The Political Developments in Turkey During Ataturk's Period
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Open Journal of Political Science, 2017, 7, 511-523 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojps ISSN Online: 2164-0513 ISSN Print: 2164-0505 The Political Developments in Turkey during Ataturk’s Period Elnur Hasan Mikail1, Andaç Karabulut2 1Department of Political Sciences and International Relations, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kafkas Univer- sity, Kars, Turkey 2Department of Political Sciences and International Relations, Istanbul Esenyurt University, Istanbul, Turkey How to cite this paper: Mikail, E. H., & Abstract Karabulut, A. (2017). The Political Devel- opments in Turkey during Ataturk’s Pe- It has been understood that during the Şeyh Sait Rebellion in East Anatolia, riod. Open Journal of Political Science, 7, the Prime Minister Fethi Bey had a talk with the Leaders of this Party, that he 511-523. had warned them and suggested to moderate or totally remove the Party or- https://doi.org/10.4236/ojps.2017.74040 ganizations there. As this revolt became a dangerous face, the Government Received: September 25, 2017 legalized the proposed Law concerning “the Religion must not be an instru- Accepted: October 24, 2017 ment for the Politics” on the 25th of February 1925. However, after the ques- Published: October 27, 2017 tioning proposal in the C.H.P group with 18 signs concerning the facts in the Copyright © 2017 by authors and East, there was held a vote of confidence for the Government and the cabinet Scientific Research Publishing Inc. resigned as a mistrust result for Fethi Bey with 60 dissential votes from 94 to- This work is licensed under the Creative tal votes. Ismet Paşa was charged with the duty to set up a new cabinet. In Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). view of the Şeyh Sait Rebellion, it has been seen that the Progressive-minded http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Party supported the cabinet of Fethi Bey and moreover, that the Leader Kazim Open Access Karabekir Paşa responded the martial Law decision of this Government as constructive and that he condemned this Rebellion by saying that: those who put the national presence in danger by procuring the religion as an instrument are deserving curse. This behaviour is infidelity to the country about the Re- bellion. Keywords Political Developments, Turkey, Ataturk, Kazim Karabekir Pasha, Progressive Republican Party, Free Republican Party, The Menemen Incident 1. Introduction However as Karabekir Paşa and also Rauf Bey and the notables from the other Progressive-minded Party were against Ismet Paşa who wants to have the Ta- DOI: 10.4236/ojps.2017.74040 Oct. 27, 2017 511 Open Journal of Political Science E. H. Mikail, A. Karabulut krir-i Sükun (Peace official Note) Law accepted, it is seen that they were not for the application of radical precautions to protect the Republic Regime. Despite the fact that the Opposition was against it, the request of the Ismet Paşa Gov- ernment on this issue the Takrir-i Sükun (Peace official Note) Act went into force voted by the Turkish National Assembly on 4 March 1924 with 23 negative and 2 abstaining votes and 155 votes in total. Together with this Act also the Courts of Independence took up their duty again. Once the Şeyh Sait Rebellion was suppressed, during the judgment of the insurgents, leaders”, the Eastern Court Of Independece decided to close the Party due to the fact that the Pro- gressive minded Republic Party was connected with religious propaganda and provocations. After the Progressive Republican Party (Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Firkasi) completed its establishment, it started criticizing the government. It increased its criticism even more during the by-election, carried out for the thirteen deputies, claiming that it had been exposed to pressure. Meanwhile the party’s attitude to “regard it as useful to instrumentalize religious elements against its rivals” caught Mustafa Kemal’s attention, who had been struggling to realize secular reforms successfully. Thus, the party was labeled as anti-republican and reactio- nary by Mustafa Kemal Pasha. 1.1. Progressive-Minded Republic Party It has been deduced that during the Sheikh Said Rebellion in the Eastern Anato- lia Region the Prime Minister in Mr. Fethi Okyar had warned the party leader and proposed that the party organizations should be either restrained or com- pletely abolished in this region. When the rebellion took a dangerous turn, on 25th February 1925 the government legalized the proposal that “religion should not be instrumentalized for political ends”. After the Republican People’s Party (CHP) group applied for an inquiry with 18 signatures, a vote of confidence was executed against the Prime Minister Mr. Fethi Okyar, which resulted in 60 to 94 votes of nonconfidence and thus the cabinet resigned. Ismet Pasha was charged with the duty of forming the new government. It was seen that the Progressive Republican Party supported the cabinet of Mr. Fethi Okyar concerning the Sheikh Said Rebellion. The leader of the PRP Mr. Kazim Karabekir even de- nounced the rebellion by stating that “Those who abuse religion in order to en- danger the national existence are worthy of damnation. This is a betrayal of the fatherland.” (Ağaoğlu, 1981: 25). Still it was noted that Karabekir Pasha, Mr. Rauf Orbay and other notable PRP members objected to Ismet Pasha who demanded the Law for the Preservation of Order (Takrir-I Sükun Kanunu) to be passed and argued against radical measures to be taken to preserve the republican regime. Despite the objections by the opposition, in accordance with the demand of Ismet Pasha Government the Law for the Preservation of Order was passed with 23 no-votes and two ab- staining votes to 155 votes on the 4th March 1924. With this Law the Indepen- dence Courts restarted operating. After the Sheikh Said Rebellion was put down, DOI: 10.4236/ojps.2017.74040 512 Open Journal of Political Science E. H. Mikail, A. Karabulutl during the judging process of the ringleaders of the rebellion, “the East Inde- pendence Court delivered the judgment that the PRP would be closed down due to its connections to religious propaganda and provocation.” The claim of the Court that the party had connections with the rebellion and the harsh attitude of the government towards the party have been influential factors for the delivery of this judgment. The PRP was closed down with the cabinet decision on 5th June 1925 (Aydemir, 1966: 100-101). The Izmir assassination was the last act of the struggle between the constitu- tional monarchists and the republicans after the closure of the Progressive Re- publican Party. During this rebellion the government made use of the Law of Takrir-i Sükun and established a strict supervision over the press and left the opposition effectless besides the leaders of the assassination. The Progressive Republican Party, which had a political existence of approximately seven months, was the first attempt for an opposition party and there was no such an attempt until 1930. One of the most important conclusions to draw from this experience has been that it was understood that the multi-party regime and the revolutions would not go along with each other. Therefore, the republican re- gime had to wait for another attempt of establishing a multi-party regime, till it completed its revolutions (Hüsameddin, 1964: 198-200). 1.2. Sheikh Said Rebellion Sheikh Said started the first rebellion on 13th February 1925 in Piran, the village of Egil town, which is the district of Ergani. According to Ataturk and his friends, this rebellion was a pre-planned movement. There was a doubt that England, Vahdettin who was in abroad and Seyit Abdulkadir, the President of İstanbul Kurd Association, took place in that movement. The rebellion pro- gressed quickly, after all, although Prime Minister Fethi Okyar was not nervous, he did not pay attention to the claim that Terakkiperver Party encouraged the actions (events); but the Republic (Community) Party started to broke up and the arguments were exorbitant. Hereupon, Fethi Okyar had to withdraw (re- treated) from Presidency. The second cabinet of Republic of Turkey survived just for three months. Ismet Pasha became the leader of the cabinet once again (Kirçak, 2001: 63). At first, he captured Darhani which is the centre of Genc city, and after he forced to withdraw a regiment and ambushed a cavalcade, he captured Elazig. Then, even though rebellious groups went forward to Diyarbakir and wanted to capture the city, they got nothing. Ali Fethi Okyar cabinet thought that the re- bellion was regional could be controlled (counterinsurgency) promptly. But, as the rebellion spread out quickly; and included Diyarbakir, Elaziğ and Genc cities and started to enlarge, the cabinet proclaimed martial law in the region. The ac- tion is a rebellion that threatened to newly-established Republic of Turkey and its reforms. In the caliphate congress in Bucharest, Vahdettin partisans decided to attempt a counter-revolution by conspiring in Turkey and making rebellion. DOI: 10.4236/ojps.2017.74040 513 Open Journal of Political Science E. H. Mikail, A. Karabulut Counter-rebellion committee contributed to confidential declarations, reform breakthroughs were disparaged by mobile hodjas and street traders and made suggestions in favor of caliphate. Caliphate Committee made preparation for a revolution by compromising with Sheikh Said (Bilgin, 1989: 41). 1.3. The Establishment of Peace Act (Tahrir-i Sükun) The Establishment of Peace Act came into force on 4th of March 1925 with the aim of preventing the dangers and the unprecedented conditions created by the Progressive Republican Division (Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Firkasi) and the Şeyh Sait rebellion. The act which was to be valid for two years was extended for another two before being rescinded on 4th of March 1929. At no time and under no circumstances did we use the unprecedented but the legal measures to suppress the law or as a tool, on the contrary we used to it to establish order and security in the country and to provide for the continuity of the state and to protect its independence.