To Confront with a Forbidden Memory : Is the Menemen Incident a Reaction or a Conspiracy ?

Abstract

For several reasons, the year 1930 can be defined as a genuine turning point for the history of modern Turkey. The radical religious reforms under the Kemalist leadership and thegrowing social discontent due to the Economic Crisis forced the country to go through a transformation towards two essential directions: economic statism and pluralistic political system. Created on the personal order of Mustafa Kemal, the Liberal Republican Party took its place in the historical scene on August 12th, as a pure product of the political engineering which was envisaging the simultaneous implementing of this double orientation. Though the Liberal Party was unexpectedly dissolved, its electorate continued to exist for several more months. The disproportionate response to a singular messianic uprising did not succeed in the suppressing of social protests. Born in Magnesia and ended in Menemen on December 23rd, 1930, this insurrectionary wave has shaken the power profoundly, with the murder of a sub-lieutenant.