As one of the most significant movements in our history of thought, Turkish Nationalism has been represented by various political parties with different names in the political arena. One of the pioneers among these political parties was The Republican Peasants’ Nation Party (CKMP), which was founded by Osman Bölükbaşı, under the leadership of Alparslan Türkeş in 1965. At Adana City Congress in 1969, the name of the CKMP was decided as The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and its emblem as three crescents. Regardless of its rich mental background, neither the CKMP nor the MHP was successful at the general elections in 1965, 1969, and 1973 and therefore they were considerably not able to have a voice at the assembly.
For many years the MHP did not have significant potential in the Turkish politics and that Mr. Türkeş’s emphasis on Turkism in his political discourse did not gain ground among the people is an important detail. Furthermore, Mr. Türkeş was an influential colonel of the May 27coup d’état and was against the execution of ex-president Adnan Menderes and ministers like Hasan Polatkan and Fatin Rüştü Zorlu during his authority in the politics; yet he was supposed to defense himself before the people. At the beginning of the 1970s, the MHP did not take much vote unlike Necmettin Erbakan’s The National Salvation Party (MSP) and Ferruh Bozbeyli’s Democratic Party (DP).
The 1970s caught the attention intellectually- Mr. Türkeş’s many books reflecting his ideas should also be taken into consideration- as an era in which debated and written nationalism, in terms of “Turkish-Islam” thesis, had a chance to turn to the nation particularly from Turkism without Islam. The nationalist ideas of the thinkers at the MHP like Dündar Taşer (1925-1972) and S. Ahmet Arvasi (1932-1988), who prioritized the national and the culture of the nation and highlighted that the Islam spirit vitalizes the body of Turks rather than Nihal Atsız’s Turkism without Islam, found the opportunity to spread among the Muslim young in Anatolia. Especially in many cities of the Middle Anatolia, the Grey Wolves organizations were turned into places where people read Qur’an, prayed, and performed religious ceremonies.
Turkish-Islam nationalism and the ideal became one of the most important steps for the MHP to focus on the nation. Giving priority to the nation and its national and moral values, this mentality bore its first fruit at the general and local elections in 1977 and at these elections the MHP had a serious vote potential for the first time during its political history. During that era, the political party gained the support of Fazıl Kısakürek, who was a symbol for the Turkish right-wing and conservatives. Another important detail that should be taken into consideration today is that the MHP had notable vote potential in some regions inhabited predominantly by the Kurds during that era. At the local elections, the MHP became victorious against a Kurdish candidate and the MHP candidate was elected as the mayor of Bingöl.
With September 12, 1980 coup d’état, the MHP and nationalists entered a troubling era. This era also means a serious dissolve for the nationalists. During this era many nationalists were judged; jailed; and executed and succeeding the MHP, the Conservative Party and the Nationalist Working Party (MÇP) had a voice in the politics. Regardless of the succeeding political parties, many supporters of the MHP chose to do politics in the Motherland Party (ANAP) in the 1980s. During his political ban, Alparslan Türkeş suggested Mehmet Pamak, who argued the Turkish-Islam ideal, for the general presidency of the Conservative Party and Addülkerim Doğru, who was the Minister of Industry and Technology and had supported the MSP, for the general presidency of the MÇP. This can be interpreted as the results and continuation of the MHP’s emphasis on the nation with the Turkish-Islam ideal in the 1970s. However, in each era there were people with various nationalist ideals at the MHP and at its successors.
The Nationalist Working Party (MÇP) allied with the Welfare Party (RP) and the Reformist Democracy Party in the general elections in 1991 and had a voice in the parliamentary. Then despite its political base, the MÇP almost every time supported the DYP-SHP coalition under the leadership of Süleyman Demirel and considerably dissolved when a group of representatives under the leadership of Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu left the party and founded the Great Union Party (BBP). And this separation process has close links with the thesis of our article. As the principle reason of the separation of Mr. Yazıcıoğlu and his friends was the digression of the party from their understanding of nationalism which is based upon Islam and the moral values of the nation. Meanwhile the MÇP became the MHP; yet their support to Demirel administration continued in the presidential elections held after Turgut Özal’s death and Mr. Demirel became the president with the votes of the DYP, SHP, and the MHP. The policy pursued regardless of its political base was one of the important factors for the MHP’s having %8 of the all votes and staying out of the Parliamentary. Moreover, it should also be noted that a MHP candidate Nusret Demiral, who suggested to recite the azan in Turkish.
Alparslan Türkeş’s death in 1997, Devlet Bahçeli’s becoming the general president of the MHP without much approval of the people after an eventful election for the general presidency, the February 28 process between 1995 and 1999, disagreement between the general politics of the RP and the expectations of people during this process made the MHP an alternative for the conservative and right-wing people though it was not much realized by the people. In the local and general elections held in 1999 the MHP, even surprising the MHP supporters, had %18 of all votes and became the second powerful party to be represented in the Parliamentary. Supported by the conservatives with great expectations, the MHP not only became a part of the DSP-ANAP administration, which governed the country, after the February 28 process, but also pursued a complementary policy as a continuation of the February 28 process.
During this period, the MHP did not do anything for the issues concerning the conservative groups like headscarf, İmam Hatip High Schools, and coefficient system issues and showed the fact that they were not the ruling power in the country as an excuse. They were also silent when many laws and implementations hurting the conservatives were made. Besides keeping their silence, they seriously supported aforesaid laws and implementations; thus the MHP lost the support of the conservative groups in an extremely short time. In fact, these policies should be considered as the continuum of the policies followed by Mr. Türkeş in 1991-1995. Supporting the DYP-SHP administration during Türkeş Era, the election of Süleyman Demirel as the president, supporting the implementations of the February 28 process and the extension of Süleyman Demirel’s term of office during the DSP-MHP-ANAP administration whose general president was Mr. Bahçeli at that time, keeping their indifference to the demands of the conservative groups, and certainly the crisis in 2001 caused history to repeat itself and therefore in the 2002 elections the MHP lost %10 of its votes and certainly had its votes of the 1995 elections.
With its position in the Parliamentary after the 2007 elections in the shade of the elections for presidency, the MHP overcame the crisis of presidential elections and supported solving the headscarf problem. Therefore, the MHP partially proved that it had taken a lesson from the past and had got the message of the people. However for two years, the MHP, which supported the decision on the closure of the AK Party- the most significant reason for closure was the headscarf issue, which is also supported by the MHP-, has just made opposition to the administration rather than forming policies and has chosen to stay indifferent to even a issue like the amendments in the constitution. Thus, the MHP again pursues a status quo policy. As a result of this attitude, the MHP administration has ignored the closure of political parties during September 12 coup d’état and the suffering of a number of nationalists. Even the general president seriously argued with a group of nationalist, who support the new constitution by opposing to the one during the coup d’état, and protected the latter one indirectly.
As an old and long-established political party in the Turkish political history, the MHP has gained the favor of the people as long as it forms policies, which put the nation at their centers in opposition to status quo. And the people have expected the MHP to form policies in this direction. Otherwise, which policy the MHP pursued can explain the fact that the MHP became the second party in the 1999 elections? Both sociologically our political history and the MHP’s own history illustrate that supporting the administration only when the status quo supporters come to power and ignoring the general demands of the people by allying with the status quo supporters as an opposing party do yield a benefit neither the MHP nor the social base upon which the MHP depends. On the contrary, it will make the gap between the MHP and the social base upon which it depends wider.
Dr. Mahmut H. Akın (Selçuk University- Faculty of Letters, the Department of Sociology)