If a party does not get 14,000 votes, it gets no deputies from the provinces. The deputies are actually assigned on a proportional basis. After the 1965 elections there was a move to change this system, because it was considered unfair to smaller parties. SOURCES AND AGGREGATION OF POLITICAL POWER The advent of the Kemalist republic was the beginning of a continuing process whereby the Turkish governing elite underwent significant change. A major factor of this change was the broadening and redistribution of the elite itself which sought to strengthen itself by drawing on increasingly broader circles of the population. The result was that more and more of the people became involved in the process of government and took a close interest in public affairs. Economic development, education, and improved methods of mass communication accelerated the procedure. As a consequence of the deepening interest in the pre-Turkish past of Anatolia, the heartland of the Turkish state became the sentimental core of the nation. The Anatolians had a chance to participate in the public process, which they never had before. In the late 1960's the prominent Thracian bureaucratic, religious, and military families were decreasing in numbers and significance. Taking their places were Anatolian country lads, memleket coculari, and the Anatolian country lords who were gravitating toward positions of power and influence. Since the end of World War II interest groups have been the objective of political parties, the peasantry, labor, and to some extent religion. The army continues to be a significant interest group. The Peasantry The peasantry has become a force of real and potential significance. Before the 1950 election parties began to take notice of the peasants and elicited their support. The continued interest in rural conditions by the Democrat Party had the ultimate effect of making the peasants politically conscious. Another factor in raising the political sophistication of the peasantry was improved technological methods of agriculture. Large numbers of tractors had the effect of revolutionizing village society. As life improved for the peasant, he has shown a greater awareness of the questions that concern him. He has demonstrated this awareness by querying politicians visiting the countryside who seek his vote. Labor A responsive labor movement is a relatively recent phenomenon in Turkish life, having beginnings only in the late 19th century. Although labor represents about 5 percent of the population, the political parties recognize labor as a potentially important element of the power base (see ch. 21, Labor Relations and Organization). Business The business community emerged from the closely controlled statist RPP regime into an era of expanding freedom under the Democrats. By the end of the 1950's, however, the economy was suffering from poor planning, overexpansion and inflation, and the foreign debt amounted to a quarter of the annual gross national product. Since 1960 business interests have tended to support the party which promised less planning (the JP). Religious Interests The role of religion and religious leaders has so far been one of reaction to the attempts to modernize the country. On occasion objection is raised to the fact that Turkey is officially secular while 97 percent of the population is Moslem. Religion remains important to the villagers; they have been known to make great sacrifices to help religious men. The RPP is known for its lack of sympathy for religion, and the DP played on this in the 1950's by restoring Arabic to the call to prayer and by building mosques. There have been occasional cries for a return to Islamic Law, but there is little chance of this being done. It is still necessary to be a Moslem to attain an elective post of any importance, but it is no longer so meaningful in other fields (see ch. 11, Religion). The Army When 38 members of the army organized as the NUC and overthrew the DP government in 1960, they broke sharply with the Turkish Army's tradition of staying out of politics. Atatürk's policy had removed the army from politics, but the Menderes government resorted to army support several times to maintain order. The military finally took independent action because of this political pressure. In addition, officers were suffering economically and socially from the inflation of the 1950's. Their aim was to restore equilibrium to the economy through the application of more effective planning and procedures. CHAPTER 15 FOREIGN RELATIONS The primary goals of Turkish foreign policy are the maintenance of territorial integrity and national independence. Throughout its history Turkey has confronted political penetration and conquest; its foreign and domestic policies manifest a determination to forestall these dangers. In this fundamentally defensive position, heavy reliance is placed on Turkey's own armed strength as well as that of its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The history of the Black Sea area from the 18th century until the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 is largely concerned with the gradual disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the advance of the Russians, who owed their success to a combination of military power and diplomatic exploitation of nationalism in the Balkans. Russia was kept from gaining control of the Ottoman Empire and the Straits of the Dardanelles and Bosporus only by the diplomatic and military intervention of other European powers. Control of the Turkish Straits remains a goal of Soviet foreign policy. At the end of World War II Moscow applied pressure on Turkey to increase the Soviet presence in the Straits region, but Turkey refused and was supported by both Great Britain and the United States. The United States, moreover, helped Turkey and Greece resist the threat of Soviet aggression. Close cooperation between Turkey and the United States remained an influential factor in Turkey's foreign relations, reinforcing the country's alliance with the West and making it the Middle East outpost of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Ankara's diplomatic position in the Middle East, since the late 1940's, has been conditioned by Turkey's ties with the West during the cold war and the subsequent détente. This posture is in contrast to Turkey's detachment from major power rivalries between the two World Wars when the Middle East was still largely under French and British control. While the United Arab Republic under President Nasser sought to attain leadership of the Arab world, Turkey played a major role in the military organization of the "Northern Tier" of the region through the Baghdad Pact (now known as the Central Treaty Organization-CENTO), formed in 1955. Ankara's pro-Western orientation stood against Cairo's neutralist and later radical nationalist trend. Republican Turkey has foresworn the expansionism of the days of the Ottoman Empire; there are no irredentist demands for Arab or Balkan territory. Turkey's national boundaries have remained unchanged since the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, except that the Mosul area was lost to Iraq and Alexandretta (Iskenderun) was acquired from Syria in 1939. The presence of Turkish minorities in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and on the Island of Cyprus has been one of several factors influencing foreign policy. In the early part of World War II Turkey drew close to Germany, on the theory that it might remove the threat of Soviet domination and free the Turkish minorities under Communist rule. Turkey's alliance with the West has increased its participation in international affairs. Turkey remained neutral until the last stages of World War II. In the 1950's Turkey participated in the Korean conflict, became increasingly active in the United Nations, and served on the United Nations Security Council for two terms. In the United Nations Turkey's policy has generally been to support the West and to oppose the Soviet bloc. Turkey's strongest tie is still with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and it is in terms of this alliance and Turkey's national interest that other commitments are made. The importance of Turkey's role in NATO induced it to find a permanent solution to the dispute with Greece over Cyprus. This question has not only hampered NATO activities in the eastern Mediterranean but has also threatened to break out into armed conflict in 195556, in 1964, and late 1967. A United Nations Peace Keeping Force has been stationed on Cyprus since 1964. In late 1968 Turkey had moved toward a more independent foreign policy while still reaffirming its ties with NATO. The Turks were also improving relations with the Arab world, Eastern Europe, and West Germany, partly to reinforce their new nonaligned position and partly to seek support for their position in the Cyprus dispute. The continuing Turkish-Soviet rapprochement did not appear to be irreparably damaged by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. HISTORICAL RETROSPECT Diplomatic recognition was accorded the Turkish Republic after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The League of Nations in 1925-26 gave Mosul and its oil-rich environs to Iraq in return for the payment to Turkey of 10 percent of the royalties |