1. Zürcher (1993, 219) concludes that the shift from a one-party to a multiparty system had domestic as well as international causes. 2. ıınönü had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Atatürk in 1938. According to Zürcher (1993, 221), he had first indicated his support for a multiparty system during his parliamentary speech on November 1, 1944. [BACK]

2. Zürcher (1993, 219) concludes that the shift from a one-party to a multiparty system had domestic as well as international causes. 2. ıınönü had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Atatürk in 1938. According to Zürcher (1993, 221), he had first indicated his support for a multiparty system during his parliamentary speech on November 1, 1944. [BACK]

3. See the Halk Gazetesi, winter of 1945. The two individuals were among seven men elected as members of the executive council by all in attendance. The son of Ferhat Agha, in a tie with one other man, received the most votes of all those elected to the executive council (twenty-five votes each). The son of Rasih Efendi was afterward elected by the seven members of the executive council as their chairman, replacing the former chairman, Mehmet Sayıın. 4. Lewis 1961, 298-300. [BACK]

4. Although the title bey had been abolished along with the Sultanate and the Caliphate, informally it had never fully lost currency in the district of Of. It was used to refer to anyone who had served as a state official. So far as I know, Hasan Bey Selimzade was the only other member of the family line accorded the title. He had been appointed as a sub-district officer (nahiye müdürü) sometime during the late nineteenth century. [BACK]

5. In a notice about the RPP congress in Of that appeared in Yeni Yol, dated December 1, 1939, he is referred to as "Mehmet Sayıın." In references to him that appear on July 11, 1944, in Yeni Yol, he is called "Mehmet Sayıın, the mayor of Of." In a biography that appeared in 1949 in the Halk Gazetesi, he is called "Mehmet Selimoğlu." [BACK]

6. IThe same kind of reversion was less common elsewhere in the country, where the old lineage, clan, and tribal names were not a claim to eminence in the state system, but rather a negative sign of rusticity and marginality. [BACK]

7. INationally, the RPP won 69 seats and the DP won 408 seats of a total of 486 in the National Assembly. In the province of Trabzon, the RPP won 9 and the DP won 3 seats. In the province of Rize, the RPP won 0 and the DP won 6 seats. See D.I.E. 1966. [BACK]

8. The votes for the RPP and DP, respectively, were as follows: Ordu, 50 percent vs. 50 percent; Giresun, 38 percent vs. 62 percent; Trabzon, 49 percent vs. 46 percent; Rize 30 percent vs. 70 percent; total for the four provinces, 44 percent vs. 55 percent (ibid.). [BACK]

9. The votes for the RPP and DP, respectively, were as follows: Ordu, 50 percent vs. 50 percent; Giresun, 38 percent vs. 62 percent; Trabzon, 49 percent vs. 46 percent; Rize 30 percent vs. 70 percent; total for the four provinces, 44 percent vs. 55 percent (ibid.). [BACK]

10. The votes for Mehmet Sayıın, followed by the average of votes received for the RPP and DP in each district of Trabzon, are as follows: Trabzon (town): Mehmet Sayıın 12,651, RPP 14,000, and DP 10,500; Of: 7,091, 7,000, and 5,400; Çaykara: 4,679, 4,750, and 5,500; Sürmene: 10,868, 11,500, and 10,500; Maçka 6,717, 7,000, and 4,100; Vakfııkebir 7,341, 7,850, and 14,500; Akçaabat 10,263, 10,700, and 9,500. See Yeni Yol, results of national elections of May 17, 1950. [BACK]

11. See the results for the national elections as announced in Yeni Yol. The RPP received 33 percent and the DP 57 percent of the total vote in 1954. Mehmet Bey received about half the number needed to win a seat. [BACK]

12. I heard a similar story about an incident in Çayeli, but no leading individuals from large family groupings were involved in it. An official in a tea factory was assaulted by an ordinary villager. The latter was shot dead by an unknown assailant sometime later. The brother of the official was suspected as the murderer. This man, a resident of one of the district villages, was obliged to avoid the precincts of the town of Çayeli permanently. When he wished to go to market or to sit in a coffeehouse, he was obliged to go to Pazar instead. If he had been a leading individual from a large family grouping, he might have been less vulnerable to retaliation. [BACK]

13. I have never determined if the prediction of my interlocutor actually came about. [BACK]

14. Many of the older houses have stables on the ground floor. I heard stories of individuals who gave their rivals a warning by stealing into the stable, shooting through the floor planks to terrorize the inhabitants, and then quickly va/nishing into the night. [BACK]

15. In June of 1949, Kazıım Üstündağ was first chairman, and a son of Reşat Agha (Muradoğlu) was second chairman, of the Of congress of the DP, while a second son of Reşat Agha and a son of Rasih Efendi (Selimoğlu) were members of the executive council. See Yeni Yol, June 15, 1949. In 1953, a son of Reşat Agha was first chairman, and a son of Rasih Efendi was second chairman, of the Of congress of the DP, while a second son of Reşat Agha was one of the members of the executive council. See Yeni Yol, undetermined edition. In May 1957, a son of Rasih Efendi was named chairman of the Of congress of the DP, and the members of the executive council ominously listed no Muradoğlu whatsoever. See Yeni Yol, May 14, 1957. [BACK]

16. See Zürcher 1993, 240-43. [BACK]

17. 17. My interlocutor thought that this had taken place in 1954, but I think that 1957 was the more likely date. As noted above, in May 1957, a son of Rasih Efendi was chairman of the Of congress of the DP, which for the first time included no Muradoğlu whatsoever on its executive council. Only four months later, a second son of Rasih Efendi, along with one of the former members of the DP executive council, announced his resignation from the DP to join the Freedom Party (Hürriyet Partisi); see Yeni Yol, September 12, 1957. Then, a few weeks later, the first son of Rasih Efendi himself was named as chairman of the Of congress of the FP, while yet another former member of the DP executive council was named as a member of the executive council of the FP; see Yeni Yol, October 1, 1957. [BACK]

18. 18. Zürcher 1993, 242. [BACK]

19. Ibid., 244. [BACK]

20. A photograph of Harun Agha, together with a photograph of Ferhat Agha, appears in Yiğit's account of the Battle for Of (1950). [BACK]

22. The RPP and the JP initially formed a coalition government until 1962. The RPP thereafter formed coalition governments without the JP until 1965, when the JP won the national elections with a landslide and formed a majority government. See Zürcher (1993, 258-65). [BACK]

23. RPP supporters said, "Left of center is the way of Atatürk" (Ortanıın solu, Atatürk yolu), to which the reply from the JP was "Left of center is the way to Moscow" (Ortanıın solu, Moskova yolu). Cf. Zürcher 1993, 265-66. [BACK]