Army and Islamic parties in the political life of Turkey in the second half of the 20th century

The paper examines the confrontation between the army, which supported the inviolability of the principles of a secular state, and the supporters of the Islamic way of development. The authors provide a short course on the history of the military coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980. Based on the analysis of actions and public statements of the event participants themselves, researchers come to a conclusion that the fight against clerical tendencies played a role in the preparation of military coups no less than the fight against left radicals. The 1970s in the history of Turkey is an extremely unstable political period when weak coalition governments were in power. Aggravated by the end of the 1970s party contradictions gave the military a pretext for another coup, which led to the fall of the Second and the formation of the Third Republic in the political history of Turkey. By the end of the 20^th century Islamic proponents, having accumulated vast experience of confrontation with the army elite, had developed a new political strategy, becoming the locomotive of the struggle for democratic changes, which allowed them to win elections in 1996 and then in 2002. Having finally taken power in the country, the Islamic Justice and Development Party began largescale reforms of the army, which are still ongoing.