Land use, peasants and the republic: debates on land reform in Turkey, 1923-1945 /

Download

index.pdf

Date

2014

Author

Kaya, Safiye Yelda

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

316
views

461
downloads

This dissertation examines debates over land reform in the single-party period of the Republic of Turkey. It commences with a lengthy background discussion of tenurial relations in Ottoman and early Republican Anatolia. This part builds on secondary literature and revolves around the question as to whether commercialization of agricultural production altered patterns of land use and ownership in Anatolia. Therefore, the discussion starts off from nineteenth-century when Ottoman countryside was integrated to world markets through exportation of agricultural produce. Having shown the extent of land concentration and expropriation in nineteenth-century Anatolia, the present study proceeds to the Republican era and explores the evolution of tenurial relations from 1923 to 1945. Land reform is a scarcely studied subject in Turkey. Almost all scholarly studies on the subject are underlain by a common historical narrative which traces the development of a Kemalist land reform scheme through a series of key historical moments. These moments are deportation and land distribution laws enacted in the aftermath of Sheikh Said Rebellion, Settlement Law, land law bills of 1937-1935, constitutional amendment of 1937 and, finally, Law for Providing Land to Farmers of 1945. The present study examines all these moments with an eye to understanding why Kemalists sanctioned intervention in property relations on land. It also argues that the common/conventional narrative excludes certain crucial developments like 1930s’ wheat purchase scheme and wartime policies of procurement. This dissertation aims to fill the gap by situating Kemalists’ land reform attempts in the context of overall agricultural policies.

Subject Keywords

Land reform, Land tenure, Land use, Rural, Agriculture, Agriculture

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12618183/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/24197

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Land struggle and beyond: landless rural workers’ movement of Brazil Çelikten, Merve; Topal Yılmaz, Aylin; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2014) This thesis analyses the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement of Brazil (MST) by showing its important characteristics, historical development and forms of struggle. The internal structure, activities and policies of the movement are evaluated in consideration of new social movement theory, Mariátegui’s approach on land problem and Gramscian approach. The class dynamics of the movement are also underlined in this study. The thesis argues that the MST has increased awareness and strengthened collective action am...
Changing publicness of urban parks through time the case of Güvenpark, Ankara Yılmaz, Aslıhan; Baş Bütüner, Funda; Sargın, Güven Arif; Department of City and Regional Planning (2015) This thesis discusses the evolution of publicness expressed through different spatial planning approaches and interventions over the history of the Turkish Republic. Urban space is ideological and they are produced in accordance with an ideology. Throughout history, urban spaces undergo transformation and change in accordance with changing economic and socio-political dynamics. These dynamics not only transform urban space, but also affect the conception of publicness in society. In a sense, intervention in...
Archaeology as a source of national pride in the early years of the Turkish Republic Tanyeri-Erdemir, Tugba (Informa UK Limited, 2006-12-01) This paper investigates the change of discourse related to the inculcation of national pride through archaeology in the first 15 years of the Turkish Republic. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, archaeological knowledge was used by Turkish scholars in the propagation of national identity and pride by illustrating that Turks were an ancient people with a long and remarkable past. After the commencement of the first Turkish excavations in 1934, archaeology assumed a different role. More than the data produced...
Conscientious objection: a contestation of citizenship in Turkey Sapmaz, Semih; Çırakman Deveci, Aslı; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2012) This thesis discusses the politics of conscientious objection in Turkey within a framework of citizenship. In this study citizenship is identified with being political and conceived as a process comprised of acts and practices. According to this conception, while practices reproduce the discourse of citizenship in a given context, acts are the deeds that challenge this discourse. Conscription, within this framework, is defined as a citizenship practice which re/produces the militaristic, nationalistic and g...
PEASANT AND PEASANTISM IN THE ÜLKÜ PERIODICAL (1933-1941) Yıldırım, Ozan; Turan, Ömer; Department of History (2022-8) This thesis aims to examine the issue of the peasantry, peasantism, and land in Turkey within the framework of the periodical Ülkü, which was published between 1933-1950. After the proclamation of the Republic, on the one hand, the orientation to the village started with the desire for development. On the other hand, when the fragility of the Republican People’s Party (RPP) was seen in the attempts to transition to a multi-party political life, the writers of Ülkü turned to the villagers as a means of creat...

Citation Formats

S. Y. Kaya, “Land use, peasants and the republic: debates on land reform in Turkey, 1923-1945 /,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2014.