The elections of November 6, 1983 were the ones held under the shadow of the September 12 military regime. The regime, under No. 2533 Law dated October 16, 1981 on the dismantling of the political parties, abolished all political parties, which would only be allowed to participate in the elections only with the permission of the National Security Council (CCA). Subsequently, the SEA gave the three parties permission. The first was the party of the motherland. The founder of Turgut Ozal, who resigned from the position of Vice President of the Government under Prime Minister Boulent Uluslu, resigned as he lead the party. The second was the People’s Party, led by Netchend Galp, who had been the director of Ismet Inonu’s special office and resigned from the position of Secretary -General of the Uluslo government to take over. Third Party The Nationalist Party of Democracy, led by General Ea. Turgut Sunalp. These parties participated in the elections with the following results:
With a 92.27% participation, the Turgut Ozal Mother’s party won the election with 45.14% of the votes. The Mother Homeland party had 211 MPs out of a total of 400, thus setting up a self -contained government. Second came the People’s Party of Nethed Galp, with 30.46% and 117 MPs and the third -backed nationalist democracy party, Turgut Sunalp, with 23.27% and 71 MPs.
Parties’ positions
In terms of state ideology there have been significant differences in the programs of the three parties. In the pre -election declaration of the Mother’s Party, and in particular Article 2 emphasized that the main mission of the state was to protect the proper functioning of social and economic activities, creating the conditions for the “happiness of society and the individual”. It was typically stated that “the state exists to serve the nation”.
In the pre -election proclamation of the People’s Party, he typically referred to the first article that in order to carry out the happiness of the people, the party was based on the following principles: Republicanism, nationalism, populism, stateism, secularism and revolutionary. It should be emphasized that these principles were also the ideological crown of the People’s Republican Party, founded by Mustafa Kemal and constituted the party that formed the guidelines of the Turkish Republic in 1923. These principles, in the constitutional review of 1937, also entered the 19th of the 1937. The party’s president, as mentioned above, was director of the special office of Ismet Inonos, who is considered a co -founder and co -ordinator of Turkey’s 1923 ideology. Inonu himself had also served as President of the People’s Republican Party. He was against individuality and had emphasized that the citizen exists for the state.
The Turkish people self -sufficiently elected a political leader whose ideology was, at least seemingly, opposition to the philosophy of the military regime.
The third party, the nationalist Party of Democracy, Sunalp, also moved to the same spirit of the state, which on the one hand emphasized that “we embrace the spirit and ideology of the September 12th regime”, but on the other hand, it referred to its 12th. September.
Religious freedoms
In the cosmic field, religious freedoms and economics, the Mother Homeland Party said that religious freedoms were guaranteed by the Constitution, and that the state should take all necessary measures in primary and secondary education for morality (religious). It was a necessity, as he typically said. As for the principle of secularism, he stressed that it was not an obstacle to the application of religious freedoms.
The People’s Party, in terms of the principle of secularity, noted that it was in favor of the separation of state and religion, pointing out the importance of one’s religious freedom, but without escaping the ideological context of cosmos.
In the same spirit, the third party moved, stating that they were not against religious freedoms, but as long as they do not contradict the spirit of secularism.
In terms of the economy, the mother’s party was in favor of the rules of the free market and emphasized that the state should not have been involved in economic issues. The People’s Party accepted the necessity of the free market, while also giving the state a coordinating and interventionist role anywhere it needed. He acknowledged that the state had to have an interventional role in defense industry and on national security issues. The third party, regarding the part of the economy, believed that the free market model should be adopted and that the role of the state had to be such that it would not be an obstacle, on the contrary to protect the rules of the free market.
Parties’ aspirations in foreign policy
As far as foreign policy is concerned, the mother’s party said that the main aim of foreign policy was to maintain peace at regional and global level. It also placed particular emphasis on the state of the state on the pursuit of foreign policy. The People’s Party, in foreign policy, noted that Turkey, always in the interests of the people, had to pursue a multifaceted foreign policy, not only at regional level, utilizing historical and cultural bonds with the Balkans, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, but also in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
It is noteworthy that the third party, the Nationalist Party of Democracy, referred to the prospect of Turkey’s entry into the EEC, stressing that it should be a key objective of its foreign policy. In addition, Turkey would have to pursue the basic principles of its foreign policy, as they were meaningful in 1923, when it was fully identified with the Kemalist tradition. She also added that Turkey should not listen and accept what they are told, on the contrary to form an external policy such as to secure it a leading role in the international stage.
The effects of Niki Ozal
The victory of Turgut Ozal, a leader with an Islamic past (he was a member of the 1970s with Erbakan’s party), against two parties that basically expressed the founding philosophy of the Turkish Republic in 1923, was the beginning Tayyip Erdogan. We can see this by examining the electoral map as it was formed in 1983, when the Mother’s Party party lifted the region of Anatolia.
These elections, however, have an oxymoron. While the Turkish people in the referendum on the approval of the 1982 Constitution voted in voting by an overwhelming majority of 91%, while at the same time applauding the September 12th regime, in the 1983 national elections, the regime, Sunalp, came third. The Turkish people were self -sufficiently elected a political leader whose ideology was, at least seemingly, opposition to the philosophy of the September 12 regime, essentially paving the way for the Justice and Development Party, led by Recep Tayyp Erd.
*Mr. Christos Teazis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ankara.
*Curated by: Evanthis Hatzivasiliou
