The 1923 deputy elections and press (Hakimiyet-i Milliye, Tanin, Tevhid-i Efkar)

After the National Struggle was successfully completed, ideational rifts which emerged in the first Turkish Grand National Assembly led to the decision of 1 April 1923 elections. These elections were held in an extremely critical period right after the abolition of the (Ottoman) Sultanate and amidst the debates regarding the future of the Caliphate and the principle of national sovereignty and the struggle ongoing between intellectual differences. The 1923 elections resulted in the landslide victory of the First Defence of Justice Group, while none of the opposition members except for Gümüşhane deputy Zeki Bey, were able to be elected. Some scholars in the literature have explained the landslide victory of the Government in 1923 elections with the restrictions placed on the elections and the repression of the opposition. However the main reason of the failure of the opposition was the lack of an intellectual unity within the group and the absence of a leader who could lead this group of people with a complicated dynamic. The main purpose of this study is to illustrate the underlying reasons for the success of the Government and the failure of the opposition by analysing the reflections of the elections on the media organs. In the introduction of this study, the process started with the First World War and led up to the 1923 elections was discussed. In the first part, the media activity in Turkey and the newspapers of the period such as Tevhid-i Efkar, Hakimiyet-i Milliye and Tanin were examined; the electoral proceedings in Turkey were analysed. In the second part, opposition movement, which emerged in the first Assembly, was examined. In addition, the struggle between the Government and the opposition was analysed. In the third part, the groups and the candidates participated in the 1923 elections and its reflections on the media, and the approaches of the media organs towards the groups and candidates were analysed. In the fourth part, the developments in İstanbul and Anatolia during the election period were discussed via the newspapers. The study elaborates on the news and articles in the newspapers Hakimiyet-i Milliye, Tevhid-i Efkar and Tanin on the reflections of the 1923 elections on the media, and aims to explain reasons for the success of the First Defence of Justice Group and the failure of the opposition.