The Road to the March 12 Memorandum and the Interim Regime's Establishment: An Assessment in the Framework of Praetorianism Typology

Abstract

The March 12 Memorandum is the second military intervention disrupted democracy in Turkey during the multiparty period. The main reason of second intervention to democratic regime after 11 years is related with the opinion that regime shaped by soldiers did not work as they wishes. However, the intervention on March 12th differs from the coup in 1960 in terms of shape and the size of the intervention. While the soldiers took power directly on May 27, displacement coup took place on March 12th. In other words, the current Government was forced to resign and replaced with a new civilian government which acting under the direction of soldiers. One of the most important factors in determining the way of intervention on March 12th is the differences in political views among the politicized generals. Likewise, soldiers' political perspective and the methods they chose accordingly were decisive on the political regime that took shape after the coup. At this point, the Praetorian typology put forward by Eric A. Nordlinger is very useful for understanding the political behavior of soldiers who have become political actors. Because Nordlinger's conceptualization of moderate praetorianism makes it easier to understand the political perspectives of high-ranking officers and their political behavior during the march 12th process. To explain the March 12 Memorandum and the regime that was in effect between 1971 and 1973 in a theoretical framework and to understand the political process in this context will shed light on the path to September 12, when the soldiers directly seized the power - for the longest time.