Liberal Republican Party (Turkey)

Liberal Republican Party
Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası
President and founderFethi Okyar
General SecretaryNuri Conker
FoundedAugust 12, 1930; 94 years ago (1930-08-12)
DissolvedNovember 17, 1930; 94 years ago (1930-11-17)
Split fromRepublican People's Party
HeadquartersAnkara, Turkey
IdeologyLiberalism[1]
Liberal democracy[1]
Republicanism
Turkish nationalism
Laicism
Political positionCentre-right
Colours  Blue
Party office in Samsun

The Liberal Republican Party (sometimes referred to as the Free Republican Party; in Turkish: Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası, acronymized as SCF [seːdʒeːfeˑ]) was a political party founded by Fethi Okyar upon President Kemal Atatürk's request in the early years of the Turkish republic.[2]

In the context of the One-party period, Mustafa Kemal requested for Okyar to create a new movement as an opposition party to confront the ruling Republican People's Party with the aim of establishing the tradition of multi-party democracy in Turkey. After the first tentative of Progressive Republican Party during the period 1924–1925, it represents the second attempt to create a pluralist system in the country.[3]

Even if the party advocated liberal views, both economically and politically, in its program, it was quickly embraced by many opponents of Atatürk's reforms, particularly regarding secularism.[1] Thus, after its participation in the 1930 local elections in which it won 31 of 502 municipalities, it was personally dissolved in November 1930 by Okyar, who was an ardent supporter of the reforms.[4]

The closure of the Free Republican Party left Turkey as a one-party state until the establishment of the National Development Party (Milli Kalkınma Partisi) in 1945 and the Democrat Party in 1946.

  1. ^ a b c "Atatürk Döneminde Düşünürlerin Gözüyle Kemalizm ve Türk İnkılabı" (PDF).
  2. ^ https://www.kafkas.edu.tr/dosyalar/sobedergi/file/008/1_0.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  3. ^ McCally S, P. (May 1956). "Party Government in Turkey". The University of Chicago Press Journals. 18 (2): 308–309. JSTOR 2126986.
  4. ^ Çetin, Yetkin (2004). Atatürk'ün Vatana İhanetle Suçlandığı S.C.F. Olayı. İstanbul: Otopsi Yayınları. pp. 267–273. ISBN 9789758410453.