| One-party period of the Republic of Turkey | |||
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| 1923–1945 | |||
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| Location | Turkey | ||
| President(s) | Kemal Atatürk İsmet İnönü | ||
| Key events | Proclamation of the republic Atatürk's reforms World War II | ||
Turkey was aone-party state when it was established in 1923. TheRepublican People's Party (CHP) was the only party until 1945, when theNational Development Party was established. After winning thefirst multiparty elections in 1946 by a landslide, the Republican People's Party lost the majority to theDemocratic Party in the1950 elections. During the one-party period, PresidentMustafa Kemal Atatürk repeatedly requested that opposition parties be established to stand against the Republican People's Party in order to transition into multi-party democracy.[1]Kâzım Karabekir established theProgressive Republican Party in 1924 but it was banned after its members' involvement in the 1925Sheikh Said rebellion. In 1930 theLiberal Republican Party was established but then dissolved again by its founder.[2] Despite Atatürk's efforts to establish a self-propagating multi-party system,[1]this was only established after his 1938 death.
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With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, efforts to modernise the country began. The institutions and constitutions of Western states such as France, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland were analysed and adapted according to the needs and characteristics of the Turkish nation. Highlighting the public's lack of knowledge regarding the intentions of PresidentMustafa Kemal (later Atatürk), the public cheered: "We are returning to the days of thefirst caliphs".[3]
Atatürk's regime initiated a wide range of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, linguistic, and economic policy changes that were designed to transform the newRepublic of Turkey into asecular and modernnation-state.[4]
After the foundation of theLiberal Republican Party byAli Fethi Okyar, religious groups joined the liberals and consequently, widespread bloody disorders took place, especially in the eastern territories. The Liberal Republican Party was dissolved on 17 November 1930 and no further attempt at amultiparty democracy was made until 1945.
In 1924, while the "Issue of Mosul" was on the table,Sheikh Said began to organise theSheikh Said Rebellion. Sheikh Said was a wealthy Kurdish[citation needed] hereditary chieftain (Tribal chief) of a localNaqshbandi order. Piran emphasised the issue of religion; he not only opposed the abolition of the Caliphate, but also the adoption of civil codes based on Western models, the closure of religious orders, the ban on polygamy and the new obligatory civil marriage. Piran stirred up his followers against the policies of the government, which he considered to be against Islam. In an effort to restore Islamic law, Piran's forces moved through the countryside, seized government offices and marched on the important cities ofElazığ andDiyarbakır.[5] Members of the government saw the Sheikh Said Rebellion as an attempt at a counter-revolution. They urged immediate military action to prevent its spread. The "Law for the Maintenance of Public Order" was passed to deal with the rebellion on 4 March 1925. It gave the government exceptional powers and included the authority to shut down subversive groups (The law was eventually repealed on 4 March 1929).
There were also parliamentarians in the GNA who were not happy with these changes. There were so many members who were denounced as opposition sympathisers at a private meeting of theRepublican People's Party (CHP) that Mustafa Kemal expressed his fear of being among the minority in his own party.[6] He decided not to purge this group.[6] After acensure motion gave the chance to a breakaway group,Kâzım Karabekir, along with his friends, established such a group on 17 October 1924. The censure became a confidence vote at the CHP for Mustafa Kemal. On 8 November the motion was rejected by 148 votes to 18, and 41 votes were absent.[6] The CHP held all but one seat in the parliament. After the majority of the CHP chose him[6] Mustafa Kemal said, "the Turkish nation is firmly determined to advance fearlessly on the path of the republic, civilisation and progress".[6]
On 17 November 1924, the breakaway group officially established theProgressive Republican Party (PRP) with 29 deputies and the first multi-party system began. The PRP's economic program suggestedliberalism, in contrast to thestatism of CHP, and its social program was based onconservatism in contrast to themodernism of CHP. Leaders of the party strongly supported the Kemalist revolution in principle, but had different opinions on the cultural revolution and the principle ofsecularism.[7] The RPR was not against Mustafa Kemal's main positions as declared in its program. The program supported the main mechanisms for establishing secularism in the country and the civic law, or as stated, "the needs of the age" (article 3) and the uniform system of education (article 49).[8] These principles were set by the leaders at the onset. The only legal opposition became a home for all kinds of differing views.
During 1926, aplot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal was uncovered inİzmir. It originated with a former deputy who had opposed the abolition of the Caliphate and had a personal grudge. The trail turned from an inquiry of the planners of this attempt to an investigation carried out ostensibly to uncover subversive activities and actually used to undermine those with differing views regarding Kemal's cultural revolution. The sweeping investigation brought before the tribunal a large number of political opponents, including Karabekir, the leader of PRP. A number of surviving leaders of theCommittee of Union and Progress, who were at best second-rank in the Turkish movement, includingCavid, Ahmed Şükrü, and Ismail Canbulat were found guilty of treason and hanged.[9] During these investigations there was a link that was uncovered among the members of the PRP to the Sheikh Said Rebellion. The PRP was dissolved following the outcomes of the trial. The pattern of organized opposition, however, was broken. This action was the only broad political purge during Atatürk's presidency. Mustafa Kemal's saying, "My mortal body will turn into dust, but the Republic of Turkey will last forever," was regarded as a will after the assassination attempt.[10]
The country saw a steady process of secular Westernization which included the unification of education; the discontinuation of religious and other titles; the closure of Islamic courts and the replacement ofIslamic canon law with a secular civil codemodeled after Switzerland's and a penal code modeled after the Italian Penal Code; recognition of the equality between the sexes and the granting offull political rights to women on 5 December 1934; the language reform initiated by the newly foundedTurkish Language Association; replacement of theOttoman Turkish alphabet with the newTurkish alphabet derived from theLatin alphabet; the dress law (the wearing of afez was outlawed); thelaw on family names; and many other reforms.
In 1927, Atatürk ordered the integration of road construction goals into development plans. Prior to this, the road network had consisted of 13,885 km of ruined surface roads, 4,450 km of stabilized roads, and 94 bridges. In 1935, a new entity was established under the government calledŞose ve Köprüler Reisliği (Headship of Roads and Bridges) which would drive the development of new roads after World War II.[11]
The first census of the republic was on 1927. The census gathered data about literacy, economic and social values.
On August 11, 1930, Mustafa Kemal decided to try a multiparty movement once again and asked Ali Fethi Okyar to establish a new party.[1][2] He insisted on the protection of secular reforms. The brand-newLiberal Republican Party succeeded all around the country. Without the establishment of a real political spectrum, once again, the party became the center to opposition of Atatürk's reforms, particularly in regard to the role of religion in public life.
On December 23, 1930, a chain of violent incidents occurred, starting with the rebellion of Islamic fundamentalists inMenemen, a small town in the Aegean region. This so-calledMenemen Incident was considered a serious threat against secular reforms.
In November 1930, Ali Fethi Okyar dissolved his own party after seeing the rising fundamentalist threat. Mustafa Kemal never succeeded in establishing a long lasting multi-party parliamentary system during his presidency. A more lastingmulti-party period of the Republic of Turkey began in 1945. In 1950, the Republican People's Party released the majority position to theDemocratic Party after losing the1950 elections. There are arguments that Kemal did not promotedirect democracy by dominating the country with his one-party rule. The reason behind the failed experiments withpluralism during this period was that not all groups in the country had agreed to a minimal consensus regarding shared values (mainly secularism) and shared rules for conflict resolution. In response to such criticisms, Mustafa Kemal's biographerAndrew Mango said: "between the two wars, democracy could not be sustained in many relatively richer and better-educated societies. Atatürk's enlightened authoritarianism left a reasonable space for free private lives. More could not have been expected in his lifetime."[12] Even though, at times, he did not appear to be a democrat in his actions, he always supported the idea of eventually building acivil society; a system of totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of the state. In one of his many speeches about the importance of democracy, Mustafa Kemal said in the year 1933:
Republic means the democratic administration of the state. We founded the Republic, reaching its tenth year. It should enforce all the requirements of democracy as the time comes[13]
There were severalKurdish rebellions in the 1920s and 1930s:Koçkiri Rebellion,Sheikh Said Rebellion,Dersim Rebellion,Ararat rebellion. They all were suppressed by the Turkish Army. In particular, due toDersim Rebellion in 1937–38 thousands ofAleviKurds[14] were killed by the Turkish Army and thousands more were taken into exile, depopulating the province. A key component of theTurkification process was the policy of massive population resettlement, a result of the1934 Law on Resettlement, a policy targeting the region ofDersim as one of its first test cases with disastrous consequences for the local population.[15]
The Zilan Massacre[16][17] refers to themassacre[18][19] of thousands ofKurdish residents in the Zilan Valley ofTurkey by 12/13 July 1930, during theArarat rebellion, in which 800–1500 armed men participated.[citation needed]
The Zilan Massacre took place in the Zilan or Zeylan valley (Kurdish:Geliyê Zîlan, Turkish:Zilan Deresi,Zeylân Deresi) located to the north of the town ofErciş inVan Province. The massacre took place in July 1930, before theThird Ararat Operation (Turkish:Üçüncü Ağrı Harekâtı, September 7–14, 1930), which was a military operation of the TurkishIX Corps under the command ofFerik (Lieutenant General)Salih (Omurtak) againstMount Ararat. The number of people killed in the massacre varies according to different sources. According to the daily newspaperCumhuriyet (July 16, 1930), about 15,000 people died.[20][21][22] The account ofHesen Hîşyar Serdî (1907 – September 14, 1985), a writer and participant in the Ararat rebellion, states that 47,000 villagers from 18 villages of Ademan, Sipkan, Zilan and Hesenan tribes were killed.[23] Armenian researcherGaro Sasuni states that 5,000 women, children and the elderly were massacred.[24] Finally, according toBerliner Tageblatt, theTurks in the area of Zilan destroyed 220 villages and massacred 4,500 women and the elderly.[25]
The Dersim Massacre took place in 1937 and 1938 in Dersim, now calledTunceli Province,[26] inTurkey. It was the outcome of aTurkish military campaign against theDersim Rebellion by local ethnic minority groups against Turkey's Resettlement Law of 1934. Thousands ofAleviKurds andZazas[27] died and many others were internally displaced due to the conflict.
Atatürk's foreign policy was aligned with his motto, "peace at home and peace in the world."[28] a perception of peace linked to his project of civilization and modernization.[29]
Turkey was admitted to theLeague of Nations in July 1932.
After Atatürk's death on November 10, 1938,İsmet İnönü became president. During the İnönü presidency two forces struggled for dominance: one group wanted to increase the control over state functions, while the other group wanted to debate domestic and foreign affairs. İnönü's main legacy was the method he left to Turkey to balance these forces.
İnönü had little time to balance these forces beforeWorld War II broke out in September 1939. İnönü sided with the group seeking more control over state functions. A large group of politicians, journalists, landowners and elites opposed his move.
İnönü's policies did not completely suppress expression or fully-representative democracy: he personally forced the system into multi-party politics. However, it only happened due to the pressures of the United States. The politics of Anatolia did not yield to personal politics because of the geopolitical position.
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On 5 July 1938 the Turkish military entered the SyrianSanjak of Alexandretta, then expelled most of its Arab and Armenian inhabitants.[30][need quotation to verify] The allocation of seats in the provincial assembly[when?] was based on the 1938 census held[when?] by the French authorities of theFirst Syrian Republic under international supervision: out of 40 seats, 22 were given to the Turks, nine toAlawi Arabs, five to Armenians, two to Sunni Arabs, and two to Christian Arabs - according to the populations of the respective ethnicities. The assembly was appointed in the summer of 1938 and the French-Turkish treaty settling the status of the Sanjak was signed on July 4, 1938. On September 2, 1938, the assembly proclaimed the Sanjak of Alexandretta as the Republic of Hatay. This Republic lasted for one year under joint French and Turkish military supervision. Atatürk proposed the name "Hatay", and the government was under Turkish control. The president,Tayfur Sökmen, was a member of Turkish parliament (elected in 1935 and representingAntakya and the prime minister,Abdurrahman Melek, was also elected to the Turkish parliament (representing Gaziantep) in 1939 while still holding the prime-ministerial post. In 1939, following a popular referendum, the Republic of Hatay became a Turkish province.
DuringWorld War II (1939-1945), Turkey initially maintained a policy of active neutrality. In 1939–41 Ankara signed treaties - firstly with Britain and France, and subsequently withNazi Germany.
As a result of geopolitical tensions between Turkey and theSoviet Union, the Western Allies provided incentives for Turkey to distance itself from Germany.
On 23 February 1945, when the defeat of the Axis seemed inevitable, the Turkish government declared war on Germany and on theEmpire of Japan. It thereby qualified for membership of the fledglingUnited Nations. However, the war declaration was merely symbolic as Turkish forces did not take part in any action during the war.
"Yurtta Sulh" herşeyden önce ülkede, o insanın, insanca yaşamasını, insanlık tıynetinin gereğinin tanınmasını ifade eder".
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