The year is 1980, tensions have built and now leftist, rightist, and Islamist parties are launching terror attacks on each other in Turkiye (Turkey). Then, on the 12th of September 1980, the military declared a coup d’état on the civilian government and placed themselves in charge. The military government suspended the constitution, disbanded parliament, and banned political parties. Over 1.5 million people were banned from the country and thousands were detained. People were not allowed to go outside during the evenings and marshal law was declared over the entire country.
Despite all of this, what the individual experienced is largely not talked about. So, the Academy Chronicles asked my grandparents who were working Turkish adults at this time what life was like and how they felt. Both of my grandparents, Yaşar Önal and Mustafa Bozer, were progressive so they were specifically targeted by the worst of the policies done by the coup as the coup repeatedly tried to harm movements for equality.
I led by asking them, “What were the years of 1980-1981 like for you?”
“There was a military junta from 80-81,” Yaşar Önal answered. “Fear of oppression was plentiful, especially among leftists whose homes were searched for illegal news. With nonsense reasons they were making the people fear them. I burned some of the books found in my home and hid the others. Some of my friends were detained then tortured. Of course I was also afraid that I would be detained but thankfully nothing bad happened.
“Workers lost their rights, unions and political parties were closed. The military did what the fascists wanted and the islamists had no harm done to them. Thanks to them we still have an oppressive regime ruling over us today. People that challenge the government’s power are arrested then tortured. I doubt I will live long enough to see the end of this regime.”
He discussed how targeted leftists were and how scary these times were. He also stated how he believes that changes the regime made to the country to keep leftists down will stay for a long time. He and his friends disliked this time in Turkish history and found it to be very oppressive.
I then asked Mustafa Bozer the same question.
“In 1980-1981 the different political parties could not reach an agreement so the military took power,” Mustafa Bozer responded. “There were both good aspects and bad aspects of this time.”
Mustafa Bozer did not immediately dislike this era and viewed it as caused by an inability to compromise. I then asked him if he felt any fear during this era.
“We had fear,” he continued. “We were not allowed to go outside but there was a good aspect. There were no more gunshots between groups and people stopped dying.”
He said that while he was scared he saw it ultimately as reasonable because the era ended violence and deaths. I then asked him my final question: what specific aspects of this era were good?
“It was as if one had no social life but there was safety,” he started. “Nobody could go outside and converse on their own. Nobody could go out and have shoot-outs anymore. I lived this as an individual during this era.”
While he did not view the military junta government wholly as a good thing, he did not view it negatively either and opted to see the whole event as a trade-off. Some lost freedoms and in exchange he got safety.
This contrasts Yaşar Önal’s beliefs, seeing it exclusively as him losing freedoms. However, their locations and political beliefs during the coup are also important. Mustafa Bozer lived in the Adana ghetto which is known for violence while Yaşar Önal lived in a poor region of Samsun for workers like him which meant he would be surrounded by people who agreed with his beliefs while Mustafa would not be. Politically, Yaşar Önal believed in economic equality, with jobs and stable sources of essentials for everyone which contrasted the coup’s ideology. Meanwhile, Mustafa Bozer was less involved economically and was more concerned about the equality of nations and peace in the world, which aligned with the coup’s beliefs. Therefore while Yaşar Önal would have suffered the greatest oppression for his beliefs, Mustafa Bozer would have suffered the most from the violence before the coup. The individuals found in Turkiye would have been split as to whether the military junta was a good thing or a bad thing depending on their region, occupation, and personal political beliefs.
