History of the Republic of Turkey
Encyclopedia : H : HI : HIS : History of the Republic of Turkey
One of the new states from the
Ottoman Empire was the
Republic of Turkey. This new state delivered the 'coup de grâce' to the Ottoman state, almost mercifully, in
1922, with the overthrow of Sultan
Mehmet VI Vahdettin by the new Republican assembly of
Turkey. The history is covered under three headings.
War of Independence,
Single Party Period of Republic of Turkey and
Multi-Party Period of Republic of Turkey
A graphical timeline is available here:
War of Independence
Atatürk, modern Turkey's founder and first President
One of the new states was Republic of Turkey. Turkish nationalists established modern Turkey as an outcome of the Turkish War of Independence, mostly on what was to become Turkish soil, as of the Treaty of Lausanne. Turkish War of Independence defeated Greece in western Turkey (see Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)), East Armenian state on the west (2 November 1920 Gümrü Treaty).The Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923, and negotiated by Ismet Pasha (Inönü) on behalf of the Ankara government, established most of the modern boundaries of the country (except the province of Hatay, formerly the Syrian province of Alexandretta, which was given to Turkey by France in 1939).
Single Party Period
Turkey in 1925 was an drained country. During the initial years, voyagers who pass through its lands, remark on the desertedness of it countryside. The results of WWI and its consequences, epidemics and starvation, some 2.5 million Anatolian Muslims and Christians had lost their lives. All in all, the population of Anatolia declined by 20% through mortality - percentage twenty times higher than that of France at the same period. Those times were hard times, beyond imagination. There were 12 provinces, most of them in the west, where more than 30 percent of adult women were widows. For the first time in its entire history, Anatolia had a Turkish majority more than 80%. (ref: Justin McCarthy, Muslims and minorities. The population of Ottoman Anatolia and the end of the empire, New York: NY University Press, 1983)
The history of modern Turkey begins with the foundation of the republic on October 29, 1923 (the Republic was declared on January 20, 1921), with Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) as its first president. The government was formed from the Ankara-based revolutionary group, led by Atatürk. A new constitution was approved on April 20, 1924. For the next 10 years, there was a steady process of secular westernization, guided by Mustafa Kemal. Unification of education, and disband of religious titles, Latin alphabet replaces Arabic script, the dress law (the wearing of a fez, a traditional Muslim hat, is outlawed), law of family names, etc. The educational materials were developed using words from Central Asia (including countries north of Turkey) are imported and their use is encouraged, with spotty success. The use of Persian and Arabic words is discouraged. The passage to multi party period, was tried with Liberal Republican Party by Fethi Okyar. However, the liberal party was dissolved on November 17, 1930 and no further attempt for a multi-party democracy was made until 1945. Turkey was admitted to the League of Nations in July 1932. Atatürk's successor after his death on November 10, 1938 was Ismet Inönü. During World War II, Turkey signed a peace treaty with Germany and officially remained neutral until near the end of war. In 1945 Turkey joined the UN, and in February 1945 it declared war on Germany and Japan. This was largely symbolic. Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1952.
Multi-Party Period
Short Neutral Summary: The real multi-party period begins with the election of the
Democratic Party. The Menderes government was very popular at first, relaxing the restrictions on Islam and presiding over a booming economy. In the later half of the decade, however, the economy began to fail and the government introduced censorship laws limiting dissent. The government became plagued by high
inflation and a massive
debt. On
May 27,
1960 General
Cemal Gürsel led a military
coup d'état removing President
Celal Bayar and Prime Minister
Adnan Menderes, the second of whom was executed. The system returned to civilian control in October of
1961. The political system that emerged in the wake of the 1960 coup was a fractured one, producing a series of unstable government coalitions in parliament alternating between the True Path Party of
Suleyman Demirel on the right and the Republican People's Party of Ismet Inonu and
Bülent Ecevit on the left. A new coup was staged in 1971 and 1970s was under Prime Minister Ecevit in coalition with the religious National Salvation Party, Turkey carried out an operation in Cyprus (
Turkish Invasion of Cyprus). The fractured political scene and poor economy led to mounting violence between ultranationalists and communists in the streets of Turkey's cities. A military coup d'etat took place in 1980. Within two years, the military had returned the government to civilian hands. Political system came one-party governance under
Turgut Özal's Motherland Party, which combined a globally-oriented economic program with conservative social values. Under Ozal, the economy boomed, converting towns like
Gazi Antep from small provincial capitals into mid-sized economic boomtowns. With the turn of 90s, political instability followed, the 1995 elections brought a short-lived coalition between Yilmaz's Motherland Party and The True Path Party, now with
Tansu Çiller at the helm. In 1997, the military, citing his government's support for religious policies deemed dangerous to Turkey's secular nature, sent a memorandum to Erbakan government requesting that he resign, which he did. This was named postmodern coup. Shortly thereafter, the RP was banned and re-born under the name Virtue Party (FP). A new government was formed by ANAP and Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP) supported from the outside by the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP), led by
Deniz Baykal. The DSP won big in the 1999 elections. Second place went to the Nationalist Action Party (MHP). These two parties, alongside Yilmaz's ANAP formed a government. The government was somewhat effective, if not harmonious, bringing about much-needed economic reform, instituting human rights legislation, and bringing Turkey ever closer to the
European Union. A series of economic shocks led to new elections in 2002, bringing into power the religiously conservative
Justice and Development Party of former mayor of Istanbul,
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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