As people in Turkiye debate the impact of a so called "soft coup of February 28th" back in 1997, by a military memorandum that resulted in the stepping down of the government, academics are reminding us that military interventions in politics have always caused great harm to the development of a healthy democratic system.
Speaking at a conference organized by the Toleration and Religion Democracy at Columbia University, scholars were critical of the Turkish military's long involvement in the politics.
In his analyses of the nature of Turkish civil-military relations, Dr. Ahmet Kuru indicated that Turkish military has long been enjoying a wide range of autonomy and power, consolidated with constitutions drafted after coup d'états that took place several times in the history of Turkish Republic.
Commenting on the same issue, Bilkent University's Ümit Cizre said that although the time of coups d'état in Turkiye was over, the effects of military interventions were still in place and negatively affecting the social and political life in the country.
After the conference, Dr. Kuru, spoke to Ebru TV about the need for a demilitarization of the political process in Turkiye and how it would benefit everybody on each side of the aisle.
Ebru News/ Nurettin Altundeger
Ebru TV