AHC/WI: Stronger CHP after 1960 Turkish coup d'etat

How can CHP do better in the 1961 election? Thanks to the 1960 coup d'etat, the Democrat Party was banned and Menderes stood trial and was executed. A new constitution was put in force, and proportional representation was enacted.

But CHP had disappointing results. The Democat Party's successors did very well, and a series of CHP-led governments were weak and unstable. Inonu was old enough, and the officers still had him on a tight leash.

So, how can the CHP's and Inonu's (if possible) position be strengthened? Can they do better in the 1961 election? Or can the military's action during and after the coup help in that direction?
 
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I don't know too much about the power political struggles between the CHP and the army at that time, if there were any at all - as far as I know, both of them were basically the cornerstones of Kemalism? Of course there's the old trick military rulers often do: rigging the elections, in this case favouring the CHP. Otherwise, the CHP could also re-invent itself as the real democratic alternative to both the DP and the military, but I guess the generals wouldn't have liked that very much.
 
I don't know too much about the power political struggles between the CHP and the army at that time, if there were any at all - as far as I know, both of them were basically the cornerstones of Kemalism?

In principle, yes - but Inönü was treading a very fine line between making openings towards public sentiment on the one hand, and hardcore officers on the other. Which brings us to -


the CHP could also re-invent itself as the real democratic alternative to both the DP and the military, but I guess the generals wouldn't have liked that very much.

This will have to include some (more) relaxation of secularist (even anti-Islamic, according to some) policies enacted by Atatürk and upheld by successive military coups. This could easily provoke another coup by less senior elements in the armed forces (there were indeed two such attempts in the early 60s which were squashed by senior officers) which didn't want to give power back to civilians in the first place.

This is why it's a challenging AHC. I could think of a few things like

A) One of the squashed coup attempts gets messier than OTL, leading to backlash among the general public and giving a freer hand to CHP to denounce it (not unheard of). Thus, CHP feels more at ease with moving towards public sentiment on a number of issues (mostly concerning religion).

B) Consequently, the Justice Party's leader, Ragıp Gümüşpala, is severely discredited, as he was a retired general and Chief of Staff in 1960. He resigns amid declining popularity, and conservative Bilgiç takes the leadership, as Gürsel (military head of state) doesn't have enough power to impose a less conservative figure (OTL Demirel) as leader of the party.

C) The trial of Menderes and the rest of the accuses in the now-defunct Democrat Party takes 2-3 months longer and they haven't yet been executed at the time of the 1961 election. Thus, sentiments don't run as high and turnout is a bit smaller for the post-Democrat parties (Justice Party and New Turkey Party - YTP) and/or they lose a few votes. Thus, CHP gets a small boost from that, too.
 
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