MER Article Military Rule and the Future of Democracy in Turkey Between 1960 and 1981, there were three “successful” military takeovers in Turkey, and three other attempts failed. This indicates the important place the army occupies in Turkish political life, but there are differences that set Turkey apart from certain other countries where the army plays a simi Ahmet Kemal • 11 min read
MER Article The Turkish Elections of 1983 The elections of November 1983 are unique in the history of modern Turkey. They took place after three years of military rule, during which the entire political structure was completely altered. The alleged aim of this restructuring was to prevent a return to the situation which prevailed before Sep Feroz Ahmad • 27 min read
MER Article Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis Berch Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis, From State Capitalism to Neocolonialism (London: Zed Press, 1982). This is a useful, concise rendition of Turkish political history and economic development. It is rich in facts and easy-to-use economic data. Its best conceptual contribution is the portrayal of t Karen Pfeifer • 2 min read
MER Article The Torture of Huseyin Yildirim Hüseyin Yildirim is a lawyer and a Kurd from eastern Turkey. In the fall of 1981, he was serving as defense counsel to members of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), many of whom had been arrested and subjected to torture by Turkey’s military junta. Yildirim himself was seized in October 1981, and was (Author not identified) • 7 min read
MER Article The Kurds in Turkey Traveling from western Turkey to its eastern provinces is like going to an entirely different country—more primitive, poorer, with starker social contradictions. Many peasants there still live in semi-feudal bondage, tribal loyalties are strong, and traditional concepts of honor find expression in v Martin Van Bruinessen • 20 min read
MER Article "Please Don't Use My Name" This interview was conducted by Karen Pfeifer in Ankara during November 1983. How would you like to be identified? I have been in prison five times since the 1980 coup, so please don’t use my name. I was an activist in the construction workers’ union, a shop steward in one of the most progressive (Author not identified) • 5 min read
MER Article "The Traditional Middle in Turkish Politics Disintegrated" Ahmet (a pseudonym) was a founder of the Turkish People’s Liberation Front Party in 1971. He was imprisoned from 1972 to 1974, and released during the general amnesty. He worked with Türk-Iş (the state-endorsed trade union confederation) in the 1970s and helped publish the political journal Birikim. (Author not identified) • 6 min read
MER Article "The Workers as a Class Were Defeated" Metin Kara (a pseudonym) worked on the staff of DISK, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions. He now lives in exile in Brussels, and he works with the DISK liaison bureau there. His trade union work dates back to 1967, when he was a member of a DISK-affiliated union. From 1975 to 1978, he wor (Author not identified) • 13 min read
MER Article Trade Unions and Turkey's Working Class The emergence of the working class as a force on Turkey’s political scene is essentially a phenomenon of the years since World War II. The organized expression of this class, trade unions, also made their appearance in these years. Both these developments were closely related to the process of rapid Ronnie Margulies, Ergin Yildizoğlu • 16 min read
MER Article Western Silence on Turkey About July 20, 1983, a BBC television news crew filming outside Istanbul’s Metris prison found itself confronted by difficulties which, one of the crew said, he had never experienced even in the Soviet Union. During a subsequent flurry of messages between the crew, the British Embassy in Ankara, and David Barchard • 10 min read
MER Article From the Editors (January/February 1984) It has become quite the rage in Washington lately to declaim “state terrorism” as the new scourge of humanity. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post recently featured extensive inquiries into the attacks against US and Israeli targets in Lebanon, and US and Kuwaiti targets in the Gulf. Bef The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Discrete Forms of the Petty Bourgeoisie Çağlar Keyder, The Definition of a Peripheral Economy: Turkey, 1923-1929 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). Gavin Kitching, Class and Economic Change in Kenya (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1980. Karen Pfeifer • 7 min read
