Political violence in Turkey became a serious problem in the late 1970s and was even described as a "low-level war". The death squads of Turkish right-wingultranationalist groups, sometimes allied with the state, against the resistance of the left-wing opposition inflicted some 5,000 casualties. Most of the victims were left-wingers. The level of violence lessened for a while after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, until the Kurdish-Turkish conflict erupted in 1984.
Background
In 1975 Süleyman Demirel, president of the conservativeJustice Party succeeded Bülent Ecevit, president of the social-democraticRepublican People's Party as Prime Minister. He formed a coalition, the "Nationalist Front ", with Necmettin Erbakan's IslamistNational Salvation Party, and Alparslan Türkeş' far-rightNationalist Movement Party. The MHP used the opportunity to infiltrate state security services, seriously worsening the low-intensity war that had been waging between rival factions. The elections of 1977 had no winner. Demirel at first continued the coalition with the Nationalist Front, but in 1978, Ecevit came to power again with the help of some deputies who had changed party. In 1979, Demirel once again became prime minister. At the end of the 1970s, Turkey was in an unstable situation with unsolved economic and social problems and facing large strike actions and partial paralysis of parliamentary politics. Since 1969, proportional representation had made it difficult for one party to achieve a parliamentary majority. The interests of the industrial bourgeoisie, who were economically dominant, were opposed by other social classes, such as smaller industrialists, traders, rural notables and landlords, whose interests did not always coincide among themselves. Numerous agricultural and industrial reforms sought by parts of the upper-middle classes were blocked by others. The politicians seemed unable to combat the growing violence in the country.
Sequence of events
Unprecedented political violence had erupted in Turkey in the late 1970s. The overall death toll of the 1970s is estimated at 5,000, with nearly ten assassinations per day. Most were members of left-wing and right-wing political organizations, which were then engaged in bitter fighting. The ultranationalist Grey Wolves, the youth organisation of the MHP, claimed they were supporting the security forces. According to the British Searchlight magazine, in 1978 there were 3,319 fascist attacks, in which 831 were killed and 3,121 wounded. In the central trial against the left-wing organization Devrimci Yol at Ankara Military Court, the defendants listed 5,388 political killings before the militarycoup. Among the victims were 1,296 right-wingers and 2,109 left-wingers. The others could not clearly be related. The 1978 Bahçelievler massacre, the 1977 Taksim Square massacre with 35 victims and the 1978 Maraş massacre with over 100 victims are some notable incidents. Martial law was announced following the Maraş massacre in 14 of 67 provinces in December 1978. At the time of the coup, martial law had been extended to 20 provinces. Ecevit was warned about the coming coup in June 1979 by Nuri Gündeş of the National Intelligence Organization. Ecevit then told his interior minister, İrfan Özaydınlı, who then told Sedat Celasun, one of the five generals who would lead the coup. The deputy undersecretary of the MİT, Nihat Yıldız, was demoted to the London consulate and replaced by a lieutenant general as a result.
The right-wing groups were opposed to Kurdish separatism. Disproportionate numbers of Kurds were part of the left-wing groups. Most of the left was also Turkish nationalist and opposed towards separatism. Before the 1980 coup, little of the violence had been committed by separatists, but that it increased.
