The place of the general secretariat of the Republican People's Party in Turkish political life (1945-1966)

With its origins, the Republican People's Party is the party that both founded the Republic of Turkey and paved the way for its modernization and democratization. After many years of single-party rule, the Turkey's transition to democratic multi-party life began in 1945. In 1950, an unprecedented event took place in the world and the Chairman of the Republican People's Party, İsmet İnönü, defended democracy while being a single man and handed over the power to the Democratic Party. The Secretary General, who was the third man of the party after the Chairman and Deputy Chairman during the single-party period, became the most important man of the party after the Chairman after the Republican People's Party fell into opposition. Chairman of the Republican People's Party, İsmet İnönü, increased the powers of the Secretary General in order to spread the democratization movement in the Turkey within the party. This situation caused years of struggle between the Chairman and the Secretary General. In our study, a framework was created by examining the conjuncture of the period between 1945 and 1966, which is the specified period, from general to specific. First, the world conjuncture in the mentioned period was examined, then the developments in Turkish political life were examined, and then the governing bodies of the Republican People's Party in the mentioned period were included. After examining the conjuncture of the period from general to particular, first the institution of the General Secretariat was examined by comparative method, and finally, the people who served as the General Secretary in the mentioned period were evaluated in terms of both biographical and political debate. While this study was being carried out; Archival documents, official publications, the press of the period, research works, memories and second-hand sources were used.