Ragıp Gümüşpala

Ragıp Gümüşpala (* 1897 in Edirne , Edirne Province ; † June 5, 1964 ) was a Turkish general and politician , who was last head of the general staff ( Genelkurmay Başkanı ) of the Turkish armed forces ( Türk Silahlı Kuvetleri ) as well as founder and first in 1960 for almost two months Chairman of the Justice Party ( Adalet Partisi ).

Grave in Zincirlikuyu

Life

Military career and promotion to chief of staff

After visiting the Kuleli Cadet Institute , Gümüşpala took part in 1916 as a soldier in World War I in battles on the Palestine Front and in Galicia . After his promotion to second lieutenant , he was used in the battle of Megiddo in 1918 and captured there by the units of the British Army in 1918 . After his release in 1920 he fought under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha in the Turkish Liberation War and received the İstiklâl Madalyası medal donated by the Great National Assembly ( Büyük Millet Meclisi ) for his services there . In the following years he served as an officer in various units of the army, before he graduated from the Military Academy ( Harp Akademisi ) from 1931 to 1934 and then served again as an officer and staff officer in various army units until 1948 .

After his promotion to Brigadier General in 1948, he was first commander of a brigade of the 65th Infantry Division and was then commander of the school for motorized units as well as deputy commander of the 9th Division, before he was chief of staff of the 3rd Army until 1951 . In 1951 he was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the 65th Infantry Division and then deputy commanding general of the II Corps.

In 1955 Gümüşpala was promoted to lieutenant general and as such took over the post of commanding general of the VII Corps. After he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd Army in 1958 as the successor to Cemal Gürsel , he officially became its Commander-in-Chief after his promotion to General in 1959 .

While he was in command there, there was a military coup on May 27, 1960 against Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his Democrat Parti (DP). When radio speeches first announced that the leader of the coup were Colonel Alparslan Turkeş and Major General Cemal Madanoğlu , Gümüşpala announced that he would march into Ankara with his 3rd Army and end the coup if the leader of the coup was not ranked higher than himself hold myself. Ultimately, however, General Gürsel, now commander in chief of the land forces ( Türk Kara Kuvetleri ), was the leader of the coup. This coup brought him and a 38-strong committee of officers, the Committee of National Unity ( Millî Birlik Komitesi ), under the chairmanship of Gürsel to power. This initiated the disempowerment of President Celâl Bayar and the Grand National Assembly.

On June 6, 1960, Gümüşpala succeeded Mustafa Rüştü Erdelhun as chief of the general staff. However, due to his proximity to the previous government and the Democratic Party and the original intention to thwart the coup, the Association of Former Officers ( Emekli İnkılap Subaylar Derneği ) protested against his appointment shortly afterwards , so that he took office on August 2, 1960 resigned and retired . His successor as Chief of the General Staff was then the previous Commander in Chief of the Land Forces, Cevdet Sunay , who later also became President.

Chairman of the Adalet Partisi and MP

After retiring, he became involved in politics. After the Democratic Party was banned on September 29, 1960, he founded the Justice Party ( Adalet Partisi ) a few months later on February 11, 1961 and became its chairman.

The AP was then in the election to the National Assembly in 1961 with 34.79 of the votes, the second strongest power after the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) of İsmet İnönü and got 158 ​​seats in the 450-member Grand National Assembly. In these elections he was elected MP in a constituency of Izmir and exercised this mandate until his death. In the Senate elections that took place at the same time , his party received 71 of the 150 Senate seats. During his membership in the Grand National Assembly, he was also the leader of the opposition from 1962 until his death, succeeding Osman Bölükbaşı .

In the local elections that took place on November 17, 1963 , the AP was even the strongest force ahead of the CHP, with 45.48 percent of the vote.

After Gümüşpala's death on June 5, 1964, Süleyman Demirel was his successor as chairman of the Adalet Partisi. In the subsequent election to the National Assembly in 1965 , the AP achieved an absolute majority with 52.87 percent, so that Demirel became Turkey's youngest Prime Minister at the age of 41.

Web links

• Entry in Kim Kimdir? (Who is who?)