ABSTRACT
The government which İsmet İnönü formed in November 1961 was beset with problems from the start. The very idea of a coalition was unfamiliar in Turkey, since all governments since 1923 had been formed from a single party – the Republican People’s Party before 1950 and the Democrat Party since then. In 1961 the leaders of the RPP had been confident of winning the elections outright. They had given no thought to the possibility of functioning in a coalition – let alone one formed with the Justice Party, their arch-rivals at the hustings. Moreover, the Justice Party itself was weakened by internal splits. Ragip Gümüşpala, its chairman, had been encouraged by the former military regime to head the party, 1 since it was hoped that, as an ex-general, he would keep its more extremist elements under control. Yet within his party there were many unrepentant supporters of the old Democrat Party, who were bent on undoing the 27 May coup – in particular, by achieving an amnesty for those ex-Democrats who had been convicted, but not executed, after the Yassıada trials. Gümüşpala was prepared to try to make the coalition work, in the interests of the country, but he could not always keep the strident pro-Menderes faction under control. He declined to take office in İnönü’s cabinet, thus preserving some personal freedom of manoeuvre. 2
