TÜRK SİYASETİ

The First Constitutional Era lasted between 1876 and 1878.

The Second Constitutional Era lasted between 1908 and 1918.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha decided to establish a group that would act in the ‘party discipline’ under his leadership in order to eliminate this faction in the Assembly and to prevent the never-ending discussions. On May 10, 1921, with the establishment of the Anatolian and Rumelia Defence of Rights Group (the First Group) led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the first political division, in the First Assembly, emerged.

The second party of the period is the Liberal Republican Party (Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası- SCF). By 1930, Turkey’s economic problems were aggravated by the impact of the Great Depression of 1929. Under these circumstances, at the request of Mustafa Kemal on August 12, 1930, the SCF was established by his close friend Fethi (Okyar) Bey

In fact, the first party established in the process of transition to multi-party life was not DP but Nuri Demirağ’s National Development Party.

The Homeland Front (Vatan Cephesi) is an attempt to establish a political front founded by the DP against the cooperating opposition after the 1957 elections, which has no legal characteristic.

During the interim regime between March 1971 and October 1973, four interim regime governments were established, the prime ministers of two of which were Nihat Erim and the other two, Ferit Melen and Naim Talu.

Süleyman Demirel and the Justice Party were removed from the power by the army on September 12, 1980.

Three parties were allowed to participate in the 1983 elections. These were the Nationalist Democracy Party (Milliyetçi Demokrasi Partisi- MDP) led by Retired General Turgut Sunalp, The Populist Party (Halkçı Parti-HP) led by Necdet Calp, who also served as principal clerk to İnonü, and the Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi-ANAP) led by Turgut Özal.

The Dominant Party is a term used to refer to parties that have succeeded in coming to power in the elections held in accordance with democratic procedures for a long time.

Platonic State Model: In Plato’s ideal state there are three classes corresponding to three social functions: executives, protectors and producers. Protectors are the backbone of the police. They have a different life order than producers; they identified their assets with the Police. Plato refers to the Myth of Metals (Noble Lie) and he states that each class has an added ore to their soul. The ore of the executive, i.e. the philosopher, is gold. The absence of interference between these classes is a fundamental requirement for the police not to be corrupted or degenerate. Plato, in his book called State, contains very detailed regulations on the social life, education and upbringing of the protectors. The aim is to preserve the internal integrity of the protectors and to prevent the negative change in the Police in this way (Ağaoğulları, 2011, p. 101). In this context, there can be a similarity between the Ottoman military class and the protectors class of Plato.

The date of transition to constitutional-monarchy government in Turkey is 1876. The Ottoman constitution of 1876 which was an ephemeral experience, drafting the political-legal framework of First Constitutional Era did not bring a real sense of the parliamentary regime, yet, it has revealed, so to speak a ‘parliamentary’ pattern. First Constitutional Era which would end in 1878, is a period in which political parties have not emerged yet and no idea of choice based on universal and equal voting in a real sense was present.

Until Second Constitutional Era, there have been no political parties in a real sense in Turkey. The legacy of Second Constitutional Era is a period where organised parties and competing emerged for the first time. It would not be wrong to state that the foundations of the party system in Turkey were laid down in this period. There is no doubt that the most important political organization after 1908, which would later turn into a political party, was The Committee of Union and Progress.

The main opposition party of the Second Constitution Era was the Party for Freedom and Harmony (Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası HİF) established on 21 November 1911. This movement, which gathered around 70 deputies in the Parliament, united all the opponents (liberals, Islamists, minorities) of İTC within its body. HİF was an opposition party out of homogeneity; the unifying reason for the party was being the contrast of İTC. The political activity of HİF lasted for about two years. After 1913 Ottoman coup d’état, HİF was pushed out of the political arena with the establishment of an authoritarian one-party system.

The 1920-1923 period of BMM is essentially a non-party assembly. Anatolia and Rumelia Defence of Rights Association was established in Sivas Congress, but forming political parties was decided to be discussed later after the National Struggle. Immediately after the opening of the Assembly there were small groups operating within the Assembly. The most well-known of these are ‘Tesanut Group’, ‘Istiklal Group’, ‘Müdafaa-i Hukuk Group’, ‘Halk Group’ and ‘Islahat Group’. Deputies who did not take part in this group or did not want to participate in the Assembly first carried out an unorganized activity in the Assembly, and later in July 1922, they established the Second Defence of Rights Association (Second Group). The deputies who did not participate in both groups received the name of the Independent Group as a third group. According to the figures given by Frey, the First Group consisted of 197 members, the Second Group consisted of 118 members and the Independent Group consisted of 122 deputies (Frey, 1965, p. 307). It should be noted that the struggle between these three groups mainly occurred within the Assembly and their reflections to the public was weak.

The main debates on the Second Group can be gathered at the following points:

The official establishment date of the People’s Party was 9 September, 1923. Mustafa Kemal, before the end of the first parliamentary period, had put forward the Halk Fırkası (People’s Party-HF) based on the will of public rhetoric. On April 8, 1923, he announced that the HF would be established through the partying of the Anatolia and Rumelia Defence of Rights Society. In 1923, Mustafa Kemal, who formed an independent Assembly in his election, was elected to the post of Chair on September 9, 1923, after the adoption of the party’s charter on 9 September. After the declaration of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was elected as the President and İsmet (İnönü) Pasha HF was appointed as the Deputy Chairman. The party was renamed as Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası-CHF) in 1924. From the establishment until the multiparty period transition (1923-1946) CHF has maintained its character as a one-party of Turkey and has been the hallmark of this era.

Democrat Party (Demokrat Parti-DP), which came to power at 14 May 1950 elections, is not a party that gave direction to Turkish politics during its 10-year rule. DP is a party that goes beyond the period of its rule and continues its effects even after it was closed by the military coup on 27 May, 1960. DP and its leader Menderes are an important basis for legitimacy for the liberal-conservative centre-right politics which has the potential support of roughly two-thirds of the people in Turkey. Almost all of the parties in this line are trying to show themselves as a continuation of DP and to lay claim on the DP legacy

The party that closed after the 1960 coup was DP. After the coup, the suspended activities of other parties (CHP and CKMP) were released on 29 September 1960. The main issue after the coup was, who would fill the DP’s vacancy. The two biggest candidates were, Justice Party (Adalet Partisi-AP) under the presidency of Ragıp Gümüşpala and the New Turkey Party under the presidency of Ekrem Alican. Both parties had a liberal program and seeked to fill the gap that the DP had left. The view which appeared in the elections of 15 October 1961 after the May 27 coup, gives the impression that there was a change in the party system at first glance. However, a closer look reveals that there is no fundamental change. The formation of a four-party parliament can be explained by the competition of three parties targeting the DP voters. More importantly, it is seen that the election did not change the table of the period of 1950-60, and the division taking place over the centre-periphery opposition is preserved. CHP received % 36.7of the votes in the 1961 National Assembly; this rate is about 4.5 points below the CHP’s votes in the 1957 elections. In this election, AP received %34.8, Republican Villagers Nation Parti (Cumhuriyetçi Köylü Millet Partisi-CKMP) %14 and New Turkey Parti (Yeni Türkiye PartisiYTP) %13.7 of the votes. The votes of these three parties matching to the DP votes are 62.5%. This table shows that the superiority of the parties seeking the periphery votes continues to increase.

Three parties were allowed to participate in the 1983 elections. These were the Nationalist Democracy Party (Milliyetçi Demokrasi Partisi MDP) led by Retired General Turgut Sunalp, The Populist Party (Halkçı Parti-HP) led by Necdet Calp, who also served as principal clerk to İnonü, and the Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi-ANAP) led by Turgut Özal, who served as the minister responsible for the economy in the post-coup government. Although Kenan Evren clearly favoured the MDP, ANAP which was given the role of ‘small/half’ party, won the election by %45.1 vote rate. ANAP is Turkey’s first truly ‘catch-all’ party. Özal, who claimed to unite the four tendencies, described his party as a nationalist, conservative, and a party in favour of free enterprise and social justice. ANAP was a party with weak ideological basis, that combined politics with economic rationality, promised social and economic transformation (with Özal’s conceptualization ‘transformation’ and ‘leap of age’), and paid attention to the welfare of the middle classes (as Özal calls it ‘the middle pillar’).