The Evolution of the Socio-political Situation of the Republic of Türkiye in the 20th Century – Efforts Towards the Europeanisation of the Society and State

Abstract

The events related to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the proclamation of the Republic of Türkiye contributed to a complete departure from the system of constitutional monarchy in favour of a parliamentary democracy. Owing to the decisions on Europeanisation and implemented reforms, i.e., adopting a Civil Code based on the Swiss code, a Criminal Code refl ecting the Italian code, a Commercial Code underpinned by the German code (1924), and the transition to the Latin alphabet which replaced Arabic (1928), as well as education reforms (1925), women’s suffrage (1934), and the introduction of surnames (1935), etc. the Turkish people became a European society, aware of their rights and obligations. The transition from a singleparty regime to a multi-party period (1946) allowed for democracy to be consolidated. Türkiye’s participation in strictly European and international political and military organisations was of vital signifi cance and turned the country into an extremely important state. Its failed efforts to join the EEC, and, subsequently, the European Union, resulted in Türkiye abandoning its interest in this form of cooperation (1997). The socio-political transformations that took place in the 20th century, highlighted in this article, characterise this dynamically changing period. The evolution of the views of Turkish society was clearly marked in the second half of the 20th century, which led to serious changes in the mindsets of the Turkish people and completely altered the image of the country post-2002, allowing the newly established Justice and Development Party to assume power (2002).