Recep Peker

Soldier, statesman and politician, prime minister (B. February 5^th, 1889, Istanbul - D.  April 1^st, 1950, Istanbul). After having graduated from secondary school education in Kocamustafa Paşa Military High School and the War College, he participated in the Yemen, Tripoli and the Balkan wars. He was in the Rumelia and Caucasian fronts in the First World War. After graduating from the Military Academy (1919), he moved to Anatolia on February 4^th 1920 in order to participate in the national struggle. He was assigned to the General Secretary of TBMM opened on 23^rd April 1920. He was elected as a deputy of Kütahya in the second period and got into the TBMM. In the same year, he was appointed as the general secretary of the Cumhuriyet Halt Party and a year later as the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, he represented the Exchange, Reconstruction and Inhabitation ministries. He was the Minister of Defense and the Public Works during the third and fourth İsmet (İnönü) Pasha Governments.

Peker was elected as the Secretary General of the CHP for the second time in 1931; he gave lectures on the history of reforms in these years in Ankara and Istanbul Universities and in the Military Academy. The report written by Recep Peker, who was sent to Italia in order to study the fascism in 1936 and which suggested the forming of a "Fascist Council" over the TBMM and signed by the Prime Minister İsmet İnönü, was rejected by the President Atatürk. Recep Peker was dismissed from his General Secretary position at CHP in the next day.

Recep Peker became the prime minister by being charged to form the government after the manipulative election in 1946. The economic package, announced by the government and worked more for stockers, was reacted in national basis. In the same year, the freedom of the media was restricted officially with a law introduced and the authoritarianism duration was extended and the fear and intimidation policies were made dominate the country. The “Tasvir” and “Demokrasi” newspapers in Istanbul were closed indefinitely. “Yeni Asır” and “De­mokrat İzmir” newspapers in Izmir were closed as well and investigation was started for their managers.

Recep Peker, whose resign was requested by the President İnönü when his unsuccessful management didn’t show any improvement tried to resist for a while, finally left his position to Hasan Saka by giving his resignation on September 9^th 1947 and ending his period that he didn’t do any positive practices. He died on April 1^st 1950 in Istanbul.

Recep Peker, who was one of the most influential figures in the single-party regime, was the third member of the Board of the General Presidency who ruled the system behind the scenes along with Atatürk and İnönü at the General Presidency Committee. He was also the Honorary President of Beşiktaş Jimnastik Club for many years, one of the ideologists of the period, Peker has worked as the editorial writer of the “Hakimiyet-i Milliye” (later name, Ulus) for a while. His notes of “İnkılâp Tarihi Ders Notları” (T.N. “History of Revolution Lecture Notes”) that was published in the “Ülkü” magazine which was a media organ of the Public Houses were published as a book with the title “İnkılâp Dersleri” in 1935.