Liberalism in Turkey

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Liberalism was introduced in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat period of reformation.

History

Murad V, 33rd Ottoman Sultan (Emperor)

On 30 May 1876,

Abdülaziz was deposed. He was highly influenced by French culture and was a liberal.[1][2][3][4] He reigned for 93 days before being deposed on the grounds that he was supposedly mentally ill on 31 August 1876; however his opponents may simply have used those grounds to stop his implementation of democratic reforms. As a result, he was unable to deliver the Constitution that his supporters had sought.[4][2]

Constitutional era

Constitutionalism was introduced in the Ottoman Empire by liberal intellectuals like Beşir Fuad, Hekim Ismail Pasha, and Ahmed Zühdü Pasha, who tried to modernize their society by promoting development, progress, and liberal values.[5]

Düzoğlu Mihran Bey, liberal politician.

Tanzimât

The

First Constitutional Era in 1876.[6] Although the motives for the implementation of Tanzimât were bureaucratic, it was impulsed by liberal ministers and intellectuals like Dimitrios Zambakos Pasha, Kabuli Mehmed Pasha, the secret society Young Ottomans,[7][8] and Midhat Pasha, who is also often considered one of the founders of the Ottoman Parliament.[9][10][11][12] Many changes were made to improve civil liberties, but many Muslims saw them as foreign influence on the world of Islam. That perception complicated reformist efforts made by the state.[13] A policy called Ottomanism was meant to unite all the different peoples living in Ottoman territories, "Muslim and non-Muslim, Turkish and Greek, Armenian and Jewish, Kurd and Arab". The policy officially began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839, declaring equality before the law for both Muslim and non-Muslim Ottomans.[14]

The Tanzimât reforms began under

Nationality Law of 1869 creating a common Ottoman citizenship irrespective of religious or ethnic divisions; among others. Western educated economists like Ahmet Reşat Pasha advocated for economic liberalism.[17]

Young Ottomans

First Constitutional Era
in the Empire.

The Young Ottomans were a secret society established in 1865 by a group of Ottoman Turkish intellectuals who were dissatisfied with the Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire, which they believed did not go far enough, and wanted to end the autocracy in the empire.[18][19] Young Ottomans sought to transform Ottoman society by preserving the empire and modernizing along the European tradition of adopting a constitutional government.[20] Though the Young Ottomans were frequently in disagreement ideologically, they all agreed that the new constitutional government should continue to be somewhat rooted in Islam to emphasize "the continuing and essential validity of Islam as the basis of Ottoman political culture."[21] However, they sincreticize Islamic idealism with modern liberalism and parliamentary democracy, to them the European parliamentary liberalism was a model to follow, in accordance with the tenets of Islam and "attempted to reconcile Islamic concepts of government with the ideas of Montesquieu, Danton, Rousseau, and contemporary European Scholars and statesmen."[22][23][24] Namık Kemal, who was influential in the formation of the society, admired the constitution of the French Third Republic, he summed up the Young Ottomans' political ideals as "the sovereignty of the nation, the separation of powers, the responsibility of officials, personal freedom, equality, freedom of thought, freedom of press, freedom of association, enjoyment of property, sanctity of the home".[22][23][24] The Young Ottomans believed that one of the principal reasons for the decline of the empire was abandoning Islamic principles in favor of imitating European modernity with unadvised compromises to both and they sought to unite the two in a way that they believed would best serve the interests of the state and its people.[25] They sought to revitalize the empire by incorporating certain Europeans models of government, while still retaining the Islamic foundations the empire was founded on.[26] Among the prominent members of this society were writers and publicists such as İbrahim Şinasi, Namık Kemal, Ali Suavi, Ziya Pasha, and Agah Efendi.

In 1876, the Young Ottomans had their defining moment when Sultan

Second Constitutional Era
.

Freedom and Accord Party

Nafi Pasha, member of the liberal Freedom and Accord Party openly discussed about voting rights for women during the Second Constitutional Era.
  • 1911: As a reaction to dictatorial tendencies, the liberal Freedom and Accord Party (Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası) is founded.
  • 1913: The party is banned.

Ottoman Liberal People's Party / Freedom Party

Freedom Party

New Turkey Party

  • 1961: A moderate faction of the former Democratic Party established after the ban of the latter party the New Turkey Party (Yeni Türkiye Partisi).
  • 1973: After initial success the party became unsuccessful and is dissolved.

Liberal Democratic Party

  • 1994: Founded on July 26 as Liberal Party by former (Demokrat Parti) members and Besim Tibuk, the first president.
  • 1996: The Liberal Party changed its name to Liberal Democratic Party.
  • 2002: Tibuk resigns as president on November 25.
  • 2005: Cem Toker gets elected as president on July 20.
  • 2017: Toker resigns as president on January 29. Gültekin Tırpancı gets elected as president on the same day.

See also

References

  1. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  2. ^ . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  3. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  4. ^ a b Palmer, Alan. The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, 1992. Page 141–143.
  5. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  6. ^ Cleveland, William L & Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East: 4th Edition, Westview Press: 2009, p. 82.
  7. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  8. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  9. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  10. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  11. . Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  12. . Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  13. ^ Roderic. H. Davison, Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774-1923 – The Impact of West, Texas 1990, pp. 115-116.
  14. ^ The Invention of Tradition as Public Image in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1808 to 1908, Selim Deringil, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan. 1993), pp. 3-29
  15. ^ a b NTV Tarih Archived 2013-02-12 at the Wayback Machine history magazine, issue of July 2011. "Sultan Abdülmecid: İlklerin Padişahı", pages 46-50. (Turkish)
  16. ^ a b Cleveland & Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, Chapter 5 pg.84 of 4th edition
  17. ^ "Ahmed Reşat Paşa".
  18. .
  19. . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  20. .
  21. ^ Finkel 2006, p. 475.
  22. ^ . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  23. ^ . Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  24. ^ . p. 104.
  25. ^ Zürcher 2004, p. 78.
  26. ^ A History of the Modern Middle East. Cleveland and Buntin p.78
  27. ^ Finkel 2006, p. 489-490.