21st government of Turkey

The 21st government of Turkey (17 May 1954 – 9 December 1955) was a government in the history of Turkey. It is also called "the third Menderes government".

Adnan Menderes

Background

The Democrat Party (DP) won the elections held on 2 May 1954. President Celal Bayar appointed Adnan Menderes to form the new government.

The government

In the list below, the cabinet members who served only a part of the cabinet's lifespan are shown in the column "Notes". The cabinet was consisted of the following:^[1]

Title[2][3]	Name	Notes
Prime Minister	Adnan Menderes
Deputy Prime Minister	Fatin Rüştü Zorlu Fuat Köprülü	17 May 1954 – 29 July 1955 29 July 1955 – 9 December 1955
Minister of State
	Mükerrem Sarol	17 May 1954 – 12 October 1955
	Osman Kapani Etem Menders	17 May 1954 – 15 September 1955 15 September 1955 – 30 September 1955
	Fahrettin Ulaş	30 September 1955 – 9 December 1955
Ministry of Justice	Osman Şevki Çiçekdağ
Minister of National Defence	Etem Menderes Adnan Menderes	17 May 1954 – 15 September 1955 15 September 1955 – 9 December 1955
Ministry of the Interior	Namık Gedik Etem Menderes	17 May 1954 – 10 September 1955 30 September 1955 – 9 December 1955
Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Fuat Köprülü	15 April 1955 – 29 July 1955
Ministry of Finance	Hasan Polatkan
Ministry of National Education	Celal Yardımcı
Ministry of Public Works	Kemal Zeytinoğlu
Ministry of Health and Social Security	Behçet Uz
Ministry of Customs and Monopolies	Emin Kalafat
Ministry of Transport	Muammer Çavuşoğlu
Ministry of Establishments	Fethi Çelikbaş Samet Ağaoğlu	17 May 1954 – 6 December 1954 6 December 1954 – 9 December 1955
Ministry of Economy and Commerce	Sıtkı Yırcalı
Ministry of Agriculture	Nedim Ökmen
Ministry of Labour	Hayrettin Erkmen

Aftermath

Although the government had the support of the majority in the parliament, Adnan Menderes resigned because of a political crisis about press freedom, called the "right to prove" (Turkish: İspat hakkı). Following this resignation, a group of MPs left the DP to form the Liberty Party.