Human rights' respect in Turkey : the role of the military

Abstract

Nowadays, one of the basic elements for a country to be considered democratic is the extent to which it respects and applies human rights under international law. This model of democracy is generally accepted as the Western European democracy. Since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk perceived the new state as a secular republic based on Western standards. However, Turkey illustrates a specific and unique case. Apart from the fact that Turkey was a Muslim-populated country, its major specificity lied in the fact that its will for Westernisation and modernisation was from the beginning not derived from the people -as in the case of Europe- but from the political and military elite. The military was since the years of the Ottoman Empire a prominent power in country's politics. Thus, the majority of the people in Turkey perceived the military as well as the secular-elite of the country as the successors of Ataturk's inheritance: the protection of the secular state. Consequently, the military intervention in the political life of the country was expressed through military coups against elected politicians and through the legitimacy they gained from the National Security Cotmcil. In this content, I will discuss the role of the military concerning the violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country and how these violations gained their legitimacy under the name of the protection of the state.