The Social Democracy Party ( tr, Sosyal Demokrasi Partisi, SODEP) of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

was one of the two main parties of Turkey in early 1980s but later on merged with the People's Party to form the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) in 1985.

Ideology

The CHP had six principles;

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a si ...

statism In political science, statism is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation and the means of production. While in use ...

populism Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develope ...

reformism Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can e ...

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

and

republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...

(see

Kemalism Kemalism ( tr, Kemalizm, also archaically ''Kamâlizm''), also known as Atatürkism ( tr, Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü düşünce), or The Six Arrows ( tr, Altı Ok), is the founding official ideology of the Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurcher ...

). However, after 1960, the CHP had also been identified as a social democratic party. SODEP, being a party in the same tradition, was also a social democratic party with a strong emphasis on secularism. The party logo was the olive branch.

History

Background

After the coup of 1980, all political parties were dissolved by the military government (ruling through the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

or tr, MGK) regardless of their ideology, on 16 October 1981. For approximately one and half year, there were no political parties. Finally, the MGK decided to allow the formation of new parties with severe restrictions. The new parties were not allowed to use the names of former parties and senior politicians were not allowed to be charter member of the new parties. Furthermore, the MGK had the power of rejecting the charter members. Any party without a certain number of charter members was not allowed to run for the election. (This power was called

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...

power by the newspapers). This gave MGK the power to limit the number of parties that would stand in the coming parliamentary elections.

Formation

SODEP was founded by former supporters of the banned Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP)), which is usually credited as the founder of Turkish republic in 1923. But there were many newly founded parties, and it would be very difficult to reach to voters without referring to the names of the former parties and politicians. So, the party's founders asked

Erdal İnönü Erdal İnönü (6 June 1926 – 31 October 2007) was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician, who served as the interim Prime Minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from ...

to be the chairman of the party. İnönü was a physics professor who had never been in politics but was the son of

İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman of Kurdish descent, who served as the second President of Turkey from 11 November 1938 to 22 May 1950, and its Prime Minister three ti ...

, the second

president of Turkey The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Cumhurbaşkanı), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national governm ...

. İnönü who was initially reluctant finally agreed.Erdal İnönü: ''Anılar ve Düşünceler cilt 1'', İdea İletişim, İstanbul,1996 pp. 234-237 Some of the other charter members were Türkan Akyol,

Oktay Ekşi Osman Oktay Ekşi (born 7 December 1932) is a Turkish journalist, author and politician. He has spent much of his career at the newspaper ''Hürriyet'', and was its Chief Columnist from 1974 to 1983 and from 1985 to 2010. A founding member and v ...

Cahit Külebi Cahit Külebi (20 December 1917, Tokat – 20 June 1997 Ankara) was a leading Turkish poet and author. He has an important place in contemporary Turkish poetry due to his attachment to folk poetry traditions. His poetry is enriched with simple ye ...

, Cahit Talas.

Elections of 1983

21 charter members of SODEP, including İnönü, were rejected on 23 June by the MGK, but the party was not closed and the founders decided to continue with new charter members.Erdal İnönü: ''Anılar ve Düşünceler cilt 2'', pp 327-342, İdea İletişim, İstanbul,1998 pp. 327-342 The new chairman was Cezmi Kartay whose name had not been rejected. But due to ensuing vetoes, the party was unable to qualify to enter the parliamentary elections (like most of the other parties) which was held on 6 November 1983. In this election, most pre-coup CHP voters cast ballots for the People's Party ( tr, Halkçı Parti, HP). The HP won 30.5 percent of the vote and became the main opposition party to the victorious ANAP.

Elections of 1984

After 1983 elections, the MGK lost its former veto power, and Erdal İnönü became the chairman of the party for the second time, on 18 December (just 42 days after 1983 elections). SODEP quickly qualified for the next elections, which were the local elections on 21 March. In this election, while SODEP finished second with 23.4 percent of the vote, the HP received only a modest 8.8 percent. It was clear that the choice of ex-CHP voters was SODEP - although the HP was still the main opposition party in parliament.

Merger with HP

There was a considerable public pressure on both parties to merge. Erdal İnönü and Aydın Güven Gürkan, the new leader of the HP, met and agreed on a plan to merge the parties. On 3 November 1985, SODEP merged with the HP. İnönü agreed to give up his seat during the merger. The new party formed by this merger was named the Social Democrat People's Party ( tr, Sosyal Demokrat Halkçı Parti) with the abbreviation SHP which resembled that of CHP and a party flag with 6 arrows which resembled that of CHP. The abbreviation SHP should not be confused with the same abbreviation used by the similarly named but distinct Social Democratic People's Party after 2002.

Memoirs

The short and turbulent history of the party was documented both by Erdal İnönü and by Cezmi Kartay.Memoirs

References

{{Authority control Defunct social democratic parties in Turkey Political parties established in 1983 1983 establishments in Turkey Political parties disestablished in 1985 1985 disestablishments in Turkey Former member parties of the Socialist International Secularism in Turkey