Turkey

THE TURKISH RIGHT has been dominant in Turkish politics since the first free elections were held in 1950. The center-right parties have ruled Turkey since then, except during periods of military rule and some shortterm coalitions led by center-left parties. The distinction between right-wing and left-wing in Turkish politics began with the leadership of the Republican People's Party (RPP, 1923–present) in 1965 when it declared its position at the left of center. Then, its counterparty, the Justice Party (JP, 1961–80), called itself a center-right party. The Democrat Party (DP, 1946–60), the Motherland Party (MP, 1983–present), the True Path Party (TPP, 1983–present), and the Justice and Development Party (JDP, 2000–present) became the major center-right parties. Besides these, there are some religious right-wing parties represented by the National Salvation Party (NSP, 1971–80), the Welfare Party (WP, 1983–98), the Virtue Party (VP, 1998–2001), and the Happiness Party (2001–present) line. The nationalist right wing has been represented by the National Action Party (NAP) since the 1970s.

The DP was founded by a group of liberal-conservative elite as a splitting party from the RPP, came to power in 1950 with an overwhelming majority, and, winning the 1954 and 1957 elections, remained in power until the 1960 military intervention. The DP, as a [Page 914]coalition of various social groups, put forward a synthesis between liberal-democratic principles and local values, and claimed to defend the interests of the masses against the rule of the centralist bureaucratic elite represented by the RPP leadership. However, during its rule, its leader failed to implement promises for a more democratic regime, and followed a majoritarian view of democracy marginalizing all oppositions. Then, being accused of deviating from the official ideology, Kemalism, it was ousted by the military in 1960 and its three leaders were executed.

Its main successor was the JP, which ruled the country from 1965 to 1971 as a one-party government and returned to power as a series of JP-led coalition governments after the short-lived RPP-NSP coalition of 1973–74 until the 1980 military intervention. Like the DP, the JP maintained liberal and pro-private enterprise policies and nationalist-conservative discourse. The coalition on the right wing, based on peripheral forces, broke down by the late 1960s. This fragmentation led to the emergence of religious right (represented by the pro-Islamist NSP in the 1970s) and nationalist right (represented by the NAP) parties. The NSP, the NAP, and the JP played a pivotal role in 1970s ideological polarization and conflict.

The military intervention in 1980 outlawed all political parties and ruled the country from 1980 to 1983. In the 1983 elections, the MP, under the leadership of Turgut Ozal, won the majority and remained in power until 1991. Initiating neoliberal policies, it challenged the bureaucratic establishment with a motto of change and modernization. The MP helped to integrate some of the conservative majority into the center on the basis of a wide ideological spectrum. By the rise of the TPP (the real heir of the JP) in the 1991 elections, it started to lose ground. The TPP represented a more conservative, populist, and egalitarian ideology. Their struggle, under new young leaders, continued to dominate Turkish politics throughout the 1990s, and at the end of the decade, both remained under the national threshold in the 2002 elections.

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