Abstract:

The 1946 general elections constituted a significant threshold in the Turkish politics during the transition to a multi-party political system. The 1946 elections were the first “direct” and “multi-party” elections held in Turkey, the analysis of the pre-election period of which, thus, involves significant aspects about the political life. President Ismet Inönü was the most influential figure in the period until the elections, and a strong call for voting dominated his nationwide campaign tour speeches and his statements as well as newspaper articles. These calls reminded the citizens their role as “voters” and highlighted that the “ballot box” paved the way for “democracy” and “national will” and that voting was “a national and sacred duty” with a strong emphasis on the unison of “national will”, “elections” and “majority vote”. Citizens gained great importance as voters, and national will was identified with the Parliament whereas democracy was identified with the ballot box. This study handles the relationship between the discourse of “national will” and the call on the citizens to vote and the propaganda in this regard by Ismet Inönü, the CHP executives and the press before the 1946 general elections. This study points to the first traces of the discourse of “national will” that has been a dominating tone in the Turkish political life, as reflected in the call for voting and the post-election victory speeches. In this study, the newspapers of the respective period (Ulus, Akşam, Vakit, Cumhuriyet) were searched and analyzed primarily with regard to the pre-election speeches of President İsmet İnönü in the period before the 1946 elections.

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