TRANSITION FROM THE ONE-PARTY REGIME TO MULTI-PARTY SYSTEM IN

TURKEY

Mustafa Kemal promoted the creation of the Free Republican Party in 1930 in order to
alleviate social unrest and advance liberal economic principles and free speech. Mustafa
Kemal's Kemalizm was a set of ideas or ideals based on republicanism, secularism,
nationalism, populism, statism, and revolutionism.
Sultan Mahmut's secularization of the state, education, and law began in 1928,
abolishing Islam as Turkey's official religion. In their place, schools for preachers and a
theological department founded at the University of Istanbul took the role of the medreses, or
religious colleges. Şeyhülislam was outlawed and Diyanet İşleri Müdürlüğü established in
1924. These changes were made with a specific ideological goal in mind: to sever Turkish
society from its Islamic and Ottoman origins in the Middle East and refocus it toward the
West. The objectives of such theories were to foster a strong sense of national solidarity
among Turks, still a sense of pride in their history and identity, and distance them from the
recent past, namely the Ottoman Empire. In the 1920s, liberal economic principles were
maintained. Turkish industry was still incredibly underdeveloped and took a very long time to
recover from the consequences of the Greek and Armenian exodus. The Lausanne Treaty's
clauses precluded Turkey from increasing its import tariffs until 1929. The country,
meanwhile, was repaying Ottoman debts. To combat the impacts of the global economic crisis
of 1929, "statism" was officially embraced as the new economic policy and one of the
cornerstones of Kemalist ideology at the 1931 RPP congress.
In 2. World War, due to Germany's and Italy's assertive foreign policies, tension in
Europe was building toward the end of the 1930s. Turkey, France, and Britain signed an
alliance pact in 1939 to become a founding member of the United Nations, declaring war on
the Axis Powers in the latter stages of the war. İnönü started to tilt toward the Allied Powers
and its liberal ideas as he worked to get his country ready for the post-war order. Inflation
caused a decrease in purchasing power for workers, bureaucrats, and the bourgeoisie during
the war. After 1945, Turkey underwent a significant political and economic transformation
that had both internal and foreign sources. Menderes and three other deputies submitted a
memorandum in June 1945 criticizing the Land Distribution Law and demanding democratic
reforms, marking the beginning of organized political opposition after the war. Menderes'
criticism of statism led to economic liberalization, which was prolonged by DP governments
after 1950. On May 14, 1950, the 1950 elections were held, and 80% of eligible voters
participated. A substantial political shift was brought about by the outcome. One the one
hand, after serving as president for 12 years, İnönü was elected to lead the opposition. On the
other hand, DP was the first political party in the nation's modern history to have a true mass
following and be able to express that support in a free election.