intervention in Turkey is thus not only highly predictable, but one can also detect in the military a certain reluctance to intervene. In almost every interview, military leaders insist that they have been forced into power against their own wishes.
