Perception of democracy of the 8th grade students in the context of 15 july coup attempt: Sakarya sample

Coups have an enourmous place in the history of Turkish Democracy. Considering the last twenty – thirty years, coups seem to fall behind and Turkish democracy progress corresponding to economical wealth. On July the 15Th,2016 a coup attempt occured in Turkey. It's amutual duty for all the citizens to save the democracy. It' s vital to exhibit how the students especially who take democray classes, perceive the democracy during such attempts and how they adapt the democracy into their lives. This study was designed with a phenomenology model, which is one of the qualitative research methods, and 115 eighth grade students from 2 middle schools representing 2 different socio-economic levels in Sakarya city Adapazarı center participated in this research. Based on this vital importance, we have applied self structered question forms to 115 students of 8th grade to describe their thoguhts about coups and saving democracy. Answers are qualitatively analyzed and concepts are examined over categories such as deomocracy perception, skill to have democratic attitude and behaviours, democratic responsibility, perception about coup attempt on 15th July. As a result of the study majority of the students have seemed to have a perception of democracy and the 70% of the students of the students have seemed to act democraticly. As another result, 95% of the students are against such coup attempts and they also think it is a primary mission to defend the country under these circumtances.