Alparslan Türkeş

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Başbuğ
Alparslan Türkeş
Türkeş (cropped).jpg
Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
In office
21 July 1977 – 5 January 1978
Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel
Served with Necmettin Erbakan
Preceded by Orhan Eyüboğlu
Succeeded by Turhan Feyzioğlu
In office
31 March 1975 – 21 June 1977
Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel
Necmettin Erbakan
Turhan Feyzioğlu
Preceded by Zeyyat Baykara
Succeeded by Orhan Eyüboğlu
Leader of the Nationalist Movement Party
In office
8 February 1969 – 5 April 1997
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Devlet Bahçeli
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office
10 October 1991 – 24 December 1995
Constituency Yozgat (1991)
In office
10 October 1965 – 12 September 1980
Constituency Ankara (1965)
Adana (1969, 1973, 1977)
Personal details
Born (1917-11-25)25 November 1917
Nicosia, Cyprus
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Ankara, Turkey
Political party Republican Villagers Nation Party
(1958-1969)
Nationalist Movement Party
(1969-1997)
Alma mater Kuleli Military High School
Religion Sunni Islam
Military service
Allegiance Turkey
Service/branch Turkish Army
Years of service 1933–1963
Rank Colonel

Alparslan Türkeş§ (25 November 1917 – 4 April 1997) was a Turkish far right politician who was the founder and former president of the Nationalist Movement Party.[1][2][3] He represented the far right of the Turkish political spectrum, and was court-martialed on the charges of "fascist and racist activities" in 1945,[4] with the charges being dismissed in 1947.[5] He was and still is called Başbuğ ("Leader") by his devotees.[6]

Early life

Türkeş was born in Nicosia, Cyprus to a Turkish Cypriot family in 1917.[7][8][9] His paternal great-grandfather had emigrated to Cyprus from Kayseri, Turkey, in the 1860s.[10] His father, Ahmet Hamdi Bey, was from Tuzla, near Famagusta, and his mother, Fatma Zehra Hanım, was from Larnaca.[11] However, in an interview with the scholar Fatma Müge Göçek the journalist Hrant Dink claimed that Türkeş was of Armenian descent, an orphan originally from Sivas who was later adopted by a Muslim couple from Cyprus.[12]

In 1932 Türkeş emigrated to Turkey with his family. He was enrolled into the military lycée in Istanbul in 1933 and completed his secondary education in 1936.[10] In 1938, he joined the army and his military career began.

Political career

He attained notoriety as the spokesman of the 27 May 1960 coup d'état against the government of then prime minister Adnan Menderes, who was later executed after a trial following this coup. However Colonel Türkeş was expelled by an internal coup within the junta. He later joined the Republican Villager Nation Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyetçi Köylü Millet Partisi, CKMP) and was elected its chairman. In 1969 the CKMP was renamed the Nationalist Movement Party (Turkish: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP).[13]

Türkeş served as Deputy Prime Minister in right-wing National Front (Turkish: Milliyetçi Cephe) cabinets.[14]

Ideology

Through the far-right MHP, Türkeş took the rightist views of his predecessors like Nihal Atsız, who was known for his explicitly racist views, [15][16] and transformed them into a powerful political force. In 1965, Türkeş released a political pamphlet titled "Dokuz Işık Doktrini" (Nine Lights Doctrine). This text listed nine basic principles which formed the basis of the nationalist ideology. These were nationalism, idealism, moralism, societalism, scientism, "independentism", ruralism, progressivism, populism, industrialism, and technologism.[17]

Türkeş led the vanguard of anti-communism in Turkey; he was a founding member of the Counter-Guerrilla, the Turkish Gladio.[18]

He has been the spiritual leader of the Idealism Schools Foundation of Culture and Art (Turkish: Ülkü Ocakları Kültür ve Sanat Vakfı). His followers consider him to be one of the leading icons of the Turkish nationalist movement.

International contacts

In 1992, Alparslan Türkeş visited Baku in 1992 to support Abulfaz Elchibey during the Azerbaijan presidential election. He also had a meeting with Levon Ter-Petrosian, the President of Armenia in the 1990s.[19]

Personal life

Türkeş was married twice and had seven children.[20] He married Muzaffer Hanım in 1940 and had four daughters (Ayzit, Umay, Selcen and Çağrı) and one son (Tuğrul) with her. Their marriage lasted until his wife's death in 1974. By 1976 Türkeş married Seval Hanım and had one daughter (Ayyüce) and one son (Ahmet Kutalmış). [21]

Türkeş died of a heart attack at the age of 80 on 4 April, 1997.[20][22] The announcement of his death was delayed for five hours while nationwide security measures were implemented; thereafter, thousands of his supporters went to the Bayindir Hospital chanting "Leaders never die".[23] His funeral was held in Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara.[23]

Türkeş's youngest son, Ahmet Kutalmış Türkeş, is a member of the Justice and Development Party and was elected as an Istanbul deputy in 2011. However, he resigned several days before the June 2015 elections, protesting the party's plans to transform the parliamentary system into a presidential one.[24][25]

In 2015, Türkeş's eldest son, Tuğrul Türkeş, became the first person of Turkish Cypriot origin to be Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey.[26] In September 2015, Türkeş made his first official visit to Northern Cyprus.[27] As an independent parliamentarian, Türkeş has criticized the Nationalist Movement Party (founded by his late father) and the Republican People's Party for their unwillingness to compromise, which has led to the November 2015 elections.[28]

Legacy

The Alparslan Türkeş Park in Ankara, Turkey.

Türkeş was a key figure on shaping Turkish nationalism and reviving Pan-Turkism from the 1940s onwards. Soon after his death in 1997, the former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel stated that his passing had been a "great loss to the political life of Turkey". Similarly, Turkey's first female Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller described him as a "historic individual".[23]

Controversies

When he died, it was revealed that he had embezzled 2 trillion lira from the European Turkish Federation. The pan-Turkist group had created a secret slush fund to support the Second Chechen War and help Abulfaz Elchibey succeed in Azerbaijan.[29] The money was formerly administered by Enver Altaylı, who had been part of the Azerbaijan coup plot. His daughters, Ayzıt and Umay Günay, quarreled over who was the rightful owner despite the fact that it was neither of them.[30] The two appeared before the Ankara 7th High Penal Court for fraud. The indictment said that Türkeş' account in a U.K. branch of the Deutsche Bank held 575,000 DM, 845,000 USD, and 367,000 GBP.[31] The court concluded that Ayzıt had withdrawn 200,000 GBP while Umay Günay had withdrawn 42,000 GBP.[32] Ayzıt said that she had been living in the U.K. since 1975, and that her father opened the account in 1988, giving her complete access to it. She said that her father had instructed her to fulfill his financial obligations in support of "the cause of Turkishness" upon his death by making certain payments.[33] Türkeş' second wife, Seval, refuted Ayzıt's claim that she had not kept the money to herself. Seval claims that she and her sons' Ayyüce and Ahmet Kutalmış share of the withdrawn 242,000 GBP is 112,355 GBP.[32]

The MHP's chairman, Devlet Bahçeli, instructed his deputies to keep mum, fearing that the scandal could lead to the dissolution of the party.[34]

The case was closed due to the statute of limitations.[35]

Works

  1. Ülkücülük; Hamle Yayınevi; İstanbul, 1995.
  2. 12 Eylül Adaleti (!) : Savunma; Hamle Yayınevi; İstanbul, 1994.
  3. 1944 Milliyetçilik Olayı; Hamle Yayınevi;
  4. Türkeş'li Yıllar; Hasan Sami BOLAK
  5. Modern Türkiye ; İstanbul.
  6. Milliyetçilik Olayları; Berikan Elektronik Basım Yayım.
  7. 27 Mayıs ve Gerçekler; Berikan Elektronik Basım Yayım.
  8. 27 Mayıs, 13 Kasım, 21 Mayıs ve Gerçekler; İstanbul, 1996.
  9. Ahlakçılık; Berikan Elektronik Basım Yayım.
  10. Etik (Ahlak Felsefesi), Etik.; Bunalımdan Çıkış Yolu; Kamer Yayınları.
  11. Türk Edebiyatında Anılar, İncelemeler, Tenkidler, Anı-Günce-Mektup; İstanbul, 1994.
  12. Bunalımdan Çıkış Yolu; Hamle Yayınevi; İstanbul, 1996.
  13. Dış Meselemiz; Berikan Elektronik Basım Yayım.
  14. İlimcilik; Berikan Elektronik Basım Yayım.
  15. Kahramanlık Ruhu; İstanbul, 1996.
  16. Temel Görüşler; Kamer Yayınları.
  17. Sistemler ve Öğretiler; İstanbul, 1994.
  18. Türkiye'nin Meseleleri; Hamle Yayınevi; İstanbul, 1996.
  19. Yeni Ufuklara Doğru; Kamer Yayınları.
  20. Sistemler ve Öğretiler; İstanbul, 1995

Footnotes

  • His name was a nom de guerre he took as an official name after 1934. His former name is a subject of debate. His official biography cites "Ali Arslan",[36] while other sources claim "Hüseyin Feyzullah".[37][38] His close friends and old acquaintances called him Albay (Colonel).[citation needed]

References

  1. «Milliyet»: «А. Туркеш и Л. Тер-Петросян еще в 1993 году договаривались об освобождении оккупированных территорий Азербайджана» (Russian)
  2. Ermənistanla əlaqələrin qurulması barədə mərhum Türkeşin öngörüsü (Azerbaijani)
  3. AKP ALPARSLAN TÜRKEŞİ DƏ ÇİRKİN OYUNUNA ALƏT EDİR (Azerbaijani)
  4. Özkırımlı, Umut and Spyros A. Sofos, Tormented by history, (Columbia University Press, 2008), 138.
  5. Özkırımlı, Tormented by history, 139.
  6. Başbuğ Alparslan Türkeş'i Anma Etkinlikleri (Turkish)
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  12. Göçek, Fatma Müge. The Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789-2009. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 598, note 71.
  13. Ümit Hassan, Halil Berktay, Türkiye tarihi: Çağdaş Türkiye, 1908–1980, Cilt 4, Cem Yayınevi, 1987, p. 224.
  14. Barış Yetkin, Kırılma Noktası / 1 Mayıs 1977 Olayı, Yeniden Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdafaa-i Hukuk Yayınları, 2000, ISBN 978-9944-5966-8-8, p. 19.
  15. John M. VanderLippe, The politics of Turkish democracy, State University of New York Press (30 August 2005). pg 108: "A third group was led by Nihal Atsiz, who favored a Hider style haircut and mustache, and advocated Nazi racist doctrines."
  16. Barry M. Rubin, Metin Heper , Political parties in Turkey, Routledge; 1 edition (1 April 2002). page 40: "This organization was the continuation of the Turkculer Dernegi (Turkists Club), which was founded in 1963 by grass-root racists such as Nihal Atsiz and Ismet Tumturk"
  17. Alparslan Türkeş, Millî Doktrin Dokuz Işık, Genişletilmiş Birinci Baskı, Hamle Basın Yayın., İstanbul, s. 15.
  18. Lucy Komisar, Turkey's terrorists: a CIA legacy lives on, The Progressive, April 1997
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External links

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Political offices
Preceded by Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
31 Mar 1975 – 21 Jun 1977
Succeeded by
Orhan Eyüboğlu
Turan Güneş
Preceded by Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
21 Jul 1977 – 5 Jan 1978
Succeeded by
Orhan Eyüboğlu
Turhan Feyzioğlu
Faruk Sükan
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Republican Peasant's Nation Party (CMKP)
Agu 1, 1965–8 Feb 1969
Succeeded by
renamed to MHP
Preceded by
renamed from CKMP
Leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
8 Feb 1969 – 5 Apr 1997
Succeeded by
Devlet Bahçeli