Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
Paul Stirling
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE VILLAGE AND THE WORLD
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tion of the Republic. Before 1946 the candidates were all approved by the Republican People's Party, and very often ther was no choice at all. In 1946 a genuine opposition was permitted, but the villagers, confident that the result was a foregone conclusion, had not apparently taken the election seriously. As the 1950 election approached, it became clear that the Democrat Party was truly to be allowed to make a serious challenge to the government. Both sides visited the village and seemed more eager to explain that the law had been changed, and that the election would be genuine and the ballot really secret, than to win votes for their respective parties. Sakaltutan had recognised but ineffective village leaders of local sections of both main parties. People discussed the matter ceaselessly, but the new line-up did not coincide with any existing social divisions. Very roughly, the skilled migrant labourers tended to be supporters of the Democrat Party; those who remained permanently in the village as full-time farmers tended to support the Republican People's Party, partly perhaps because they did not see any point in changing, partly because they were impervious to the current argument about more private enterprise and economic freedom, and partly because they were more afraid to oppose the established government. But people were quite willing to waver openly, and members of a single household would argue opposite cases. At a wedding which took place in the winter of 1949-50, the men dressed up as Democrats and People's Party and played a game resembling `cops and robbers'. This argumentative and lighthearted attitude was not typical. Elbashï, if my conjectures are right, represents a more normal case. Two sharply defined factions already existed. The reigning faction had necessarily already identified itself with the existing government, so that the headman and his supporters were automatically R.P.P. Those who opposed them were thus committed to the D.P. No one can be certain in a secret ballot how people actually voted, but on the whole it is probably safe to assume that most votes follow public affiliations, and affiliations for most villagers follow, not national lines, but local ones. So long as the two-party system continues, the votes of each village and small town are likely to be split in this way, giving the opposition a certain minimum number of votes more or less regardless of national issues.
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