Dissenting press in Malatya Democrat Party Period: Examples of Malatya Postası and Yeni Malatya Postası

Malatya has always been an important center of East Anatolia, since historic periods. This continued from the Ottoman up until the Republic. In this study, the years from 1952-1960 have been analyzed. The main goal of this study is to show the reflection of the Democrat Party in the Malatya press, which had great importance in the republican history and during the multi-party transition. According to the results of three elections, carried out between 1950 and 1960, the ruling party, which was the Democrat Party, wasn't successful in Malatya and none of their members made it into the parliament. In order to understand the opposition in the province Malatya, one must examine the opposing newspapers. The subjects of the study are the local newspapers Malatya Postası and Yeni Malatya Postası. In order to establish the theoretical infrastructure of the study, the first part focuses on the fact that the press is the fourth power in modern democracies. In the second and third part the establishment of the Democrat Party, which emerged as an opposition movement within the Republican People's Party, their electoral victories and ten-year general panorama are addressed alongside the DP-press relations. In the last part of the study local newspaper reports, comments, columns and statements during the Democrat Party period are analyzed. Despite the fact that the newspapers established a strong opposition, it has been found out that they broadcasted with a national stance in national affairs, are at an amateur level in terms of printing, layout and technical structure and generally exhibited a political stance because they were supporting a specific party. Key Words: Malatya, Democrat Party, Local Press, Malatya Postası, Yeni Malatya Postası