darbe
Darbe is a Turkish noun that broadly means a blow or strike, but in political contexts it is used to denote a coup d'état—a sudden, often illegal attempt to seize power and replace or overthrow a government. The term derives from Persian and entered Ottoman Turkish with the sense of a forceful impact, which later broadened to include abrupt political change.
In modern Turkish discourse, darbe typically refers to military interventions, though it can apply to other
Notable examples in Turkish history include:
- 1960 coup d’état, which toppled the government of Adnan Menderes and led to his execution in 1961,
- 1971, when the military delivered a memorandum that forced the resignation of the government, an event
- 1980 coup, which resulted in widespread dissolution of parliament, political bans, and a new constitution enacted
- The 1997 “post-modern coup,” in which the military pressured the coalition government and mainstream political actors,
- The 2016 attempted coup, a failed operation by factions within the Turkish Armed Forces that led
Today, darbe remains a central term in Turkish political vocabulary, used to describe both historical upheavals