State-nation (780 ' 580 km2) surrounded by four seas, it has borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Arménie, Azerbaïdjan (Nakhitchevan), Iran, Iraq and Syria. Birth of modern Turkey
After the First World War, the defeat of the Ottoman Empire plunged Turkey in the chaos, still worsened by the very hard conditions of the armistice of Moúdhros (October 1918): capitulation of the army, demilitarization of the Straits, loss of the Arab provinces, occupation of strategic points by the allied troops. A few months later, the Greek army unloads in Izmir before the Allies do not impose to the sultan the treaty of Sevres (August 1920). This one devotes the dismemberment of Turkey by instituting zones controlled by the great powers and by creating Arménie independent and autonomous Kurdistan.
The severity of the sanctions causes a start within the population. Meetings of protest are taken place in Istanbul, while patriotic associations multiply in Thrace and in Anatolia. Unloaded in Samsun in May 1919, Mustafa Kemal will take in hand the organization of resistance. Gathering the remains of the Othoman army in Anatolia, mobilizing all the economic forces and social, he arrives, from Ankara where he installed his general headquarter, to make face. He pushes back the Armenians in the east and contains the French in Cilicie.
A series of victories (Inönü, Sakarya) makes it possible to break the dash of the Greek armies which had invaded it Anatolia Western. Those are definitively driven out following the catch of Izmir in September 1922. In two years, the Turkish territory was released. The victory is due to the will of a man, the mobilization of a nation, the assistance brought by Russia Bolshevik and, also, to the division of the European powers vis-a-vis the continuation of the war in the East.
The Republic kemalist at the school of the Occident
After rough negotiations with the allied powers, Turkey, with the treaty of Lausanne (July 1923), obtains the cancellation of the provisions taken in Sevres. Independence, the sovereignty and the borders of the new State are recognized. The capitulations are removed. It occurs an exchange of populations with Greece.
Concluded peace, Mustafa Kemal reinforces its authority and puts an end to Othoman monarchy by removing the institution of the sultanate. It founds its own party, become Republican party of people (PRP), founds the Republic, of which he becomes the first president, and fixes the capital at Ankara, double symbol of a rupture with the past and the centring on Anatolia.
A few months later, in March 1924, it abolishes the caliphate, which causes to distend the bonds between Turkey and the Islamic world. Master of the country, it launches out in a series of daring reforms: suppression of the schools and the religious courts, dissolution of the Islamic brotherhoods, prohibition of the port of the fez, emancipation of the woman. It makes adopt a new legislation inspired of various European codes. In 1928, the Arab letters are abandoned with the profit of the Latin alphabet.
The adoption of these radical measurements causes criticisms and causes resistance movements. In the East of the country, a revolt led by a Kurdish sheik is repressed hard in spring of 1925. The press is subjected to a strict censure, while purgings make it possible to get rid of the last elements of the movement of the Young Turks and the Communists: as of the end of the year 1920, the oppositions are choked.
After the crisis of 1929, the hour is with the state control: inspired by the Soviet experiment, a first five-year plan aims at equipping the country with an heavy industry. The “houses of the people”, cultural bodies of the sole party, recover the country, with for mission of educating and of diffusing in the small towns and the campaigns the ideals of the revolution kemalist. An “official” version of the history, which makes Hittite ancestors of the Turks, is erected scaffolding in order to root the national conscience in Anatolia. As for the Turkish language, it is purified Arab and Persan terms.
Succession of Atatürk and multi-party system
Become president of the Republic after the death of Atatürk, in 1938, Ismet Inönü must face the rise of the international dangers. Following protracted negotiations, France yields to Turkey the sandjak of Alexandrette (1939). Courted by the two camps, Turkey remains neutral during the second world war - she declares the war in Germany in February 1945.
The shortly after the hostilities, Ankara must face a serious threat: Stalin calls into question Turkish sovereignty on the Straits (the Bosphorus, Dardanelles) and emits territorial claims on the Eastern provinces of Turkey. But the Turks resist these pressures, and, giving up their neutrality, start a bringing together with the Occident. Ankara signs the Charter of the United Nations, adheres to the “Truman doctrine” (1947), recognizes Israel, is allowed with the Council of Europe and sends a quota in Korea. A little later Turkey is integrated into NATO with Greece.
At the same time as it turns to the Occident, Turkey is directed towards the multi-party system. A certain number of deputies of the PRP make secession and found, in 1946, the Democratic party, of more liberal tendency. With the general surprise, the democrats gain a big victory with the elections of 1950, and Adnan Menderes becomes Prime Minister.
One attends a turning point in the evolution of the country: the bureaucracy kemalist must from now on share the power with a middle-class of business, the large tradesmen and the big landowners, while the importance of the country electorate encourages the democrats to make concessions on the religious level.
The development of the economy is fast. The country opens with the foreign assets, and the mechanization of agriculture is accelerated. As regards foreign politics, the democrats endeavor to organize the defense of the movement of the non-aligned ones. At the end of a few years, excesses of the democratic government, the drift towards a personal power and the threats which weigh on secularity end up causing a strong opposition. In 1960, supported by the students and the academics, the army decides to intervene.
Civil power and military power
The military coup d'etat of 1960 inaugurates a series of interventions of the army in the Turkish political life. The leaders of the Democratic party are translated into justice; three of them are carried out, of which Adnan Menderes. A more liberal Constitution, which, for the first time, recognizes the right to strike, is promulgated in 1961. Heir to the Democratic party, the party of Justice reaches the power with the elections of 1965, with Süleyman Demirel like Prime Minister.
While the economy knows a phase of growth, the trade unionism develops and the movements on the left are reinforced. In 1971, the army intervenes again in the political life, this time without seizing the power. The soldiers make pressure on the civil power, obtain the resignation of Demirel and the installation of a power of exception. The martial law is established, and repression falls down on the movements on the left and the intellectuals.
In spite of the standardization started in 1973, the political community is impotent to stop the rise of radicalisms. The bloody confrontations between extremists of right-hand side and left multiply. The islamist ones act openly against secularity. To the political confusion, also nourished by the Kurdish movement, an economic serious attack, especially related to the oil problems is added.
At the end of the years 1970, Turkey seems ready to rock in chaos, situation which pushes the army, in September 1980, to seize directly the power. Occurring one year and half after the Iranian revolution, this coup d'etat is accommodated with relief by the western powers, in particular the United States. The Kenan Evren general, who becomes Head of State, suspends the Constitution, dissolves the political parties, prohibited the trade-union formations, pursues the extremists groups and censures the press: the law and order is restored at the expense of the democratic liberties. The military regime promulgates a new Constitution, subjected to referendum in 1982, but cannot prevent a civilian, Turgut Özal, founder of the party of the Motherland (ANAP), to gain the elections of 1983.
During ten years, the political life is marked by the personality of Turgut Özal. Sincere Moslem, technocrat trained in the United States, he is initially Prime Minister before becoming president of the Republic of 1989 until his death, in 1993. Partisan of liberalism, it removes the exchange control, launches a program of privatizations, reinforces the economic relations with the countries of the Middle East, in particular Iran and Iraq, in war since 1981. The economy is rectified in a spectacular way. However, inflation remains strong (around 60 %), the social gaps widen and the scandals multiply. Islamism progresses until in the higher realms of the State.
On the external level, Ankara carries out an active diplomacy while endeavouring to restore the image of the country and by officially presenting the candidature of Turkey for the entry in the European Community (1987). Allied faithful of the United States, Turkey gives an opinion against Saddam Hussein and authorizes the use of its air bases during the war of the Gulf.
In 1993, Süleyman Demirel is elected with the presidency of the Republic. The post of Prime Minister, for the first time in Turkey, falls to a woman, Tansu Çiller. In an unstable geopolitical environment, this one must endeavor to find a solution with the economic problems, the Kurdish question and the rise of the islamist ones: on July 8th, 1996, Necmettin Erlsakan, chief of Refah, the fundamentalist party, becomes Prime Minister.
In June 1997, this last gives its resignation to president S. Demirel while hoping that its preserving partner Tansu Çiller will succeed to him. Against any waiting, Mr. Demirel who wished to gather a laic coalition drawing aside islamist power, named the leader of the opposition Mesut Yilmaz, in charge of the new government, putting thus fine at the pressure of the soldiers who threatened to make fall that from NR. Erbakan. In 1999, Bülent Ecevit replaces it with the direction of the government. On May 5th, 2000, Ahmet Necdet Sezer is elected with the presidency of Turkey.
State and institutions
A republic
Turkey is a republic since 1922, and democracy of a pluralist type since 1946. Each time the army intervened to seize the power, it ended up agreeing to restore a parliamentary mode. To avoid a return to the blocking of the political system, the new Constitution adopted in 1982 reinforces the executive power. The president of the Republic, elected by the National Assembly, has a seven years mandate; he names the Prime Minister and the chief of staff. The legislative power falls to a single Parliament of 450 members elected for five years. The balance of power founded by the Constitution depends, in last authority, of the personality of the Head of State. With in the chair Turgut Özal and Kenan Evren, the Turkish political regime took semi-presidential “forms”. Süleyman Demirel, elected in 1993, was shown more discrete in the performance of its duties, leaving more freedom to the Prime Minister.
With the return to a civil mode in 1983, the recombining of the political scene was done with the profit of right parties and center right, initially the party of the Motherland, heteroclite gathering the islamist ones, nationalists and liberals, then the party of the Right Way of Süleyman Demirel, which falls under the tradition of the party of Justice. Another considerable element of the political spectrum, the party of Prosperity, of islamist tendency, showed that it was necessary to take into account him since the behavior of local by-elections in 1992. As for the Turkish left, it, since 1980, is weakened and divided.
While recognizing the essential rights and freedoms, the Constitution of 1982 testified to a will to control narrowly the political life, social and cultural. Thus, in the curricular area, the Superior council of education it was charged to put the universities under monitoring to prevent any return of agitation. However, one observes, since the end of the year 1980, a clear evolution of the political institutions in the direction of a liberalization. Current Turkey enjoys a great freedom of expression. The official monopoly on the media was removed, initially makes some, then in right. The appearance of television channels and independant local radio stations abruptly modified the Turkish audiovisual landscape. In addition, in addition to abrogation, in 1991, certain articles going back from 1926 and restricting freedom of expression and association, the Penal code was the object, in 2004, of an important reform which required a complete recasting of the Constitution, reducing for example the role of the army and ratifying the suppression of the capital punishment. This reform constitutes a precondition to the opening of negotiations of adhesion to the European Union.
The Kurdish problem
The Kurdish claim an important concern of the country. Concentrated in the areas of Anatolian South-east, the Kurds of Turkey saw their rights and their identity denied by Ankara. From 1984 at the end of the years 1990, a true guerilla, led by the Party of the workers of Kurdistan (PKK), was held in the East of Anatolia. Source of exodus of the Kurdish populations towards the west, it made more than 6 ' 000 deaths in the area.
The Kurdish question does not constitute today any more a taboo in the company and the Turkish political milieu. In search of a political formula which would reconcile its traditions of unit State and the aspirations of the Kurds to cultural autonomy, Turkey adopted in 2002 a set of legal tendencies favorable to the Kurdish population, to satisfy the requirements with the European Union for its adhesion: authorization of teaching and the diffusion in Kurdish language.