Democrat Party, Turkey

DEMOCRAT PARTY AND POPULIZM Turkey is a nation state which has been characterized as successor state of the Ottoman Empire since 1923. In many aspects, there had been many structural differences between two states. However, it is not mean that Turkish Republic ignores its historical, social, political, and cultural belongings. There was even no way to disannul their strong relations, based on the same fundamentals. Their governmental structures were based on same fundamentals that are state-centric tradition and center-periphery relations. Thus, history showed audiences that politics has being shaped according to those features since 1920’s in Turkey. Although, Constitution of 1924 defines that “Hâkimiyet bilâ-kayd ü şart milletindir”, between 1923 and 1950 Turkey was ruled by single party, Republican People’s Party. Especially by the second half of the 1940’s, Turkish political history met with a new opponent party which was not the first one; however, it was the first elected party by the Turkish citizens. This speciality inspired potential supporters and managers of Democrat Party. There were also two opponent parties till that time, yet they were considered as made-to-order parties. Nonetheless, for example, 12 days after the establishment of Free Party in 1930, 130.000 people attended to this party, this exemplified the potential opponents of the Hegemonic Power. They even were popular as much as Democrat Party, but they had been not able to survive due to non-acquiescence of superior authority, President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. As I emphasized before Democrat Party has significance in Turkish Politics because of its initials, innovations, and commitments. Firstly, this party was an opponent of the party of statuesque, Republican People’s Party. Because of this, it automatically gained the support of the people in periphery. On the other hand, Democrat Party took masses’ attention and votes with its attitude against the center, religious, social and

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