Political Cartoons in 1946 Turkish Elections

1946 elections retain a different part and significance by many aspects. Certainly, 1946 elections were not the only significant election in Turkish political history. However, 1946 elections indicate a crossroad, a milestone. 1946 elections express an important stage in Turkish political history as of transition stages from Selçuklu to principalities, from principalities to Ottoman State, from Ottoman State to Republic. Therefore it is one of the most important exchanges. Transition to multiparty system can be considered not with 1946 elections, but with the establishment of National Development Party (MKP). As a matter of fact, two distinct parties were established between 1923 and 1944; both of them were suppressed by the moderation of the council of ministers (Tuncer, 2003). On the other hand, the first party in the multiparty system period is the National Development Party, established on July 18, 1945 (MKP). As for Democrat Party (DP), it was established on January 7, 1946 following MKP (Tuncer, 2003). The significant part of 1946 elections with regards to this study of ours is that, it must be rather hard to decide electing the party to govern the country, for a mass, which was unaware of even imagining what the authority of electing one out of multiple until that day. At this point the role of mass media had been extensive in addition to messages received directly and via threshold level through face to face communication