>A democratic arm that rules the country day-to-day, and a "benevolent dictatorship" that will overthrow the democratic arm if it violates the country's "fundamental principles"
Sounds a lot like Iran, although their "democratic arm" is very much a farce.
Sounds more like the US. Turkey's unelected group which intervenes when the elected government violates established norms consists of officers ultimately appointed by (and who can be removed by) the elected organs of government .
Same as in the US, though for us it's the judicial branch rather than the military.
Now, there's a pretty enormous difference, both in abstract structure and practice, between the US and Turkey here, but it's still a close analogy than the Turkey-Iran one, IMO.
Well, the "enormous difference" is so enormous this really isn't a good comparison.
The judiciary is the weakest branch of government. The judges can be impeached by Congress. Congress can arbitrarily expand the size of the Supreme Court and then, with the President, start appointing whoever they want (e.g. there are 9 justices right now. Congress could constitutionally pass a law making there be 21 justices). Finally, and most damning, the judiciary has no power to enforce its decisions. It relies on the respect of the executive branch to enforce its decisions. There are plenty of (fortunately long-past) historical examples of the executive branch blatantly ignoring the judiciary. Contrast this to the military, which has very obvious ultimate power to enforce itself.
Not seeing any similarity there other than being a separate group. At least the judicial branch has to follow procedure and constitutional law, whereas a military can just rule via force.
The judicial branch decides what Constitutional Law means. Its constraints on doing that are largely that it had traditions of applying certain principals developed by the judiciary itself, and, of course, that it is constrained by what people will follow when it issues its dictates.
But, yes, the similarity is quite distant, as I said; just less distant than that in the offered comparison between Turkey and Iraq.
I guess we have to wait and see if this goes pear shaped.
There have not exactly been rejoicing in European media. Not sure if that is a good sign, but I take it as there is little propaganda going on, so this might have been planned primarily by internal forces.
The difference in Turkey has generally been that the military has been very clear about not holding on to power for very long. There's still every reason to be vary, but so far, for a military that has carried out multiple coups Turkey's military has demonstrated an unusual degree of commitment to voluntarily return the country to civilian rule.
Sounds a lot like Iran, although their "democratic arm" is very much a farce.