Awareness of democracy between two coups and general elections (27 May 1960 - 12 September 1980)

In the history of Turkish Republic, the period starting with military coup onMay 27, 1960 and ending with the coup on September 12, 1980 is a long and complicated period full of chaos, instability , political coalitions and a lot more coup attempts. In this period the country faced with the political polarizationof the right and left, anarchy conflicts in the country escalated and people experienced major economic crises. On the 27 May coup, the Democratic party was dissolved and the management of the country was transferred to the National Unity Committee consisting of soldiers. MBK is divided into two as those who favor military tutelage and those who do not. The group that advocates military tutelage was removed from the MBK, thus opening the way to elections. During this period, MBK gathered the scientific committee and the 1961 constitution prepared by the committee was accepted by the public. New parties were established and in the first general elections held afterwards, no party could get the vote that could come to power alone. Thereupon, coalition governments were formed. When it came to the 1965 elections, the Adalet party received votes that could come to power alone. Thus, the EP ruled the country until the 12 March 1971 memorandum. The first general elections after the memorandum took place in 1973. The CHP, which stands out here, could not come to power alone due to the situation brought by the election system, even though it got a good vote rate. Thus, the Nationalist Front government was established. But this MC government has not been able to eradicate the left-right conflicts, increasing student incidents and chaos in the country. In the 1977 elections, the CHP again received a vote that could come to power alone, but could not come to power again due to the election system. As a result of the two powerful parties, CHP and AP, unable to find a way to compromise and form a coalition, the MC government was established again, and this process paved the way for the 12 September 1980 coup. In our study,a wide range of source types and multidisciplinary databases was used so that the study was enriched by different perspectives.Newspapers and archive documents belonging to the period were also scanned and a versatile research was taken as a basis. The study consists of introduction part and six other parts. In the introduction to the study of the historical development of the concept of democracy and the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey have dealt with elections reform movements. In the first part, general electoral systems are emphasized. In the second part; The events leading up to the 1961 elections, election campaigns, election system and election results. In the third part; The events leading up to the 1965 elections, election campaigns, election system and election results. In the fourth part; The events leading up to the 1969 elections, election campaigns, election system and election results. In the fifth chapter; The events leading up to the 1973 elections, election campaigns, election system and election results. In the sixth chapter; The events leading to the 1977 elections, election campaigns, election system and election results were discussed. Key words Ottoman, Turkey, Election, Government Coalition, MBK(National Unity Committee), Chaos, Anarchy, Right and Left conflicts, economic crises, the Memorandum, Impact, Constitution