Atatürk was the undisputed savior and hero of the nation, yet even his election was problematic. Knowing that the Turkish Parliament was staffed by deputies that were elected to the last Ottoman Assembly and reflected a great variety of opinion that ran counter to the monopolization of power, Atatürk first secured a resolution for re-election. Then he personally selected the candidates of the next Parliament. Later he had the Law of Treason altered in such a fashion that an opposition party became liable to prosecution for views and initiatives that differed to those of the party/government in power. He chose Oct. 29 as the day of the declaration of the republic, and simultaneously for the selection of the first president. This surprise date appears to have been a well-calculated maneuver, as his most influential rivals and opponents, such as Gen. Kazim Karabekir, former premier and World War I hero Rauf Orbay and Dr. Adnan Adivar, were out of town (Ankara). Not only was he elected to the presidency, Atatürk also presided over a national election that yielded a one-party rule that he commanded until his death in 1938, as both the leader of the Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) and the president of the republic.
Mr. (Gen.) İsmet İnönü, the second national hero of what we call the War of Independence (Commander of the Western Front) and long-time prime minister under Atatürk, was heir apparent. However two cabinet ministers, Minister of the Interior Mr. Sukru Kaya and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Tevfik Sukru Aras, ardently resisted Mr. İnönü’s candidacy. In fact Mr. Kaya is suspected of plotting an assassination attempt against İnönü. Yet the army brass made their preference apparent in favor of Mr. İnönü, asserting that they “would do what it takes if İnönü is not elected.” The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had made their selection. Mr. İnönü was elected by the Parliament as the second president of the republic. Mr. Celal Bayar was the third president, and the first civilian to be selected president, in 1950 after a landslide victory by the Democrat Party (DP) following the unfettered grip of the CHP on politics and the state for 27 consecutive years. His election meant the monopolization of both the prime ministry and the presidency in the hands of one party that was not controlled by the bureaucracy that associated itself with the CHP. After an intelligence report of a military plot against the newly elected government and the president reached the new ruling elite, President Bayar and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes united their powers and gave orders for the forceful retirement of 15 generals and 150 colonels that were associated with the plot. Yet they could not prevent the 1960 military putsch.
A military-inspired Constitution went into effect in 1961 and national elections were held under the auspices of the ruling military National Security Council (MGK). A sequel to the DP, the Justice Party (AP) got a substantial part of the votes and seats in the Parliament. The CHP was supporting a general (the leader of the 1960 coup, Gen. Cemal Gursel) as presidential candidate, whereas the AP was supporting a revered professor of constitutional law, Mr. Ali Fuat Basgil. When Professor Basgil came to Ankara to announce his candidacy, two generals, Fahri Ozyurek and Sitki Ulay, summoned him and threatened him, persuading him to resign at gunpoint. The poor man returned to İstanbul on the same day and went to Switzerland to stay there for a long time.
Gen. Gursel was followed by Gen. Cevdet Sunay, then the chief of General Staff, in the line of presidency who in turn was followed by an admiral, Fahri Koruturk, who was the choice (!) of the civilian politicians who had resisted the candidacy of Gen. Faruk Gurler, the choice of the army that literally besieged the Parliament (1973) and intimidated party leaders in favor of their commander in chief. However the divisions in the military gave a chance for the civilians in the Parliament to elect their “softer” military candidate, the retired Adm. Koruturk.
In 1971 the military staged another coup and installed Gen. Kenan Evren, previously the chief of General Staff, together with an authoritarian Constitution that we are still wrestling to bend towards a more democratic and liberal society. Gen. Evren was replaced by Turgut Özal, whose political party swept to power in 1982. Mr. Özal was elected to the presidency in 1989 when he was the head of a government whose votes had by then dwindled to only 21.75 percent. This led to a lot of controversy as to the legitimacy of his presidency. Mr. Süleyman Demirel could not escape the same fate, as he rose from being the prime minister of a sagging government to the presidency when Mr. Özal died.
By the time when he was elected as president, Mr. Demirel had lost his seat as prime minister and leader of various newly founded political parties several times due to consecutive military coups. In the process he had learned to reconcile with the military and this helped him a lot during his presidency. He changed his rhetoric and political standing to the degree of representing the state rather than the populace. This made him immune to extra-political pressures during his presidency. In fact, it was during his term as president that the Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan was “persuaded” to step down from his seat under serious threats by the military.
Our last and incumbent president, Mr. Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a judge, was an unexpected candidate that cropped up amongst other names over which there could be no consensus, during the three-party coalition government in 2000. He too had forged close ties with the military establishment and acted as their favorite representative in the power structure.
Excluding Mr. Özal, we have been represented by a line of civilian presidents who do not necessarily represent the civil society and have no visionary capacity to carry Turkey to a better place in the international system. Now there is a strong possibility that a civilian candidate will be elected as the 11th president. We may be happy that he or she will be a civilian, who may be instrumental in distancing the system from its tutelary relationship to the bureaucracy. However, is this enough? Turkey does not just need an honest broker, but a dedicated reformist and visionary leader who will show the way to be part of the world in the making, by cleansing itself of ossifying bureaucratic reflexes and dysfunctional institutions. The problem is whether the next president of the republic will be a person of such stature, or a figure selected by either the bureaucracy or the Parliament dominated by a majority that is in fact a minority of the electorate?
