THE FIRST TURKISH REPUBLIC Republican Turkey was established on October 29, 1923. Until his death in 1938, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) dominated the government of Turkey and pushed through a number of reforms. Ismet Pasha (Inönü) succeeded Atatürk as President and leader of the dominant Republican People's Party. Political opposition was permitted for the first time in 1945-46, and in the elections of 1950 the Democrat Party, led by Celal Bayar and Adnan Menderes, scored a surprise victory. The Kemalist Period Their independence secured, the Turks turned to the internal problems of the nation. There were few regrets about the loss of the Empire; concern was focused on the future rather than on the past. To symbolize the break with the past, Ankara was made the capital of Turkey. There was no question in the early years of the Republic that Kemal Atatürk governed. Although he himself governed autocratically, he was laying the groundwork for a more democratic future. Participating in this task was the educated group of the old Ottoman Empire-the intellectuals and the military leaders. Kemal had himself risen within this group from somewhat humble beginnings by virtue of his talents. A stronger institutional framework was provided by the Republic People's Party. The League for the Defense of Rights, created at Sivas, transformed itself into a People's Party in April 1923, later adding "Republican" to its title. The various aspects of the Kemalist revolution within Turkey are subsumed under the term Kemalism, which, although never precisely defined as an ideology, is still very much alive in Turkey. Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) began a rapid series of social reforms to transform Turkey into a modern state and to certain links to the past (see table 1). Legal codes, modeled on European lines, made especially important changes in the laws governing women and the family. Surnames were adopted. For example, Kemal became Kemal Atatürk (Father of the Turks) while Ismet Pasha took Inönü as his surname in memory of his victories. The fez, which had been introduced a century earlier, was outlawed amid popular disapproval. Many of the Kemalist reforms affected the place of Islam in Turkish society (see ch. 11, Religion). In the Ottoman Empire, Islam and the state had been inextricably bound together, as symbolized by the Sultan-Caliph; but, under the Republic, the Caliphate was abolished in 1924 and the Ottoman family exiled. In 1928 the Republic became a secular state; religious garb was restricted or prohibited in public. Moreover, the religious orders (tarikats), long a feature of Turkish religion, were abolished. The 1924 1925 1926. 1928. 1934. 1935 Table 1. Chronology of the Major Kemalist Reforms in Turkey Caliphate abolished on March 3. Medrese (traditional religious schools) closed, şeriat courts abolished. Constitution adopted on April 20 which embodied the Kemalist principles. Abolition of dervish orders (tarikats). Fez outlawed, western clothing introduced, veiling of women criti- Latin alphabet adopted. State declared secular on April 10. Women given the vote and the right to hold office. Family name adopted; Mustafa Kemal given the name Atatürk Sunday adopted as legal holiday. medrese (traditional religious schools) were also abolished, and the seriat courts were replaced by the new legal codes. In 1933 it was made unlawful to give the call to worship in Arabic; Turkish was to be used instead. Opposition to these moves found little elective expression at the time; however, many of the religious traditions have reappeared since 1950. Intensive efforts were made in the field of language reform (see ch. 5, Ethnic Groups and Languages). The Arabic script, ill-adapted to the Turkish language, was replaced by the Latin alphabet in 1928. It was hoped that the new script would accelerate the spread of literacy. On the other hand, this innovation served to cut off many people from the literature of the Ottoman period. Efforts were also made to eliminate those Arabic and Persian words which had penetrated Turkish during the long years of the Ottoman Empire. For a time in the 1930's, the Sun-Language theory, which held Turkish to be the root language of other languages, gained widespread acceptance in Turkey. After World War I, Turkey took on programs of economic and political development in the face of great obstacles. Efforts to create a two-party system during the Kemalist period failed. The first attempt took place in 1924-25, almost simultaneously with a Kurdish revolt. The second occurred in 1930, one year after the global economic crisis that began in 1929. In 1930 statism or state control of the economy, came to be the guiding principle-an understandable principle in light of Turkey's financial and economic needs. Kemal's Republican People's 51 Party elaborated a platform known as the "Six Arrows." Beside statism, this platform consisted of republicanism, nationalism, populism, secularism, and reformism, which summarize the essence of Kemalism (see ch. 14, Political Dynamics). On the death of Atatürk on November 10, 1938, his friend Ismet Inönü succeeded him as President and guided the affairs of the Republic until 1950. The Dominance of Foreign Affairs Turkey, maintaining an alert neutrality after Lausanne, could not avoid involvement in the international crises of the 1930's and the 1940's (see ch. 15, Foreign Relations). Friendly relations with Greece had been restored, culminating in the Balkan Entente Pact of 1934, to which Rumania and Yugoslavia were also parties. This pact was chiefly directed against Bulgaria and Fascist Italy. In 1932 Turkey joined the League of Nations and supported sanctions against Mussolini's actions in Ethiopia. During this period Turkey secured two international objectives of importance. In 1936 the Montreux Convention revised the rules governing the Straits and permitted Turkey to remilitarize the region. In 1939 Turkey concluded an agreement with France that led to the incorporation of Iskenderun (Alexandretta) from Syria. As the outbreak of war neared, Turkey grew closer to Great Britain and France. In the An Kava Pact of 1939 after the failure to win a Soviet guarantee of Turkish independence, Great Britain and France promised aid to Turkey in case of war. Turkey committed itself to give aid should the war extend to the Mediterranean but was not required to fight the Soviet Union. Despite these commitments, Turkey maintained a formal neutrality throughout most of the war; but the neutrality was not strictly observed, as exemplified by Allied-German competition for chrome, American lend-lease aid, British military aid, and the passage of German light war vessels through the Straits. On February 23, 1945 Turkey declared war on Germany. A few weeks earlier Turkey had opened the Straits to allow the passage of Allied supplies to the Soviet Union. The war over, the Soviet Union pressured the Turks for territorial concessions and a more favorable Straits regime. Under the Truman Doctrine of 1947 the United States extended military and economic aid to Turkey (as well as to Greece) to thwart these threats. In 1953 Turkey became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Rise of the Democrat Party to the Coup During the war the Inönü government maintained strict controls. In 1942-43 it had resorted to a capital levy to raise funds, a burden which fell mostly on minorities in the Republic. In 1945, however, Inönü allowed the formation of opposition parties. In the free elections of 1950, the Democrat Party, founded in 1946 and led by Celâl Bayar and Adnan Menderes, scored a substantial victory, winning 408 seats to the 69 of the Republican People's Party. The Democrat Party, victorious in subsequent elections, was ousted by a military coup on May 27, 1960. During the 10 years of Democrat rule the Kemalist reforms, especially those concerning religion, were modified. Traditional religious values were strong in the countryside, which was a bulwark of Democrat strength. In 1949 religious instruction was reintroduced in the schools and made compulsory in 1950. The Inönü government also restored a faculty of divinity at the University of Ankara in 1949 because the lack of trained religious leaders had become a serious problem. There was a reappearance of the religious orders, and the Arabic call to worship was legalized. An increased number of pilgrimages to Mecca also signaled the religious revival. In the economic field statist policies were relaxed. There was a renewed drive of economic development that resulted in an inflationary situation. More attention was paid to the needs of agriculture and of rural Turkey (see ch. 19, Agriculture). It also became clear in this period that a new social and economic class of importance had emerged, namely, a Turkish middle class. Under the Empire commercial activities had largely been confined to the minorities; but since the establishment of the Republic, these activities had spread to the Turks themselves. Foreign relations were Western-oriented, as demonstrated by Turkish membership in NATO and the contribution of Turkish troops, who distinguished themselves in Korea. In this period Cyprus, where both Greeks and Turks lived, emerged as the single most important foreign policy concern of the Turkish Government. One symptom of the widespread concern were the anti-Greek riots in Istanbul in September 1955. Turkey suffered economic difficulties, such as inflation, especially after 1955. Moreover, hopes for further democratization were disappointed as the Democrat Party began to institute repressive measures, which were chiefly directed against the Republican People's Party of Inönü. For example, a new Press Law, later strengthened, was enacted to enable the government to exercise increased press control. This and other government actions alienated the intellectuals. Dissatisfaction with the regime increased steadily, culminating in the military coup d'état of May 27, 1960 (see ch. 14, Political Dynamics). |