Reply #4: Turkey's army often acts as a constitutional check.

[Taxloss]

As other posters have said, it regularly intervenes in Turkish politics. Although this is a bad thing for Turkish democracy and civil society, it's not something to be feared - it's a stabilising influence. The army is very respected in Turkey. I've been there quite a few times, it's a wonderful country, and in political discussions the army occasionally comes up in the way that the Supreme Court might do in American discussions, or the House of Lords in British ones - "but it's OK because if they go too far the army will step in and put things right". It's held in high regard, not feared, but a lot of people deplore having to "rely" on it.