A political figure, a man of thought Aydin Menderes: His life, politics and thoughts

Aydın Menderes was born in Ankara in 1946. Prior to his birth, his father and father's friends had just founded the Democrat Party, which would initiate the multi-party system in Turkish politics. Due to this, Aydın Menderes was born in the middle of a political environment. For this reason, he always said "I am good at two things, one is agriculture and the other is politics" throughout his life. Aydın Menderes, who had been in a political environment since his birth, started his political journey in 1970 as the Provincial Chairman of the Democrat Party in Aydın, and remained actively involved in politics until 2002, holding several positions such as Chairman, Vice Chairman and MP. In the present study, which aims to view the history of the Republic of Turkey through a political figure, Aydın Menderes was selected as the subject due to his intellectual background and the period in which he lived. The fact that his father was a very important figure in Turkish politics caused Aydın Menderes to find himself in the turmoils of political life in Turkey. Aydın Menderes witnessed and personally experienced the important events of our recent political history as a child during 27 May, a teenager during March 12 and as an adult during September 12. Viewing the political history of Turkey through the life of Aydın Menderes and trying to know and understand him will allow for the observation of the significant problems that occurred in recent history. The present thesis study aims to interpret the recent political history of Turkey through a political figure. This way, Aydın Menderes as a politician and thinker will be known closely, his world of thought will be related to and the social structure and political life in Turkey that shaped his thoughts will appear in the background.