Anatomy of the Turkish Emergency State: A Continuous Reflection of Turkish Raison d'etat between 1980 and 2002

Abstract

This article aims to reveal the origins and development of the Turkish emergency during the years it was implemented. Turkey's State of Emergency originated following the military coup on September 12, 1980, and lasted until the end of November 2002. Initially, the emergency state created a different set of administrative and legal rules in the areas where it mainly was implemented, the Kurdish-populated regions in the southeast of the country. However, the suspension of the norm under the emergency state that lasted for over two decades caused a perpetuating shift in the civil and military administrations in Turkey. Moreover, it caused the emergency state to be not solely a legal and administrative implementation but a continuous reflection of the Turkish raison d'etat when the country faces a crisis.