Devlet Bahçeli and ‘far right’ politics in Turkey, 1999–2002

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Notes

The authors are grateful to the Turkish Academy of Sciences for the financial support they provided for the work on this article.

1. On this definition of ‘far right’, we draw upon C. Mudde, ‘The War of Words: Defining the Extreme Right Family’, West European Politics, Vol.19, No.2 (April 1996), pp.225–48.

2. G. Harris, The Dark Side of Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990), p.78.

3. Inter alia, see H.G. Betz, Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994); H. Kitschelt and A. McGann, The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1995); C. Mudde, The Ideology of the Extreme Right (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000).

4. J.M. Landau, Radical Politics in Modern Turkey (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974), Chapter 6; H. Poulton, Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic: Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent (London: Hurst, 1997), particularly pp.145–63.

5. The MHP took over some existing youth organizations and set up new ones. The members of these organizations called themselves commandos (komandalar). Many were trained in three main camps near Ankara, İstanbul and İzmir, Turkey's largest three cities, others in training camps located elsewhere. The daily schedule in these camps were as follows: prayer, two hours of physical training (including judo, wrestling and boxing), breakfast, reading period, lunch, two more hours of physical training (as above plus rope-walking and wall-scaling), prayer, long marches and sports, prayer, dinner and lectures (on the essence of nationalism, as opposed to communism). There were rumours that the youths were also instructed in the use of fire-arms; these were categorically denied by the party. See, Landau, Radical Politics in Modern Turkey, pp.214–15.

6. A.N. Çağlar, ‘The Greywolves as a Metaphor’, in A. Finkel and N. Sirman (eds.), Turkish State, Turkish Society (London: Routledge, 1990), pp.85–6. In their turn, the left was first engaged in such anti-western and anti-capitalist activities as kidnapping American soldiers and major corporate figures and later aimed at causing chaos and demoralization in order to create a climate in which an authoritarian regime would be welcomed by the masses as the saviour of the nation. See F. Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey (London: Routledge, 1993), pp.163–4.

7. J.M. Landau, ‘The Nationalist Action Party in Turkey’, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol.17, No.4 (1982), pp.587–606; E. Burak Arıkan, ‘The Programme of the Nationalist Action Party: An Iron Hand in a Velvet Glove’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.34, No.4 (1998), pp.120–34.

8. See below.

9. The failure of the government parties at the polls was basically the result of high employment and inflation; the failure of the main opposition party to get elected was due to its leadership problems.

10. See, inter alia, Arıkan, ‘The Programme of the Nationalist Action Party: An Iron Hand in a Velvet Glove’; B. Aras and G. Baçık, ‘The Nationalist Action Party and Turkish Politics’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol.6, No.4 (Winter 2000), pp.48–64; and S. Tepe, ‘Kemalism, Islamism, and the Nationalist Action Party’, Turkish Studies, Vol.1, No.2 (Autumn 2000), pp.59–72.

11. M. Heper and S. Sayarı (eds.), Political Leaders and Democracy in Turkey (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2002).

12. Quoted in A. Tekin, Milliyetçi Hareket'te Devlet Bahçeli Dönemi (Ankara: Tutibay Yayınları, 2000), pp.76–7.

13. On İsmet İnönü's moral integrity, see M. Heper, İsmet İnönü: The Making of a Turkish Statesman (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998), Chapter 3.

14. M. Grubu, Kutlu İktidar Yürüyüşü (Ankara: Tutibay Yayınları, 1997), p.58.

15. P. Davies, Extreme Right in France. 1789 to the Present: From Maistre to Le Pen (London: Routledge, 2002), p.221.

16. Hürriyet (İstanbul daily), 21 June 1999.

17. D. Bahçeli, Milliyetçi Hareket ve Türkiye'nin Geleceği (İstanbul: Hareket, 1998).

18. Milliyet (İstanbul daily), 5 June 2000.

19. D. Bahçeli, Yeni Çağa Bakış: Eleştiriler, Tespitler ve Öneriler (Ankara: MHP, 2000), p.1.

20. Tekin, Milliyetçi Harekette Devlet Bahçeli Dönemi, p.170.

21. Bahçeli, Yeni Çağa Bakış, p.59.

22. Ibid.

23. D. Bahçeli, ‘Türkiye'de Demokratikleşme ve Anayasa Reformu’, Türkiye ve Siyaset, No.3 (July–August 2001), p.5.

24. D. Bahçeli, ‘Kriz Sürecinde Demokrasi ve Sağduyunun Önemi’, Türkiye ve Siyaset, No.2 (May–June 2001), p.7.

25. D. Bahçeli, Gündemi Oluşturan Sorunlar ve MHP (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2000), p.75.

26. M. Heper, ‘Başkalaşmadan Değişen Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi’, Türkiye Günlüğü, No.55 (March–April 1999), p.19.

27. G. Sartori, The Theory of Democracy Revisited (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1987).

28. A. Tekin, Milliyetçi Hareket'te Devlet Bahçeli Dönemi (Ankara: Tutibay Yayınları, 2000), p.196.

29. Ibid.

30. Hürriyet, 24 April 2002.

31. Sabah (İstanbul daily), 27 June 2001.

32. Sabah, 3 March 2002.

33. In general, Bahçeli has not been a vindictive politician. Some of those who in the past had opposed Bahçeli, for instance by supporting Tuğrul Türkeş when the latter's father Alparslan Türkeş died, were made members of the MHP by Bahçeli. However, in the case of Öcalan, Bahçeli thought his death sentence should be carried out because he was responsible for the death of the sons of so many people in Turkey, for whom, as we have already noted, he has great sympathy and affection. On how this issue was later resolved, see below.

34. D. Bahçeli, Hoşgörü ve Uzlaşma İkliminde Türkiye (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2000), p.7.

35. Milliyet, 19 July 1999.

36. Hürriyet, 8 June 2002.

37. Sabah, 23 January 2000 and 27 January 2002.

38. Sabah, 27 June 2001.

39. D. Bahçeli, ‘İktidar ve Muhalefet İlişkileri ve Meclis Çalışmaları’, Türkiye ve Siyaset, No.1 (March–April 2001), p.7.

40. Ibid., p.8.

41. D.A. Rustow, ‘Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model’, Comparative Politics, Vol.2, No.3 (1970), pp.337–63.

42. D. Bahçeli, Yeni Çağın Eşiğinde Türkiye ve Dünya (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2000), p.50.

43. Ibid., p.21.

44. D. Bahçeli, Sorumluluk Kültürü (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2001), p.41.

45. Bahçeli, Milliyetçi Hareket ve Türkiye'nin Geleceği, p.55.

46. Bahçeli, Siyasette İlke Ekonomide Kararlılık (Ankara: MHP, n.d.), p.128.

47. The MHP, Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi Programı (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2000), p.8.

48. M. Vaughan, ‘The Extreme Right in France: Le Penisme or the Politics of Fear’, in L. Cheles, R. Ferguson and M. Vaughan (eds.), Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe (London: Longman, 1995), p.224.

49. M. Swyngedouw, ‘The Extreme Right in Belgium: Of a Non-Existent Front National and an Omnipresent Vlaams Blok’, in H.G. Betz and S. Immerfall (eds.), The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies (New York: St Martins Press, 1998), p.64.

50. M. Nihat and E. Cemiloğlu, Türk Siyasi Hayatında Milliyetçi Hareket: Tarihi Gelişim, Partileşme ve İdeoloji (Ankara: Turkuaz Ajans, 1995), p.128.

51. Grubu, Kutlu İktidar Yürüyüşü, p.31.

52. Harris, The Dark Side of Europe, p.64.

53. Davies, The Extreme Right in France, p.136.

54. N. Mayer, ‘The French National Front’, in Betz and Immerfall (eds.), The New Politics of the Right, p.23.

55. Harris, The Dark Side of Europe, p.72.

56. M. Riedlsperg, ‘The Freedom Party of Austria: From Protest to Radical Right Populism’, in Betz and Immerfall (eds.), New Politics of Radical, p.31.

57. Swyngedouw, ‘The Extreme Right in Belgium’, p.63.

58. G.G. Erdoğan, ‘The Case of Racism-Turanism: Turkism During Single-Party Period. A Radical Variant of Turkish Nationalism’ (Ph.D. thesis, Boğaziçi University, 1990).

59. D. Bahçeli, ‘Milliyetçilik ve Küreselleşme’, Türkiye ve Siyaset, No.5 (November–December 2001), p.11.

60. Bahçeli, Yeni Çağa Bakış, p.55.

61. Hürriyet, 21 June 1999.

62. Bahçeli, Yeni Çağa Bakış, p.55.

63. Ibid.

64. Ibid.

65. Ibid.

66. Nihat and Cemiloğlu, Türk Siyasi Hayatında Milliyetçi Hareket, p.12.

67. The MHP, Türk Siyasetinde Yozlaşma ve Arayış Sürecinde Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2002), pp.49–50.

68. The MHP, Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi Programı (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2000), p.28.

69. Ibid., pp.29–30.

70. D. Bahçeli, Son Gelişmeler Işığında Türkiye'nin AB Üyeliği ve Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi: Temel Yaklaşım Biçimimiz ve Görüşlerimiz (Ankara: MHP Genel Merkezi, 2002), p.14.

71. M. Heper, ‘Political Culture as a Dimension of Compatibility’, in M. Heper, A. Öncü and H. Kramer (eds.), Turkey and the West: Changing Political and Cultural Identities (London: I.B. Tauris, 1993).

72. Davies, The Extreme Right in France, p.138.

73. Ibid.

74. Riedlsperg, ‘The Freedom Party of Austria’, p.32.

75. D. Bahçeli, ‘Türkiye-AB İlişkilerinde Kırılma Noktaları’, Türkiye ve Siyaset, No.7 (March–April 2002), p.7.

76. Davies, The Extreme Right in France, p.138.

77. Mayer, ‘The French National Front’, p.23.

78. Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi 3 Kasım 2002 Seçim Beyannamesi: Türkiye'nin Onurlu Geleceği (Ankara: MHP, 2002), pp.1–4.

79. Bahçeli, ‘Türkiye-AB İlişkilerinde Kırılma Noktaları’, pp.6–7.

80. Ibid., p.9.

81. R. Davison, ‘Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire’, in W.V. Haddad and W. Ochsenwald (eds.), Nationalism in a Non-National State: The Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1977).

82. See Ş. Mardin, ‘Ideology and Religion in the Turkish Revolution’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.2, No.3 (1971), pp.197–211.

83. On the patriotism and nationalism in the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey, see Ş. Mardin, ‘Patriotism and Nationalism on Turkey’, in R. Michener (ed.), Nationality, Patriotism, and Nationality (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Paragon House, 1993).

84. See the Report, ‘The Social Situation in the European Union, 2002’, at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2002/jun/inbrief_en.pdf

84. A. İçduygu, Irregular Migration in Turkey (Geneva: International Organization for Migration, 2003), pp.17–18.

86. M. Heper, The State Tradition in Turkey (Walkington, UK: The Eothen Press, 1985).

87. Vaughan, ‘The Extreme Right in France’, p.22.

88. Mayer, ‘The French National Front’, p.23.

89. Riedslperg, ‘The Freedom Party of Austria’, pp.3, 34, 37.