Content area
Full Text
Ismet Inonu: The Making of a Turkish Statesman, by Metin Heper. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1998. x + 258 pages. Works cited to p. 265. Index to p. 270. n.p.
Reviewed by Frank Tachau
This book lays to rest any doubts that Ismet Inonu (affectionately known as Ismet Pa,sa) was an extraordinary political leader. Not only did In&nO serve in the top echelons of the Turkish republican elite for longer than anyone else-from the beginnings of the nationalist movement in 1919 until shortly before his death in 1973-he was a key player. As prime minister during most of the first 15 years of the Republic, he was one of Kemal Ataturk's closest advisers, and among the few who seemed able to stand up to the spellbinding leader. He succeeded Ataturk as president, and, following the historic election of 1950 which ousted the Republican People's Party from power, he presided over a peaceful transition from oneparty rule to multi-party competition. During the 1950s, as leader of the opposition, he became the democratic conscience of the nation. After the 1960 coup d'etat, he returned to the prime ministership at the behest of the military. Inon's death in December 1973 marked the end of an historic era in Turkey, for he represented the last personal link with the great Ataturk.'
Metin Heper has written a meticulous and engrossing biographical essay about this remarkable personality. It is clear that Heper, a major scholar on modern Turkish politics, greatly admires Inona. Although he acknowledges the primacy of Ataturk, Heper concentrates so singlemindedly on his subject that the reader sometimes may gain the impression that it was really Ino.nu who called the shots. The interaction...