The Emergence of Social Democracy in Turkey: The Left and the Transformation of the Republican People's Party

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The RPP (Republican People's Party) stands as Turkey's main opposition party - one of two major political blocs, second only to Erdogan's ruling AK Party. Also known as the CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), it was the founding party of Ataturk's republican regime and had a history of hostility towards leftist parties. Despite this, by the mid-1960s, the RPP had re-orientated itself as left of centre, as the growing influence of the left inside the RPP pushed it in a new direction. This is hailed as the entry point of social democratic politics into Turkey, and is the focus of Yunus Emre's impressively researched book. He tracks the fluctuations in Turkish politics from the single-party period to the making of a new regime following the 1960 coup, looking at the place of both the RPP and the left in this trajectory, making this essential reading for scholars of Turkish politics and modern history.

Reviews

'Yunus Emre manages to render a complex history comprehensible and sheds light on the remarkable political career of [former RRP leader and Turkish Prime Minister] Bulent Ecevit ... Emre's work is an important contribution to a hitherto neglected aspect of Turkey's politics and also to the history of a period of political modernisation, before ideological polarisation made such positions of compromise difficult to imagine. It is the product of careful research of primary sources and publications of the period. It will be a worthwhile addition to the small library of original research on Turkish political development.' Professor Caglar Keyder, The Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Bogazici Univeristy ' [This book] will bridge a gap in the literature, both in Turkish and English ... it will serve those working on social democracy, as well as social and political change in general.' Professor Mensur Akgun, Director of the Global Trends Center, Istanbul, Kultur University.

Author Bio

Yunus Emre is a Graduate Assistant in the Department of International Relations at Istanbul Kultur University. He holds a PhD from the Ataturk Institute of Modern Turkish History, Bogazici Univeristy, Turkey.