At the end of the World War I, the empires were scattered and instead
new nation - states were founded. After the collapsing of the Ottoman
Empire, The Republic of Turkey was founded as a nation - state.
At the presidency of Atatürk, The Government of Great National Assembly
had saved the land from the invasion of foreign forces with the
Independence War and with the Lozan Treaty the existence of the
new Turkish Republic was approved by the nations of the world.
The months following the Lozan Treaty had passed with the preparations
of a new political formation. In order to take the leadership, the
Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası (Partisi) (National Republic Party) had
been founded ( September 9,1923). Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was appointed
for the presidency of the party. The military personnel who were
in charge at the Independence War and the senior bureaucrats were
appointed for the administration staff of the party. The party was
defending the subjects like continuance of the national strife in
a civilian medium, the modernization of the country and execution
of the Western system, institutions and life style which was chosen
as a model. In order to shape the government according to the democratic
and modern facts declaration of Republic was realized in September
29,1923. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was the great and successful
leader of the national strife was elected to become the first President
of the Turkish Republic by a unanimous vote. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
had appointed İsmet İnönü as the first Prime Minister. Four months
later, the caliphate organization, which was not concordant with
the principle of republicanism, was removed and the members of the
Ottoman Dynasty were deported from the country. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
was fully aware that for the foundation of a modern community, the
religious and the governmental tasks should be separated from each
other, so he had realized the most important social deviation by
the principle of "secularism". As the caliphate organization
was removed, a series of severe reforms were realized at the associations
bounded to this organization. Major steps in the subject of the
Women Rights were realized. The marriage with several women was
prohibited and the necessity of legal marriage was obliged. The
law for divorcement right by the court is issued. Before most of
the European countries, the women had attained the rights of election
and electing for the municipalities in 1930, village elder committees
in 1933 and TBMM in 1934. One of the major steps realized in the
path of modernization was executed in the field of Turkish language.
A new Turkish alphabet was prepared by the Ministry of National
Education and the law suggesting the usage of Latin letters was
approved by TBMM in November 1,1928. The former weight and length
measures were changed in 1931.
The "Law of Surnames" was issued in June 21,1934, and
the founder of the Turkish Government and Republic Mustafa Kemal
had been granted the surname "Atatürk" by TBMM. He was
now the ancestor of the entire Turks.
The endeavors for creating a modern country on the basis of secularism
was reflected to the constitution level and with a modification
in 1928, the "the religion of the Turkish Republic is Islam"
verdict was removed from the constitution. In 1937, the verdict
stating that the Turkey is a secular government was inscribed in
the constitution. Atatürk has executed the evolutions under the
leadership of the National Republic Party, which was founded as
a party representing the entire nation, and he had inspired this
evolutions and principles to the entire nation.
The Government of the Republic had adopted a model primarily based
on private enterprises in order to develop the collapsed economy
taken as a heritage but obliged to apply state control policy growing
in time.
A foreign policy depending on peace and the borders of Milli Misak
(National Borders) during the period of Atatürk. With the application
of a successful diplomacy, Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits remained
inside the national defense system (Montreux Treaty, 1936). With
the Balkan (1934) and Sadabad (1937) pacts, the amity policy displayed
towards the entire neighboring nations were widespread. Peaceful
policies directed towards Europe and the utilization of the international
conditions had allowed the reunification of Hatay, which was abandoned
to the French before, with the motherland.
With all of his dynamism, strong intuitions, ability to truly calculate
the power balances, the true evaluation of the inner and foreign
conditions, Atatürk had passed away in November 10,1938 leaving
big traces in the direction of the Western model behind. His descendant
country had adopted his principles.
After the death of Atatürk, İsmet İnönü was elected to become the
second President of the Turkish Republic. He was the "single
chief" of his period as the President of the Government and
the political party. He was in the service during the most depressed
period of the world and Turkey. During his Prime Minister service,
he tried to resist to the economic crisis of the world with the
policy of state control. He attempted to improve the industry by
the assistance of Public Financial Enterprises (KİT) and executed
major reforms in this fact.
The most important achievement of İsmet İnönü was the success to
exclude Turkey from the World War II. His policies concerning this
fact were being executed in the ways of obtaining the balance between
various powers at the same time and the securing this situation
of the country in some directions. Turkey was invited to San Francisco
Summit in March 5,1945 and was located among the countries founding
the United Nations. Turkey had not participated to the World Wear
II but was affected in negative way.
İnönü was a farsighted man of politics, so he could not be a mere
spectator either to the winds of freedom and democracy starting
to blow in the world after the World War II or to the social reactions
aroused from the depressions of war. As a matter of fact, he talked
about the necessity of the "liberalization of the regime"
in 1945. And later, he vocalized "the necessity for an opposition
party". From this path he cleared he tolerantly watched the
foundation of Demokrat Parti (Democrat Party) from the CHP, and
in 1950 DP had gained the governmental power as a result of the
countrywide elections.
DP who speaks in the favor of democracy and a liberal economy had
developed rapidly, managed to participate to the General Assembly
in1946 and to attain the power of government alone in the elections
of May 14,1950. Thus the period of the single party in Turkey was
ended and the first change of power by the vote of nation was realized.
DP had increased the number of the votes in the 1954 elections,
therefore riveted its status of power. Although the votes of the
party had greatly decreased in 1957, the party had attained the
status of power until 27 May 1960.
During his ten-year period of rulership, DP had brought a significant
vigor to the economy and the daily life of the community. The economy
expanded, the income of the people had increased and numerous villages
had attained the services like roads, infrastructure and electricity.
New cultivation fields were arranged, the mechanization in agriculture
field was initiated, there was a significant increase in trade and
major steps were taken in the field of Industry. The process of
transference of foreign and commerce capital to industry had started.
After 1954, the public support to the DP government began to weaken
and because of the political and economic factors in Turkey, the
Turkish Armed Forces had seized the power in the morning of May
27,1960.
The Adalet Partisi (Justice Party) which effected the political
life of Turkey between 1960 and 1970 was founded in February 11,1961.
The retired full general Ragıp Gümüşpala was elected as the first
general chairman of the party. After the death of Gümüşpala in 1964,
The Government Water Processes Former General Director Süleyman
Demirel was elected to the position of the General Chairman. The
government period of AP between the years 1965 - 1971 was one of
the brightest periods of Turkey in economic, social and political
aspects.
The student actions and movements initiated in France in 1968 and
spread throughout the world had entered to the agenda of Turkey
from the first place by the end of 1960's. These student actions
initially had the characteristics of revolt against the education
and examination system in universities but would gain the political
and ideological content afterwards. The freedom medium of the 1960's
ended with the March 12,1971 memorandum. At the 1972 General Assembly,
Ecevit and friends had stated their candidacy for the party administration
against the group of İnönü. After the succession of the list of
Ecevit, İnönü had resigned from the general director position, deputy
position and CHP membership. At the urgent assembly of the extraordinary
General Assembly, Ecevit was elected for the position of General
Chairman. A new period was started for CHP. In the 1973 elections,
CHP had gathered the highest vote amount. After long negotiations
CHP General Chairman Ecevit had established a coalition government
with the Milli Selamet Partisi (National Security Party) (MSP) displaying
the Islamic movements. Although this extraordinary coalition had
resulted in some positive outcomes, the effects of petroleum crisis
occurring throughout the world had been reflected to Turkey.
After the stroke of ENOSIS against the Makarios government in Cyprus
in 1974 June, Turkey was forced to use its rights of guarantorship
arising from the London Treaty and 1960 Cyprus Constitution and
had executed a military intervention against the island. In this
period, the economic problems become much heavier. The basic nutriment
materials, petroleum and gas were out of stock. The queues and the
black market begin to exist. Although the January 24,Decisions issued
by the Demirel government had positive consequences in the short
term, the terror actions continued. In order to continue the liberation
and economic stability programs initiated with the 24 January Decisions,
the Anavatan Parti (Motherland Party) (ANAP) was founded by the
demand of power. The parties to participate the 6 November 1983
elections was ANAP, MDP and HP and ANAP was elected with the vote
ratio of 45.1 percent and attained the power alone. The first ANAP
government was founded in 13 December at the presidency of Turgut
Özal.
ANAP had attained the power alone in the 1983 elections under the
presidency of Turgut Özal and continued the succession of being
in power in the 1987 elections. The most important characteristic
of the Özal Period was the transformation of the economy into a
brand new direction with the brave and resolute reforms. Özal had
described this liberal transformation as "Big Transformation",
and in this transformation the Law of Preserving The Value of the
Turkish Money and the foreign exchange regime was totally altered,
the import and export policies become free, the "free exchange
rate system" in foreign exchange was adopted. A new economic
model granting priority to exportation replaced the "import
establishment" model, which is an economic model closed to
the foreign countries. The most important development in the foreign
policy was the relative improvement of the relations with the European
countries. As a matter of fact, the European Committee Consultation
Council had accepted the participation of Turkish parliamentary
to this committee in May 1984. In addition, Turkey had attained
a neutral policy during the war of Iran and Iraq and therefore the
trade relations with these countries had improved in positive way.
The income obtained from export and tourism processes had greatly
increased in this period as a result of the increasing interaction
of Turkey with the countries of Middle East and Europe.
After the separation of the Soviet United Nations in 1991, Turkey
had improved its relations with the recent Independent Central Asian
Republics as a result of the enterprises executed by President Özal
and the government. Therefore, the new horizons for Turkey of being
a "Regional government" had been set. The Black Sea Economic
Cooperation, which became an institution by a summit meeting in
June1992 and including the total area of Black Sea Basin as the
Caucasia and Balkans had increased the importance of Turkey in the
Region. Turkey had also played an important and active role in the
subjects of Bosnia - Herzigova and Somali.
After the death of Turgut Özal in April 17,1993, Süleyman Demirel
was elected to the position of the President of the Turkish Republic.
As a result of the power of the coalition governments of various
political parties between the years 1993 - 2000 the political structure
had gained a new multi dimensional structure. After the formation
of this particular new political intellect assisting the settlement
of democracy culture in the country, Turkey had taken major steps
among the path leading to the European Community.