In public surveys and questionnaire studies conducted in Turkey since the 1990s, the Armed Forces or the Army was always leading by far among the institutions which the people most trust in. However, this picture started to change partly since 2008. While in early 2007 the level of trust in Army was around 90 percent, this rate started to head downwards since 2008, namely, started to show a decline trend that could be characterized as very sharp, and today, the level of trust has regressed down to 70 percent. In other words, the trust placed in Army has started to decline systematically during the last 3-4 years. Although the Army still ranks in the first places in the list of most trusted institutions, it seems a bit hard for it to maintain this position in the future. Because at present, the Army sometimes shares the first places with the Prime Minister or President. The gap between other institutions has been closed, and the Army has become urged to share its first place. Therefore, it seems possible for the list of most trusted institutions to change in the upcoming times while it seems very likely for the Army to drop to very lower places.
There is no doubt that the possible reasons of decline of the trust placed in the Army in Turkey gradually since 2008 and the Army’s suffering a very severe loss of trust like twenty percent in the eye of the public within such period of time like five years is a question that needs to be answered. So, the aim of this study is to seek an answer to this question.