Turkism Currents in the Period of Democratic Party

One party-ruling system was come to an end with the transition of that into a multi-party system in Turkey, in 1945. The coming of the power of Democratic Party in 1950 was the beginning of a new period. In this period, the significant changes took place in the field of thought, as well as all other fields of social life. Within this context, the situation of Turkish thought rooted in the Ottoman era, which constituted one of the wings of the history of Turkish thought's recent period, and which from time to time stood back, but at the same time could be more apparent occasionally, has been tried to investigate. This study aims to understand Turkism movement in the period of Democratic Party, holistically. Within this context, in the first part of the study, the focus is on the heritage of Turkism thought that reaches back to the 1950s. In the second part, Turkism Institutions, their operational fields, and the relations of these institutions to the government are investigated under separate titles for each institution. In the last and third part of the study, the focus is on the members of Turkism movement within the period of Democratic Party. From this perspective, by carrying out a detailed research on the sources of Democratic Party period. Turkists' understandings of Turkism, their thoughts which were developed based on these understandings, the possibility of implementation of these thoughts, and their approach to the current affairs of Democratic Party's period has been tried to understand and to explain. Keywords: Turkism, Turkish Nationalism, Democratic Party, Turanism