The Politics of Turkish Democracy: Ismet Inonu and the Formation of the Multi-Party System, 1938-1950

Chapter One: Political Discourse and Reform in Turkey

Chapter One Political Discourse and Reform in Turkey The political discourse of the period 1938–50 developed in continuity with the political discourse of the Ottoman period, which was carried forward by the National Struggle into the Turkish Republic. Four main issues remained salient from the late Ottoman Empire through this period: defining and achieving development and progress; expanding or limiting the influence of the central bureaucracy and the military; defining nation and community, and establishing beneficial relations with the Western powers, particularly Britain, Germany, and Russia, and later the United States. The longevity of the debates over these four issues reflected continuity between the Ottoman and Turkish Republican periods in terms of the makeup of the political elite and access to the forum of political debate. But this longevity also demonstrates long-running and significant disagreements , within the elite, regarding these four main issues in Turkish politics. And while the continuity between the Ottoman and Turkish periods is striking, domestic and international changes meant that political perspectives and possibilities evolved and altered according to new circumstances. The reforms of the nineteenth century Tanzimat (reorganization) emerged out of the growing awareness of the West and the relative weakness of the central Ottoman government, both of which presented political and economic challenges. In this period, growing military pressure from Russia was matched by increasing economic pressure from Western Europe as the Empire confronted divisions brought by separatist-nationalist movements , including the Greek Revolution of 1820–28, insurrections in the Balkans, and the growing power of Mehmet Ali and his successors 7 8 THE POLITICS OF TURKISH DEMOCRACY in Egypt. During the Tanzimat period, the integration of the Ottoman Empire into the capitalist system was facilitated through the terms of the 1838 Commercial Convention redefining the Empire as a free trade zone.1 The Tanzimat, as a means to reorganize the Empire’s internal economic and political structures, including its tax and land-holding systems, emerged from the belief among prominent reformers such as Ali Pasha and Fuat Pasha, and Ahmed Cevdet Pasha and Midhat Pasha, that the restoration of old religious and military institutions, which had given strength to the Empire in the past, would no longer meet the needs of changing circumstances . The Tanzimat, as a reform movement, reflected the changing ideas of power and progress in the minds of the administrators of the Empire.2 The sense of advancement that had earlier stemmed from the expansion of territories gradually left its place to the exertion of control by a stronger central government in the shrinking Empire. The reforms of the Tanzimat, designed and enacted by palace administrators , were aimed at modernization of the Empire’s military and bureaucracy, and centralization of power for more efficient administration. Ultimately, economic development, and reform of the tax and land-holding systems were also viewed in this light. As the autocracy was strengthened, a group of intellectuals, known as the Young Ottomans (Yeni Osmanlılar), who included I . brahim Şınasi, Namık Kemal, Ali Suavi, and Ziya Pasha, emerged as its critics. Using the new devise of newspapers, especially Tasvir-i Efkâr [Description of Ideas], the Young Ottomans began to debate political ideas regarding the state, progress, nation, and relations with the West, and called for adoption of representative institutions to check the power of the Sultan.3 While there were disagreements over methods, the Young Ottoman intellectuals and the Tanzimat reformers shared similar goals: to modernize the state and protect the homeland. Their arguments centered on two focal points: redefining the nation in light of the challenge of European expansion, and the role of the bureaucracy and military in maintaining and modernizing the state. In this context one of the central issues confronting intellectuals was the role of Islam. Part of the Young Ottoman agenda was the simplification of Ottoman Turkish by excluding Arabic and Persian words and by altering the Arabic script. Supporters of language, legal, and educational reforms argued that public expressions of religion must be in a new progressive form, which would also serve to fill the vacuum left by the replacement of traditional institutions by the Westernizing Tanzimat reforms.4 As the central and provincial administrations were reformed to extend the power of the state into the provinces, military reforms were carried out to create a more clear and effective chain of command, a more efficient use of resources, and to make the military...