Turkey (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Republic of Turkey Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Timeline: Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum OTL equivalent: Turkey
Flag
Motto:  Egemenlik kayıtsız şartsız Ulusundur (Turkish) ("Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the Nation")
Anthem:  İstiklal Marşı
Location of Turkey
Capital		Ankara
Official languages		Turkish
Religion		Islam; Christianity; Irreligion
Demonym		Turkish
Government		Unitary state; Parliamentary constitutional republic
-	President	Akın Öztürk
-	Prime Minister	Engin Alan
Legislature		Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Establishment
-	Independence from the Ottoman Empire	July 24, 1923
-	Republic	October 29, 1923
Currency		Turkish lira (TRY)
Time zone		TRT (UTC+3)
Internet TLD		.tr
Calling code		+90

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti) is a Eurasian country, located mostly on the Anatolia in Western Asia and on Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by six countries: Bulgaria to the west; the Soviet Union to the northeast and east; Kurdistan to the east; and Iraq, Assyria and the United Arab Republic to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea is to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.

Politics and government

Çankaya Mansion, the official residence of the President of Turkey, pictured here in the 1940s.

Turkey is a parliamentary representative democracy. Since its foundation as a republic in 1923, Turkey has developed a strong tradition of secularism. Turkey's constitution governs the legal framework of the country. It sets out the main principles of government and establishes Turkey as a unitary centralized state. The Turkish constitution, modeled after European constitutional frameworks, further divides the branches of government into executive, legislative and judicial powers. The current constitution was ratified by popular referendum in 1982. Since its ratification, the current constitution has overseen many important events and changes in Turkey, and it has been modified many times to keep up with global and regional geopolitical conjunctures.

Executive powers are exercised together by the President of the Republic and the Government. The President of the Republic (Reisicumhur) is the head of state and constitutionally has a ceremonial role within the country's parliamentary system. The president is elected for a five-year term by the Grand National Assembly from among its members. However, at some occasions, some presidents throughout the country's history such as Kemal Atatürk and Fevzi Çakmak had exercised executive authority and certain degree of influences over the government's decision making, making Turkey a de facto semi-presidential republic. The Government consisted of the Prime Minister (Başvekil) and the Council of Ministers. The prime minister is elected by the TBMM through a vote of confidence and is most often the head of the party having the most seats in parliament.

The building of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey at Ankara.

The legislative power is vested in the unicameral parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi, TBMM). Universal suffrage for both genders has been applied throughout Turkey since 1933, and every Turkish citizen who has turned 18 years of age has the right to vote. There are 550 members of parliament who are elected for a four-year term by a party-list proportional representation system from 85 electoral districts. To avoid a hung parliament and its excessive political fragmentation, since 1982 a party must have win at least 10% of the national vote to qualify for representation in the parliament, making it very difficult to minor parties to enter the TBMM.

The building of the Constitutional Court, the highest legal body for constitutional review in Turkey.

The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, and the Constitutional Court is charged with ruling on the conformity of laws and decrees with the constitution. The judiciary conforms to the principle of separation of powers not only through its independence from the executive and legislative branches of government but by being divided into two entities, Administrative Justice and Judicial Justice. The Council of State (Danıştay) is the tribunal of last resort for administrative cases, and the High Court of Appeals (Yargıtay) for all others. The Constitutional Court (Anayasa Mahkemesi), on other hand, can invalidate whole laws or decrees and ban their application for all future cases and strip the public financing of political parties that it deems anti-secular or separatist, or ban their existence altogether.

History

Kemal Atatürk era (1923–1938)

Constitutional consolidation (1923–1924)

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the founder and first President of Turkey (1923–1938)

Following the occupation of Constantinople and Smyrna by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I, a cadre of young military officers, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his colleagues, organized a successful resistance to the Allies; by September 18, 1922, the occupying armies were expelled and on October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was officially proclaimed in Ankara, with Mustafa Kemal as its first president.

In 1923, Mustafa Kemal founded the People's Party (Halk Fırkası) to support his reforms. The Progressive Republican Party (Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası) was formed in 1924 by Musa Kâzım Pasha, Ali Fuat Pasha and others as an opposition, but soon banned after being accused in attempting to subvert the newly established Republic. In 1924, the People's Party became the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası, later Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) which became the sole ruling party of Turkey for the next 33 years.

On March 3, 1924, Abdulmecid II abdicated as the Caliph and appointed Ahmed Sharif al-Senussi as his successor, formally abolishing the Ottoman Caliphate in Turkey. The seat of new caliphate was relocated to Bayda, Cyrenaica. The Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Reisliği, later Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) was formed in its stead to exercise state oversight over religious affairs and ensure the religion does not challenge secularist principles of the new state. On April 20, 1924, the Constitution of the Republic was ratified, formally establishing the modern, secular and republican government in Turkey. Under Mustafa Kemal's guidance, the new republic replaced traditional religious education with a secular, national education system and had the Islamic courts abolished in the same year.

Atatürk reforms (1924–1937)

Atatürk addressed the congress of the Republican People's Party on May 9, 1935.

For about the next ten years, the country saw a steady process of secular Westernization under Mustafa Kemal's direction. In 1925, the Ottoman fez was abolished and its usage was outlawed, although veils or headscarves for women were continue to be allowed. The parliament also declared institutions of religious covenants and dervish lodges as illegal. In 1926, new penal code modeled after the Italian penal code and new civil code modeled after the Swiss civil code were introduced, replacing the Islamic canon law. In April 1928, a passage which declaring Islam as the official religion of Turkey in the constitution was deleted.

The new Turkish alphabet was adopted in November 1928, replacing the use of Perso-Arabic script to remove Turkey from the Arabic cultural sphere. Mustafa Kemal had attempted for political reforms by asking Ali Fethi Pasha to form the the Liberal Republican Party (Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası) in 1930 as a "loyal opposition" for his government. However, it would be later dissolved by Ali himself after the infiltration of Islamists into the party. In 1930, Turkish women were given rights to vote in local elections, which followed by the enactment of full universal suffrage in 1934. In 1935, eighteen female candidates were elected to the Grand National Assembly.

In 1932, at Mustafa Kemal's initiatives, the Society for Research on the Turkish Language, later the Turkish Language Association, was founded. It was tasked to replace the Arabic, Persian and Greek loanwords in the Turkish language. One of the most notable policies followed the Turkification campaign was the required use of Turkish for the Islamic call to prayer rather than in Arabic, which was opposed by both Bayda and Mecca. In 1934, the law on family names was passed by the parliament which requires all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of hereditary and fixed surnames. Under the provisions of the said law, the parliament bestowed a honorific surname Atatürk upon Mustafa Kemal, which meant "Father of the Turks".

Atatürk (far-left) with his inner circle: Fevzi Çakmak (centre), Celâl Bayar (2nd from right) and İsmet İnönü (far-right), ca. 1935

Under the supervision of İsmet İnönü, Atatürk's trusted lieutenant, Turkey at first pursued a state-controlled economy to eliminate the foreign control of the economy, and improve domestic communications. Resources were channeled away from Istambul in favor of other, less developed cities, to establish a more balanced development throughout the country. Turkey then moved toward a mixed economy with its first private initiatives in 1932 after liberal economist Celâl Bayar was appointed by Atatürk as the Minister of Economy and later Prime Minister in 1937.

By 1937, Atatürk's health showed signs of decline. He was diagnosed with the cirrhosis of the liver in early 1938. Atatürk died on November 10, 1938, at the age of 57, in Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace. During the period of his illness, Atatürk's inner circle struggled to fill his position. İsmet İnönü was the strongest candidate to succeed Atatürk as president, but was disliked by other party leaders, especially by Celâl Bayar who sought to liberalize the economic policies. On other hand, Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak was the only leader ever attained the rank of Field Marshal beside of Atatürk himself, making him equal to İnönü and almost equal to Atatürk.

Fevzi Çakmak era (1938–1950)

Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak (1876–1950), the second President of Turkey (1938–1950)

Initially refusing, Fevzi Çakmak was convinced by Bayar and other senior leaders to stand for presidential election. On December 1, 1938, Çakmak was elected second President of Turkey by the parliament. During the CHP Congress on December 26, 1938, late Atatürk was granted the title of "Eternal Chief" (Ebedî Şef), while Çakmak became the "National Chief" (Millî Şef). Although still a Kemalist by conviction, Çakmak espoused more populist stance. He notably legalized the Arabic Islamic call to prayer in 1940 which had been banned previously. As result, Çakmak was lauded as a hero among the conservative sections of the Turkish society, popularly referred as the "Wise Marshal" (Bilge Mareşallar).

Çakmak retained Celâl Bayar as prime minister to formulate more liberal economic policies and allow more private enterprises to grow. Çakmak's critical support allowed Bayar to challenge İnönü in control the CHP organizations as General Secretary. Bayar later filled the local party committees in several regions with his proteges and supporters of economic liberalization, known as the Hürriyet ("Freedom") faction. Although Çakmak was the nominal party leader, İnönü and Bayar emerged as the leading figures of the party who equal in influence. İnönü commanded the left-wing of CHP which supported by the labor unions, junior army officers and intellectuals, while Bayar led the right-wing Hürriyet group which consisted of businessmen, landowners and rural population.

World War II (1939–1945)

World War II broke out in the first year of Çakmak's presidency. Turkey initially was neutral at the wake of war, but signed a treaty with Britain in October 1939 that said Britain would defend Turkey if Germany attacked it.

By the summer of 1942, the Army High Command considered war with the Soviet Union almost unavoidable and planned an invasion to Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan and secure the Baku oil fields. President Çakmak reportedly affirmed the invasion plan, but was strongly opposed by İsmet İnönü and Celâl Bayar. Both İnönü and Bayar argued Turkey was not prepared militarily and economically in waging a war with the Soviets although with different reasons. Bayar believed Turkey should maintains its neutrality before a Soviet imminent collapse is confirmed, while İnönü supported the Turkish participation in the Allied forces instead.

Churchill persuaded Turkish prime minister, Ismet İnönü, to join the Allies, January 1943

On January 30, 1943, British prime minister, Winston Churchill, secretly met with recently appointed prime minister İnönü inside a train wagon at the Yenice station, 23 kilometers outside of Adana, near the Turkish-Syrian border. Churchill tried to persuade Turkey to join the Allies, but İnönü was reluctant to let the country joining the war on any side. During another meeting with Churchill and U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt at Cairo on December 4–6, 1943, İnönü affirmed the country's neutrality, but promised to provide aids for the Allied operations in the region.

In April 1944, Turkey halted its sales of chromite to Germany, and broke off relations in August as the defeat of Axis powers was imminent. Only in February 1945, Turkey declared war on Germany and Spain, a symbolic move that allowed Turkey to join the future United Nations. Just after Turkish declaration of war, the Turkish troops occupied Western Thrace, which probably saved the lives of thousands of Jewish population in the region. At the end of war, Turkey was granted the control of Western Thrace by the Allied forces. Turkey also appealed to be granted the right to administer the island of Cyprus, but was rejected by the Allies with the British objections.

Political democratization (1945–1950)

İsmet İnönü (1884–1973), the first, third and sixth Prime Minister (1923–1924; 1925–1937; 1943–1945) and fifth President of Turkey (1961–1973)

Following the example of Atatürk, Çakmak felt a need for a "loyal opposition" to the ruling Republican People's Party after the war to show the Allied powers that Turkey has fully adopts the principles of democracy. In 1945, the government allowed the creation of National Development Party (Millî Kalkınma Partisi), the third legal opposition party, by industrialist Nuri Demirağ. However, the party fared poorly during the 1946 election and the CHP was still unopposed electorally.

Within the CHP itself, the failure to enact the Land Reform Law in 1945 led to a growing resentment among the party's progressive elements. In 1947, Kasım Gülek and other 34 CHP deputies urged the party leadership to implement political reforms and further democratization of the country. This group was known as the Otuzbeşler ("Thirty-Fivers"). Supported by İnönü, the Otuzbeşler faction left the CHP and founded the Democratic People's Party (Demokrasi Halk Partisı, "DHP"). Initially, the founding of the DHP was in conform with the idea of "loyal opposition"; President Çakmak personally asked İnönü to lead the opposition party.

Both parties espoused similar position of Kemalist secularist policies as well as on foreign policies, although the CHP had moved toward a pro-privatization position, while the DHP supported the maintenance of nationalized economy of Atatürk's era.

Era of Two Parties (1950–1960)

Şemsettin Günaltay (1883–1961), the third President of Turkey (1950–1958)

Following the death of President Çakmak on April 10, 1950, Şemsettin Günaltay was elected as his successor on May 27, 1950. Günaltay was elected on the recommendations of Bayar and İnönü who wanted to develop the parliamentary supremacy over the presidency. He was the first president who came from non-military background and the lack of political ambition making him involved less on decision-making.

As Günaltay's involvement on politics was minimum during this period, the country's governance was shifted back and forth between the CHP and the DHP. The DHP showed the growing popular support in the 1950 and 1954 elections. Although obtained only 69 seats in the Assembly, the DHP had gained 37.45% of votes nationwide in 1950, making it a serious electoral challenge to the ruling CHP. With the rise of DHP as a real political power, this era was known as the Era of Two Parties (İki Partili dönemi), in contrast with the preceding Era of Two Marshals (İki Mareşali dönemi, referring to the military ranks of Atatürk and Çakmak).

Economic development (1950–1955)

Bayar's favorite, Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, became Prime Minister in 1950. Under Köprülü and later Adnan Menderes, the Turkish economy had experienced significant growths between 1950 and 1955.

When the growth slowed down by mid-1950s, Adnan Menderes's government was believed to have engineered the Istambul Pogrom in 1955 to make the Greek minorities as scapegoats on the economic crisis.

End of CHP rule (1955–1957)

Adnan Menderes (1899–1961), the eighth and tenth Prime Minister (1947–1949; 1952–1956) and fourth President of Turkey (1958–1960)

The DHP won majority of the local councils on the 1955 local elections which showed an early sign of popular discontent of the CHP's government.

Under the popular pressure, President Günaltay called an early election in 1956 in which the DHP gained 48.4% of votes and obtained 320 seats in the 1956 election, bringing the end to CHP's long-time dominance for 33 years.

Like Bayar, his contemporary in the CHP, İnönü also refrained to assume the premiership. Faik Ahmet Barutçu, İnönü's deputy, led the first DHP's minority government, albeit the party members' support to more progressive Kasım Gülek. Celâl Bayar resigned as the CHP leader after its poor electoral performance; a power struggle soon occurred between Adnan Menderes and Osman Bölükbaşı.

Menderes was Bayar's protege, economically liberal and controlled the party organization, while Bölükbaşı was Çakmak's loyalist, more populist and closer to the party grassroot and the military. Both were equally excellent public speakers and commanded great loyalty of the CHP voters.

1957 constitutional amendment (1957–1960)

In 1955, Günaltay has expressed his intention to decline the third term in 1958. The CHP then called for direct presidential election in fear the DHP-dominated parliament will elect İsmet İnönü to the presidency. The CHP returned to power when Menderes won the first direct presidential election with 51% of votes in 1957 and obtained 324 seats in 1959 parliamentary election in which Osman Bölükbaşı became prime minister.

However, Menderes's authoritarianism became increasingly unpopular among the intellectuals, university students and a group of young army officers, who feared that the Atatürk's legacies were in danger. When the outspoken Bölükbaşı criticized Menderes's heavy-handed policies, he was relieved as prime minister in 1960, leading to a widespread protest and the split within the CHP. A military coup on May 27, 1960 eventually deposed Menderes. Menderes was arrested and sentenced to death along with Fuat Köprülü and other two former ministers by a military court on the island of Yassıada. Menderes lost his live at the end of the gallows on September 17, 1961.

İsmet İnönü era (1961–1973)

Osman Bölükbaşı carried by his supporters after the CHP's victory in the 1964 election.

By 1960, the army had reverted the 1957 constitutional amendment. On March 1, 1961, the 77-year old İsmet İnönü was elected by the GNA as fifth President of Turkey. However, his presidency was hampered by the power struggle between his own party and the army. Kasım Gülek of the DHP rejected the military intervention on the government's decision making and criticized İnönü for allowing it to be happened. The army then turned its support to the rump CHP which now controlled by Osman Bölükbaşı's faction.

Bölükbaşı was asked by the army to form a unity government on May 22, 1961. With Bölükbaşı as prime minister, the CHP reorganized itself and allied closely with the army. Bölükbaşı's oratory skills and the military support to him led the party to return once again to power in the 1964 election. He portrayed the CHP as the "party of two marshals" (İki Mareşallerin partisi) during the campaigns, emphasizing the army's legacy on the founding of the republic and the party. The first CHP's majority government since 1956 was formed by Bölükbaşı on June 12, 1964. On other hand, the DHP had been weakened as Gülek and several left-wing intellectuals left the party to form the Democratic Struggle Party (Demokratik Mücadele Partisi, DMP) in 1962 in opposition to the military rule.

Further readings