Left of Center (Turkey)
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Left of Center ( tr, Ortanın solu) was a popular political ideology in the 1960s and 1970s in
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
.


Background

Turkish Constitution of 1961 The Constitution of 1961, officially titled the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Anayasası), was the fundamental law of Turkey from 1961 to 1982. It was introduced following the 1960 ''coup d'état'', replacin ...
was a more democratic constitution than the previous constitution. A number of new parties were founded including socialist parties. Among them
Workers Party of Turkey Workers' Party of Turkey (''Türkiye İşçi Partisi'') was a Turkish political party, founded the 13 February 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice (after the mi ...
(TÄ°P) created some sensation.
Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey which currently stands as the main opposition party. It is also the oldest political party ...
(CHP) which is the oldest party and known as the founder of the Republic was also influenced by the socialist discourse.


Early years of "Left to center"

Beginning by 1965 election campaign, CHP speakers began using the slogan "left of center". Both the party leader
İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman of Kurdish descent, who served as the second President of Turkey from 11 November 1938 to 22 May 1950, and its Prime Minister three tim ...
and
Bülent Ecevit Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist, who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in ...
, the former
Minister of Labour Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...
defined the CHP position in the political spectrum as "left of center". İnönü in an interview said, "Actually we are already a left-to-center party after embracing
Laïcité (; 'secularism') is the constitutional principle of secularism in France. Article 1 of the French Constitution is commonly interpreted as discouraging religious involvement in government affairs, especially religious influence in the determin ...
(secularity) If you are populist, you are (also) at the left of center." In another interview İnönü said that the party was a
statist In political science, statism is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation and the means of production. While in use since ...
party and this was left of center. İnönü was referring to the
Kemalist Kemalism ( tr, Kemalizm, also archaically ''Kamâlizm''), also known as Atatürkism ( tr, Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü düşünce), or The Six Arrows ( tr, Altı Ok), is the founding official ideology of the Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurcher ...
ideology (the traditional ideology of the party) and the three of the six arrows in the party flag namely; laicism, populism and statism. Thus according to him the party was already at the left of the center. However unlike İnönü, Ecevit was trying to shift the general policy of the party to left. Although he did not exclude Kemalism, he tried to transform the party into a
social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
party while avoiding using the words ''social democratic''. His most sensational objective was summarized by the slogan he used during the
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
campaign on 11 August 1969: ''Toprak işleyenin, su kullananın'' ("Soil belongs to those who cultivate it and water belongs to those who use it.")


Split in the party

CHP rivals accused left-of-center politics as
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and they created a slogan "''Ortanın Solu, Moskova'nın yolu''" meaning "left of center, way of Moscow."Gülsüm Tütüncüe Esmer's article in Dokuz Eylül University Bulletin
/ref> Bülent Ecevit's new policy caused also an interparty strife between Ecevit and
Turhan Feyzioğlu Turhan Feyzioğlu (1922 – 24 March 1988) was a Turkish academic and a politician. Early life He was born in Kayseri. After finishing the primary school in Kayseri, he studied in Galatasaray High School and in Law school of Istanbul Universi ...
, CHP group leader in parliament. In 1966 Ecevit was elected as the secretary general of the party and for a while the party secretary and the group leader engaged in a war of public notices. Finally FeyzioÄŸlu and his supporters left the party and founded
Reliance Party Republican Reliance Party ( tr, Cumhuriyetçi Güven Partisi, CGP) was a former party in Turkey. Background The Republican People's Party (CHP) which is usually credited as the founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923 was the oldest party in Tu ...
in 1967. After a second split which made way to Republican Party in 1972, and the resignation of İsmet İnönü on 8 May 1972, Bülent Ecevit became the leader of the party.


Leader of CHP

Under Ecevit's leadership CHP increased its support. Up to the 1970s, CHP was known as a party of intellectuals and had difficulty to gain support among the blue-collar workers and the villagers. During Bülent Ecevit's leadership the party began to gain support in the working class. ''Umudumuz Ecevit'' ("Our hope Ecevit"), ''Halkçı Ecevit'' ("Populist Ecevit") and ''Karaoğlan'' ("Brunet Boy", a popular folk hero) were Bülent Ecevit's epithets. Ecevit was able to be the prime minister of Turkey three times before 1980; in the 37th, 40th and the
42nd government of Turkey The 42nd government of Turkey (5 January 1978 – 12 November 1979) was a coalition government of Republican People's Party (CHP) and some independents. The elections On the last day of 1977, the 41st government of Turkey came to an end because o ...
. In 1977 elections the votes of CHP peaked at 41%, but during the 42nd government the popularity of the party began to decrease. Following 1980 Turkish coup d'état all parties (right and left) were closed by the military rule. But even before the closure of the party, Ecevit resigned from his post on 30 October 1980.


After the coup

In 1983 military rule decided to turn to civilian regime and allowed the formation of new parties albeit with severe restrictions. According to instructions, the new parties were not allowed to use the names of the former parties and senior politicians were not allowed to be the charter member of the new parties. Furthermore, military rule had the power of rejecting the founders. This gave the military rule a privilege to limit the number of parties that would attend the coming parliamentary elections. It was clear that neither Bülent Ecevit nor the other notable left-of-center politician would participate in the elections which would be held on 6 November 1983. Under these circumstances CHP partisans founded two new parties; Social Democracy Party (SODEP) of
Erdal İnönü Erdal İnönü (6 June 1926 – 31 October 2007) was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician, who served as the interim Prime Minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from ...
, a physics professor and late İsmet İnönü's son, and People's Party (HP) of
Necdet Calp Necdet Calp (September 7, 1922 – September 13, 1998) was a Turkish civil servant and politician. Early life He was born in Karamürsel ilçe of Kocaeli Province, Turkey on 7 September 1922. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, ...
, a former bureaucrat. In the
1983 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general elec ...
, military rule banned SODEP and consequently moderate HP became the main opposition party. However, in 1984 local elections SODEP gained about three times as much votes than the HP.
Aydın Güven Gürkan Aydın Güven Gürkan (May 10, 1941 Elazığ-January 22, 2006 Istanbul) was a Turkish academic and politician. Early life He was born in Elazığ on 10 May 1941. In 1963, he graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Ankara University. ...
, the new leader of HP tried to ally with Bülent Ecevit. But Bülent Ecevit was reluctant. Instead Erdal İnönü and Aydın Güven Gürkan agreed on a plan to merge their parties. On 2 November 1985 the two parties merged under the name Social Democrat People's Party (SHP). According to 1982 Constitution of Turkey Bülent Ecevit could not participate in politics. So his wife
Rahşan Ecevit Rahşan Ecevit (''née'' Aral, 17 December 1923 – 17 January 2020) was a Turkish author, painter and politician. She was the second lady of Turkey four times during her husband Bülent Ecevit's prime ministries. Biography She was born in Bu ...
founded Democratic Left Party (DSP) on 14 November 1985, i.e., only twelve days after the other two parties merged. None of these parties used left-of-center slogan. But the name of RahÅŸan Ecevit's party used the phrase "democratic left" which evoked "left of center".


Aftermath

In 1987 SHP was the main opposition party. On 6 September 1987 the ban on the former politicians was lifted as a result of
Constitutional referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
. While the governing party campaigned for "no", SHP leader Erdal İnönü as well as the other opposition leaders, campaigned for "yes". However, this was not advantageous to SHP. Because charismatic Bülent Ecevit now the leader of DSP became a serious rival of SHP. In 1992 SHP was a coalition partner. On 19 April, Erdal İnönü was instrumental on lifting the ban on former political parties. But this again was not advantageous to SHP. Because on 9 September 1992 CHP was refounded and SHP lost a part of its supporters to CHP. The
local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...
held on 27 March 1994 showed that the social democrat votes were divided between three parties. Thus SHP leader
Murat Karayalçın Murat Karayalçın (born 1943) is a prominent Turkish politician. He is a former foreign minister (1994–1995), deputy prime minister, and a former mayor of Ankara (1989–1993). He is the founder (in 2002) of the new SHP. Karayalçın was edu ...
and CHP leader
Deniz Baykal Deniz Baykal (born 20 July 1938) is a Turkish politician at the Republican People's Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, abbreviated CHP) who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996. Having served in ...
agreed on another merge plan. On 18 February 1995 the parties merged.CHP on-line history {{in lang, tr
/ref> Although SHP was the bigger party upon former SHP leader Erdal İnönü's suggestion, the new party continued as CHP. DSP leader Bülent Ecevit once again stood aside.


Gallery

File:Inonu Ismet.jpg, İsmet İnönü File:Bülent Ecevit-Davos 2000 cropped.jpg, Bülent Ecevit File:Murat Karayalcın (portrait).jpg, Murat Karayalçın File:Deniz_Baykal2.jpg, Deniz Baykal


References

Politics of Turkey Republican People's Party (Turkey) Social democracy