After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the election victory of the opposition Democrat Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and military coups , , , which in each case eventually resulted in a return of formal political power to civilians.
In , the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government.
An unsuccessful coup attempt was made in July by a faction of the Turkish Armed Forces. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes.
A separatist insurgency begun in by the Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK , a US-designated terrorist organization, has long dominated the attention of Turkish security forces and claimed more than 40, lives.
In , the Turkish Government and the PKK conducted negotiations aimed at ending the violence, however intense fighting resumed in In , Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; it began accession talks with the EU in Over the past decade, economic reforms, coupled with some political reforms, have contributed to a growing economy, although economic growth slowed in recent years.
