Turkey

E

6

Occupation and War of Independence

In the wake of surrender, the Turkish government was placed under the authority of the Allied occupation powers led by the British. The Paris Peace Conference prepared to impose a settlement by which not only the Balkan and Arab provinces would be ceded, but areas occupied by predominantly Turkish populations in eastern and southern Anatolia would be placed under foreign or minority control. A large Greek army captured İzmir (1922) and invaded south-western Anatolia, but massacres of the Turkish population led the Allies to withdraw their support from the Greeks. In reaction to the proposed peace settlement and to the Greek invasion, the Turkish nationalist movement rose in Anatolia under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

During the Turkish War of Independence (1918-1923) Atatürk successfully resisted the Allied terms; drove out the Greeks and the British, French, and Italian occupation forces; and imposed a settlement, embodied in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), by which the Turkish areas of eastern Thrace and Anatolia were left to form their own state. Following this victory, a Turkish republic was proclaimed, with its capital in Ankara, and the İstanbul government of the sultan simply ceased to exist (1923).

F

Turkish Republic

Led by Atatürk during its first 15 years, the Turkish republic was founded on six basic principles incorporated into the constitution: republicanism (based on the premise that sovereignty belongs to the people); Turkish nationalism (emphasizing the glories of the Turkish past and the need for the Turks to build their own state according to modern principles and without foreign intervention); populism (the idea that the people ruled through the Turkish Grand National Assembly, with all economic and social interests represented); secularism (dictating complete separation between the Muslim religious establishment and the state); statism (meaning state intervention in major sectors of the economy and its control of the rest, so as to assure rapid economic development); and revolutionism (dictating that all these changes be instituted at once and in full so that Turkish society could develop as rapidly as possible).

The Atatürk years were ones of great progress, both economic and social. Turkey avoided tendencies towards revenge, joining in close diplomatic relations with its former Balkan territories and at the same time emphasizing its secularist policy by avoiding alliances with its Muslim neighbours to the east.

F

1

From Neutrality to Western Alliance

Atatürk was succeeded as president by his close associate İsmet İnönü, who continued his internal policies. Remembering the terrible experience of World War I, İnönü kept Turkey neutral during almost all of World War II; not until February 1945 did Turkey declare war on Germany and Japan. Following the war, the Soviet Union attempted to include Turkey within its sphere of influence, demanding control of Turkey’s eastern provinces and the straits. In response, Turkey accepted large-scale aid offered by President Truman and entered a close military and economic alliance with the United States; in 1952 it became a full member of the NATO.

At the same time, İnönü democratized the regime and allowed the introduction of opposition parties. This led to the triumph in 1950 of the Democratic Party, advocating more private and individual enterprise than had been permitted by the statist policies of Atatürk’s Republican People’s Party, which now went into opposition.

Led by President Celâl Bayar, together with Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and Foreign Minister Fuat Köprülü, the Democratic Party controlled the Turkish government for a decade (1950-1960). The Turkish economy expanded rapidly during this time as a result of the new economic liberalism and the large-scale foreign assistance, principally from the United States, that followed Turkey’s entry into the Western alliance. Ultimately, however, too rapid economic growth and poor management led to severe economic and social strains and increasing political discontent voiced by the Republican People’s Party, which the Democrats began to repress.

In 1960 an army coup finally overthrew the government, hanged Menderes and a few associates on charges of corruption in 1961, and installed a new constitution based on modern economic and social principles, with provisions to prevent the kind of repression the Democrats had inflicted.

F

2

Slide Towards Chaos

After the second constitution was adopted in 1961, Turkey was governed by a series of ever weaker governments. The rapid economic development of the 1950s, combined with liberal legislation freeing workers and others to unite, engendered a series of organizations that assumed power and authority formerly held by the government, the legislature, and the political parties. At the same time, an increasingly active leftist movement spawned violent extremist groups, which engaged in terrorist acts to achieve their ends. These in turn led to the formation of right-wing terrorist bands, leaving the country polarized and both sides fomenting violence.

The labour organizations that sprang up after 1950 coalesced into two major labour confederations, Turkish Labour (Turk IŠ), representing the rightist and more moderate groups, and the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, incorporating the Communist and other leftist groups. By the mid-1960s the influence of these organizations spread to all areas of Turkish life.

Political affairs also were polarized in two major parties, the Republican People’s Party, which under the leadership of Bülent Ecevit tended to incorporate social-democratic ideas, and the Justice Party, led by Süleyman Demirel, which more or less represented the old Atatürk traditions. Several minor Communist and Socialist parties represented the various extremes of the left, whereas the National Action Party spoke for Turkish nationalists and the National Salvation Party advocated a return to an Islam-oriented state. Both of these parties favoured active social and economic programmes, making it difficult to classify them as right wing in the ordinary sense of the term. The proportional representation provisions of the 1961 constitution made it difficult for any party to gain the majority needed to enact effective legislation. Action, therefore, was taken to the streets.

F

3

Occupation of Cyprus

Throughout the governmental chaos of this era, Turkey remained faithful to its alliance with the West, providing military bases for NATO and US forces facing the USSR. This alliance was subjected to considerable strain in 1974, when Turkey occupied the northern third of Cyprus in response to a Greek-engineered coup on the island, declaring it an independent republic. The United States subsequently suspended military and economic aid, and Turkey responded by temporarily closing all US bases in the country. Turkish troops remained in northern Cyprus, and Turkey continued to support a separate Turkish Cypriot government, defying the United States and the UN.

European governments in the 1990s began negotiations with both Greece and Turkey to admit a divided Cyprus to full membership of the EU. The Congress of the United States ultimately resumed its assistance, leading the Turks to reopen the bases, but the incident left them suspicious of the US presence, a situation encouraged and amplified by the vocal leftist groups and abetted by Communist propaganda. Islamic groups also began to oppose the US presence, preferring that Turkey abandon its secularist traditions in foreign affairs and draw closer to the Muslim Arab countries that were benefiting from their new-found oil wealth and the resulting political power.