Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

The Recent Past The weak economic position of İstanbul was reflected in the rest of the country, and this – along with some anger about Turkey’s strengthening alliance with the USA – led to growing dissatisfaction with a succession of governments. There were military coups in 1960 and 1971, and the late 1960s and 1970s were characterised by left-wing activism and political violence. This reached a shocking crescendo on 1 May (May Day) 1977, when there was a flare-up between rival political factions at a huge demonstration in Taksim Meydanı (Taksim Sq). Security forces intervened and approximately 40 protesters were killed. Under the presidency of economist Turgut Özal, the 1980s saw a free market-led economic and tourism boom in Turkey and its major city. Özal’s government also presided over a great increase in urbanisation, with trainloads of people from eastern Anatolia making their way to İstanbul in search of jobs in the booming industrial sector. The city’s infrastructure couldn’t cope back then and is still catching up, despite nearly four decades of large-scale municipal works being undertaken. The municipal elections of March 1994 were a shock to the political establishment, with the upstart religious-right Refah Partisi (Welfare Party) winning elections across the country. Its victory was seen in part as a protest vote against the corruption, ineffective policies and tedious political wrangles of the traditional parties. In İstanbul Refah was led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954), a proudly Islamist candidate. He vowed to modernise infrastructure and restore the city to its former glory. In the national elections of December 1996, Refah polled more votes than any other party (23%), and eventually formed a government vowing moderation and honesty. Emboldened by political power, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and other Refah politicians tested the boundaries of Turkey’s traditional secularism, alarming the powerful National Security Council, the most visible symbol of the centrist military establishment’s role as the caretaker of secularism and democracy.