Third President of Turkish Republic.
(B. 16 May 1883, Umurbey Village / Gemlik / Bursa – D. 22 August 1986,
Istanbul). His full name is Mahmut Celal Bayar. Before his presidency he was a
parliament member from Manisa, a minister and prime minister. He used the pen
names Galip Hoca, Reşad-ı Sani, Müdür and Müftü in his writings and during the
years of the Independence War. He comes from a family which migrated to Bursa region from Plevne
during the 1877- 78 Ottoman Russian War (93 War). His father belonged to the class of
scholars (The class consisting of
jurists, academic members and religious scholars in the Ottoman
Empire). His name was Abdullah
Efendi and he was a fiqh (Islamic law) scholar who worked as a secondary school
director in Umurbey and a mufti in Gemlik. His mother’s name is Emine Hanım.
Celâl Bayar
completed his first and secondary education beside his father in Umurbey. He
started to work in Gemlik
Reji (Regie) Office. Later he worked for
clerk’s office in Gemlik. Then he went to Bursa
and took office in Ziraat Bank. Meanwhile he continued schools called Harir
Darüttalimi and Collège Français de l’Assomption. After proceeding
his works in Bursa
within Deutsche Orientbank he
worked in İttihad-ı Milli bank. Meanwhile he married İnegöllü Refet
Bey’s daughter Reşide Hanım. He had three children from this marriage Refii,
Turgut and Nilüfer (Gürsoy).
Mahmut Celâl
(Bayar) started to be interested in politics under influence and guidance of
his uncle Mustafa Şevket. He joined in 1907 the Party of Union and Progress
upon his interest in them. After the declaration of the 2nd
Constitutional Period (1908)
he started to take active duties in this party. He became the president of
first Bursa, then Izmir branches. While he was in Izmir
the 1st World War launched. During the war he established the
Society Towards People. He started to publish this society’s press organ Towards People magazine starting from
the 1st of February 1919. He wrote articles in this magazine using
the pen name Turgut Alp.
Mahmut Celâl Bey entered the Ottoman
Parliament which gathered on the 12th of January 1920 for the last
time as parliament member from Saruhan Sancağı (Manisa). After the closure of
this parliament he participated to works of organizing people against the Greek
invasion and making people resist the invasion. With this purpose he passed to
Ödemiş from Izmir.
Wearing the clothes of an Islamic scholar
and using the name “Galip Hoca” he walked among people, visited various
settlements. In the congress of 28 June 1919 in Balıkesir he was appointed “Commander of National
Legion”. Upon the invasion of Istanbul
and dismissal of the Parliament he entered
the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara
again as a parliament member from Saruhan. Meanwhile he was selected to the
council which was founded in order to realize negotiations between the Assembly
and Çerkez Ethem and negotiated with Çerkez Ethem. He was among the founders of
Turkish Communist Party which was established upon the will of Mustafa Kemal.
He worked actively in the Assembly and was
assigned to the Ministry of Economics on the 27th of February 1921 for about one year. For a while
he replaced the Foreign Minister.
After the start of the National
Struggle he made important services in Western Anatolia
to win this struggle. After the victory of the Independence War he joined
Lausanne Peace Conference as a council. In the elections done in 1923 he became a candidate of Anadolu and Rumeli
Countrywide Resistance Organization and entered the 2nd Grand National
Assembly as a parliament member from Izmir.
Bayar who distinguished as a
struggler, politician and economist during the foundation of Turkish Republic,
used the gold sent by Indian Muslims to Turkish Independence War and founded Türkiye
İş Bank upon the order of
Mustafa Kemal in 1924. He became the first General Director of this bank and
continued this duty until 1932. Between 1932
and 37 he was again appointed as Deputy of Economy.
Bayar was assigned to the Prime
Ministry by the end of 1937 replacing İsmet İnönü. Although he resigned from
this duty for a period, he was reassigned and continued it until the 25th
of January 1939. During the 2nd World War which started in the same
year he did not participate to any important work. During the budget
discussions of 1945 he was part of the
opposition. Bayar, Fuat Köprülü,
Adnan Menderes and Refik Koraltan submitted a statement known as “Dörtlü Takrir
(T.N. Statement by Four People)” on
the 7th of June 1945 to the
Assembly and asked for some amendments in CHP’s charter. Their proposal was refused; when his friends Menderes and Köprülü were expelled from the party,
Bayar resigned from Parliament Membership and then from CHP. On the 7th
of January 1946 Bayar, Menderes, Köprülü and
Koraltan founded Democrat Party (DP). Bayar
was appointed Party Leader.
Celâl Bayar not
only contributed to democratization and liberalization movements by founding DP,
but also supported CHP’s ideas during the legalization of the 163rd
article of the Turkish Penal Code (10 June 1949) concerning limiting
people’s freedom of religion and conscience. He worked hard to convince the
Prime Minister of CHP Şemsettin Günaltay about the “existence of reaction
danger in the country”. After the Party Leader of DP Celâl Bayar said in 1948 “We will not create a period
of prior crimes” (i.e. we will not call people of impropriety and
corruption to account) in order to make İsmet İnönü, the National Chief, allow
democratic elections, some member of DP resigned from their party. These people founded the Millet Party under
the leadership of Marshall Fevzi Çakmak and together with Osman Bölükbaşı on
the 19th of July 1948. After the victory of DP in the elections of
14 May 1950 by overtaking 408 chairs out of 487 in the parliament, Celal
Bayar was appointed as the 3rd President of Turkish Republic on the
22nd of May 1950 with 384 votes by the Grand National Assembly.
Bayar has
passed to history being a prominent person for our history of republic. He was
also a political equilibrant during the rule of Atatürk, helping him.
Celâl Bayar
closely followed the developments occurring in the world after the 2nd
World War. He made great contributions to international problems such as sending
troops to Korea by Turkey, joining
NATO, and establishment of Baghdad Pact. Besides he led the way to establish a
“Trio-Pact” between Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia. On the other
hand he played an impressive role about bringing foreign capital to the country
and taking a Western-oriented policy in foreign affairs. He made efforts actively
to launch the Law for Protecting Atatürk in 1951.
Bayar who is the first civilian
President of Turkish Republic served ten years in this position and was
discharged after a military coup on the 27th of May 1960. He was put
onto trial in a special court (Yassıada
Court) founded by the group which realized the
coup. He was condemned to execution because of his actions during the DP
government (15 Eylül 1961). However the penalty of execution was turned into
life imprisonment due to his old age. He was transferred to Kayseri Regional
Prison from Yassıada and was released on the 7th of November 1964
due to his sickness. His penalty was removed on the 7th of July 1966
by the current President of the Republic Cevdet Sunay basing on the preambles
written in the 97th article of the constitution.
Celal Bayar lived in a century of great unsteadiness including the periods
of Abdülhamit II, Constitutional Period,
Balkan Wars, 2nd World War, Independence War, Declaration of the
Republic and One-Party-Period, Transition to Multi-Party Period and military
coup of 27 May 1960. He was one of the persons who contributed to the
transition to multi-party-system. Finally he passed to history being a
President of the Republic who was discharged with a coup and condemned to
execution.
Bayar after
being set free, founded a club called “Bizim
Ev (T.N.Our Home)” and struggled to remove political bans .He supported
the Demokratik Party founded by parliament members and senators who left in
1973 Adalet Party (AP) and under the
leadership of Ferruh Bozbeyli. He supported works to transfer people from AP
to this party. However after a large group from Demokratik Party passed to
AP,
he started to support AP in 1975. He made speeches with the leader of AP
Süleyman Demirel during election rallies.
Bayar in his memories titled “Ben de Yazdım” (1965-72) he wrote
basing on documents, explained the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the
first years of Turkish
Republic. On the 22nd of August 1986 he passed away
in Istanbul at
the age of 103 and was inhumed in his homeland Bursa-Umurbey. The house he was
born in was restored with contributions of Kazım Taşkent, founder and General
Director of Yapı Kredi Bank. A university was founded with the name “Celal Bayar
University” in Manisa.
WORKS:
Celâl
Bayar’ın Söylev ve Demeçleri: 1921-1938 (1939), Celâl
Bayar Diyor ki: 1920-1950 (Ed. Nazmi Sevgen, 1951), Atatürk’ten Hatıralar (1955), Celâl
Bayar’ın Söylev ve Demeçleri: 1933-1935 (4 volumes, Ed.: Özel Şahingiray,
1956), Atatürk Metodolojisi ve Günümüz
(1969), Ben de Yazdım (8 volumes,
1965-72), Başvekilim Adnan Menderes
(Ed.: İsmet Bozdağ, 1986), Kayseri
Cezaevi Günlüğü (1999), Atatürk Gibi
Düşünmek (1999).