A military memorandum issued by Türkiye’s National Security Council (MGK) on Feb. 28, 1997, in what has since been dubbed the "postmodern coup," is still a deep-seated memory for the collective consciousness 26 years after the fact.

The memorandum, seemingly an ordinary one but essentially a culmination of a witch-hunt targeting conservative Muslims across the country, triggered a series of events, starting with the resignation of then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, and eventually came to be known as one of the most significant turning points in Türkiye’s political history.

The coup was a non-violent takeover wherein the military employed pressure tactics like issuing ultimatums and memorandums. Still, the consequences proved aggressive for Turkish conservatives in media, military, judiciary and bureaucracy, who were suddenly the target of a crackdown. In addition, Muslims, devout or not, pro-government or not, increasingly faced the wrath of secular forces everywhere; even performing prayers was enough for anyone in the public sector to be blacklisted.

The 54th Turkish government at the time was helmed by a coalition of Erbakan’s Welfare Party (RP) and the center-right True Path Party (DYP).

The seeds that would lead to the widespread attack on conservatives post-Feb. 28, 1997, were planted on June 28, 1996, when the coalition came to power, just as when the military was apprehensive about Erbakan due to his party’s conservative leanings, alleging that RP’s supposed religion-based agenda was problematic and threatening secularism and Kemalism.

Erbakan’s visit to Libya, his promotion of unity among members of the Developing-8 (D-8) bloc of nations, and his decision to host religious figures for a Ramadan iftar dinner were among the reasons that motivated the military to increase pressure on the leader, accusing the prime minister of engaging in "reactionary activities."

Their objections were largely backed by the mainstream media and the top brass in the military. However, they finally expressed their dissatisfaction on Feb. 4 by holding a "military parade" that included tanks in the streets of Ankara’s Sincan district.

Following the "parade," then-Deputy Chief of General Staff Çevik Bir said the event had intended to "stabilize democracy."

Sincan Mayor and RP member Bekir Yıldız was dismissed from his post and arrested – along with nine others – after being accused by military authorities of "inciting" the public.

On Feb. 28, 1997, the MGK held an emergency meeting that lasted almost nine hours, the longest-ever single session in the council’s history.

The meeting produced what would come to be known as the "February 28 Memorandum," which contained a list of resolutions by the Turkish military in response to what it deemed "rising religious ideology."

The memorandum’s main premises were to shut down the Islamic education-based imam hatip schools and prevent religious activities under the pretext of separating religion from the state.

On May 21, 1997, the Chief Prosecutor’s Office at the Supreme Court of Appeals filed a complaint in the Constitutional Court that called for the closure of the RP, accusing it of being "the center of illegal activities, with some members threatening the secular regime."

However, the most significant outcome of the move was banning women wearing headscarves from entering public buildings, including schools and universities.

This ban caused millions of young women to either give up their education or suffer while trying to receive a proper one.

Female teachers were also dismissed from their jobs if they refused to remove their headscarves. In addition, the abhorred practice of "persuasion rooms" was launched in universities, where headscarf-wearing students would be "persuaded" to remove their headscarves amid threats of expulsion from the school. Women wearing headscarves were also not permitted to work.

The military then forced Erbakan to sign a slew of decrees, including the ban on headscarves, shutting down schools that provided Quranic education, and implementing measures to give the military control over the independent media.

On June 18, 1997, the military went even further, forcing Erbakan’s entire government to resign, leaving the premiership in Deputy Prime Minister Tansu Çiller’s hands, a leading member of the DYP.

From the cacophony arose a new government consisting of ANAP, the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Democratic Türkiye Party (DTP) that ousted Erbakan, abolished his party, and seated DSP leader Bülent Ecevit as the new deputy prime minister.

Private schools and foundations allegedly linked to religious or conservative groups were shut down. At the same time, devout Muslims were largely marginalized from public institutions – including government agencies, state universities, the civil service, the judiciary and the military.

The coup was bloodless, as the putschists claimed, but it left deep scars for its victims, who would see their rights reinstated only years later.

One student forced to drop out of university during the troubled period recalled that the coup "wasted the dreams and labors of not only us but also our parents."

The discriminatory practices of universities toward headscarf-wearing students at the time were "against human dignity," said Esra Ege Gürler.

"All signs on university announcement boards, campus gates, classrooms, recreational spaces and gardens all said actions would be taken if headscarf-wearing women were to enter. This reminded us of the signs in the U.S. that banned black people from entering white spaces," Gürler said.

"The pressure and bans kept increasing every day. It was inhumane and nonsensical; we couldn’t believe our eyes," she recounted. "Why had we become criminals overnight?"

"That period hurt our parents more than it did us. But our families never intervened in our decision (to drop out of school) and wanted us to take this responsibility for our lives," she said.

"I’ll never forget the face of our dean who raided through every classroom to find a headscarf-wearing girl and how we were walked through the campus and out of the gates after being discovered," Gürler noted.

Despite the 16-year interruption her education suffered, Gürler said she never stopped missing the teaching occupation. "My aim was not just finding work but to perform my job, to be able to touch the lives of my students somehow," she said.

"Today, some people try to silence us by claiming that these problems are now in the past, but if this is forgotten and the why is never dwelled on, and most importantly, the possibility of it happening again is negated, a repeat of it would be unfortunately unavoidable," Gürler concluded.

Only five years after Feb. 28, the Turkish public chose the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in democratic elections. The party has never lost an election since 2002. Moreover, the party has since implemented many reforms to prevent the military from intervening in Turkish democracy and politics.

It also gradually overturned the ban, lifting it for university students after 2010, for public workers in 2013, and finally, for female judges in 2015 with a change in regulation.

In a landmark decision in 2018, a Turkish court sentenced 21 high-level officials to life in prison for their roles in the 1997 coup, while 68 other suspects were acquitted.

Many others who played roles in the coup have avoided arrest – due to old age or health problems – but have nevertheless been barred from leaving the country.