Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası

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Progressive Republican Party
Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası (TCF)
Progressive Republican Party-TurkeySVG2.svg
founding November 17, 1924 by Kâzım Karabekir , Rauf Orbay , Ali Fuat Cebesoy , Refet Bele and Adnan Adıvar
resolution June 3, 1925
Alignment Liberalism , conservatism

The Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası ( Ottoman ترقی پرور جمهوريت فرقه سی İA Teraḳḳīperver Cumhūriyyet Fırḳası , German 'Progressive Republican Party' , contemporary Turkish: İlerici Cumhuriyet Partisi ) was the first opposition party in the history of the Republic of Turkey .

It was founded on November 17, 1924 under the leadership of Ataturk's brothers in arms and companions Kâzım Karabekir , Rauf Orbay , Ali Fuat Cebesoy , Refet Bele and Adnan Adıvar . In the party program, the TCF sees itself as liberal, republican, democratic and respectful of religion.

founding

The national resistance movement under Ataturk gathered its own parliament in Ankara and founded a new party called Halk Fırkası (People's Party) in 1923 . The first sign of the formation of an opposition party is the speech by Kâzım Karabekir in April 1923 before the second parliamentary elections:

“The Ghazi [meaning Ataturk] made it clear that he did not want any opponents, and presented those who were most loyal to him in word and writing and who had proven this with their deeds in the first National Assembly and all members of his headquarters as a candidate. I took my leave of the electoral commission because I was of the opinion that with such a compliant national assembly one could not win the trust of the dominant Allied states and that we would abolish the concept of freedom internally and this could possibly lead to an even more violent opposition ... "

- Gazi, 'ben muhalif istemiyorum' diyerek, kendisine kavlen ve tahriren en çok sadakat gösterenleri ve Birinci Meclis'te fiiliyatıyla bu emniyeti kazananları ve hemen bütünı karargâhınınordzuetınsteriyzuetlar gön. Ben de böyle emre uyan bir meclisle, Dünyaya hakim İtilaf devletlerin emniyetini kazanamayacağımızı ve dahilde de hürriyet mefhumunu kaldıracağımızı ve belki daha şiddetli bir muhalefete yolçıminden].

One day after the proclamation of the republic, Rauf Orbay issued a press release and criticized the procedure for the proclamation of the republic. This was a turning point and revealed a break within the CHP. As an example, Rauf Orbay cited İttihat ve Terakki , who came to power full of hope in 1908, but then led the country to its downfall through their party ethos.

After Ali Fuat Cebesoy, it was decided in September 1924 to found a party. At the founding meeting, the following view was reached:

“[…] 3- Although we advocated all reforms, we agreed that these were not intended to provide benefit to one person or group, but that they were ordered to serve the whole country and people. 4 - We wanted to do everything in our power to prevent our republican form of government from being used by any person or group. "

- […] 3- İnkılapların hepsine taraftar olmakla beraber, bunların herhangi bir şahsa veya zümreye imtiyaz Vermek için değil, bütün memlekete ve halkımıza mal edilmek emriyle yapılmıfşikuğu hakşnda mütte […] 4- Devlet şeklimiz olan Cumhuriyetin bir şahıs veya zümrenin idaresine alet olmasına mani olmaya elimizden geldiği kadar çalışacaktık.

The TCF was officially established on October 17, 1924 through an application to the Ministry of the Interior. In its founding letter, the party described its intentions as follows:

“In accordance with the principle that all violence emanates from the people and that the people themselves should control their own fate, [it was our intention] to strengthen the affairs of government in the republic, to ensure the implementation of laws in the country, and to ensure stability and security support and strengthen and, on the basis of renewal and completion, prepare the ground for leading the people and civilization in the modern age to prosperity. "

- Hakimiyetin bila kayd-ı şart Millette oldugu ve milletin mukadderatına bizzat vazıülyed bulunduğu esasına istinaden cumhuriyeti idareyi takviye etmek ve memlekette kanunların seyyanen tatbikini temin ile istikrar ve emniyeti teyid ve tezyid eylemek ve teceddüt ve tekamül esasları ile milleti medeniyeti muassırada bir refaha ISAL edecek esbabı hazırlamak ...

Party platform

The founding members (left to right) Adnan Adıvar, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Kâzım Karabekir, Rauf Orbay and Refet Bele in front of the Haydarpaşa train station .

The Dutch historian Erik-Jan Zürcher , who carried out the most extensive analyzes of the TCF, comes to the conclusion that the TCF was Europe-oriented and liberal. At the beginning of the party program it is emphasized: The people are aware and able to determine and direct their own fate . This rejected the CHP's thesis that the people were not ready for democracy. The greatest danger is when the people are cut off from sovereignty and rule. Personal freedom is the best protection of citizens from arbitrariness and wilderness. Sentences like We are all for general freedoms , personal freedom must be inviolable everywhere and our party is totally against tyranny illustrate the liberal attitude of the TCF.

In the main part of the party program, Paragraph 1 describes the form of government as a republic, which is based on the sovereignty of the people . According to Paragraph 2, the party's function is to ensure liberalism and democracy. In parliamentary elections, the people must decide who is to be elected (Paragraph 8). The tasks and duties of the state should be reduced to a minimum (Paragraph 9).

Laws should be made for the people (Paragraph 3) and a constitutional amendment without the consent of the people should be impossible (Paragraph 5). The TCF criticized the way the CHP was governed. The TCF also advocated that judges must be free from any influence (Section 10), that the President must resign from his parliamentary mandate (Section 12), that state officials must not be members of a political party (Section 13) and that the separation of powers be observed must.

Internal policy, the TCF was according to Paragraph 14 for the principle of decentralism ( Turkish Adem-i merkeziyet ). In addition, all state procedures and processes will be simplified (Paragraph 22) and the responsibility for the primary schools will lie with the municipalities (Paragraph 52). The TCF is against the economic policy of the CHP, which only wants to strengthen the country through the domestic economy. Free trade and export are important for an economic upswing (Paragraphs 30–32).

According to Section 6, the party was respectful of religion and viewed people's personal freedoms as inviolable. In Section 49, it continued to stand for the Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu (The Law to Unify the School System). In a press release one day after the party was founded, the TCF announced that it would also work with the CHP if the principles of liberalism, popular sovereignty and republicanism were agreed.

One of the main points of criticism of the TCF opponents of the party program was paragraph 6. This said: "The party is respectful of religion and belief." Ataturk criticized this point in his marathon speech ( Nutuk ) as follows:

“Can one expect good from someone who insists on the principle of 'respect for religion and belief'? Isn't this flag the flag that has been used by selfish people for centuries to lie to naive, narrow-minded and superstitious people for their own benefit? If the Turkish people have not been led into never-ending catastrophes and dirty swamps with this flag for centuries, from which they could only free themselves again at great sacrifice: do not step with this flag on those who want to present themselves as republican and progressive Foreground in order to incite religious fanaticism and thus to turn the people against republic, progress and renewal? "

- 'Parti, dinî düşünce ve inançlara saygılıdır' ilkesini bayrak olarak eline alan kimselerden iyi niyet beklenebilir miydi? Bu bayrak, yüzyıllardan beri cahilleri, bağnazları ve hurafelere inananları kandırarak özel çıkarlar sağlamaya kalkmış olanların taşıdıkları bayrak değil miydi? Türk milleti, yüzyıllardan beri, sonu gelmeyen felâketlere, içinden çıkabilmek için büyük fedakârlıkların gerekli oldugu pis bataklıklara, hep bu bayrak gösterilerek sürüklenmemiş miydi: Cumhuriyetçi ve yenilikçi olduklarını zannettirmek isteyenlerin, yine bu bayrakla ortaya atılmaları, dinî bağnazlığı coşturarak, milleti, Cumhuriyet'e, ilerlemeye ve yenileşmeye karşı kışkırtmak değil miydi?

Furthermore, Ataturk described the TCF as hostile to the republic, as a supporter of the Sultanate and the Caliphate , as pro-British, as seditious and as a traitor to the fatherland. Overall, Ataturk spoke of a party manifesto that had been devised by the worst traitorous heads.

Squad

After Tarık Zafer Tunaya , 28, according to Mete Tunçay, 29 MPs joined the TCF. The representatives with their provinces were in detail:

Ali Fuat Cebesoy (Ankara), Osman Nuri Özpay , Necati Kurtuluş (Bursa), Feridun Fikri Düşünsel ( Dersim , now Tunceli ), Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez (Edirne), İhsan Hamit Tigrel (Ergani, now part of Diyarbakir ), Sabit Sagiroglu (Erzincan ), Halet Bey , Münir Hüsrev Göle , Rüştü Pasa (Erzurum), Halil Işık (Ertuğrul) Miralay Arif Bey (Eskisehir), Zeki Kadirbeyoğlu (Gümüşhane) Up Orbay , Adnan Adıvar , Kâzım Karabekir , Ismail Canbulat , refet bele (Istanbul ) Hoca Kâmil Efendi (Karahisar-ı Sahip today Afyonkarahisar ) Hulusi Zarflı ( Karesi today Balıkesir ), Halit Akmansü (Kastamonu), Ahmet Şükrü Bey (Kocaeli), Abidin Bey (Manisa), Besim Özbek (Mersin), Faik Günday (Ordu), Halis Turgut (Sivas), Bekir Sami Kunduh (Tokat), Ahmet Muhtar Cilli , Rahmi Eyüboğlu (Trabzon).

After the founding of the TCF, six to seven MPs left the CHP. However, these did not join the TCF, but remained independent.

TCF and İttihat ve Terakki

The founders of the TCF were all previously members of the Young Turkish party İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti , which ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1908 and 1918. There were also some militant ex-members of İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti in the TCF, including Kara Vasıf, İsmail Canbulat, Halis Turgut and Rahmi Bey. Therefore, opponents of the TCF accused it of the same ideology, which the TCF denied.

According to some historians, the TCF was an attempt by the Young Turks to regain power in the country. When the TCF leadership was condemned after the attempted assassination of Ataturk, its association with İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti was emphasized.

The TCF in the press

The TCF was supported by much of the Istanbul press. The newspapers Vatan , Tevhidi Efkar , Son Telgraf and İstiklal in particular made propaganda for the TCF, while the newspapers Cumhuriyet and Akşam supported the CHP.

Relationship between the TCF and the CHP

Five days after the founding of the TCF, Prime Minister İsmet İnönü , known as a hardliner, resigned. He was replaced by the more moderate and more liberal Fethi Okyar . The TCF did not run for the mid-term elections in December 1924. The CHP thus became the election winner. Only in the provinces of Bursa and Kırkkilise (today's Kırklareli ) won independent candidates who, however, had been supported by the TCF. The victor from Bursa, Lieutenant General Nureddin Pascha , who had fought in the Turkish War of Independence, was denied the election victory. When the election was repeated, however, Nureddin Pasha won again.

Prohibition

The ruling CHP was criticized by the TCF for its actions against the Kurdish Sheikh Said uprising , which took place in 1925 because of state secularization tendencies. For its part, the government accused the TCF of religious propaganda and support for the uprising. The then Prime Minister Ali Fethi Okyar resigned and İsmet İnönü returned to office. On March 4, 1925, the government passed a law to restore public order ( Turkish: Takrir-i Sükûn Kanunu ). The law gave the government the authority to put down the insurrection. The uprising ended in April 1925 and Sheikh Said was sentenced to death in an independence court. Among other things, the law provided for high penalties for subversive publications in the press. As a result, all newspapers except for two CHP-affiliated newspapers were banned in April. The TCF was officially banned on June 3, 1925.

When plans for an assassination attempt on Ataturk emerged in 1926, all members of the TCF were arrested and six of them were sentenced to death by the Independence Court. The death sentences of a total of 19 defendants were carried out. Rauf Orbay and Adnan Adıvar had fled abroad. Some defendants, such as Kâzım Karabekir, Refet Bele and Ali Fuat Cebesoy, received imprisonment rather than death sentences for possible protests by the military.

Kâzım Karabekir said regarding the party ban:

“What we suffered was not as bad as what our people had to experience. We are happier than Mustafa Kemal, who claims to represent the people without mingling with the people. We succeeded - and nothing is as valuable as the covenant that unites us with our people. Nobody can take that away from us, so we consider ourselves lucky. "

- Sevil Bal, Arzu Onay-Ok : Turkey's accession to the EU and the situation of democracy, human and minority rights, p. 43

Years later, the members were amnestied, rehabilitated and held high political offices. A new opposition party was even formed in 1930, the Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası (SCF).

literature

  • Ahmet Yeşil: Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde ilk Teşkilatlı Muhalefet Hareketi, Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası . Cedit Yayınları, Ankara 2002
  • Erich Jan Zürcher: Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası (1924–1925) . İletişim Yayınları, İstanbul 2003
  • Mete Tunçay: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Tek Parti Yönetimi'nin Kurulması (1923–1931) . Yurt Yayınları, Ankara 1981

Individual evidence

  1. Kâzım Karabekir: İstiklal Savaşımızın Esasları , p. 138.
  2. Rauf Orbay: Osmanlı'dan Cumhuriyet'e (Hatıralar) III. , Pp. 413-414.
  3. ^ Ali Fuat Cebesoy: Hatıralarım , p. 96.
  4. Erich Jan Zürcher: Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası (1924–1925) , p. 148
  5. a b c Chapter: Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası ve en hain kafaların eseri olan programı , online edition of the Nutuk Turkish
  6. Mete Tunçay: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Tek Parti Yönetimi'nin Kurulması (1923–1931) , pp. 108–109.
  7. Mete Tunçay: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Tek Parti Yönetimi'nin Kurulması (1923–1931) , pp. 106–107.