Political Opposition In The Early Turkish Republic

The founding of the Progressive Republican Party in November 1924 marked the end of a power struggle within the Turkish nationalist movement. This struggle had been going on ever since the start of that movement in 1919 and had become acute after the establishment of the Turkish Republic in October 1923. The suppression of the party in 1925 marked the beginning of the period of one-party dictatorship which lasted until after the Second World War. This book describes the power struggles within the nationalist movement which gave birth to the party, its history, organization, power base, and ideological significance. A large number of important political documents from the period are presented in translation.

This insightful analysis looks at the power struggles of 1920–1926, a time during which the Ottoman Empire was replaced by a secular and modernist Turkish nationalist regime. Covering a short but eventful period in Ottoman/Turkish history From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic focuses on three major political and judicial maneuvers to demonstrate how opposition to and within the emerging Turkish regime was addressed during those pivotal years, and how the resulting power struggle contributed to the form of the new state that arose. The analysis begins in 1918 when the Ottoman Empire, having lost World War I, was waiting for its fate to be determined by the Allied Powers. The book examines the original intentions and vision of Mustafa Kemal (later known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk), as well as the effects of the Kurdish uprising in 1925, which helped the new regime silence its critics. The ongoing power struggles and their consequences are examined through 1927, after which the new regime quashed any and all opposition, enabling the new Turkish Republic to emerge as a staunchly secular, modernizing Western state.

Since the establishment in 1945 of a constitutional democracy, political parties have figured prominently in Turkish politics. This book, first published in 1991, examines the role they have played. Key features of the political culture of the Turkish republic have created dilemmas for multi-party democracy: Atatürkism still exerts a powerful influence on the country’s bureaucratic and military elites. With their notion of ‘responsible leadership’ and of democracy as rational intellectual debate in pursuit of the ‘best’ policy, they have expected an unrealistic degree of idealism and statesmanlike behaviour from the leaders of political parties. Three times, in 1960, 1971 and 1980, the military has intervened in politics – on the third occasion to undertake wholesale constitutional and legal restructuring aimed at producing ‘sensible’ politicians. Given these ambiguous circumstances, what role have the political parties themselves played in the promotion and functioning of democracy in Turkey, and what are their attitudes to the issues involved? This collection of essays discusses political parties since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 until the 1990s. With contributions from leading political scientists and historians of modern Turkey, it is indispensable reading for all those concerned with the country.

From its earliest days, the dominant history of the Turkish Republic was told as a triumphant narrative of national self-determination and secular democratic modernization. In that officially sanctioned account, the years between the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of the Turkish state marked an absolute rupture, and the Turkish nation formed an absolute unity. In recent years, this hermetic division has begun to erode—but as the old consensus collapses, new histories and accounts of political authority have been slow to take its place. In this richly detailed alternative history of Turkey, Christine M. Philliou focuses on the notion of political opposition and dissent—muhalefet—to weave together the Ottoman and Turkish periods. Taking the perennial dissident Refik Halid Karay (1888-1965) as a subject, guide, and interlocutor, she traces the fissures within the Ottoman and the modern Turkish elite that bridged the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey. Exploring Karay’s political and literary writings across four regimes and two stints in exile, along with his direct confrontation with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at a crucial moment in 1919, Philliou upends the official history of Turkey and offers new dimensions to our understanding of its political authority and culture.

This book discusses in full the economic, social, and cultural background of modern Turkey's political system. Beginning with a historical sketch of the problems of the Ottoman Empire that gave rise to the early reform movement, Professor Karpat describes the eventual formation of the Republic and the consequent economic and social changes and the international political developments conditioned by the Second World War. In the central portion of the book he focuses attention on postwar political developments, with special emphasis on the critical period from 1945 to 1950. Originally published in 1959. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

CHAPTER 1: DEVEWPMENT OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN TURKEY: CRISES, INTERRUPTIONS AND REEQUILIBRATIONS by Ergun Özbudun 1 The Development of Representative and Democratic Government The Ottoman Empire 2 The First Ottoman Parliament 6 The Second Constitutionalist Period (1908-1918) 8 The National Liberation Period (1918-1923) 9 The Consolidation ofthe Republic 11 Transition to MuJtiparty Politics and the Democratic Party Period 14 Turkey' s Second T ry at Democracy (1961-1980) 19 The 1980 Coup and the 1982Constitution 25 Return to Competitive Politics and the1983 Elections 28 An Appraisal 30 Theoretical Analysis 31 Political CuJture 31 Historical Development 35 Class Structure 36 State Structure and Strength 38 Political Structure 41 Political Leadershlp 43 Development Performance 43 International Factors 44 Future Prospects and Policy Implications 45 Policies Promotlng the Growth of Clv/I Soc/ety 45 Policies Promotlng Governmental Stabll/ty and Efticleney 47 Policies Promotlng Economlc Growth and Equity 49 Conclusion 51 Notes CHAPTER 2: STAGES OF POLlTICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC by İlter Turan 59 The Consolidation of the Nation State and the Evalution of an Infrastructure for PoliticalCompetition 61 The Consolidation of the Political System 61 The Transition to Competitive Politics 64 The Democratic Party Period: The Failure of the First Turkish Experiment with Political Democracy 72 The Legacy of the Single Party 73 The Political Consequences of Economic Pol/cies 76 Growing Authoritarianism of the Democratic Party 79 The First Turkish Democraey: An Appraisal 81 The Reconstruction of the Turkish Democracy and Us Second Demise 83 The Parties and the Party System 86 The Governments 88 The Legislature and Legislators 89 The Decline of the Bureaucracy 92 The Second Turkish Democratic Experiment: An Appraisal 94 The Turkish Attempts at Democracy: Some Basic Problem s 95 The Primacy of the Collectivity 96 The Primacy of Polities 97 Political Elitism 100 The Cost of Being out of Power 103 Concluding Remarks 106 Notes 108 CHAPTER 3: POST-1980 PARTI ES AND POLITICS IN TURKEY by Üstün Ergüder 113 Maladies of the Party System During the 1980s 117 V olatility 117 Fragmentation 119 Polarization 122 The 1983 Election 126 Post-1983 Developments: The Dilemmas of the Party System 129 The 1987 Eleetion: "Reinstatement or Reform" Revisited 133 Notes 141 CHAPTER 4 THE GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE POST-1983 MULTI-PAR1Y ERA by Ersin Kalaycıoğlu 147 Introduction 149 The Process of Legislative Institutionalization and the Turkish Grand National Assembly 155 The House Rules and Norms: The Rules of Procedure in the TGNA 157 Procedural Rules Conceming the House Activities ot the Legislators 159 Politicaı Parties in the TGNA 164 Party Discipline in the TGNA 166 Legislative Activities and the Party Groups in the TGNA 169 The Commission Structure and Activity in the TGNA 175 Conclusion 181 Notes 184 CHAPTER 5: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW by Ergun Özbudun 193 The Rule of Law under the Constitution of 1982 196 Human Rights 198 The Independence ot the Judiciary 202 The Constitutional Court and Judicial Review ot the Constitutionality ot Laws 203 Turkeyand the International Protectionot Human Rights 206 Notes 209.

The Republic of Turkey has experienced impressive growth since its establishment in 1923 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Dr. Tachau presents Turkey as an intriguing case for political analysis: a Third Wold nation whose political development began some 25 years earlier than most of the rest of the Third World.