The influence of political power on school names

Ruling party is the political power which holds the power to rule. No opposition could be in question in countries ruled by monarchy. On the other hand, there are opposition parties in democratic states. Keeping interests of the country in the forefront should constitute the basis of ruling party-opposition party relationships. Transition was made from constitutional monarchy to republic through the Turkish Revolution in Anatolia. However, the country was ruled by a single party until 1946. Multi-party life started in Turkey upon foundation of Democratic Party (DP) in 1946 by the opposition emerging from People's Republican Party (CHP). DP came to power in 1950 after four years of opposition. Military seized control on May 27, 1960. Turkey was ruled by the Justice Party (AP), CHP and coalition governments from May 27, 1960 until September 12, 1980. During the time elapsed, governments mostly endeavoured to apply their education policies as a part of their own political mentality rather than a national education policy. During this course of time, governments of different periods frequently disposed of school names, which are simply concrete images as required by their educational policies. As an example to these applications, İsmet İnönü names were removed from school names in DP period; 27 May and names that connotated it were used following 27 May coup and Kenan Evren's name was used following 12 September.