Which Kemalism? – The Amorphous and Diverse Frames in the Party System

Kemalism is a term derived from the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He led the Turkish War of Independence from 1918–1922 and played an important role in the first decades of the newly founded republic, but he also had a lasting influence on the state system and society. This program that changed the state and society is referred to as “Kemalism”. But what does Kemalism include? Technically one can combine the six principles that are named in the party programmes of the Republican Peoples’ Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi – CHP) in the 1930s: nationalism, laicism, populism, republicanism, revolutionism and etatism. Retrospectively, the reforms that were implemented during the first decades of the state founding are also seen as core to Kemalism. In today’s Turkey, Kemalism plays a formal role, due to the fact that Kemalism is included in the constitution and also in the Party Law. The Party Law assumes that political parties in Turkey commit to the principles and “revolutions” of Atatürk (Turkish Party Law 2002: 13). Since the foundation of the Constitutional Court, 18 parties have been banned. So, one can imagine that because of this latent pressure threatening parties in Turkey, parties have had to ensure that their ideology conforms to the system and communicates a position to Kemalism considered acceptable by the state institutions. Through examining this issue, this essay shows the Kemalism frames that exist in the Turkish party system. 1