Notes

Outline

Turkey 1923-1960 Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a successful Ottoman general. Turkey is a secular state comprised primarily of Anatolia. Its capital is Ankara, not Istanbul. “Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!” (“How happy is he who can say ‘I am a Turk’!”) “Turk” vs. “Ottoman”

Atatürk’s Big Speech (1927)

Atatürk teaching the Roman Alphabet to his cabinet

Ataturk and Female Advisers

Beyond Atatürk One party system until 1945: Republican People’s Party. Ataturk supported economic self-sufficiency to avoid foreign dependency. The new opposition Democrat Party swept the 1950 elections. Turkey prospered in the early 1950s and saw a large peasant migration to the cities. Turkey joined the postwar American-led NATO after sending 25,000 troops to Korea. Legacy of suspicion of foreign investment lingered. DP finally adopted repressive policies similar to the old RPP.

Menderes and the 1960 Coup Menderes, the DP leader, neglected to support the Turkish Army and got into big economic problems in the late 1950s. This became obvious to army officers after they had visited other NATO military bases. Military officers staged a coup in 1960. Menderes was tried and hung in 1961. This establishes the precedent that coups would be recognized as legitimate if necessary to preserve national security. The army established itself as a national power separate from the civilian government. Through the OYAK, the Army began to invest in the Turkish economy.

Greece after WW2 The U.S. gave large financial support to Greece in the 1950s to hinder Communists Karamanlis agrees to suppress the enosis agitators, but angers many Greek leftists. Karamanlis was defeated by the leftist George Papandreou in a 1964. The Greek King intervenes to remove Papandreou through a manufactured coalition of right-wing parties, but this coalition is not very stable. This sparks a military coup on 21 April 1967 in which the “colonels” seize power.  Greeks ever since have accused the U.S. of involvement in this coup.

The Issue of Cyprus 1878-1960: Cyprus was administered by Britain, after 1925 as a Crown Colony Approximately 80% Greek, 20% Turkish 1955: EOKA guerillas begin to fight on Cyprus for enosis (union with Greece) led by the right-wing Giorgios Grivas. Britain does not want to give up control over Cyprus because of concerns about Turkish minority and Mediterranean stability.

Independence of Cyprus 1960: Cyprus became an independent country, with Archbishop Makarios as its first president. Guerilla war on Cyprus continued after independence while the situation back in Greece deteriorated into repression and torture after the 1967 military coup there. In 1974, Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannides staged a coup in Greece against the existing military junta and declared immediate enosis [union between Greece and Cyprus].

The Cyprus War, 1974 July 15, 1974 Cypriot National Guard overthrew President Makarios as a prelude to enosis. July 20: Turkish armed forces invaded Cyprus to protect Turkish Cypriots. By August 16, 1974, Turkish troops had established the “Attila Line” and controlled 37% of Cyprus. There has been a ceasefire but no other agreement in force since then. UN Peacekeepers watch the borders. 1983: Proclamation of the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” recognized only by Turkey. 2001: Continued Stalemate, Peacetalks.

Greece in the EU (1981) Turkey in the EU (?) In 1974, Karamanlis, who had been in exile, comes back to rebuild a civilian government and is elected Prime Minister in November of that year. In December 1974,  69% of Greeks voted to abolish the monarchy permanently. Greece joined the EU in 1981, becoming the first Balkan country to do so. Turkey would very much like to join the EU, but the chances of this happening soon seem limited. EU membership for Turkey might require Turkey to change in ways that Turks could not accept.