Ibrahim A. Anli

Modern Turkey is an exceptional case as it was allowed to maintain a massive armed force despite having lost a World War. The explanation to this special treatment lays in a consensus between the country's early elites and their Western counterparts. While Turkish elites guaranteed a secure southern flank to the Western club, the latter agreed to provide vital defense infrastructure as well as financial aid and to limit its democratic expectations to the minimum level. Hence, Turkish Armed Forces was able to interrupt democratic procedures at home as long as it remained loyal to certain international security engagements with the West. At the international level, the deal worked well for both sides. The young republic's early alignment with the West and the ensuing NATO membership bestowed Turkey a whole 20th century without a major war. This was a true gift given decades of Soviet threat in Turkey's north as well as highly vengeful and unpredictable Baathist regimes