International Reflections of the Free Republican Party Experiment: The Debate on Change in Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

The international reflections of the developments in Turkish political life always attract attention in academic studies. The international relations dimension of both the proclamation of the Tanzimat and Islahat Reform Edicts and the Kanun-i Esasi, as well as the transition to multi-party political life and the coup processes, have been extensively studied in the literature. But there are not enough studies dealing with the Free Republican Party (FRP) in the context of international relations. Beyond examining the story of FRP in Turkish political life through the archive documents of a particular country, this study, with a comparative method through the archive resources of various countries, focuses on the question of how FRP is evaluated in the international system, and seeks an answer within a foreign policy perspective. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the establishment of an opposition party in Turkey is considered in the international arena, as a political event whose importance exceeds the borders of Turkey. All leading actors of international politics considered the abandonment of the single-party system and the establishment of the FRP as a harbinger of an important change in Turkish foreign policy, especially in Turkish Soviet relations. In accordance with the political structure of the period, the echoes of FRP in the international arena were formed within the alternative worldviews and foreign policy strategies of the countries and at this point, there is a serious difference between the views of the England, France, the USA and the USSR, Italy, Germany towards the FRP. In this study, Turkish Diplomatic Archive (TDA), USA Archives (NARA), British Archives (TNA), published USSR archive documents and the press from the period were used.