Kayak�y, Turkey: churchInterior of a church in the abandoned village of Kayak�y, near Fethiye, southwestern Turkey. The village was deserted largely as a result of the compulsory population exchange at the end of the second Greco-Turkish War (1921�22).� Ron Gatepain (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Kayak�y, TurkeyAbandoned village of Kayak�y, near Fethiye, southwestern Turkey. It was deserted largely as a result of the compulsory population exchange at the end of the second Greco-Turkish War (1921�22).� Ron Gatepain (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A comprehensive settlement was eventually achieved via the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). The Turkish frontier in Thrace was established on the Maritsa River, and Greece returned the islands of G�k�eada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos). A compulsory exchange of populations was arranged, as a result of which an estimated 1,300,000 Greeks left Turkey and 400,000 Turks were repatriated. The question of the city of Mosul was left to the League of Nations, which in 1925 recommended that it become part of the new state of Iraq. The Treaty of Lausanne also provided for the apportionment of the Ottoman public debt, for the gradual abolition of the capitulations (Turkey regained tariff autonomy in 1929), and for an international regime for the straits that controlled access to the Black Sea (see Straits Question). Turkey did not recover complete control of the straits until the 1936 Montreux Convention.

The result of the war and the peace settlement was a state in which the great majority spoke Turkish. Though there has been a tendency to see this as the almost inevitable consequence of the rise of Turkish and Arab nationalism, it seems in fact to have been the accident of war that broke off the Arab provinces. Whatever the views of Mustafa Kemal himself, it is clear that the majority of his followers thought of themselves primarily as Muslims; in the elaborate religious ceremony that preceded the opening of the Grand National Assembly, there was no mention of Turks or Turkey but only of the need to save �religion�s last country.� The creation of a sense of Turkish nationhood was the product of a long effort in which Mustafa Kemal played the dominant role.

Construction of a new political system began with the abolition of the sultanate and the declaration of a republic. Loyalty to the Ottoman dynasty was strong even among Kemalists, but Mehmed VI�s identification with the Allies weakened his support. An Allied invitation to the sultan to nominate representatives to Lausanne aided Mustafa Kemal; a split Turkish delegation would have been self-defeating. With a brilliant mixture of threats and persuasion, Mustafa Kemal was able, therefore, to induce the assembly to abolish the sultanate (November 1, 1922). Mehmed VI left Turkey, and his cousin Abd�lmecid II was installed as the first and last Ottoman caliph who was not also sultan. Declaration of the Turkish republic

On October 29, 1923, the assembly declared Turkey to be a republic and elected Mustafa Kemal as its first president. The caliphate was abolished on March 3, 1924, and all members of the Ottoman dynasty were expelled from Turkey. A full republican constitution was adopted on April 20, 1924; it retained Islam as the state religion, but in April 1928 this clause was removed, and Turkey became a purely secular republic. Turkey under Mustafa KemalGovernment

The assembly was the instrument of Mustafa Kemal�s will. The first assembly had contained large factions hostile to his policies, including religious conservatives, merchants, and former members of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP; a Young Turks organization). In opposition to his 197 acknowledged supporters, who were known as the First Group, there were 118 opponents, members of the Second Group. The first assembly was dissolved on April 16, 1923, and Mustafa Kemal took care to keep his opponents out of the second assembly; only three of the Second Group were returned. Mustafa Kemal�s own party, which became the Republican People�s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi; CHP), dominated all assemblies until 1950; in this period the assemblies included a heavy preponderance of urban professional men and of officials with a university education. With an outlook different from that of the illiterate Turkish peasants, they carried out a revolution from the top. Opposition

There was little opposition to Mustafa Kemal: the small Progressive Republican Party (November 1924�June 1925) had only 29 members and was suppressed because he feared that its leading members, who included some of his most notable associates in the war of independence, might have too much influence in the army; and the similarly short-lived Liberal Republican Party (August�December 1930) was an abortive attempt by Mustafa Kemal to organize a moderate opposition to his own party. Otherwise, he ruled quite autocratically. A plot against his life in 1926 gave him the chance to deal with his rivals, who were tried by a special court. Many of them were sentenced to death, imprisonment, or exile. Opposition outside the assembly�including the dangerous Kurdish revolts of 1925, 1930, and 1937�was suppressed vigorously. Kemalist policies

The bases of Mustafa Kemal�s policies were enshrined in the CHP program of 1931, which was written into the Turkish constitution in 1937. Mustafa Kemal�s six fundamental principles were republicanism (i.e., the creation of the republic), nationalism, populism, statism, secularism, and revolution. Revolution was implicit in the radical reorganization of the political, social, and economic systems. Populism was the effort to mobilize popular support from the top through such characteristic devices as the People�s Houses (1931�51), which spread the new concept of a national culture in provincial towns, and the village institutes, which performed the same educational and proselytizing role in the countryside. The creation of a sense of nationalism was encouraged by changes in school curricula, the rewriting of history to glorify the Turkish past, the �purification� of the language by a reduction of the number of words of foreign origin (sometime later, this effort appeared to be redundant in light of a declaration that all languages were descended from Turkish), and the renunciation of Pan-Islamic, Pan-Turkish, and Pan-Ottoman goals in foreign policy.

Statism was the movement toward state-controlled economic development; the shortage of skilled labour and entrepreneurs (caused largely by the reduction of the Greek and Armenian communities, which in 1914 had controlled four-fifths of Ottoman finance, industry, and commerce), the lack of capital, and the intense nationalist desire for industrial self-sufficiency that would banish foreign influence all stimulated a movement in the 1930s toward state ownership or control. This was achieved through investment banks, monopolies, state industrial enterprises, and planning. A five-year plan was instituted in 1934. Although the immediate results were disappointing, the policy of state-inspired economic growth was important for future economic advance.

Secularism included the reform of law, involving the abolition of religious courts and schools (1924) and the adoption of a purely secular system of family law. The substitution of the Latin alphabet for the Arabic in writing Turkish was a significant step toward secularism and made learning easier; other measures included the adoption (1925) of the Gregorian calendar, which had been jointly used with the Muslim (Hijrī) calendar since 1917, the replacement of Friday by Sunday as the weekly holiday (1935), the adoption of surnames (1934), and, most striking of all, the abolition of the wearing of the fez (1925), a hat that reformers saw as a sign of cultural backwardness. The wearing of clerical garb outside places of worship was forbidden in 1934.

These changes, coupled with the abolition of the caliphate and the elimination of the dervish (Sufi) orders (see Sufism) after a Kurdish revolt in 1925, dealt a tremendous blow to Islam�s position in social life, completing the process begun in the Tanzimat reforms under the Ottomans. With secularism there came a steady improvement in the status of women, who were given the right to vote and to sit in parliament.

Vital as these changes were, in many cases they were primarily matters of appearance and style. Structural changes in society took longer. At the first census, in 1927, the population was put at 13.6 million, of which about one-fourth was urban. In 1940 the population was 17.8 million, but the urban proportion was almost unchanged. In 1938 the per capita income and literacy rate were both below comparable figures for developed countries.

Foreign policy was subordinated to internal change. The loss of Mosul was accepted (June 5, 1926). Hatay province along the Syrian border, however, was recovered. It was given internal autonomy by France in 1937, occupied by Turkish troops in 1938, and incorporated into Turkey in 1939. Turkey followed a neutralist policy, supported the League of Nations (which it joined in 1932), and sought alliances with other minor powers, leading to the Balkan Entente (1934) and the Saʿdābād Pact with Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan (1937). Turkey after Kemal �Atat�rk�World War II and the postwar era, 1938�50

The autocratic, dominating, and inspiring personality of Kemal Atat�rk (�Father of Turks,� as Mustafa Kemal came to be known) had directed and shaped the Turkish republic. At his death in 1938 his closest associate, �smet �n�n�, was elected president. With the approach of World War II (1939�45), foreign affairs assumed greater importance. An alliance with the Allied powers Britain and France (October 19, 1939) was not implemented because of Germany�s early victories. After Germany�s invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), there was popular support for an alliance with Germany, which seemed to offer prospects of realizing old Pan-Turkish aims. Although a nonaggression pact was signed with Germany (June 18, 1941), Turkey clung to neutrality until the defeat of the Axis powers became inevitable; it entered the war on the Allied side on February 23, 1945, mere weeks before the war�s end. The great expansion of Soviet power in the postwar years exposed Turkey in June 1945 to Soviet demands for control over the straits connecting the Black Sea with the Aegean and for the cession of territory in eastern Anatolia. It was also suggested that a large area of northeastern Anatolia be ceded to Soviet Georgia. This caused Turkey to seek and receive U.S. assistance; U.S. military aid began in 1947 (providing the basis for a large and continuing flow of military aid), and economic assistance began in 1948.

Atat�rk MausoleumThe Atat�rk Mausoleum, Ankara, Turkey.Robert Harding Picture Library

The war also brought changes in domestic policy. The army had been kept small throughout the Atat�rk period, and defense expenditure had been reduced to about one-fourth of the budget. The army was rapidly expanded in 1939, and defense expenditures rose to more than half the budget for the duration of the war. Substantial deficits were incurred, imposing a severe economic strain, which was aggravated by shortages of raw materials. By 1945, agricultural output had fallen to 70 percent of the 1939 figure and per capita income to 75 percent. Inflation was high: official statistics show a rise of 354 percent between 1938 and 1945, but this figure probably understates the fall in the value of money, which in 1943 was less than one-fifth of its 1938 purchasing power. One means chosen by the government to raise money was a capital levy, introduced in 1942, arranged to fall with punitive force upon the non-Muslim communities and upon the D�nme (a Jewish sect that had adopted Islam). The war did provide some stimulus to industry, however, and enabled Turkey to build up substantial foreign credits, which were used to finance postwar economic development.

The most notable change in the postwar years was the liberalization of political life. The investment in education was beginning to show some return, and the literacy rate had risen to nearly one-third of the adult population by 1945. A growing class of professional and commercial men demanded more freedom. The Allied victory had made democracy more fashionable; accordingly, the government made concessions allowing new political parties, universal suffrage, and direct election.

From a split within the CHP, the Democrat Party (DP) was founded in 1946 and immediately gathered support. Despite government interference, the DP won 61 seats in the 1946 general election. Some elements in the CHP, led by Prime Minister Recep Peker (served 1946�47), wished to suppress the DP, but they were prevented from doing so by �n�n�. In his declaration of July 12, 1947, �n�n� stated that the logic of a multiparty system implied the possibility of a change of government. Prophetically, he renounced the title of �National Unchangeable Leader,� which had been conferred upon him in 1938. Peker resigned and was succeeded by the more liberal Prime Ministers Hasan Saka (1947�49) and �emseddin G�naltay (1949�50).

Other restrictions on political freedom, including press censorship, were relaxed. The first mass-circulation independent newspapers were established during the period. The formation of trade unions was permitted in 1947, though unions were not given the right to strike until 1963. A far-reaching land-redistribution measure was passed in 1945, although little was done to implement it before 1950. Other political parties were established, including the conservative National Party (1948); socialist and communist activities, however, were severely repressed.

In the more open atmosphere, the DP was able to organize in the villages. The CHP, despite its local village institutes, had always been the government party and had little real grassroots organization. The Democrats were much more responsive to local interests. The DP won a massive victory in the 1950 elections, claiming 54 percent of the vote and 396 out of 487 seats. The CHP won 68 seats, the National Party 1. The DP victory has been attributed variously to American influence, social change, a desire for economic liberalization, better organization, religious hostility to the CHP, and a bad harvest in 1949. Perhaps the ultimate reason, however, is simply that in 27 years the CHP had made too many enemies. Turkey under the Democrats, 1950�60

In the DP government Cel�l Bayar became president and Adnan Menderes prime minister, a post which for the first time came to surpass that of the president in importance. The economy

The Democrats were committed to a program of economic growth, to be achieved through a reduction of state interference. At first they had much success, assisted by good harvests in 1950 and 1953 and by an economic boom caused by the Korean War (1950�53). But problems appeared after 1953. In 1954 another poor harvest obliged Turkey to import wheat again. A shortage of foreign exchange limited the purchase of essential materials and parts, which handicapped industry. After a sudden favourable surge in the early 1950s, the international balance of trade moved steadily against Turkey. Inflation, which averaged 15 percent or more annually, became a serious problem. The government attempted unsuccessfully to control prices through legislation, but its continually rising public expenditure worsened inflation. Despite the problems, the DP achieved considerable political success throughout the 1950s. Political repressions

The political fortunes of the Democrat government closely reflected the economic changes. In the 1954 elections�the Democrat peak�the DP took a majority of the vote and most of the seats; the CHP took about one-third of the vote and many of the remaining seats. Subsequent economic difficulties led to mounting criticism within and outside the DP, to which the government responded with increasing repression. In 1953 much of the property of the CHP was confiscated, forcing the closure of the People�s Houses. The CHP newspaper presses in Ankara were seized. In 1954 the National Party was dissolved because of its opposition to Kemalist principles, though it was immediately re-formed as the Republican Nation�s Party and in 1958 united with the Peasants� Party to form the Republican Peasants� Nation Party. Laws passed in 1954 provided for heavy fines on journalists thought to have damaged the prestige of the state or the law; several prominent journalists were prosecuted under this law, which was made more severe in 1956, while other laws substantially abridged the independence of civil servants (including university teachers) and judges. In 1955 critics within the DP were expelled; these critics subsequently formed the Freedom Party, which in 1958 merged with the CHP. In 1956, limitations were placed upon public meetings.

The DP�s declining popularity was reflected in the elections of October 1957. The three opposition parties attempted to form an electoral coalition, but a law passed that September had declared such coalitions illegal. The combined opposition vote was more than half the total, but the DP controlled a majority of the seats, and many believed that the law banning coalitions had deprived the opposition of victory. Opposition attacks upon the DP became stronger, and it was accused of unconstitutional action. At the same time, the Democrats, fearing a revolution, redoubled control. In December 1959 an alleged plot (the so-called Nine Officers� Plot) was unearthed; some of the accused were so clearly innocent that punishment ultimately fell upon the accuser, but it appears that there indeed had been a conspiracy of some sort.

The CHP strenuously accused the DP of reversing the principles of secularism and favouring conservative religious organizations. Indeed, the DP had relaxed some of the secularist policies of pure Kemalism, following in the steps of the CHP in the years 1945�49. Religious instruction in schools had been extended and the organization of religious schools permitted. Arabic had been reinstated for the call to prayer, and radio readings of the Qurʾān had been allowed. These were modest concessions in themselves, however, and the Democrats had clearly demonstrated their unwillingness to tolerate religious influence in politics by suppressing the renewed activities of dervish orders in 1950�52.

The years 1958�60 saw a further worsening of the economy as the government reluctantly introduced restrictive measures. Returns on new investment fell and inflation continued. Serious problems of housing and unemployment were emerging in the large towns, whose population had been growing annually at the rate of about 10 percent, so that by 1960 the urban portion of the population had risen to nearly one-third. CHP attacks became more bitter and the government�s response stronger. In April 1960 the government ordered the army to prevent �n�n� from campaigning in Kayseri and formed a committee to investigate the affairs of the CHP. It was widely believed that the government�s next action would be to close the CHP. Student demonstrations followed, and martial law was declared on April 28. The army had been brought directly into the political arena. The military coup of 1960

Relatively neglected from 1923 to 1939, the army underwent a rapid expansion during World War II and, after the war, was extensively modernized with the aid of U.S. advisers. Many officers feared that the DP threatened the principles of the secular progressive Kemalist state. Some younger officers saw the army as the direct instrument of unity and reform. On May 3, 1960, the commander of the land forces, General Cemal G�rsel, demanded political reforms and resigned when his demands were refused. On May 27 the army acted; an almost bloodless coup was carried out by officers and cadets from the Istanbul and Ankara war colleges. The leaders established a 38-member National Unity Committee with G�rsel as chairman. The Democrat leaders were imprisoned. The National Unity Committee

From the outset a clear division existed between the officers who carried out the coup. One group, consisting predominantly of younger officers, believed that, to restore national unity and carry out major social and economic reforms, it would be necessary to retain power for an extended period; this group included both those who supported a nationalistic and Islamist policy and those who favoured accelerated secularization. Another group, which included most of the senior officers, wanted to withdraw the army from politics as soon as possible. In November 1960 the dispute was decided in favour of the second group, and 14 members of the first group were expelled from the committee and sent into diplomatic exile.

The main work of the National Unity Committee was to destroy the DP and to prepare a new constitution. Substantial purges took place: 5,000 officers, including 235 of the 260 generals, were dismissed or retired, 147 university teachers left their jobs, and 55 wealthy landowners were banished from eastern Anatolia, their lands confiscated. The DP was abolished (September 1960), and many Democrats were brought to trial on a small island (Yass�ada) in the Bosporus on charges of corruption, unconstitutional rule, and high treason. Of 601 tried, 464 were found guilty. Three former ministers, including Menderes, were executed; 12 others, including Bayar, had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The constitution of 1961

Work on the new constitution began immediately after the coup, when a committee of five law professors was appointed to prepare a draft. This document was submitted to the National Unity Committee on October 18. That committee appointed a second committee to redraft the constitution; the new draft was presented to the Constituent Assembly, which met in January 1961. The constitution was completed in May and was approved by 61 percent of the voters at a referendum in July.

The new constitution established a two-chamber parliament, consisting of the Senate and the National Assembly. A separate electoral law provided for proportional representation. The president was elected by the Senate and National Assembly together. The constitution also provided for the Constitutional Court and the State Planning Organization. The first elections were held in October 1961. The army then withdrew from direct political involvement, although the members of the National Unity Committee retained some influence as life members of the Senate. The ascendancy of the right, 1961�71

No party won a majority in October 1961. The CHP won 38 percent of the votes and 173 of the 450 assembly seats. The newly formed Justice Party (JP), led by the retired general Rag�p G�m��pala, received 35 percent and 158 seats. The remaining seats were divided between two smaller parties�the Republican Peasants� Nation Party, which took 54 seats, and the liberal New Turkey Party, which gained 65. The results demonstrated the enduring popularity of the old DP. Its votes had been divided among the three smaller parties, the majority going to the JP, which also emerged as the largest party in the Senate. The CHP had failed to hold all of its 1957 vote and had suffered by identification with the army coup.

The new Grand National Assembly elected General G�rsel as president. The CHP leader �n�n� formed a coalition government with the JP, but the coalition survived only until June 1962, when it broke up over the question of an amnesty for the imprisoned Democrats. After some delay and splits within the parties, which led to the formation of the Nation Party by dissidents who withdrew from the Republican Peasants� Nation Party, the CHP formed a coalition with the two smaller parties. This accelerated the tendency for former Democrat voters to turn to the JP.

In the local elections of 1963, the JP made extensive gains at the expense of the two smaller parties. This led to the breakup of the coalition, and, because the JP was unable to form a government, �n�n� formed a minority government from his own party alone but with voting support from the New Turkey Party. The CHP government resigned after a defeat on the budget in February 1965 and was replaced by a coalition of all the other parties, under the leadership of an independent, Suat Hayri �rg�pl�; this coalition acted as caretaker until the elections of October 10, 1965.

In December 1964 a new electoral law introduced the principle of the �national remainder,� by which a certain number of seats were distributed to parties according to their proportion of the vote. The law was intended to operate in favour of the smaller parties and against the JP, but in the election of 1965 the JP won a surprising majority with 53 percent of the votes and 240 seats. The CHP received 29 percent and 134 seats and the smaller parties 76 seats. The new JP leader, S�leyman Demirel, a former engineer, was able to form a government.

Political moderation triumphed in the years 1961�65. The army stood aloof while power came gradually to a party that drew its main support from the same groups and areas as the Democrats and that espoused a similar philosophy. Attempts to restore army rule failed. Intervention proposed by senior officers in October 1961 was rejected by others. Two projected coups were foiled in February 1962 and May 1963. Members of a secret society within the army�the Young Kemalists�were arrested in April 1963. Criticism of the 1960 revolution was made illegal in 1962; army leaders contented themselves with occasional warnings against too rapid a rehabilitation of the Democrats. This peaceful political evolution can be ascribed partly to �n�n�, who used his personal influence and prestige to restrain the army even while power ebbed from his own party. The price was the postponement of several reforms. The only significant progressive initiative of the early 1960s was the labour law of 1963, which legalized strikes and promoted an expansion of trade unions; by the 1990s about half of Turkey�s nonagricultural workers were members of a trade union.

The JP�s program embraced political and economic liberalization. The DP prisoners were released (1962�64), and their political rights were restored in 1969. The JP eschewed central economic planning and sought foreign investment in industry to provide growth. The policy had much success: over the period 1963�77 the gross domestic product grew strongly, and industry replaced agriculture as the major contributor to national income. But the JP failed to address new political problems caused by the rise of extremist parties of the right and left and by political violence.

Industrial development, urbanization, and the growth of trade unions provided a base for the development of a radical left that included a new trade union federation, the Confederation of Reformist Workers� Unions (Devrimci I��i Send�kalari Konfederasyonu [D�SK]; founded 1967); a revolutionary youth movement, Dev Gen� (1969); a socialist political party, the Workers� Party of Turkey (WPT; 1961); and an armed guerrilla movement, the Turkish People�s Liberation Army (1970). These and similar groups espoused anticapitalist and anti-Western doctrines, and their followers, particularly in the universities, often supported them by violent action. The violence of the left was opposed by that of right-wing groups, of which the most prominent was the National Action Party (NAP), created in 1963 from the former Republican Peasants� Nation Party and led by an ex-officer, Alparslan T�rke�. The NAP�s agenda combined Islam and Turkish nationalism and stressed education. As part of its organization, the NAP developed a paramilitary section, known as the Gray Wolves, that clashed with the leftists.

The JP�s failure to deal with increasing violence during the late 1960s was caused in part by its own internal divisions. A coalition of diverse groups, including prosperous farmers from western Anatolia and big and small businessmen, the JP fell victim to personal rivalries. Its victory in the 1969 election, with slightly less than half the vote, was narrower than its 1965 victory; moreover, it lost votes not to the CHP�which was supported by only about one-fourth of the electorate�but to smaller parties. However, a change in the electoral system had made it more difficult for these smaller parties to win seats, and the JP thus increased its parliamentary representation. In the new parliament the right wing of the JP, led by Sadettin Bilgi�, disappointed at its exclusion from the government, defeated Demirel in February 1970; the Demirel government continued but was much weakened by these events. Political developments, 1970s to �90sMilitary intervention and coalition governments

Senior army officers, concerned by the uncontrolled spread of political violence and a revolt in Kurdish regions of eastern Turkey�a part of the region commonly referred to as Kurdistan�and fearing that political divisions would spread to the army itself, delivered a warning to the government in March 1970 and a year later forced Demirel�s resignation. During the next two years, Turkey was ruled by supraparty coalitions of conservative politicians and technocrats who governed with the support of the army and who were primarily concerned with restoring law and order. Martial law was established in several provinces and was not completely lifted until September 1973; there were armed clashes with guerrillas and many arrests and trials; extremist political parties, including the WPT and the Islamic-based National Order Party (NOP), were shut down; and the constitution was amended to limit personal freedoms. Unlike in 1960�61, however, there was no sweeping political reorganization; the constitution, parliament, and major political parties remained. In 1973 the army withdrew to the barracks when its candidate for the presidency was defeated, leaving government once more to the politicians.

From 1973 until 1980 the army and the politicians were faced with the consequences of their failure to address the political problems that had led to the 1971 military intervention. During these years Turkey was ruled mainly by weak coalition governments dependent on the support of minor parties, including the extremists; these extremists refused to agree to measures that would curb their own violence, and they introduced their supporters into state institutions. The annual death toll from political violence rose from 34 in 1975 to about 1,500 before the military intervention in September 1980.

In the 1973 election the CHP emerged as the strongest party, with about one-third of the vote, narrowly defeating its principal rival, the JP. The CHP had changed its character since the early 1960s; its conservative wing, opposed to the leftist program adopted at the 1965 election, had departed. The party leader, �n�n�, supported the radicals but in 1972 was discarded in favour of the radical leader, B�lent Ecevit. The CHP thus became a social democratic party, drawing its support primarily from workers and intellectuals in the major cities. The remainder of the vote was distributed among small parties, mainly of the right.

Lacking a majority, the CHP formed a coalition with the National Salvation Party (NSP), founded in 1972 as a successor to the banned NOP and led by Necmettin Erbakan. The electoral success of the NSP�which polled more than one-tenth of the vote�was striking. Although the constitution banned religious parties, the NSP was in all but name an Islamic party; in 1980 it called for the restoration of Islamic law (Sharīʿah). The coalition�s principal domestic achievement was a land reform measure that reduced ceilings on landholdings to about 250 acres (100 hectares) of irrigated and 500 acres (200 hectares) of dry land. Implementation of the land reform was slow, however, and the law was eventually annulled by the constitutional court in 1977. In September 1974 Ecevit resigned, hoping to bring about an election in which he could profit from the popular Turkish invasion of Cyprus (see Foreign affairs since 1950), but his gamble failed; nonpartisan and coalition governments of the right followed, and there was no election until 1977.

In the 1977 elections the CHP again emerged as the largest party, with about two-fifths of the vote, edging out the JP. The smaller parties, which had done so well in 1973, lost votes but still held the balance of power in the assembly. The NSP took about one-tenth of the vote and the NAP a smaller proportion. Demirel�s ineffective coalition government continued and was succeeded in 1978 by an even more ineffective coalition under Ecevit. Inflation, unemployment, the trade deficit, and political violence all grew rapidly. The economy was seriously weakened by a rise in world oil prices and a fall in remittances from Turkish workers abroad. Ecevit resigned in 1979, and Demirel formed a minority JP government that announced a major new economic recovery program. The 1980s

On September 12, 1980, the senior command of the army, led by General Kenan Evren, carried out a bloodless coup. This coup, the third army intervention in 20 years, was generally supported by the public. The leading politicians were arrested, and parliament, political parties, and trade unions were dissolved. A five-member National Security Council took control, suspending the constitution and implementing a provisional constitution that gave almost unlimited power to military commanders. Martial law, which had been established in a number of provinces in 1979, was extended throughout Turkey, and a major security operation was launched to eradicate terrorism. There followed armed clashes, thousands of arrests, imprisonment, torture, and executions, but political violence by opponents of the government was greatly reduced.

As it had been in 1971, the army�s intervention was prompted by disgust at the failure of the politicians to control violence, fear of the Islamic upsurge (which drew strength from the Iranian Revolution [1978�79] that had resulted in the declaration of an Islamic Republic), concern at the spread of guerrilla warfare in Kurdistan, and renewed worries that the army might become infected by the politicization that had paralyzed the police force. In 1980, however, the army was determined not only to restore order but also to undertake a thorough reform of the political system. The 1982 constitution

A new constitution, modeled on the French constitution of 1958, was approved by referendum in 1982. It provided for a strong president (elected for a seven-year term) who appointed the prime minister and senior judges and could dismiss parliament and declare a state of emergency. A unicameral parliament replaced the bicameral experiment of 1961, and�in an effort to reduce the influence of smaller parties�no party polling less than 10 percent of the votes cast was to receive seats in parliament. There were also close controls over political parties, the press, and trade unions.

The first elections under the new constitution were held in 1983 and were a disappointment to the army, which had intended that two parties�the centre-right National Democratic Party (NDP) and the centre-left Populist Party (PP)�should dominate the new parliament. Instead, a third party, the Motherland Party (MP), emerged as the clear winner, gaining more than half the seats. The MP�a heterogeneous coalition of liberal, nationalist, social democratic, and Islamic groups�owed its success to the unwillingness of Turks to accept the army�s prescription for government and to the reputation of its leader, Turgut �zal. �zal was considered an authority on economic issues; he had been the author of the JP�s economic reform package of 1980 and had been responsible for the successful stabilization program carried out after the army intervention. By the early 1980s, then, only the army upheld the principles of Atat�rk.

Under �zal�s leadership the MP ruled Turkey until 1991. From 1983 to 1987 its economic policies�based on removing state controls, encouraging foreign trade, and relying on free-market principles�had considerable success, helped by the fall in world oil prices and by opportunities created by the Iran-Iraq War (1980�88). The inflation rate fell, and economic growth was strong. After 1987, however, the economic situation deteriorated as a result of the world recession of the late 1980s and early �90s and the government�s failure to stem the rising budget deficit, largely the consequence of the continued burden of inefficient, heavily subsidized state industries. Inflation and unemployment rose, and a large foreign-trade deficit developed. The Kurdish conflict

The public security situation also worsened, notably in the Kurdish provinces of the southeast. Following major social changes associated with the commercialization of agriculture since the 1950s, there were outbreaks of violence in Kurdistan during the 1970s, generally linked with the activities of the revolutionary left. After 1980, however, the disturbances took on a specifically Kurdish character. Several groups emerged, espousing demands ranging from freedom of cultural expression to outright independence; some turned to violence to advance their cause. The most important of these groups was the Kurdistan Workers� Party (Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan; PKK), led by Abdullah �calan. The PKK, a leftist group founded in 1978, initiated violent attacks in the late 1970s before launching its armed campaign against the state in 1984 from bases in Iraq. The PKK sought an independent Kurdish state or, possibly, full Kurdish autonomy. With between 5,000 and 10,000 armed fighters, the PKK directed attacks against government property, government officials, Turks living in the Kurdish regions, Kurds accused of collaborating with the government, foreigners, and Turkish diplomatic missions abroad. The PKK received support from Syria and from Kurds living abroad and also acquired money through criminal activities. From 1991 the existence of so-called safe havens in Iraqi Kurdistan�established following the Persian Gulf War (1990�91) and protected by U.S. and British forces�provided new bases for PKK operations. Turkish governments sought to deal with the Kurdish problem by granting cultural concessions in 1991 and limited autonomy in 1993. The establishment of Kurdish political parties, however, remained forbidden. The main government effort remained the military suppression of the uprising; martial law was imposed in Kurdish areas, and increasing numbers of troops and security forces were committed to the task. By 1993 the total number of security forces involved in the struggle in southeastern Turkey was about 200,000, and the conflict had become the largest civil war in the Middle East. It is estimated that between 1982 and 1995 some 15,000 people were killed, the great majority of them Kurdish civilians. Dozens of villages were destroyed and many inhabitants driven from their homes. Turkish forces also attacked PKK bases in Iraq, first from the air and then with ground forces; in an operation in late 1992, about 20,000 Turkish troops entered the safe havens in Iraq, and in 1995 some 35,000 troops were employed in a similar campaign.

In the 1987 election the MP was returned to power. Its share of the vote fell to slightly more than one-third, but it expanded its representation in parliament. Prior to the election, the political rights of the old politicians had been restored, and they figured prominently in the campaign. Demirel reemerged as the leader of the True Path Party (TPP; founded 1983), which won about one-fifth of the vote. Erdal �n�n�, the son of �smet �n�n�, led the Social Democratic and Populist Party (SDPP; founded 1985), which gained one-fourth of the vote. Erbakan�s new Welfare Party (WP; an Islamic party) and T�rke��s right-wing National Endeavour Party (NEP) also took part, although they failed to obtain at least 10 percent of the vote and thus were not represented in parliament.

After 1987 the popularity of the MP fell rapidly. Fractures developed�especially between liberals and Islamists�and �zal was heavily criticized for nepotism and corruption. In October 1989 �zal was elected president, succeeding Evren, while within the MP the internal struggle continued and was eventually decided in favour of the liberals, whose young leader, Mesut Y�lmaz, became prime minister. The 1990s

Despite considerable fluctuations from year to year, Turkey maintained the economic advance that had begun in 1950. Increasingly, Turkey was becoming an urbanized, industrialized country and a major exporter of manufactured goods, especially to Europe. Yet the pace of economic change was an underlying cause of much of the social and political unrest that beset Turkey during the 1990s.

The MP was defeated in the elections of 1991 but secured about one-fourth of the vote. The remainder of the centre-right vote went to the TPP, which emerged as the largest party in the new assembly. Mainly because of personality differences between �zal and Demirel, the obvious coalition government of the MP and the TPP was not possible; instead, the TPP formed a coalition government with the third largest party, the SDPP. The declining centre-left vote was divided between the SDPP and the Democratic Left Party (DLP) of Ecevit. The program of the new government, with Demirel as prime minister, represented a compromise between the economic liberalism of the TPP and the political liberalism of the SDPP, but the lack of fundamental agreement made it difficult to tackle the economic and political problems that troubled Turkey. In addition to the continuing Kurdish war, there was a recrudescence of the political violence by the radical left and right. After �zal�s death in 1993, Demirel was elected president. Tansu �iller, a liberal economist, became Turkey�s first woman prime minister. �iller emphasized more-rapid economic privatization and closer links with the European Union (EU). The coalition government collapsed in September 1995 when the SDPP withdrew from the government after protracted internal divisions. �iller failed to form a new coalition and called an election for December 1995.

The most-striking feature of the 1995 election was the extent of support for the WP, which emerged as the largest single party, with about one-fifth of the vote. The political success of the WP reflected the increasing role of Islam in Turkish life during the 1980s and �90s, as evidenced by changes in dress and appearance, segregation of the sexes, the growth of Islamic schools and banks, and support for Sufi orders. Support for the WP came not only from the smaller towns but also from major cities, where the WP drew support from the secular left parties. The WP stood for a greater role for Islam in public life, state-directed economic expansion, and a turning away from Europe and the West toward the Islamic countries of the Middle East. Despite its electoral success, the WP was unable to find a coalition partner to form a government, and in March 1996 a coalition government of the MP and TPP was formed, although it was dependent on voting support from the centre left. Y�lmaz and �iller agreed to share the prime ministership; Y�lmaz took the first turn, in 1996.

Turkish Prime Minister Tansu �iller (left) and Prime Minister-designate Mesut Y�lmaz, 1996. Burhan Ozbilici�AP/Shutterstock.com Malcolm Edward Yapp

In June 1996 Erbakan�s Islamist WP formed a short-lived coalition government, which was opposed by secularists and the armed forces. By mid-1997 Erbakan was succeeded by Y�lmaz and the MP. However, two years later the MP lost power to the DLP, still led by Ecevit. The DLP government benefited from the capture of PKK leader �calan, who was sentenced to death.

Late in 1997 a pair of powerful earthquakes shook eastern Turkey, killing thousands. Challenges of the 21st centuryTurkey under the AKP

In 2002 the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalk�nma Partisi; AKP), a party with Islamist roots, swept the parliamentary elections. It came to power under the ostensible leadership of Abdullah G�l, since party leader Recep Tayyip Erdo�an was ineligible to serve in parliament or as prime minister because of a 1998 conviction; a constitutional amendment in late 2002 removed this ineligibility. Erdo�an won a seat in parliament in early 2003 and quickly replaced G�l as prime minister. That same year Turkey refused to grant transit through its territory to the U.S. military during the Iraq War, though it did extend rights to air transport.

Recep Tayyip Erdo�an, 2008.Photo by Serkan Eldeleklioglu-Bora Omerogullari-Ozan Atasoy/Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)

In January 2007 Armenian journalist and community leader Hrant Dink was murdered outside his office in Istanbul. Many viewed his assassination as a political attack, as Dink had received a number of death threats for his position on the early 20th-century treatment of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire�long a highly sensitive topic and a source of tension between the Turkish and Armenian communities (see Armenian massacres) and between the governments of Turkey and Armenia. In October 2009 the two countries made a landmark effort to overcome their historical grievances, signing an agreement that would have normalized diplomatic relations, opened the Turkish-Armenian border, and established an international commission to investigate the World War I-era killings. However, support for the reconciliation process soon faltered on both sides, and the agreement was not implemented. Growing confrontation from the secularists

Tensions had simmered again in 2007 when tens of thousands of secularist protesters, wary of Erdo�an�s Islamist roots, demonstrated in Ankara in an attempt to discourage him from seeking the presidency; Erdo�an acquiesced. The AKP then nominated G�l as its candidate, even though he shared a similar political history with Erdo�an: both began their careers in a pro-Islamic party, since banned, and both were married to women who opted to wear the head scarf, a visible marker of religion in a resolutely secular republic and a major source of contention in modern Turkish society. G�l�s marriage to a woman who wore the head scarf was received as but one signal of his Islamist leanings, an unnerving proposition for many voters.

Though many suggested that the Islamist roots of the AKP might represent a challenge to Turkey�s secular democracy, others felt that the periodic intrusion of the military into Turkish politics posed a greater threat. The military, which had maneuvered Turkish political proceedings in the past, issued a memorandum on the Internet criticizing the rising role of Islamists in the government and indicating military readiness to act if an unapproved candidate, such as G�l, won the presidency; this approach was dubbed an �e-coup� by pundits.

G�l went on to receive the majority of the votes in parliament�s election for the presidency, but the CHP opposition boycotted the vote and caused G�l to fall short of the necessary quorum by a narrow margin. Consequently, the election results were later overturned in court, and a stalemate ensued. Erdo�an worked to resolve the standoff by calling for early parliamentary elections, in which the AKP secured a decisive victory. In spite of the previous political standoff, the AKP then once more nominated G�l as its candidate, and in the parliamentary elections that followed he won the presidency by a wide margin.

The confrontation between the AKP and the secular opposition took on a new dimension in 2007 when Turkish authorities claimed to have uncovered a cache of weapons belonging to an ultranationalist network plotting to overthrow the government. The revelation launched a series of lengthy interrelated investigations that saw hundreds of nationalist figures, including a number of high-ranking military officers, arrested and put on trial for having allegedly participated in antigovernment conspiracies. Three senior officers were convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 20 years� imprisonment, and more than 300 other officers received lighter sentences. Constitutional reform

Meanwhile, in February 2008 the parliament voted to amend Turkey�s constitution by eliminating a ban barring the head scarf from being worn on university campuses. The amendment aggravated a long-standing fault line within Turkish society: while portions of the population supported the liberty to wear the head scarf, others feared that the change endangered Turkey�s secular ideals and could lead to increasing pressure upon those women who choose not to wear the garment. Galvanized by the amendment, opponents of the AKP renewed charges that the party�s Islamist agenda threatened Turkish secular order. In March 2008 the constitutional court voted unanimously to hear a case that called for the disbanding of the AKP and a five-year ban of Erdo�an and dozens of other party members from Turkish politics, and in early June it annulled the amendment. The AKP successfully retained its position, however, when in July 2008 the court ruled narrowly against the party�s closure.

Turkey�s constitution was further amended in September 2010, when Turkish voters approved 26 amendments backed by Erdo�an and the AKP. Largely designed to bring the country in line with EU standards on democracy and to support the country�s bid for membership in that organization, the amendments included measures that bolstered human rights and held the military accountable to civilian courts for crimes against the state or against constitutional order. The amendments also included measures that expanded the influence of the president and parliament over judicial appointments. The constitutional reforms were widely praised on the international level, but within the country criticism was raised by the opposition, which alleged that the measures would allow Erdo�an and the AKP to exercise control over the military and judiciary, two institutions with which they had clashed in the past.

In 2011 the AKP campaigned for parliamentary elections on a pledge to replace Turkey�s existing constitution. In June the AKP won by large margins in the elections, securing a strong majority in the Grand National Assembly and another term as prime minister for Erdo�an. However, it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally write a new constitution.

In early June 2013 Turkey saw an unprecedented display of discontent after a small demonstration in Istanbul over plans to convert a public park into a shopping mall was violently broken up by police. The incident sparked an outpouring of anger against the Erdo�an- and AKP-led government. Demonstrations against economic inequality as well as against the government�s perceived authoritarianism and religious conservatism quickly spread through the country and were, in many instances, met by riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Erdo�an responded defiantly, dismissing the protesters as thugs and vandals and holding rallies for AKP supporters. Erdo�an becomes president

In August 2014 Ahmet Davuto�lu took over the post of prime minister from Erdo�an, who was prohibited by AKP rules from seeking another term. Davuto�lu, an AKP member who had previously served for five years as foreign minister under Erdo�an, was widely expected to follow the course set by his predecessor in both domestic and foreign affairs. Erdo�an remained in public life, running for and winning the largely ceremonial role of president.

In a parliamentary election in June 2015, the AKP fell short of an absolute majority for the first time in its history, receiving just 41 percent of the vote. The results were largely seen as a rebuke to Erdo�an, who had made it known that he would seek constitutional changes that would expand the powers of the presidency. The setback was a brief one for the AKP, however. Negotiations over the summer failed to produce a governing coalition, triggering a snap parliamentary election on November 1. The AKP won easily, regaining its majority and falling just short of the number of seats needed to unilaterally call a referendum on expanding the powers of the presidency. Coup attempt, strengthening of the presidency, and Erdo�an�s reelection

On the night of July 15, 2016, a small faction within the army attempted to launch a coup against the AKP-led government, deploying tanks and troops to the streets of Ankara and Istanbul and seizing facilities, including television stations and bridges. In a statement, the coup plotters accused the government of eroding the democratic order and damaging the rule of law in Turkey. The coup was poorly planned, though, with no backing from the public and only narrow support within the military, so it began to falter almost as soon as it started. Erdo�an, who had been vacationing on the Mediterranean coast, rushed back to Istanbul, using social media to quickly rally his supporters to confront coup plotters in the streets. The coup plotters were soon overwhelmed by loyal military units and civilians, and by morning the government was firmly back in control. Nearly 300 people, mostly civilians, had been killed in confrontations. Over the years that followed, Erdo�an conducted a wide purge, arresting tens of thousands of people and removing more than 100,000 people from their jobs�including police, soldiers, academics, and civil servants�over suspicions that they might have been sympathetic to the coup.

Turkey: 2016 coup attemptSupporters of Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdo�an celebrating the failure of a coup attempt, Istanbul, 2016.� esrk/Shutterstock.com

In January 2017 the Grand National Assembly approved legislation to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments that would dramatically expand the powers of the presidency. Under the proposed amendments, the president would become head of government as well as head of state and wield increased authority to make governmental appointments and pass laws by decree, while the post of prime minister would be eliminated. Erdo�an, who had sought such measures since becoming president in 2014, campaigned vigorously for their approval in the referendum. Narrowly approved by voters on April 16, 2017, the changes were set to be implemented after the next elections, originally due to take place in November 2019. Early elections were called, however, and were held on June 24, 2018. Prior to the elections, the AKP entered into an alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The alliance collectively received a majority of the vote in the parliamentary contest, and Erdo�an won an outright majority in the presidential contest. The constitutional changes were then implemented in July 2018 with the inauguration of the new government. Currency crisis and economic recession

The second half of 2018 was marked by an economic downturn sparked by a currency crisis. A number of vulnerabilities had been introduced into the economy in recent years as a result of political instability combined with populist economic measures, including an ambitious boom in public works projects and Erdo�an�s open opposition to raising interest rates. A growing financial downturn and decreasing investor confidence were exacerbated in July when Erdo�an appointed his son-in-law as the country�s finance minister. Just weeks later the central bank declined to raise interest rates despite market pressures to do so. Then, on August 10, the United States announced tariffs against Turkish steel and aluminum exports. The lira took a hit with each event and lost a quarter of its value by mid-August. On September 13 the central bank relieved some of the tension by hiking interest rates, and the value of the lira slowly improved. Still, the crisis caused a lingering slowdown in economic growth, and by 2019 the Turkish economy had entered into recession.

Soaring prices became the central issue as the March 31, 2019, municipal elections approached. Because municipalities in Turkey are responsible for administering many basic services, the elections were important not only for the ability of the AKP to implement its national political agenda, but the outcome was also expected to reflect public dissatisfaction with the rising costs of living. In the months leading up to the elections, the AKP-led government in several cities began to set up stalls to sell produce at cost. Meanwhile, Erdo�an, campaigning for the party, blamed rising prices on foreign interference and pledged to conduct crackdowns on wholesalers. Despite these efforts, election results showed that the AKP had lost its hold on five of Turkey�s six largest cities, including Ankara and Istanbul. Negotiations with the PKK

The PKK, quiescent since the capture of �calan in 1999, resumed guerrilla activities in 2004 under a new name, Kongra-Gel, chosen in 2003. Although the organization reverted to its former designation (PKK) in 2005, some elements continued to make use of the new name. The group was thought to be the source of a number of subsequent attacks, and in October 2007 the Turkish parliament approved military action for one year against PKK targets across the border in Iraq; a series of strikes began in December, and a ground incursion was initiated in February. Although the United States indicated its support for the limited maneuvers against the PKK by sharing intelligence with Turkey, it encouraged the development of a long-term resolution to the conflict.

Beginning in 2009, Turkish officials and PKK leaders held secret talks to explore options for peace. Negotiations faltered when the repatriation of 34 PKK fighters and refugees to Turkey in late 2009 provoked a public celebration among PKK supporters, angering Turkish officials. The negotiations continued for several more rounds before ending in 2011 without progress. During that time Turkish authorities continued to arrest members of legal Kurdish parties, usually on charges of having belonged to terrorist groups. Violence increased after talks ended, reaching its highest level in more than a decade.

A new round of peace negotiations between Turkey and the PKK was announced in December 2012. From early on, the new talks showed more promise than the ones that had ended in 2011. In March 2013 the PKK released eight Turkish hostages, and PKK leader �calan, still in Turkish custody, announced his support for a cease-fire. Foreign affairs since 1950Western-oriented policy

Until the 1960s, Turkish foreign policy was wholly based on close relations with the West, particularly the friendship of the United States. Turkey sent troops to fight in the Korean War and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; 1952) and the Central Treaty Organization (1955). This Western-oriented policy derived from Turkey�s fear of its enormous northern neighbour, the Soviet Union, from its dependence on U.S. military and economic aid, and from its desire to be accepted as a secular, democratic, Western state. After 1960, however, this policy came into question as a consequence of East-West d�tente, the rise of economic and political cooperation in western Europe, and the growing economic importance of Middle Eastern countries.

Doubts also began to creep into Turkish political thought about the reliability of the United States as an ally, especially in consequence of events in Cyprus. The independence of Cyprus had been arranged through the Z�rich and London agreements of 1959. Turkey sought to protect the interests of the Turkish community on Cyprus, and, when these were threatened by disputes between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in 1963 and again in 1967, Turkey contemplated intervention. In July 1974 the Greek government supported the leaders of a coup that overthrew the Cypriot president, Makarios III, and proclaimed the union of Cyprus with Greece. Failing to persuade either Britain or the United States to take effective action, Turkey acted unilaterally and occupied the northern part of the island, refusing to withdraw until a new arrangement satisfactory to the Turkish Cypriots was agreed to and guaranteed. These events, which were followed by disputes over the extent of territorial waters, underwater resources in the Aegean Sea, sovereignty over uninhabited islands, and airspace, led to bad relations with Greece and a cooling of relations with the United States, which Turks believed had favoured Greece. In 1987 and 1996 Turkey and Greece came to the brink of war over the Aegean. Turkey broadens foreign relations

As a result of its experience with Cyprus and the Aegean Sea, Turkey�while remaining faithful to the Western alliance�broadened its options. From 1964 it developed better relations with the Soviet Union, leading to a friendship agreement in 1978. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, Turkey was quick to establish relations with the newly independent Transcaucasian and Central Asian states (many of which had Turkic-speaking majorities). Turkey recognized the government of mainland China in 1971, improved relations with the Balkan states (although relations with Bulgaria were disturbed by an exodus of 300,000 Turkish refugees from that country in 1989), and cultivated closer connections with the Arab and Islamic world.

In the former Yugoslavia, popular Turkish sympathy for the Bosnian Muslims led Turkey to advocate international action on their behalf, and Turkish forces took part in the United Nations (UN) and NATO operations there. Turkey cooperated with Iraq in suppressing Kurdish disorder, although it supported the UN against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, allowing use of U.S. air bases in Turkey. In return, the United States extended the defense agreement that was due to expire in 1990 and increased military and economic aid.

International sanctions against Iraq cost Turkey hundreds of millions of dollars a year in oil pipeline revenues. Turkey�s relations with Syria were adversely affected by Syria�s support for Kurdish rebels and by Syrian concern over the construction of the Atat�rk Dam in southeastern Turkey, which threatened to divert the Euphrates River, whose flow is shared by Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. Attempt to join the European Union

Turkey applied to join the European Economic Community (succeeded by the EU) in 1959, and an association agreement was signed in 1963. In 1987 �zal applied for full membership. The increasing economic links between Turkey and the EU�more than half of Turkey�s trade was with the EU in the 1990s�gave the application a stronger economic justification. However, doubts persisted in the EU, where Turkish policy on human rights and on Cyprus was criticized, and in Turkey, where the Islamists opposed membership. Nevertheless, in 1996 a customs union between Turkey and the EU was inaugurated. In the final years of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st, Turkey continued to flirt with membership in the EU. To strengthen its bid, the Turkish government began pursuing a number of key changes. In the early 21st century the emphasis on freedom of speech and Kurdish-language rights was accompanied by a reformed penal code and a decrease in the role of the military in politics. In 2004 the death penalty was banned, a move largely lauded by the EU community.

That same year the EU called upon Turkey to intervene in the ongoing Turkish-Greek Cyprus standoff by encouraging the Turkish north to support a UN-sponsored unification plan that was to precede Cyprus�s admittance to the EU. Although Turkey was successful in its efforts and the Turkish north voted strongly in favour of the plan, the Greek south overwhelmingly rejected it. In May 2004 Cyprus entered the EU as a divided territory: EU rights and privileges were extended only to the southern region, because it alone was under the administration of the internationally recognized Cypriot government. Late in the following year, formal negotiations over Turkey�s EU membership were officially opened. Though it has since recognized Cyprus as a member of the EU, Turkey�s failure to extend full diplomatic recognition subsequently posed a recurrent stumbling block in its EU bid; talks were stalled in late 2006 by Turkey�s continued failure to open its air- and seaports to Cypriot passage.

In addition, Turkey�s bid was slowed by a number of challenges from standing EU members, with opposition from France and Austria traditionally being among the most vocal; French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy expressed the opinion that Turkey did not belong in the EU. In addition, Sarkozy sought to establish new limitations on future expansion of the EU community. Austria, France, and Slovakia, among others, suggested that Turkey be extended a �privileged partnership� in the place of full membership. Nonetheless, Turkish efforts to gain EU membership persisted, and they included constitutional reforms in 2010. Regional engagement, the Arab Spring, and the Syrian Civil War

The AKP�s victory in 2007 heralded a shift in Turkish foreign policy toward stronger regional ties and greater independence from Turkey�s traditional alignments with NATO, the United States, and Israel. Turkey became more outspoken in its support for Palestinians� rights and its disapproval of Israeli actions such as the 2008�09 attack on the Gaza Strip. It also sought engagement with Iran and Syria, the two countries most resistant to U.S. influence in the Middle East.

Turkey�s regional diplomacy was tested by the onset of the Arab Spring, a wave of uprisings in 2011�12 that upended several Middle Eastern regimes that had been on friendly terms with Turkey. The Turkish government initially opposed any international military intervention on behalf of the rebellion against Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi but shifted to a position of support for intervention, as international condemnation for Qaddafi grew and his regime began to appear too weak to defeat the rebels.

In 2011, as the Arab Spring spread to Syria, Turkish officials took on an active role in an ultimately fruitless international effort to broker a peaceful settlement between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the opposition. When negotiations failed, Turkey, hosting the nascent Free Syrian Army opposition, turned against Assad and began providing military and financial support to the rebel fighters. As the uprising grew into a full-fledged civil war, Turkey became increasingly involved. In August 2016 its armed forces launched an offensive into northwestern Syria, aiming to push militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Kurdish separatists away from its border. After the combat mission concluded in March 2017, Turkish forces remained in northern Syria to maintain a buffer zone and protect Syrian rebels there. In the summer of 2018, Assad�s forces successfully recaptured territory held by rebels in the southwest of the country, leaving the Turkish-held areas in the north as their only safe haven. Turkey reinforced its military holdings in Syria as it negotiated a buffer zone with Assad-allied Russia. By the end of the year, with the buffer zone with Assad and Russia largely holding, Turkey prepared to expand its mission to expel Kurdish separatists from northeastern Syria; the campaign was delayed, however, after the United States announced its intent to withdraw its own troops from northeastern Syria. Malcolm Edward Yapp The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica