Turkish 1980 coup d’eta

The Communists were the defeated in Turkey for three main reason's.

1.)The movement was led by a small group of elitists and wasn't a movement of the masses which struck a chord with the working class.

2.)Communism is athiest, preaching about how crap religion is to the very people your trying to convince to join you isn't a smart move when those people have quite a strong faith and belief.

3.)They never carried the Turkish flag, the flag is important to the people, nobody wanted to be a little puppet under the Soviets, which the people considered merely as "Russians". They just fought a World War against the Russians and a hundred year before that, did these Communists actually believe people would go, hey you know what let's just let them rule us now, I mean jeez common. Carrying the Red Flag was a serious mistake, ignoring the feelings of the people was a serious mistake, not being able to realise that the majority of the people are quite partriotic was a big mistake.

I have to make something clear

I read alot and over many yaers and it all gets blurred.

Okey found the name the "Turkish hezbollah" this was a kurdish group, but like those wolves were allegedly used by more exterme parts of the turkish est. against the PKK (esp during ceasefires) or anyone else who was agianst the state.

I wanted to know if they were the same sunni extremists kotumeyil mentioned.

found this on them

and this

lOOK, for the most part I agree with you.  At the same time I think that the right-left lens is not all that it is made out to be.  At least in the context of Turkey.  The coup in 1960 and the velvet coup later in 1997 were not anti-communist (of course in 1997 there were other issues in world politics).  Of course the Alevi and Kurdish provided the backbone of the Left as that was the only way they could adequately fit into the Turkish State, but anti Kurdish repression, anti Alevi sentiment existed before and after the Cold War.

I don't think it is neccesary for me to check the dictionary for the meaning of rightist beylerbeyi, thanks.   I didn't mean to imply that Kenan Evren was a good guy or even neutral politically, I only meant that his purpose went beyond the elimination of the Left.  His purpose was to safeguard the State as he perceived it to be (which is why he initiated the 'national' craze)..  Like everybody who knows anything about Turkey, he knew that the weakness of the Turkish national identity was such that any kind of disorder...from the right or the left, from the east or the west, threatened it.

lastly, I don't think Kenan Evren had any intention of opening up the economy as was done by Ozal.  Ozal may not even of known the disastrous (at least from my pov) consequences. 

Mostly, though, I agree with you

A satellite is not a puppet.

No. Anti-Communism was Turkey's number one policy during the Cold War. This was the aim of both local bourgeoisie, and the US. Turkey stopped following Kemalism after WW II and became an American satellite. There can be no Kemalism without full independence. Turkey was not an American puppet, or a banana republic, but definitely an American satellite. So it is today.

Anti-communist struggle in Turkey united the conservatives, islamists, nationalists and fascists. It was spearheaded by US-NATO-Gladio people like Catli, and conducted mostly by MHP dogs. When the dogs and the police were not enough, US gave the green light to the generals. 

As Kotumeyil wrote before 1980, Alevis and Kurds were within the leftist movement. Fascists attacked the Alevis because of religion, but it was because they are Fascists animals, not because there was a religious conflict. 

The Kurds were treated extremely badly by the military, even before PKK came around. Their leaders were killed and many were horribly tortured in the Diyarbakir military prison. It is said that the spirit of PKK was born in that prison, that's one of the reasons why PKK is so violent. Later PKK militants found the director of that prison in a bus in Istanbul and shot the bastard. That was probably the best PKK action of all times.

I think you need to check the dictionary for the word 'rightist'. Who introduced 'national' history, 'national' geography, 'religious education' classes in schools? And even universities? Who founded YOK? Who came up with an authoritarian constitution? Who disbanded labour unions, NGOs and political parties? He was Pinochet-light, a fascist dog with an IQ comparable to Reagan and Bush.

Just because they imprisoned some fascists, doesn't necessarily mean that they are not right wing. As Alparslan Turkes (ex-Nazi, US trained founder of the MHP) said 'we are in prison, but our ideals are in the government'.

I don't think this is a coincidence. Anti-left wing coups in the American sphere of influence quite often end up with opening up of the local markets. Especially true for the 70s and afterwards. Ozal was smart, yes, and not the first choice of the Generals, but Turkey would have been globalised with or without Ozal.

You are welcome. The government was on the side of fascists. But it didn't want them to massacre Alevi civilians. That was just fascists dogs acting out of control.

I am not sure who you are talking about. There were no 'units' called 'mujahadeen' in Turkey. Fascists who killed leftists, Alevis and Kurds were paramilitary arm of the MHP (nationalist action party), also called 'ulkucu' or 'Gray wolf'. Although they had support from the sections of the police, military and the government, they were not within the state.

I'd like to see the documentation if you have the links. 

Despite the contrary opinion by the forumers so far, I tend to diminuish the role of the US in the 1980 coup.  Not that it wasn't ok'd or that it didn't suit the interest of the US.  I am open to look into the stuff if you send me sources.