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Chapter Six Post-War International Tensions, and the Expression of Opposition On May 19, 1945, during his address on the national day celebrating Turkish youths, I . smet I . nönü announced his vision of the future: The Turkish nation is entering a new period of effort. We have the responsibility of working without stopping in order to complete the formation of … an advanced society as quickly as possible. In order to solve the fundamental problems of our society, we will expand the efforts we showed during the tight years of the war.… The political system and the administration of the people, formed with the Republic, will continue to develop in all aspects and in every way. As the difficulties of the war that showed the need for cautious measures disappear, democratic principles will prevail in wider measure in the political and cultural life of the country.1 It was the end of the war, and I . nönü was calling for changes. But his speech prompted questions: Was I . nönü’s call for change a response to the growing criticism of the government, or did he believe that the end of the war would allow abandonment of cautious domestic policy, perhaps leading to the democratization of the political process? A group of members of the National Assembly who had dinner with I . nönü earlier in the year, anticipated that what he called for would alter the political process in Turkey. During this dinner I . nönü talked about the need for a multi-party system and recalled the failure of the first two experiments, the Progressive Republican Party of 1924 and the Free Party of 1930. I . nönü said that in restraining their development , both Atatürk and he had “made a mistake.” According to Faik Ahmet Barutçu, I I . nönü believed, that “At whatever the cost, we should have protected the second party and made it survive. If we had…we would 113 114 THE POLITICS OF TURKISH DEMOCRACY not have this deficiency now. [But] we will make up for this deficiency. Those that carried out a revolution will also succeed at this…it needs a struggle of only ten years.”2 I . nönü also confided privately to Nihat Erim, a member of the Assembly, that “I could live the rest of my life with a single-party regime. But I am thinking of later. I am thinking of what happens after me. For that reason, we must enter this work without delay.”3 It was clear for I . nönü that the “formation of an advanced society” demanded democracy , which required establishing a multi-party system.4 As I . nönü, political leaders, and theTurkish people contemplated changes in the political process, the cabinet of Şükrü Saraçoğlu prepared plans for the government’s economic policy after the war.5 The Post-War Development Plan was based on the assumption that the government would continue to play a major role in all aspects of the economy; thus there would be no significant alterations in statist economic policies after the war. The continuity reflected in the Post-War Development Plan was in contrast to I . nönü’s May 19 speech promising changes in the political process. But, they both reflected an ongoing trend in I . nönü’s presidency: an intention to introduce reform of political institutions to make them more open and responsive to the people, while maintaining government control of economic development . For I . nönü, these two currents were not contradictory, but complemented each other. He believed that if the economic development of the country were directed by private interests, rather than by the government, such direction would interfere with the political process. For I . nönü, statism was a policy of the state designed to protect the people.6 Pressure for substantial change was widening the debate on the nature and extent of the need for new policies in the post-war world, and these discussions were greatly influenced by changing Turkish foreign relations. In the post-war world, Turkey’s key to survival changed from neutrality to alliance, which required changes not only in foreign but in domestic policy. Changes and concessions in Turkish domestic policy, especially on statist policies, were seen as part of the ideological readjustment demanded by the dynamics of the bi-polar world, and integral to being part of the Western alliance. Just as the Western powers began to demand change...

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