Fazilet (Virtue), Though the Country’s Largest Party, Is Ignored in Formation of Turkey’s 56th Government

By Oya Akgùnen

After the lapse of 57 days, three political parties with diverse aims and political traditions have finally formed a leftist minority government supported by two Rightist political parties. This arrangement is unique in Turkish political history.

The Turkish Republic’s 56th new government is headed by a veteran leftist politician, Bulent Ecevit, who has been prime minister of Turkey twice before in the 1970s. The tortured process of forming the government, and the support given by the two Rightist parties, the Motherland Party (ANAP) and the True Path Party (DYP), revealed that many political leaders are putting their personal likes and dislikes above such essential political principles as democracy, tolerance and fair play.

Ouster of Previous Government

The ANAP-led 55th government was a coalition with Ecevit’s Democratic Left Party (DSP), supported from outside by the Republican People’s Party (CHP), led by Deniz Baykal. Both of the latter two parties are on the left of the political spectrum.

The ANAP-led government was formed in mid-1997 after the Rightist coalition, Refahyol, formed by Islamist leader Necmettin Erbakan’s Refah (Welfare) Party, then the largest in parliament, and Tansu ¡iller’s DYP, was forced to resign under military-led pressure. The Refahyol government, Turkey’s 54th, was accused of being soft on religious “fundamentalism” in Turkey. Such accusations were never really proven or even clearly defined as constituting a danger to the well-being of the state.

After the Refayol government’s forced resignation, most political analysts and the coalition partners assumed that Suleyman Demirel, the president of the republic, would invite the leader of the second-largest party in the parliament to form a new government. Instead, he invited the third-largest party’s leader, Mesut Yilmaz, to form a government, which he did with Ecevit’s DSP.

While both belong to the Right, Yilmaz and Tansu ¡iller have long been at odds, accusing each other of corruption. It was because of their inability to get along that Yilmaz offered to share power instead with Ecevit.

Like the president, Yilmaz also ignored the largest political bloc in Parliament, the Fazilet (Virtue) Party, with 145 seats in the National Assembly.

Fazilet was formed Dec. 17, 1997 after the court-ordered dissolution of the Refah Party that had been accused of being soft on fundamentalism. Many of the Refah parliamentarians, who suddenly found themselves without a party affiliation, joined the newly formed Fazilet to create a new center-right party in Parliament.

While the Yilmaz-led 55th government received a vote of confidence, few political leaders and analysts outside the coalition accepted its legitimacy as a popularly elected government. In their view, it was a government imposed by the military.

Interestingly, the Yilmaz coalition was supported by the media barons and by Istanbul-based industrialists. In the brief 17 months of its existence, this coalition government was accused of having connections both with gangsters and with financial manipulators. Finally, last November, both the rightist and leftist parties outside the coalition, including CHP, Baykal’s small leftist party, moved a vote of no-confidence and ousted the government.

Forming the New Government

After the fall of the Yilmaz government, President Demirel first gave the mandate to Ecevit, whose party was number four in Parliament, ignoring the top three political parties.

After a round of talks with several other political parties (with the exception of Fazilet), Ecevit, who was the deputy prime minister in the ousted government, realized that he could not obtain the necessary support. Most political leaders told him that they could not support his effort because he and his coalition partner had been so recently ousted by parliament.

While claiming to be a “true” democrat and a “tolerant” person, Ecevit openly expressed his dislike for the largest political party in Parliament. Ecevit told a press conference he could not “digest” the Fazilet Party.

After the presidential mandate was returned by Ecevit, Demirel invited an independent member of parliament, Yalim Erez, a former high-ranking leader of Tansu ¡iller’s DYP, to form a new government. This was an unusual move because, while Erez is personally well-respected, he commands little political support within the parliament.

Erez found some support from ANAP, DSP and some small parties, but got no commitment from Fazilet or the DYP. Nevertheless, backed by the media tycoons and other outside elements he was ready to submit a cabinet list to the president when DYP leader ¡iller suddenly reversed her opposition to Ecevit and promised him her unconditional support.

Ecevit openly expressed his dislike for the Fazilet Party.

Her unexpected move was designed solely to block the ascension to power of Erez, her former political ally turned arch enemy, who had been instrumental in her own rise to power. As a result of her move , the president had to offer the mandate to Ecevit for the second time within two weeks. Finally, on Jan. 17, Turkey’s 56th government received a 306 to 188 vote of confidence in the Grand National Assembly.

For an outsider, the most interesting part of the whole process of forming the 56th government may be the unusual procedural methods used by Turkey’s president. For example, he insisted on offering the job to the fourth party, with only 61 seats in parliament, compared to Fazilet’s 145 deputies. This, he explained, is his prerogative under the constitution.

It is the same constitution prepared by the military, following its 1980 coup d’état. Ironically, that 1980 coup was staged against Demirel’s own government. He was then ousted from office and temporarily sent to jail.

Prior to assuming the presidency, Demirel spent many years advocating the implementation of democratic rules and the selection of a government by a popular majority.

Before ¡iller announced her support for Ecevit, the president had delivered a veiled threat during his annual New Year speech to the nation, warning that “dire events” would occur unless the political parties came to terms with what he had offered them, i.e., Yalim Erez. In fact the president’s threat seemed more like a tactical move to achieve his aim—the imposition of a leftist government on Turkey.

Questioned about her change of heart, ¡iller replied that the earlier move was not on her own “initiative,” but Ecevit’s. Nevertheless, while her own “initiative” defeated the maneuvers of her political adversaries, Demirel and Erez, it made no contribution toward the cause of democracy in Turkey. Instead, Demirel’s maneuver and ¡iller’s “initiative” have diverted the Turkish Republic from fulfillment of the dream of its founder, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, of a democratic, secular and progressive Turkey where all citizens would become answerable and accountable for their actions.

Strange Political Bedfellows

Some call the new 56th government that has brought together two rightist parties in support of a minority leftist government in Turkey “a puppet show.” If this simile is acceptable, the question is: who are the puppeteers?

Another irony is that 20 years ago Demirel was an adamant opponent of Ecevit, disagreeing with his policies and tactics. Today, Ecevit has become the apple of Demirel’s eye. Who has changed?

Regardless of the manuevers to keep the Fazilet (Virtue) Party outside the cabinet, all independent surveys indicate it will continue to be the largest party in Parliament after the upcoming general elections on April 18. Some tie Demirel’s maneuvers to his desire to postpone these elections while trying to bring in a new system of presidential elections similar to that of the United States. Demirel’s presidential term is to end before the year 2000.

There also are nasty rumors about the deal between Yilmaz and ¡iller. Both have been accused of corruption and both have been threatened with court actions. In each case, they have separately made deals to avoid legal prosecution.

As for the Fazilet, the low-key approach to its exclusion by its leader, Recai Kutan, though disappointing to some of his followers, has resulted in a clear and definite gain for his party. That is the open acceptance of its existence and its key role in Turkish politics, as both the largest and probably the fastest-growing political party in the country.

Oya Akgùnen, a free-lance writer based in Ankara, is a member of the Administrative Committee of the Fazilet Party.