Democracy and Opposition in Turkey : Locating The Freedom Party

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2004
Özçetin, Burak
The main objective of this thesis is to examine the specific place of the Freedom Party (Hürriyet Partisi) in Turkish political history. Founded by a group of Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti) members who were expelled from the party in December 1956, the Freedom Party (1956-1958) is crucial for a proper understanding of evolution of the idea and practice of democracy in Turkey. Although mostly neglected by students of Turkish politics and labeled as an insignificant political party, this thesis argues that the Freedom Party is critical for understanding the 1950s and socioeconomic and legal-constitutional developments of the following decade. The thesis also pays a considerable attention to the Forum journal, which began to be published in 1954 by a group of liberal intellectuals and which guided the Freedom Party in ideological and political terms. It is the main argument of this thesis that the Freedom Party and Forum journal introduced a new understanding of politics and this understanding had profound effects in the following decades. The ideological transformation of the Republican People̕s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) after the second half of the 1950s and the role of HP in this process is another topic of the thesis.

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Citation Formats
B. Özçetin, “Democracy and Opposition in Turkey : Locating The Freedom Party,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2004.