Kudeta ini bermula dengan terjadinya konflik bersenjata antara sayap kanan dengan sayap kiri, yang sering kali merupakan perang proksi antara Amerika Serikat dan Uni Soviet.[1] Agar dapat melakukan intervensi, militer Turki membiarkan konflik semakin sengit[2][3] dan ada yang mengatakan mereka menggunakan strategi ketegangan.[4][5] Setelah kudeta dilancarkan, kekerasan langsung berhenti,[6] dan kudeta dianggap sebagai pemulihan ketertiban.[2] Kemudian, 50 orang dihukum mati, sementara 500.000 ditangkap dan ratusan orang tewas di penjara.[7]
↑Ganser 2005, hlm.235: Colonel Talat Turhan accused the United States for having fuelled the brutality from which Turkey suffered in the 1970s by setting up the Special Warfare Department, the Counter-Guerrilla secret army and the MIT and training them according to FM 30–31
↑Naylor, Robert T (2004). Hot Money and the Politics of Debt (Edisi 3E). McGill-Queen's Press. hlm.94. ISBN978-0-7735-2743-0. Diakses tanggal 10 June 2010. The fact that militias of all political tendencies seemed to be buying their arsenals from the same sources pointed to the possibility of a deliberate orchestration of the violence – of the sort P2 had attempted in Italy a few years earlier – to prepare the psychological climate for a military coup.
↑Ustel, Aziz (2008-07-14). "Savcı, Ergenekon'u Kenan Evren'e sormalı asıl!". Star Gazete (dalam bahasa Turkish). Diakses tanggal 2008-10-21. Ve 13 Eylül 1980'de Türkiye'yi on yıla yakın bir süredir kasıp kavuran terör ve adam öldürmeler bıçakla kesilir gibi kesildi. Pemeliharaan CS1: Bahasa yang tidak diketahui (link)
