Stars and Sickles - An Alternative Cold War

[Hrvatskiwi]

In the Shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro: Tanganyika (1945-1979):

In the aftermath of the Second World War, where thousands of Tanganyikans had perished on the battlefields of Africa and Asia, the country finally began to travel along the path to independence. Becoming a UN mandate under British control, the authorities in London instituted a "gradualist" approach to independence in Tanganyika, a far cry from the chaos that a quick pullout had led to in neighbouring Kenya. Through colonial officer David Gordon Hines, the British encouraged the establishment of agricultural co-operatives as a means to convert subsistence farmers to cash husbandry. The subsistence farmers' poverty had necessitated sale for Indian traders for low prices, but this started to change. By the early 1950s, there were over 400 co-operatives nationally. Many of these co-operatives established unions for their areas and developed value-adding operations such as cotton gineries, coffee factories and tobacco dryers. Of particular success were the Moshi coffee auctions that attracted international buyers. Nevertheless there were some missteps. The British were forced to abandon the disastrous Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme in 1951, which had sought to cultivate peanuts to meet the shortage of cooking oils in Britain. However, attempts were made to grow these groundnuts in areas of unsuitable terrain. Arrogantly, the British presumed that the lack of prior success in growing peanuts was due to primitive local farming practices, but their advanced equipment and techniques made little difference. With logistical difficulties exacerbating the costs of the operation, it was abandoned. Beginning in 1954, African nationalism, which had existed in an embryonic form since the late 1920s, centred on the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), which had been formed as a successor to the Tanganyika African Association (TAA) and was led by Julius Nyerere. TANU won the legislative elections in 1958, 1959 and 1960, with Nyerere becoming the chief minister after the 1960 election. Internal self-government began on 1st May 1961, followed by independence on 9th December 1961. On 9th December 1962, exactly one year after independence, Tanganyika adopted a republican constitution and Nyerere became the country's first President.

Julius Nyerere, independence leader and first President of Tanganyika. He would later be portrayed by Eddie Murphy in the film 'Mwalimu'[157]​

In early 1964, emboldened by the revolution in Zanzibar, the Tanganyikan army revolted, angered by the continued dominance of British officers in the post-independence Tanganyika African Rifles. On January 19th, the 1st Battalion seized key points in Dar es Salaam, deposing their officers and sending them into exile in Uganda[158]. The next day, the 2nd Battalion, based in Tabora, joined the mutiny. The commander of the 2nd Battalion, Mrisho S.H. Sarakikya, was motivated by his designation as overall Commander of the Tanganyika Rifles by Oscar Kambona, a cabinet minister in Nyerere's government who sought to take power through the mutiny. These two battalions composed the entire Tanganyikan military. The British High Commissioner was also briefly detained. Nyerere was left with no option but to swallow his pride and ask for assistance from the British. The British dispatched an aircraft carrier, the HMS Centaur, from Aden, carrying a force from the garrison there. On 25th January, a company of Royal Marines from No. 45 Commando were landed by helicopter in Dar es Salaam. The British forces only faced token resistance. Most of the 1st Battalion surrendered after the Royal Marines displayed their superior firepower by destroying a guardroom with an anti-tank missile. After landings later that day, including the arrival of armoured cars, most of the remaining mutineers had surrendered. The 2nd Battalion had not yet been engaged, but offered to surrender after hearing of the events at Dar es Salaam. A party of marines disarmed them the next day. The men of the 1st Battalion were dismissed, and the Tanganyika Rifles dissolved, with the army reformed in September as the Tanganyika People's Defence Force, firmly under civilian control. It incorporated former officers of both the 1st and 2nd Battalions, and included troops from the latter.

In the aftermath of the mutiny, Nyerere began to focus on centralising political control. He established a single party state, outlawing all political parties except TANU. Fearful of the threat tribal and linguistic differences posed to the country's future stability, Nyerere promoted pan-African nationalism and encouraged the use of Swahili as the national language. The independence leader also used the Preventive Detention Act to imprison political opposition. No-one knows how many dissenters (or suspected dissenters) disappeared during the Nyerere years, but it is estimated to number in the thousands. Nyerere promoted his political ideology, which he named 'Ujamaa' (Swahili for "familyhood") as the correct developmental path for Tanganyika. In formulating Ujamaa, Nyerere sought to build an authentically African form of socialism, seeing the village as the rightful primary socioeconomic unit. This concept de-emphasised urban development in favour of ruralised industrial growth. This system unwisely failed to recognise the greater efficiency of concentrated industry as a result of lesser infrastructure costs, and had a retarding effect on Tanganyika's economy. Dar es Salaam in particular decayed, which failed to bother Nyerere, who saw the city as a legacy of European colonisation. Nevertheless, obvious parallels existed between Ujamaa and Maoist ideology, which fostered close ties between Tanganyika and China.

During this period, the presence of the state expanded in every sector of the economy, from retail and import-export controls, to baking. In 1967, another wave of nationalisations left the government as the largest employer in the country. The sheer scale of the government's presence in the economy, along with a cumbersome bureaucratic structure and an excessive tax regime, created an environment rife with corruption. Massive quantities of public funds were misappropriated by officials and put to unproductive use. Purchasing power declined and basic commodities became unavailable. A permit system allowed government bureaucrats to demand extortionate bribes in exchange for virtual monopolies on production of particular goods or provision of services. Officials became commonly known as 'Wabenzi' ("people of the Benz") for their luxurious lifestyles. By mid 1979, the economy was in a state of collapse. This situation was exacerbated by the Ugandan-Tanganyikan War, which developed into a proxy war between Soviet and Congolese-backed Uganda and Chinese-backed Tanganyika.

===
[157] Heh, I just thought they looked alike. But here's some alternate pop-culture stuff: Eddie Murphy decides that he wants to stop being typecast merely as a comedic actor as his career starts to decline. Noting the popularity of historical biographic films, he seeks to portray an African independence leader. His performance is notably introspective, as he was affected at the time by public condemnation after it was revealed that he had engaged in multiple trysts with transgender prostitutes. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a hero-turned-tyrant, haunted constantly by the man he had became.
[158] IOTL, they were sent to Kenya, but ITTL British officers aren't exactly welcome there.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

Unrest in the Islands of Cloves: Zanzibar and Pemba (1963-1979):

The post-revolutionary flag of Zanzibar​

The dazzling sapphire waters of the Zanzibar archipelago and the soft white sands against which they lapped obscured the unequal and unjust history of the islands. So too did the stately buildings of Stone Town, which combined elements of Arab, Persian and European colonial architecture. Tellingly, there was little representation of the African population in the architecture of Stone Town, the capital, except the poorly-constructed shacks which sat uncomfortably next to the large villas of the Arabs and South Asians. The Arab settlements in these islands dated back centuries, but were brought under the aegis of the Sultanate of Oman at the end of the 17th century. In the mid-19th century, the capital of Oman had briefly been relocated from Muscat to Stone Town by Omani ruler Said bin Sultan. His will split his realm between his two sons, with the younger, Majid bin Said, becoming the first Sultan of Zanzibar. Majid bin Said's successors, most famously Hamad bin Mohamed bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi, known to the British as Tippu Tip, enforced their hegemony over much of the Swahili littoral. The Zanzibari economy was oriented around the Arab slave trade, capturing Africans (Zanj) for resale or slave labour. These expeditions gradually grew larger and more far-travelled (including multiple expeditions to the Great Lakes region), until put to an end by British intervention. The German Empire and Great Britain divided the Zanzibari possessions on the African mainland between themselves. After WWI, the British seized Tanganyika from Germany, dominating the whole region. With the trade in slaves completely lost, and becoming a mere transit stop for the ivory trade, as opposed to direct involvement, the Sultans of Zanzibar were forced to adapt. They developed a plantation economy, cultivating cloves and other spices, challenging the East Indies islands of Maluku for the title of the 'Spice Islands'. Africans were used as low-wage labour, and de facto slavery was not uncommon. Traders from the Indian subcontinent who were invited to settle by Said bin Sultan grew to dominate the archipelago's commerce, whilst the Arabs kept a strong grip on political power. Together these groups prevented the enfranchisement of the African and Shirazi (Africans who claimed descent from Persian traders) communities of Zanzibar. In 1890, Zanzibar had become a protectorate of the British Empire, but its internal government was largely left to the traditional powers that be in the islands.

Jamshid bin Abdullah, last Sultan of Zanzibar​

In 1961, in preparation for independence, an election was held in Zanzibar. The election, which was rigged, put into power the Zanzibar Nationalist Party, which represented the interests of the Arab elite. They would rule in coalition with the Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party, a conservative party largely comprised of Africans from Pemba (Pemba was generally less anti-Arab than Zanzibari Africans, due to less presence of the Arabs in Pemba), a token gesture to both the Africans within the country and the international community. On July 1st 1963, Sayyid Jamshid bin Abdullah Al Said of Zanzibar ascended to the throne. He would be the last of his line to hold power in the islands. On December 10th 1963, the British granted independence to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, with Jamshid bin Abdullah as constitutional monarch. The removal of British power put the Zanzibari elite in a more precarious position than they realised. Due to electoral tampering and gerrymandering, the ZNP/ZPPP coalition won 18 seats, whilst the rival Afro-Shirazi Party won 13 seats, despite the latter winning 54.2% of the popular vote. As a result, the Afro-Shirazi Party allied itself with the Umma Party, a group led by Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu and composed largely of disaffected socialist Arabs which defected from the ZNP. At early morning on January 12th 1964, John Okello, a member of the ASP, mobilised between 600 and 800 revolutionaries to seize power. Overrunning the police force and seizing their weaponry, the insurgents advanced on Stone Town. The Sultan fled to Swahili Coast, then to Muscat, and finally to the United Kingdom. Reprisals began against Arabs and South Asians, with thousands slaughtered and raped by the revolutionary forces. The seizure of the islands by the revolutionaries perturbed some of the Arab world, as the Sultanate had sought close ties with the UAR, but was too far afield to be a major priority for the UAR. The British were also watching the events unfold closely, concerned that Communist subversion could turn Zanzibar red. With the seizure of power, Okello invited back both Babu and the leader of the Afro-Shirazi Party, Abeid Karume, to form a government in Zanzibar. Okello took for himself the title of "Field Marshal". After seizing power, however, Okello's appeal diminished sharply. Having whipped up much of the African population into a frenzy motivated by their hate for the Arabs, he had little else to go on once they were ousted from power. He claimed to receive voices from God, and to be chosen by Christ, which held little sway for a country where 95% of the population followed Islam. He also was an obvious foreigner himself, speaking Swahili with a thick Acholi accent, betraying his upbringing in northern Uganda. Babu and Karume, concerned over his clearly unhinged personality, moved to politically isolate him. After a trip to the mainland, Okello was refused entry back into Zanzibar. He would end up back home in Uganda, where he was supposedly executed by Idi Amin for joking "now there are two field marshals in Uganda" after Amin promoted himself. [159]

The bodies of Arabs and South Asians killed in Zanzibar's revolutionary violence​

In April 1964, the government formed the Zanzibari People's Liberation Army (ZPLA), and completed the disarmament of Okello's militia, the Freedom Military Force (FMF). In the aftermath of the revolution, another power struggle arose between the ASP and the Umma Party. Babu had constructed strong ties with the People's Republic of China, having been one of the first African revolutionaries to visit, in 1959. Babu arranged for arms to be shipped from China to form a well-armed Umma party militia. Although ideas were floated, particularly by the British and Americans, for a unification between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which were met with enthusiasm by Karume, these plans were rejected by the Tanganyikans, who feared that adding Zanzibar to their country would potentially exacerbate tensions that were still present from the Tanganyikan Officers' Revolt. Further, the uncertain security situation with the likes of Kirinyaga-Kenyaland to the north and the Congo to the west concerned Nyerere that integrating Zanzibar into Tanganyika would prove a Trojan horse for subversion by Marxist-Leninists. In September 1964, Babu's followers, supported by the Umma Party, remaining Arabs and some Africans, seized control using the heavier armaments sent by China. Despite some resistance from the ZPLA and the followers of the ASP, Babu managed to appease the majority of the population by promoting both pan-Africanism and reconciliation between the ethnic groups of Zanzibar. Influxes of Chinese aid also aided in reconstruction of the island.[160] The British planned to intervene in the revolution to prevent the Umma Party from coming to power, but the government of Swahili Coast rejected the use of their ports for such an intervention.

Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, leader of the Umma Party and President of Zanzibar​

Babu sought to build strong ties with both the PRC and the USSR, despite the massive cleavage the Sino-Soviet Split had created in the socialist world. The greater power projection capabilities of the USSR necessitated looking to them for security assurances, and Soviet listening posts and the like were established in Pemba. Revolutionary Zanzibar would prove to be a major jumping point for assistance to various East African revolutionary forces, most notably operating as a conduit for arms supply to FRELIMO in Mozambique. Babu also developed close ties with Patrice Lumumba, whom Babu considered to be his closest ally. There would however, be some tension between the two statesmen surrounding Lumumba's backing of Idi Amin in the Uganda-Tanganyika War. Babu considered Amin mercurial and a narrow-minded nationalist, whilst Lumumba sought to instrumentalise Amin to weaken Nyerere, whose 'Ujamaa' he saw as regressive and harmful to the African Socialist experiment. Economically, Babu promoted a policy of 'self-reliance' which was sought to reverse the relationship of dependency between the African post-colonial states and their former colonial masters. Babu opposed the widespread nationalisation of small businesses in neighbouring Tanganyika, claiming in his speeches that such policies were not for the good of Tanganyikans but for "the enrichment of the Wabenzi". By contrast, he expressed admiration for the Yugoslav system of 'Workers' Self Management', but noted its inapplicability in many African contexts because of a lack of an industrial base. Babu also noted that Zanzibar itself was not suitable for industrialisation, but sought to integrate it into a wider industrialised African context as a trade conduit. Much of the Chinese, Soviet and East German aid that came into the country was utilised to upgrade port facilities, but this program was undermined largely because of a general lack of trade in the region. What was once Kenya had been fractured into many states, and for political reasons trade from the pro-Western governments of the Great Lakes such as Uganda and Kavirondo went north into Ethiopia. Tanganyika was not particularly friendly with Zanzibar, although Zanzibar did benefit from the degeneration of Mombasa as a rival port. The protracted war in Mozambique, particularly between the rival black nationalist and South African-backed governments made much of East Africa a relative backwater during this period. Nevertheless, they did take some wealth from trade routes from Asia to West Africa, which would sometimes round the Cape of Good Hope rather than going through the Suez Canal.

===
[159] No-one is 100% sure whether this is how he died or not, but the rumour is that this was how he was killed. He was also seen as a potential threat to Amin's power.
[160] This was planned, but the merger happened before the armaments could arrive.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

It pains me to see the Great Lakes go bad, but its nice to see this back.

Hey, with trade moving up to Ethiopia, I wonder what all that extra capital will do for the country.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

It pains me to see the Great Lakes go bad, but its nice to see this back.

Hey, with trade moving up to Ethiopia, I wonder what all that extra capital will do for the country.

The Great Lakes hasn't "gone bad" per se, although the pro-Western states, whilst relatively developed in the region, are increasingly isolated from world trade and Western markets due to the fracturing of Kenya, and being surrounded by pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese states.

Ethiopia is definitely going to be doing relatively well, although of course they still have challenges, particularly regarding the representation of minorities in the political system.

 

[Ridwan Asher]

"Minorities" like the Oromo, especially

 

[Deleted member 67076]

The Great Lakes hasn't "gone bad" per se, although the pro-Western states, whilst relatively developed in the region, are increasingly isolated from world trade and Western markets due to the fracturing of Kenya, and being surrounded by pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese states.

Ethiopia is definitely going to be doing relatively well, although of course they still have challenges, particularly regarding the representation of minorities in the political system.

Anything that isn't a first world East African Federation ruling the Indian Ocean is the region going bad

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

Between East and West: Turkey (1945-1980)

The Turkish Republic managed to escape the maelstrom of war that engulfed neighbouring lands during WWII, but the post-war years would prove turbulent. The Republic's experiments with democracy would come under attack from multiple sources: from the Kemalist military, from ultranationalists and from Communists. This would culminate eventually in the final extinguishing of democracy in Turkey.

Turkey's first multiparty elections were held in 1946. The electoral method was imperfect, with voters visible as they cast their ballots, but counting was not open to the public. İsmet İnönü's ruling Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) won the election. In 1950 the CHP was ousted from power, with the victory of the Democrat Party (Demokrat Parti, DP) and the accession of Adnan Menderes to the post of Prime Minister. Menderes' government broadened the base of the government elite, including more representation from commercial and provincial interests than had been the case under the CHP, which drew heavily from the military, bureaucracy and the elites of Istanbul and Ankara. In 1952, Turkey joined NATO in an effort to protect against perceived Soviet expansionism. Whilst the DP overwhelmingly won the 1954 election, from 1955 onward support for the DP eroded drastically as their policies led to high inflation rates (in 1958, the lira was revalued at 1/3 of its prior value), shortages of critical goods and slow economic development. The DP government also revealed an authoritarian streak, seeking to prevent CHP revivalism through bans of CHP activity. DP party supporters even attacked İsmet İnönü. It was becoming increasingly clear that the Demokrat Parti, which had come to power claiming to be more democratic than the CHP, had poisoned their public image with their hypocrisy.

İsmet İnönü, notable politician and head of the CHP for much of its modern history​

In the lead-up to the planned 1960 election, the DP interfered with electoral processes, having İnönü's train stopped en route to Kayseri, which he was due to visit as part of his electoral campaign. Nationwide protests ensued, which MPs from the DP claimed was evidence that the CHP was planning a rebellion. The DP, having a parliamentary majority, passed a law which established a Committee of Inquest on 27th April 1960, manned entirely by DP MPs, which would inquire into CHP activities. Their powers included censorship and the capacity to imprison those they deemed in violation of standards. The next day, university students in Istanbul organised a massive demonstration against the Committee. The protest was banned, but carried on nevertheless. The rector of the university was beaten by police, and one student demonstrator (Turan Emeksiz) was shot dead.

On May 27th, a military coup, orchestrated by Alparslan Türkeş and headed by General Cemal Gürsel (although he was uninvolved in the actions, which were implemented by junior officers), overthrew the DP's rule of Turkey. Establishing the National Unity Committee, the military stayed in power for eighteen months, trying several top DP members for high treason. Three, including Menderes, were executed. Their rule was claimed to be out of step with the founding principles of the Turkish Republic as set forth by it's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The DP was officially banned. A new, liberal constitution was drafted, and the winner-takes-all electoral system was replaced with proportional representation. In the 1961 general election, despite the imprisonment of much of the opposition (although the DP had a successor in the Justice Party/Adalet Partisi, AP), İnönü and the CHP did not win a majority and had to form a number of coalition governments until the 1965 election.

The arrest of Adnan Menderes during the 1960 coup​

The 1965 election was won by Süleyman Demirel of the AP party. He won a majority and became the youngest Prime Minister in Turkish history, at 40 years old. Demirel presided over a strengthening economy, stabilising inflation and beginning construction on major infrastructure programs, including the Bosphorus Bridge, the Keban Dam, and an oil pipeline between Batman and Al-Iskanderun. The Bridge would be completed in 1973, collapsed during the Soviet invasion, and reconstructed as the "Bridge of Socialist Unity". Despite these attempts at development, Turkey was still in a state of turmoil. Social unrest sparked by a recession in the late 1960s sparked left-wing violence and organisation by students, unionists and the like. This assertiveness by the left was matched by violence from the far-right. The violence of right-wing militias, who were less controlled by the authorities, would overtake left-wing violence from 1968 onwards. Despite this turmoil, the AP won another landslide electoral victory in 1969. But in 1971 the country appeared to be in a state of chaos, with leftist urban guerrillas robbing banks and kidnapping American servicemen. Meanwhile, rightist militias murdered intellectuals, student activists and other Communist sympathisers. On 12th March 1971, Demirel was handed a memorandum by Chief of the General Staff Memduh Tağmaç which amounted to an ultimatum to resign. Demirel duly did so. The military, like Turkish society in general, was divided. Whilst some junior officers, along with Commander of the Air Force Muhsin Batur, were in favour of radical socialist reform, the high command was generally concerned with maintaining a centrist secular democratic state. There was also a powerful wing of the military, allied with the far-right and Alparslan Türkeş, that sought to institute a right-wing authoritarian nationalist regime that would root out Communists and restore 'national glory'. The military junta decided to govern through civilian politicians, whilst exercising a de facto veto system to prevent them from stepping 'out of line'.

Leftist groups were immediately outlawed. Official suppression of leftist groups, particularly those associated with DEV-GENÇ, the Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey, emboldened rightist militias in their terror campaigns against left revolutionaries. In the 1973 elections, the CHP won under the leadership of Bülent Ecevit, who had defeated İnönü in the contest for party leadership. The CHP formed a coalition with the National Salvation Party (Millî Selâmet Partisi, MSP), an Islamist party. Ecevit tried to incorporate more socialist elements into CHP's ruling ideology. By 1975, the ideological rift between the CHP and the MSP had begun to show, and they were replaced by a four-party coalition government headed by Demirel. Nevertheless, CHP remained the most popular single party. The CHP won the 1977 elections with 41% of the vote, the largest share won in CHP history. The CHP could not, however, gain a majority and had to rule through unstable coalitions. This was put to an end with the 1980 military coup.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

The update above will be followed by an update detailing the rise of the Turkish far right and far left. I found in my research that it was an extremely interesting topic.

 

[Alpha-King98760]

The update above will be followed by an update detailing the rise of the Turkish far right and far left. I found in my research that it was an extremely interesting topic.

Ooh!!!! Loved the update! :3

 

[Deleted member 67076]

Favorite Post 1900 Timeline is back! Great to see this and read!

Sad to hear Turkish Democracy is implied to be extinguished. I wonder though, what with Turkey being surrounded on all sides if ties with pro Western Ethiopia might be deepened, same with Japan. Similarly, growth has been sluggish in the 70s, so the Turkish diaspora might be larger. Though I'm not sure if the same number will go to Western Europe. Perhaps Latin America or Africa?

 

[Alexander the Average]

The Bridge would be completed in 1973, collapsed during the Soviet invasion, and reconstructed as the "Bridge of Socialist Unity".

That doesn't bode well for peace in our time.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

Favorite Post 1900 Timeline is back! Great to see this and read!

Sad to hear Turkish Democracy is implied to be extinguished. I wonder though, what with Turkey being surrounded on all sides if ties with pro Western Ethiopia might be deepened, same with Japan. Similarly, growth has been sluggish in the 70s, so the Turkish diaspora might be larger. Though I'm not sure if the same number will go to Western Europe. Perhaps Latin America or Africa?

Not really with Ethiopia, per se, but there will be emerging connections between the Turkish and Japanese far-right, as well as between Turkey and the Western European bloc led by France and a more conservative West Germany.

 

[WotanArgead]

Cool timeline! Will there be an update about Yugoslavia? I think that after a series of reforms in the Eastern Bloc, their views should warm up. By the way - who flew to the moon? Yuri alive?

 

[WotanArgead]

relatively rare goods in the Eastern Bloc such as.... chocolate.​

With all due respect, but I have to notice something. Chocolate was not a special deficit ... more precisely not so. In large cities (Kharkov or Sverdlovsk type) to buy tiles of the chocolate "Alenka" (in the 60's) was not a problem (although during the holidays sweets were quickly sold). But for "poultry milk" it is necessary to go to Moscow or the Baltic States (for all the injustice of the anecdosis of the Baltic states in 1940, it should be noted that the highest standard of living was there). In general, in the sixties there was no serious deficit in the USSR, without problems it was possible to buy such a thing as an Italian knitted suit. Hints for a shortage of goods began in 1973, the peak in 1979-1983. In 1984, the situation seemed to improve, but in 1987 everything went to hell.

 

[Kibbutznik]

Stop posting so much, I get goosebumps whenever I see notifications from this thread, and get hella disappointed when there's no tl update.

 

[O'Alexis 89]

Stop posting so much, I get goosebumps whenever I see notifications from this thread, and get hella disappointed when there's no tl update.

The rules for Doubleposting.
The best solution (what I do) is to edit the previous message. It's tidious, but hey, it stays in one message.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

Politics of Tension: The Polarisation of Turkish Politics

The characteristic change in post-war Turkey was the shift from the hegemonic dominance of Kemalist cliques over Turkish politics to a system increasingly dominated by the far right and left of the political spectrum. In a sense, it can be argued that the growth of both Communist and Fascist ideologies was enabled by the institution of Kemalism. By secularising the state, Kemalism undermined the authority of the religious establishment. By promoting engagement with Europe, Kemalism constructed a system where European conceptions of nationalism and socialism would inevitably influence the cultural and intellectual life of the transcontinental nation. The other dynamic which drove the ideological polarisation of Turkish society was the widening of economic and social enfranchisement. Bourgeois Kemalism began to give way as provincial youth began to trickle into the nation's universities, forever ending the monopoly that upper-middle class Istanbulites held on Turkish cultural and intellectual life. The massive disparities between sectors of Turkish society, whether the upper and lower classes; or the peasantry of Eastern Anatolia and the burghers of Thrace and the Aegean; drove radicalisation of these politics.

The Communist movement in Turkey developed in an unusually heterogenous manner as a result of these diverse material and social conditions. At the time of the Warsaw Pact occupation, there existed eight different major Communist political parties, representing almost every socialist tendency, from orthodox Marxist-Leninism, to Maoism, Trotskyism and Stalinism. The 'Turkish path to socialism' became a common political program, although each party's particular view on what that path would be differed according to their tendency. Most of Turkey's radical leftist organisations can be traced back to the Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey, often referred to simply as Revolutionary Youth (Devrimci Gençlik, DEV-GENÇ). DEV-GENÇ emerged largely as a response to the more moderate Workers Party of Turkey (Türkiye İşçi Partisi, TİP). Founded in 1961 by labour unionists, in 1962 the TİP invited a Marxist lawyer, Mehmet Ali Aybar, to assume the leadership of the party. Several Marxist intellectuals joined him in the party. Attracting 3% of the votes in the 1965 general election and winning 15 seats in the meclis (parliament), the TİP broke the taboo around socialism that had existed prior. DEV-GENÇ was founded in 1965 and, emboldened by TİP rhetoric, Turkish students began to explore more radical socialist ideas. With the TİP failing to gain a greater proportion of the vote in 1969, Aybar resigned and pro-Soviet sociologist Behice Boran was elected as party leader in 1970. The TİP was banned after the 1971 coup, and Boran, along with other senior TİP leaders, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Released after the amnesty of 1974, these leaders reestablished TİP the next year.

DEV-GENÇ members were involved in militant action as early as 1969, when some set US ambassador Robert Komer's car on fire as he was visiting an Ankara university campus. The majority of DEV-GENÇ's actions were in support of industrial action, focused on building solidarity between the students and workers of the country. Beginning in 1970, militant organisations separate from (but influenced by) DEV-GENÇ began to emerge. The People's Liberation Army of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Ordusu, THKO) was founded in late 1970 by Deniz Gezmiş and others at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. THKO followed a 5-point thesis informed by Maoism. This programme promoted: revolution through armed struggle based in rural areas; a people's war alliance of peasantry, proletariat and petty bourgeoisie; the construction of two basic organisations - the Party and the People's Army; that these organisations should be built during the 'war period'; that THKO would perform both functions simultaneously until such a time as the two separate structures develop dialectically. In 1972, a THKO cell, the so-called "Black Sea Guerrilla Team" kidnapped 3 NATO engineers working at a radar base in Ünye, coordinating with the THKP-C. The THKO was crippled by the loss of many of the founders after the Ünye Incident, these leaders having been apprehended by the Turkish security forces. The remnants of the organisation underwent a number of internal schisms. In 1974, THKO underwent a split with a pro-Soviet faction (the Mücadelede Birlik). In 1976, Bes Parçacılar left, with THKO Aktancılar following suit in 1977. In 1978, the THKO remnants were renamed the Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey - Construction Organisation (Türkiye Devrimci Komünist Partisi - İnşa Örgütü, TDKP-İÖ). Bes Parçacılar rejoined in 1979. The TDKP-İÖ adopted a Stalinist line, denouncing the Soviet Union as 'revisionist' and 'social imperialist'.

The People's Liberation Party - Front of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi, THKP-C) was another significant leftist movement which was founded in 1970. Following the formulations of Mahir Çayan, who argued for a Guevarist approach informed by the example of the Latin American Tupamaros, the THKP-C participated in the Ünye Incident. Çayan himself would be martyred in a shoot-out with the army in his home village of Kızıldere. Çayan's theory would live on, however, through the Devrimci Yol (Revolutionary Path, DEV-YOL), founded in 1977. DEV-YOL believed in adopting a native Turkish, rather than Soviet or Chinese model (although they were somewhat influenced by some Maoist theory). DEV-YOL was one of the more active groups in combatting the Grey Wolves, and they sought to establish cooperatives in areas under their governance. The other major force in Turkish Communism was the Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Party of Turkey (Türkiye İhtilâlci İşçi Köylü Partisi, TİİKP) which represented the Maoist wing of the movement. Founded in 1969 by the Proletarian Revolutionary Enlightenment (Proleter Devrimci Aydınlık) group which had broken from DEV-GENÇ, the TİİKP was chaired by Doğu Perinçek. In 1972, İbrahim Kaypakkaya and his allies split from the TİİKP and formed the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (Türkiye Komünist Partisi/Marksist-Leninist, TKP/ML). Kaypakkaya and Çayan have proved to be the most influential of Turkey's Communists, with their doctrine required reading in many university courses throughout the Communist bloc. In particular, their writings are now compulsory in the Uzbek SSR and through a number of Muslim-majority territories in the USSR, as well as in Turkey, of course. Kaypakkaya took up Maoist positions, but softened his view to the USSR in his last few years, after the accession of the Kosygin-Podgorny-Kirilenko triumvirate. Kaypakkaya was tortured and killed by Turkish security forces after an attack on his guerrillas in the mountains of Tunceli.

Mahir Çayan, founder of the THKP-C and martyr for the Turkish Communist cause. Played by Jimmy Fallon in his first non-comedic role in independent film "People's War". The film was a flop at Sundance​

Taking advantage of the Turkish establishment's concerns about the assertive and expanding radical left, the ultranationalist right expanded its influence over the Turkish political landscape. Most of the ultranationalist movement's leaders emerged from the Kontrgerilla, the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio (the programme to set up guerrilla forces that would engage in partisan warfare against Soviet occupation forces in the event of WWIII). Despite being designed to fight Soviet aggression, the focus of the Kontrgerilla quickly shifted to subversion of domestic Communism. The Kontrgerilla initially operated out of the Tactical Mobilization Group (Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu, STK). In 1967, the STK was renamed the Special Warfare Department (Özel Harp Dairesi, ÖHD). The Kontrgerilla was enabled by the Office for Policy Coordination, the innocuously-named covert action arm of the CIA. The STK was established in 1952 by Brigadier General Daniş Karabelen, one of 16 soldiers (including Alparslan Türkeş) who had trained in special warfare in the USA in 1948. Members of the STK were involved in the Istanbul Pogrom of 1955, which targeted Greeks and Armenians. Law enforcement did little to restrain mobs, inflamed by the far-right, which attacked Greek and Armenian businesses and community centres. In 1971, officers associated with the ÖHD were the architects of the coup which was intended to forestall a suspected plot by high-ranking Army and Air Force Chiefs of Staff to take power with the support of pro-Soviet intellectuals. American support for the Turkish ultranationalists was ensured by a web of contacts with the CIA, the most significant crux of which was Ruzi Nazar. Nazar, born in Uzbekistan and a Uzbek and Pan-Turkic nationalist, despised Communism since he was ten years old, his older brother having been executed as part of the nationalist resistance. During WWII, Nazar was drafted into the Red Army, and promptly defected to the German cause, joining the Turkestan Legion. Having been wounded whilst fighting on the Eastern Front, Nazar was sent back to Berlin, where he became involved in emigre politics, particularly working with other Central Asians to prevent Himmler's plan to transfer control of the Turkestani Legion to the authority of General Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army. As the Allied forces marched into Germany, Nazar went into hiding in Bavaria. Until 1951 he lived a precarious existence, struggling to makes ends meet whilst working with the Anti-Bolshevik Nationalists Organisation in Munich, set up by Ukrainian nationalists (and friends of Nazar) Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko. Having been noticed after unmasking a Soviet mole amongst Turkestani exiles, Nazar was employed by the CIA and he moved to America. Between 1959 and 1971, Nazar worked in the American embassy in Ankara. Here he continued his friendship with Türkeş (they had met in 1955 in Washington) and developed ties with the Turkish far-right. He also assisted in the modernisation of the National Intelligence Organisation (Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT), Turkey's intelligence agency. The MİT would prove a vital mechanism for the far-right's targeting of leftists and their seizure of power.

Alparslan Türkeş, ultranationalist leader of the MHP and eventually President of Turkey. Would be played by Tommy Lee Jones in the Academy Award-winning film 'In Dire Straits'​

The key figure in the far-right's rise to power in Turkey was not Nazar, however, but Alparslan Türkeş. Referred to by his devotees as Başbuğ ("leader", "chieftain"), Türkeş gained notoriety as spokesman of the 1960 coup against Adnan Menderes. Expelled by an internal coup within the National Unity Committee, Türkeş would take control of the CKMP, using it as his vehicle to power. The Republican Villagers Nation Party (Cumhuriyetçi Köylü Millet Partisi, CKMP) had been founded as a fusion between the Turkey Villagers Party and the Republican Nation Party. The former was composed primarily of ex-Democrat Party members but had atrophied after its founder, Oğuz Remzi Arız, died in an air crash. Failing to get any seats in the 1954 and 1957 elections, the Turkey Villagers Party was forced to join with the Republican Nation Party to achieve some degree of political relevance. The latter was founded in January 1954, a continuation of the banned Nation Party. In the 1954 and 1957 elections they gained seats in parliament. The two parties merged into the CKMP in October 1958. The first chairman was Osman Bölükbaşı, who had been leader of the Republican Nation Party. In 1962, the CKMP was riven with internal turmoil after Bölükbaşı refused an offer to take part in İsmet İnönü's coalition government. Leading a large group of MPs out of the party, Bölükbaşı left the CKMP without a great deal of popular support, even though member Hasan Dincer became Deputy Prime Minister. Ahmet Oğuz became the new CKMP chairman. Between 1961 and 1965, support for the CKMP dropped from 14% to 2.2%. Bölükbaşı had split support, however, with his new Nation Party receiving 6.3% of the vote in 1965. At the end of March 1964, Türkeş joined the CKMP. On 1st August 1965 he became the new party chairman. Opposed to his extreme views and military connections, senior politicians, including Oğuz, resigned three days later. Türkeş redesigned the party and on 9th February 1969 the party was renamed the Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP). Türkeş criticised İnönü's Republican People's Party for moving too far away from Atatürk's nationalist principles. The MHP won enough seats in the 1973 and 1977 elections to take part in two right-wing coalition governments led by Justice Party leader Demirel. Türkeş served as Deputy Prime Minister between 1975 and 1977 in the First Nationalist Front government and between 1977 and 1978 in the Second Nationalist Front. Militias allied to the party, particularly the Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar), engaged in violence and assassinations against left-wing and liberal activists, intellectuals, labour organisers, Kurds, journalists and so-on. By the late 1970s, the Grey Wolves had tens of thousands of members and had engaged in a number of high-profile attacks, including the Maraş massacre, where over 100 Alevis were killed. The MHP also had links to the Aydınlar Ocaği (AO, "Hearth of Intellectuals"), a right-wing think tank launched in 1970 by right-wing university professors influenced by the Nouvelle Droite movement in Europe. The Grey Wolves would become even more active after the 1980 coup, as the MHP's storm-troops against dissent.

 

[Alexander the Average]

Interesting. It will be interesting to see how Turkey goes Communist with the right in power and the left so divided though.

 

[WotanArgead]

Politics of Tension: The Polarisation of Turkish Politics

Directly Europe in miniature (a hint of growth and activation of radicals of both flanks in Europe).

One of the clearest examples of this generational shift was the rise of Alexander Dubček and his wide-ranging reform of Czechoslovakia's economic and political system. De-Stalinisation had progressed half-heartedly in Czechoslovakia, which by the late 1950s had one of the most repressive and backward societies in the Eastern Bloc, a far cry from the traditional democratic tradition which had defined the Czech core of the country historically.
In April, Dubček launched the "Action Programme" of liberalisations, including increased freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of movement. Economically, he emphasised the production of consumer goods, in accordance with his view that "socialism cannot mean only liberation of the working people from the domination of exploiting class relations, but must make provisions for a fuller life of the personality than any bourgeois democracy". He promised to limit the power of the Czechoslovak secret police (the StB). He federalised the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, dividing it internally into Czech and Slovak regions. Notably, Dubček promoted forming good relations with the West, whilst also maintaining involvement in the Warsaw Pact. He draped his programme in ideological jargon, although there was some concern in Moscow as it became clear that he considered his tenure to be a 10-year transition to democratic elections. Although the Action Programme stipulated that the reform must proceed under the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická strana Československa, KSČ), pressure grew for immediate implementation and anti-Soviet polemics appeared in the press.

Maybe it's not to the point ... but it seems to me that Dubcek is overestimated.
The situation in the early 60's was not too distressing, and in fact (which was noted by the CIA), it was Novotny who initiated economic reform. The same written in his memoirs and Mlynarzh:

"This imperceptibly formed new composition of the leadership of the CHR took a principled political step: reacting to the economic crisis that erupted in the country after the failure of the Third Five-Year Plan by the end of its first year (1963), the leadership not only did not resort to the old, discredited methods of government, But, on the contrary, decided to follow the path of economic reforms and introduce a new system of managing the national economy.

The essence of the concept was the gradual elimination of bureaucratic centralization and the release of independent economic activity of state enterprises, the use of market mechanisms to achieve higher economic efficiency. The positions of supporters of economic reforms were reinforced by additional personnel movements in the party top: O. Cernik was appointed to the Presidium of the Central Committee, L. Strougal became secretary for agriculture.

Thus, a few years before 1968, the new-command leadership of the Communist Party of the Czech Republic consisted of people who for the most part understood the need for reform and change for the further development of Czechoslovakia. The same can be said about many workers of the party apparatus who were in the service of this leadership ... Since 1964, a paradoxical situation has developed: under Novotnoye, who was considered an obedient puppet of Moscow, an open criticism of Stalinism began to gain strength in the Czechoslovak society, the Communist Party and government bodies ... Between Novotny and the Moscow leadership, externally invisible contradictions began to deepen. "

Mlynarzh was absolutely right: it was at the initiative of Novotny and with the support of the entire Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that the Economic Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, headed by Otoy Shik, was created, which developed the entire reform.

And it happened at the very time when Dubcek, in his own words, was still a firm supporter of central planning. And in 1964-1967 Dubcek's approach to economic reform was political and was dictated by his tactics in the struggle for power with Novotny. The leader of the Slovak communists demanded (albeit only in 1967) the separation of the functions of party and state bodies in the management of the economy. The Central Committee, from his point of view, had to stop interfering in the work of the government. This was a clear blow to the positions of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Novotny, for the President had little influence on the economy on the economy. True, as soon as Dubcek took Novotny's place in January 1968, the Central Committee of the Communist Party did not stop supervising the work of the government, although Dubcek continued to repeat the fashionable slogan of separating the functions of the party and the state.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

Cool timeline! Will there be an update about Yugoslavia? I think that after a series of reforms in the Eastern Bloc, their views should warm up. By the way - who flew to the moon? Yuri alive?

Hi WotanArgead, there will be an update about Yugoslavia, although not for a while, given that there are other things that are taking priority at the moment. Their relations with the Soviet Union have definitely warmed up a lot, but there's no chance of them joining the Warsaw Pact or anything like that, since I can't see Tito giving up control over the USSR's armed forces.

With regards to the Space Race, I need to do a lot more research and I'm wary of giving an answer that will reveal just how ignorant I am of the technical aspects of space travel and the like.

With all due respect, but I have to notice something. Chocolate was not a special deficit ... more precisely not so. In large cities (Kharkov or Sverdlovsk type) to buy tiles of the chocolate "Alenka" (in the 60's) was not a problem (although during the holidays sweets were quickly sold). But for "poultry milk" it is necessary to go to Moscow or the Baltic States (for all the injustice of the anecdosis of the Baltic states in 1940, it should be noted that the highest standard of living was there). In general, in the sixties there was no serious deficit in the USSR, without problems it was possible to buy such a thing as an Italian knitted suit. Hints for a shortage of goods began in 1973, the peak in 1979-1983. In 1984, the situation seemed to improve, but in 1987 everything went to hell.

Interesting. I was under the impression that chocolate in the Soviet Union had a lower cocoa level, although I may be wrong (in NZ we only define things as chocolate above a certain percentage). But yes, you're right on this point.