Turkey in 1962

E. v. KUEHNELT-LEDDIHN

The Turks, in a way, continue to be stunned by last year’s military overthrow of the legitimate government of the Democratic Party which was followed, after a dictatorial transition period, by new elections. The recent abortive rebellion of the cadets was another jolt. It would, of course, be idle to pretend that the old Ottoman Empire knew no revolutions; sanguinary upheavals were not infrequent in the nineteenth and early twentieth Kuchnelt-Leddihn centuries. But new Turkey, with its “democracy,” had prided itself on having done away with such evils and so, when the blows were struck—almost out of the blue (for the student riots did not seem very serious)—the nation found it hard to follow the developments.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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E. v. KUEHNELT-LEDDIHN

The Turks, in a way, continue to be stunned by last year’s military overthrow of the legitimate government of the Democratic Party which was followed, after a dictatorial transition period, by new elections. The recent abortive rebellion of the cadets was another jolt. It would, of course, be idle to pretend that the old Ottoman Empire knew no revolutions; sanguinary upheavals were not infrequent in the nineteenth and early twentieth Kuchnelt-Leddihn centuries. But new Turkey, with its “democracy,” had prided itself on having done away with such evils and so, when the blows were struck—almost out of the blue (for the student riots did not seem very serious)—the nation found it hard to follow the developments.