Colonial army ?

The Turkish army has been paradoxically the most respected institution in Turkey while it has been at the heart of most of its problems.

At the establishment of Turkey (1923), the army was staffed with a foreign-oriented elite speaking fluently English or French. These officers were seeking to belong to European circles and were accompanying the reforms of Ataturk (sometimes called 'westernization') with enthusiasm. They often became at different level part of the administration. This is how their role of protector of state (by opposition to protector of the people) started to be entrenched in the minds and souls. This has been further relayed by foreign powers (at the beginning England and France and after 1945 the United States). With the rise of Russia, the army grew in an alignment with NATO that soon became a simple subordinate of Western Powers. Secret services were infiltrated and global aim was to keep the country as a reliable asset at any cost. Most countries were cooperating and discussing with Turkey mostly through army channels.
The objectives of the army and the objectives of the Turkish people have thus been very often divergent. This explains why military coups and instability of the youth have prevailed mostly when international tensions were high.
Since the fall of USSR and the end of Cold War, the opportunity to redesign the role of the army have constantly raised and with reforms driven by AKP, the core of the issue is about to appear. No country can afford an army that is more obedient to NATO influence than to members of its own executive. Army has also been one of the most conservative force and as any army is not preoccupied firstly by human-rights or rule-of-law issues which had became a signature of Turkey for decades. Only integration of Turkey in Europe has helped limiting this drive thanks to interests of European Powers to limit the influence of America in Turkey.
Now Turkey has a vivid economy (dynamic, with a lot of competition) and can only restore the place it should have kept by reinforcing the very foundations of the Republic : keeping Anatolia's fate under the direction of all the Turks.