Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
3rd Annual International Conference on Social Sciences (AICSS), İstanbul, Türkiye, 26 - 27 Ekim 2017
The fall of Mubarak in Egypt was interpreted as
“breaking the fear barrier” for the protestors in Egypt and it played a key
role for the spread of mass protests to the other parts of the Middle East. The
Egyptian military, which was considered as the traditional ally of the Mubarak
regime in the former period, did not prefer to back the regime and decided to
take side with the protestors after a particular period of hesitation and
cost-benefit analysis. Thus, the military played a decisive role for the
resignation of Mubarak and possible transformation in Egypt. While the Egyptian
military facilitated the change and transformation in Egypt in the first phase
of the Arab Uprisings, it also prevented the continuation of the process in
Egypt. Analyzing and understanding the Egyptian context will be meaningful to
make inferences about the destiny of the Arab Uprisings in general.
Our
main research question can be formulated as follows: How can we explain the
last decisions or policies of the Egyptian military during the Arab Uprisings?
Is there a conflict between taking side with the protestors in the beginning and
overthrowing the elected leader through military intervention? Before focusing
on the details of the Egyptian case, it will be better for us to deal with
broader questions about the civil-military relations: Under what conditions
militaries are more likely to intervene and what are the roles of civilian or
military actors in that process? Initially, it is necessary to explain the
exact role of military in the political affairs. Then, it will be possible to
understand the internal or external factors leading to changes in the dynamics
about the civil-military relations. This research can be helpful for
understanding the civil-military relations in other regions having similar
dynamics.