Keeping the Soldiers at Bay: Coup‐Proofing Strategies in Turkey

Despite the increasing number of democracies in the post-Cold War period, the danger of military coups has not disappeared in many parts of the world. It keeps threatening domestic and international communities, especially in regions where democratic norms are not easily adopted as institutions, such as elections. Coups are conducted by a military to depose and replace a ruling power through force or through the threat of force for various reasons: the military's parochial interests, the status of leadership, or policy differences between civilians and military officers. Coups not only threaten the survival of civilian regimes, they can also cause human rights violations, obstructions of democratic evolution and even civil wars.