Turhan Feyzioğlu

Turhan Feyzioğlu (1922 – 24 March 1988) was a Turkish academic and a politician.

He was born in Kayseri. After finishing the primary school in Kayseri, he studied in Galatasaray High School and in Law school of Istanbul University. After post graduate studies at the University of Oxford, he returned to Turkey and became a faculty at Ankara University.^[1] In 1947, he obtained his Ph.D. from Ankara University with a thesis entitled "Judicial Supervision of the Conformity of Laws to the Constitution in Turkey and Other Countries." During this period, he also translated Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom.^[1]

During his tenure as an associate professor in the years 1953-1954, he was sent by the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University to France and England for research. During this period, he worked at the École Nationale d'Administration in France. In 1955, at the age of 33, he was promoted to the rank of professor and was elected as the dean of Political Sciences School in Ankara University. He also began writing in the bulletin of his school. His articles however irritated the Democrat Party government and he had to resign. Although in 1960–1961 term he briefly returned to academics and served as the rector of Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, his main area of interest was politics.^[2]

In 1957 he went into politics and became a member of Republican People's Party (CHP). In the same year he was elected as the MP from Sivas. In 1960 (during his service in METU) he also served in the constituent assembly and was appointed as the minister of education^[3] in Cabinet Gürsel I. In the elections held in 1961, he was elected as the MP from Kayseri Province, his home. He served in the two governments of İsmet İnönü In the first he served as state minister (French: ministre sans portefeuille) and in the second as deputy prime minister.^[3] Turhan Feyzioğlu was one of the major figures of the party. But beginning by 1965, Bülent Ecevit the secretary general of the party who had the support of İsmet İnönü began to challenge his authority in the party. Turhan Feyzioğlu actively opposed the policy termed "left of center" (Turkish: ortanın solu), advocated by Bülent Ecevit.

On 12 May 1967 Turhan Feyzioğlu and his 47 followers in the parliamentary group broke away from CHP to form a new party named Reliance Party.^[4] Feyzioğlu became the chairman of the new party. On 29 January 1971, the party was renamed as National Reliance Party and on 4 May 1973, Republican Party, another party also issued from CHP, merged to Nationalistic Reliance Party.^[4] After merging, the party was renamed as Republican Reliance Party. Turhan Feyzioğlu continued as the chairman of Republican Reliance Party.

Republican Reliance Party continued up to 1980 and Turhan Feyzioğlu continued to be an MP from Kayseri. Although his party was losing support, Feyzioğlu served two times as deputy prime minister in coalition governments; in 1975 in Süleyman Demirel's cabinet and in 1978 Bülent Ecevit’s cabinet.^[3]

Turhan Feyzioğlu married to Leyla Cıngıllıoğlu. Their daughter Saide (1950-1969) married Mehmet Buçukoğlu, but she died two hours after bearing a son, Metin, on 7 July 1969. Metin was adopted by his grandparents and took the surname Feyzioğlu. He became a professor of criminal law and was elected President of Turkish Bars Association in May 2013.^[5][6]

After 1980, he withdrew from political life.^[2] Turhan Feyzioğlu died at the age of 66 in Ankara on 24 March 1988.

The following list includes the books authored by Feyzioğlu. Of these, five are written in Turkish and one in French.

• Kanunların Anayasaya Uygunluğunun Kazai Murakabesi (1951)
• Demokrasiye ve Diktatörlüğe Dair (1957)
• Devlet Adamı Atatürk (1963)
• Atatürk ve Milliyetçilik
• Türk Millî Mücadelesinin ve Atatürkçülüğün Temel İlkelerinden Biri Olarak Millet Egemenliği
• Atatürk Yolu
• Un Liberateur et un Modernisateur Genial Kemal Atatürk