The Polarization of Traumas and Selective Remembering: Competing Political Memories of Military Coups in Contemporary Turkey

Abstract

Based on a national survey funded by the TÜBİTAK SOBAG Program, conducted with 1,957 respondents in 12 cities during 2013-2014, this article examines the political memory of the 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997 coups by describing the memories and accompanying emotions of Turkish adults. It then explains how differences in remembering and not remembering the coups are related to demographic, socio-cultural, political identity, and fear variables. The data reveals diverse, multidirectional, and contesting coup memory patterns. While religiosity was associated with the memories of the 1960 and 1997 coups, self-declared conservatism, modernity, political identity, political fears differed across the republican/secular and conservative/Islamist divides. The multidirectional and polarized remembering is largely a reflection of the current political context of a polarized memory regime instilled by the ruling Justice and Development Party from the basis of the 1990s′ memory landscape, which was filled with diverse and competing narratives that challenged early republican political memories.