410

STATE AND SOCIETY INTERACTION AT THE INTERSECTION OF



iv
Having been designed as two staged research, this dissertation basically explores the
societal elements during the formative years of the Turkish Republic. Departing from
the idea that societal aspects and localities are crucial elements of history; and the fact
that these elements have been analyzed insufficiently in the historiography of the early
years of the Turkish Republic, this study focuses on Izmir and its hinterland to
strengthen this part of historiography. The first stage of the research is to discover the
local themes which reflect the societal realities of the determined period in the region.
Utilizing from broad local resources such as local newspapers, this research points out
three main local and societal themes as the most comprehensive and frequently
recurrent elements to have a more nuanced analyze of the formative years of the
Turkish Republic in Izmir. These themes are agricultural segment, the settlement
related issues and the local politics. The second stage of the research is to understand
and determine a path to define the interaction between the newly founded Turkish state
and society by treating these above-mentioned themes as the common grounds of these
v
two actors’ interactions. In this regard, this research underlines the crucial place of
space-specific societal aspects rather than existing and identificatory themes which are
unsighted to local differentiations to analyze the Republican state and society. Also,
for the case of Izmir the findings of this research suggest that material realities of the
everyday life which breed unstable and day-to-day positions are one of the main
components in the interaction between the state and society.
Keywords: Izmir, agricultural segment, settlement, local politics, early Republican
Turkey.
v i
ÖZ
İZMİR'DE TARIM, İSKAN VE SİYASETİN KESİŞİMİNDE DEVLET TOPLUM
ETKİLEŞİMİ, 1924-1939
ÖZÇERİ ALYURT, ECE
Doktora, Tarih Bölümü
Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Nesim ŞEKER
Mart 2023, 236 sayfa
İki aşamalı bir araştırma olarak tasarlanan bu tez, temel olarak Türkiye
Cumhuriyeti'nin kuruluş yıllarındaki toplumsal unsurları incelemektedir. Toplumsal
unsurların ve yerelliklerin tarihin önemli bileşenlerinden biri olduğu düşüncesi ve
erken Cumhuriyet dönemini ele alan tarih çalışmalarında bu unsurların yetersiz olduğu
gerçeğinden yola çıkan bu çalışma, Izmir ve hinterlandına odaklanmaktadır.
Araştırmanın ilk aşaması, bölgede, ele alınan dönemin toplumsal gerçekliklerini
yansıtan yerel temaların keşfedilmesidir. Yerel gazeteler gibi geniş kapsamlı yerel
kaynaklardan yararlanan bu araştırma, Izmir'de Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin kuruluş
yıllarının daha incelikli bir analizini yapmak için en kapsamlı ve sıklıkla tekrar eden
üç temel yerel ve toplumsal temayı işaret etmektedir. Bu temalar tarım kesimi, iskana
ilişkin sorunlar ve yerel siyasettir. Araştırmanın ikinci aşaması, yukarıda belirtilen
temaları iki aktörün etkileşiminin ortak karşılaşma zeminleri olarak ele alarak, yeni
kurulan Türk devleti ile toplum arasındaki etkileşimi anlamak ve bu etkileşimi
vi i
tanımlayabilmek için bir çerçeve belirlemektir. Bu bağlamda, bu araştırma,
Cumhuriyet devleti ve toplumunu analiz etmek için yerel farklılaşmalara karşı
yeterince hassas olmayan mevcut ve tanımlayıcı temalardan ziyade, mekâna özgü
toplumsal unsurların öneminin altını çizmektedir. Buna ek olarak, Izmir örneği için,
bu araştırmanın bulguları, günlük hayatın istikrarsız ve günlük olarak belirlenen
konumları besleyen maddi gerçekliklerinin, devlet ve toplum arasındaki etkileşimin
ana bileşenlerinden biri olduğunu göstermektedir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Izmir, tarım sektörü, iskân, yerel politika, erken Cumhuriyet
Dönemi.
vi ii
DEDICATION
DEDICATION
To my family,
ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to the people who have helped and
supported me throughout my thesis.
I am greatly indebted to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nesim Şeker, for his very kind support,
encouragement, guidance and patience throughout my education and dissertation
process. I want to express my special thanks to Prof. Dr. Cenk Saraçoğlu for his
suggestions and criticism, which contributed to this study from the very beginning.
I would like to express my appreciation to Prof. Dr. Mehmet Seyitdanlıoğlu, Assist.
Prof. Dr. Ş. Akile Zorlu Durukan and Assist. Prof. Dr. Selçuk Dursun. for their
constructive comments and comments.
I want to thank TUBİTAK BİDEB for its financial support which made it possible for
me to continue my academic life.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family and friends for their
unconditional support.
x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PLAGIARISM ........................................................................................................... III
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... IV
ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... VI
DEDICATION ........................................................................................................ VIII
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... IX
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... XII
CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1
CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................... 25
THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR AND THE STATE: AGRICULTURAL PRICES,
TAXATION, AND INDEBTEDNESS IN IZMIR, 1924-1939 ................................. 25
2.1. Agricultural Production and Izmir in pre- Republican period ........................ 29
2.2. State in Economy: A Panoramic Look Towards the State Intervention in
Agricultural Sector ................................................................................................. 34
2.3. A Selective Invitation to the State in Agricultural Segment ........................... 49
2.3.1. Agricultural Prices in Crisis ................................................................................... 49
2.3.2. Taxation of the Agricultural Sector ..................................................................... 70
2.3.3. Indebtedness in the Agricultural Sector .............................................................. 85
2.4. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 99
CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................. 100
THE LIMITS OF THE GRAND NARRATIVE OF DEMOGRAPHIC
HOMOGENIZATION: THE SETTLEMENT IN THE EVERYDAY LIFE IN IZMIR
.................................................................................................................................. 100
x i
3.1. Settlement Policies and the Crisis of Izmir Prior to the Population Exchange
.............................................................................................................................. 105
3.2. The Compulsory Population Exchange: The Legal Frame and the
Implementation .................................................................................................... 110
3.3. The State and the Society: Settlement in Practice ......................................... 122
3.3.1. Demanding from the State .................................................................................... 123
3.3.1.1. A Violent Demand from the State: The Case of the Serçin Village 124
3.3.1.3. A Demand for a Collective Interest ................................................. 140
3.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 146
CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................. 148
THE OPPONENT AEGEAN IN QUESTION: HOW THE POLITICS WORKED AT
THE LOCAL LEVEL? ............................................................................................ 148
4.1. The Elections of 1931: The Independent, Müstakil, Candidates, and the Borders
of Opposition ....................................................................................................... 152
4.2. Fırka/Fırkacılık: A Discursive Way of Opposition ...................................... 177
4.3. What the State Should Do: Unstable Positions between Statism and Liberalism
in Economy .......................................................................................................... 189
4.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 196
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 206
A. CURRICULUM VITAE ..................................................................................... 218
B. TURKISH SUMMARY / TÜRKÇE ÖZET ........................................................ 220
C. THESIS PERMISSION FORM / TEZ İZİN FORMU ........................................ 236
xi i
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Impact of the Global Depression on the State Budget ................................ 52
Table 2. Types of Lands and Tax Equivalent in Years ............................................. 72
Table 3. Livestock Tax in Years ................................................................................ 83
Table 4. Different immigrant status ......................................................................... 112
xi ii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BCA Cumhurbaşkanlığı Devlet Arşivi
CHF Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası
SCF Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası
GNA Grand National Assembly
TpCF Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası

1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
On July 3, 1929, Abidin Daver, a well-known columnist of the Cumhuriyet newspaper
and who had visited Izmir previously, penned an article titled as Izmir memoires, Izmir
Hatıraları, in his column namely “Hem Nalına Hem Mıhına.” He compared the 1930’s
Izmir with the previous Izmir which he visited following the promulgation of the
Constitution. He described the streets of Izmir as dilapidated and dusty, but more
beautiful and cleaner. Because it is Turkish Izmir to the core, now. Daver contentedly
continued to sort out the differences which he could observe in the city, as follows:
I visited Izmir 21 years ago and found it colloquially referred to as infidel,
Gavur, Izmir… Palikaryas were running wild in the city, and I heard the Greek
language all over the city. Sellers were yelling in Greek language and Greek
songs were being heard from the clubs. So, a man was asking himself if I am
not in Turkey. Now, although the city is not prosperous, not crowded and not
sociable as it was before, it is Turkish Izmir, no more Gavur. There is no Greek
language anymore. On September 9, Izmir was not only freed from the
invasion, but this title, as well. Izmir, you are prettier now. 1
What Abidin Daver observed and narrated in his column is the radical transformation
of Izmir from a cosmopolitan port city of the Ottoman Empire to a city experiencing a
reconstruction in every aspect, after a destruction, in the newly founded Turkish
Republic. Although the city was burnt and ruined in the Great Fire of 1922, and it lost
the wealth and the attraction for economic and social life that had accumulated for
almost four centuries, the author declared that he prefers the new Izmir to the old one.
1 “Izmir Hatıraları,” Cumhuriyet, 03.07.1929.
2
In the papers of local press of the city, there are plenty of articles in the same tone
which underlines the salvation of Izmir from the non-Turkish components of the city
and remembers the pre-Republican period angrily. The mentioned quotation can be
seen as exaggerated and personal praise of an author to the new regime. However,
those who investigate the local press of early years of the Turkish Republic can clearly
observe that there was an obsessive intention to change the perception of Gavur Izmir
in the eyes of the public community and impose the new essence of the city. For
example, even opening of a simple urban square was reported in the press as one of
the initial steps and as a symbol towards the construction of the Turkish Izmir.
The overstress of demographic component of the city by the contemporary
intellectuals is continued by a tendency to over-identification of the city with
demography and demography related issues by the scholars for both the Ottoman
background and the Republican history of Izmir. This identification breeds some
intellectual outlooks such as the paradigm of cosmopolitanism and end of
cosmopolitanism, paradigm of multiculturalism and the demographic homogenization
or Turkification paradigm. It is an unignorable fact that all these paradigms point out
the historical reality of the region. The cruciality of Izmir’s being a cosmopolitan port
city of the Ottoman Empire and Eastern Mediterranean World with multinational
inhabitants, experiencing almost unending demographic change due to the forced or
unforced migrations, and population exchange, which resulted in the transformation
of the ethnic component of the city cannot be denied. However, overemphasizing the
ethnic/religious component of the demography and other aspects related to this fact
causes some limitations. Because this approach treats the society and individuals as a
frozen entity, which remain unchanged even when the society underwent drastic social
3
and economic changes during the Republican era. Whereas politicians, intellectuals,
and writers share optimism about the actual conditions of the people and stress the
“Turkification” of the city, to be labelled as a Gavur or not may not be the most striking
concern for people in Izmir, who at the time were experiencing the economic, political,
and social consequences of larger historical and economic developments. This study
aims to go beyond the grand narrative of demographic homogenization reality and
reach the experiences of the inhabitants of Izmir.
Those who study the local press in the early years of the Republic, can observe the
frequency of the letters which were written to the local power holders and journalists
by the peasants or workers to complain about their material living conditions in
newspapers including starvation. Surprisingly, even in Western Anatolia, where
agricultural production had changed the history of a small town to a port city with
export-based agricultural production and made a significant amount of wealth,
starvation was an issue to discuss in the press. In fact, there was a well-known incident,
namely the Trial of Wild Pear, Ahlat Davası. This case was between the manager of
the Yeni Asır, Abdurrahman Şeref who made news about the peasants who had to eat
wild pear due to the lack of bread in Ahmetbeyli Village, and İsmail Efendi, the tax
collector, who rejected that the villagers eating wild pear. Journalists made a tour to
observe the living conditions of peasants and aim to hear about the villagers’ opinion
concerning their living conditions around the Izmir district and the tour was ended up
with a claim that there was a common nourishment problem among the villagers. Upon
these claims, the governor, Kazım Paşa, had to write a letter to the newspaper and
4
denied journalist’s allegations about the adverse conditions in the villages including
starvation.2
Although, the daily life circumstances like the above-mentioned case indicate
challenging socio-economic realities which requires more nuanced analysis, the
paradox of contemporary intellectuals like Abidin Daver can be seen also in the works
investigating Izmir in the first years of the Turkish Republic. There are various works,
challenging the dominant state centered perspective and focusing on social dimensions
of the historical process in the current historiography. Izmir, like other parts of Western
Anatolia, is generally associated with the demographic transformation which is a
concrete form of the high politics of the Republican elites. In other words, the ethnic
“homogenization/Turkification” paradigm is probably the most frequently used
theoretical tool to explain the formative years of the Turkish Republic in Izmir. For
this reason, the “post-homogenization/Turkification” era is still an issue to be dug out
by exploring the following question “what was there in the inner pages of the papers”
in other words “what happened in Izmir after the population was
“homogenized/Turkified.”
It can be suggested that there are three reasons behind this fallacy. First one lays on
established domination of the state-centered perspectives in historiography which
exclude the societal aspects from the historical analysis. Looking at society with the
lenses of the state policies and elite ideology, and the intentions of political elites led
to a narrow assumption. In the Izmir case, this deficiency becomes visible as a form of
2 “Açlıkla Mücadele,” Yeni Asır, 05.01.1930.
5
total generalization of the individuals about their collective identity such as being a
refugee from Balkans, even though every new inhabitant of Izmir has a diverse
background, class, language, wealth, and immigration status which is a very crucial
element for the everyday life of the people. They are equated with numbers who were
relocated and homogenized by the state elites in accordance with the ideological base
of the Turkish Republic. The second point is the lack of one of the major constructors
of history, space, which societal factors arise from. By saying space, the local contexts
which are unique to a geographically specific presence including production relations,
realities of everyday life, local level interactions like alliances and rivalries among the
society can be understood. For instance, the existence and capacity of the foreign
companies in Western Anatolia including Izmir for the running of the economic regime
of the city is a locally based phenomenon due to the nature of the agricultural
production in the region. This differentiates the region from the other parts of the
country in many aspects such as reactions towards economic policies of the state.
Companies’ role to determine the prices of agricultural production like tobacco and fig
in the stock market or in the direct purchases from the producers is a very explanatory
example. This displays the necessity to differentiate the locally based actors in a
coastal region, which produces cash crop to the global market, from the inner parts of
the country where the agricultural production regime depended on domestic
consumption. The third point is a combination of the above-mentioned two points.
That is, even though there are accounts focusing on more societal aspects with the
emergence and rise of the new sources and paradigms prioritizing the ordinary
people’s life and adopt more relational approach between state and society in the Early
Republican historiography, most of them follow these relational paths within the limits
of reaction/response paradigm. For instance, visible themes like modernizing reforms
6
of the Kemalist regime and their implementation, the nation-state building processes
in the non-Turkish/Muslim geographies, and violence in the formative years are the
most known themes to understand the relation between state and society. Selected
themes impose and assign a single and uniformed social, political, and economic
context rather than revealing the individual’s agenda. In Izmir’s example, the search
for a conflict zone between the state and individuals causes a kind of approach that
there was nothing to examine due to the lack of an apparent conflict matter with the
newly founded Turkish State with its all nationalist and secular nature. There is an
exceptional case, the case of the Free Republican Party. (Hereafter, SCF) The
unpredictable local support towards SCF during the Global Depression years in the
Western Anatolia and the economic path towards this social explosion is a crucial
element to understand the region’s socio-economic and political structure. This case is
a very sufficient example to follow the paths which emerged from the societal aspects
and the realities in everyday life rather than a major and state-related incident.
This dissertation takes its starting point from the mentioned critiques in the current
historiography on the history of early Republican Turkey and aims to explore the
“post-Turkification/homogenization” era in Izmir. In the direction of the mentioned
aspects, this study was designed as two-stage research. Revealing the societal and
local aspects including local actors, agendas, contexts, and networks by digging out
the local resources is the first step of this research. In other words, the present
dissertation aims to display the grounds which are specific to the socio-economic and
socio-political complexities emerged in Izmir during the formative years of the
Turkish Republic. After detecting these grounds, the second phase of the study comes
into view which is to understand the state and society interactions on these grounds by
7
discussing the following points: i: How the state/society interactions occur on those
grounds. More clearly, which themes these interactions were experienced around? ii:
Are there any paths which can be drawn around the specific complexities to the region
and can be helpful to understand the state and society relations in this period in Izmir?
Consequently, it is a fact that along with the macro processes, there are alternative
contexts in which society, from peasants to merchants and from local elites to the
working class or refugees, is experiencing. In the Izmir case, the discoveries of this
study indicate three main contexts as the most common grounds to observe the abovementioned
two research inquiries in terms of state and society interactions. These three
grounds are upper categories, and each has various sub-contexts pointing out a
particular matter in the daily life of people. These grounds are:
1. The countryside of Izmir, specifically the conditions around agricultural
production to observe the state/society interactions.
2. The settlement of the population both in rural and urban centers to observe
the state/society interactions.
3. The working/nature of the politics by the local elites, the local figures
attitudes towards the Republican People’s Party (hereafter, CHF) and other public
debates in local institutions like municipality to observe the state/society interactions.
In this study, these grounds were presented as the daily and most common meeting
places of society with the state in Izmir. What meant by state in this study is a more
concrete and visible form of the definition of the state such as institutional presence to
serve a function in the course of the daily life of the people by organizing the daily
spheres of life such as Agriculture Bank, local branches of Monopolies, Municipality,
8
the representatives of the CHF, Ministry of Settlement, and officials of these
institutions. These three grounds, within the limitations of this study, draw a
meaningful path to analyze the interplays between society and the state for the case of
Izmir. That is, the day-to-day positions of both in state front and society front rather
than an assertive and stable stance are the key factors in terms of the drawing the
interactions between state and society in that period. Since this period was a post-crisis
and re-establishment period when the material needs came to the fore.
These positions mostly originate from the acute and material concerns of the two sides
such as agricultural prices or housing problems of the population. The examination of
these local level interactions also displays the reason for this type of relational path
which is mostly about problem solving on a daily basis. The historical and
geographical specifications of the city, namely being open and more fragile against
global and national crises, pushed these two actors, both the population and the state,
to be in a more frequent and more multifaceted relation due to the frequency of the
issues needed to be solved. Because these complexities present a wide range of
individual and collective identities to the population such as being a mübadil or
muhacir, but at the same time being a tobacco producer or a fig producer or being a
worker in the Monopoly workshops or other workshops. This is a very explanatory
case for Izmir, each inhabitant in this society was holding extraordinarily interwoven
and multiple identities with different agendas. For example, one had to solve his/her
problems concerning the legal immigration status of his/her family in the related
Ministry; on the other hand, the other day s(he) had to be a tobacco producer applying
to Agriculture Bank to get credit and seed. In fact, these micro identities with their
9
own problems, interests, and conflicts were the key factors in this path to understand
the social history of the city and the experiences of the society and the state.
As was pointed out briefly in the previous part of the chapter, the departure point of
this dissertation is the lack of societal aspects, lack of localities and lack of Western
Anatolia in the historiography of the early years of the Turkish Republic. The
following part of this chapter moves on to describe inspirational and critical theoretical
insights for this dissertation in more detail with a special reference to the literature on
Modern Turkish history, the literature on the case of Izmir, and the debates about the
state/society relations and social history.
The formative years of the Turkish Republic, the Kemalist Period or Single Party
period, have been written by focusing on various aspects of the era with the lenses of
different point of views such as modernization paradigm, continuity paradigm between
late Ottoman and early Republic and the paradigm of the strong state tradition.
However, the state-centered and elite-centered perspectives which see the high politics
as the main research unit such as the ideological nature of the single-party state,
intellectual background of the Republican elites, both collective and individual
background, state-building processes and the modernizing reforms formulated and
implemented by the Republican regime are the dominant issues on the scholarship on
Contemporary Turkish history. The missing part of the process is the experiences of
society, especially the everyday experiences of the course of life.
Until the 1960s, this narrow focusing is the fact of historical explanation,
indeed. Despite the existence of the tradition in the nineteenth and the early twentieth
century under the umbrella of social historical approaches such as the British economic
10
history and the Annales School, the turning point for social history is the Second World
War.3 Peter Burke explains this shift as the result of the people’s search for their roots,
especially their collective roots like their family, town, village, ethnic or religious
group at a time of rapid social changes to orient themselves to this change. To him, in
the 1960s, history and social theory started to make a closer relation which resulted in
a tendency towards social history. 4 Following the social history tradition, different
theoretical challenges to the established insights pushed the non-elite actors such as
peasantry and working class to the front in the research agenda of scholars such as
Subaltern Studies in Indian history and the history from below approach by the British
Marxist historians.5
In this respect, there are some pioneer accounts which go beyond the narrow focus of
political history and address the societal aspects of the historical processes in Turkish
historiography. Firstly, Şevket Pamuk’s article demonstrates the reflections of politics
in the everyday life of society. Pamuk’s article, which is significant for present study
due to its focus on agricultural producers, shows how the government’s policies
regarding the food supply during the Second World War affected the agricultural
producers and it displays the formulation and also the implementation of state
3 Thomas Welskopp, “Social History,” in Writing History Theory and Practice, ed.Stefan Berger, Heiko
Feldner, Kevin Passmore, (London: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 205.
4 Peter Burke, History and Social Theory, (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1993), p.19.
5 For a more detailed approaches see: Vinayak Chaturverdi, “Introduction” in Mapping Subaltern
Studies and the Postcolonial, Vinayak Chaturverdi (ed.), London: Verso, 2000, pp. vii-xix and Harvey
J..Kaye, The British Marxist Historians: An Introductory Analysis, (New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1984).
11
policies.6 Cem Emrence’s study locating the foundation of the SCF and mass support
towards the party into the global context of the Depression clearly illustrates the
underlying social environment of the mass support to the newly founded opposition
party and points out the economic and geographic composition of the supporters
regarding the opposition in Western Anatolia.7
In fact, the Great Depression was a turning point for historians. Since this deprivation
related to the Depression obliged society to have more contact with the power holders
or press; there are more sources for scholars aiming to concentrate on the societal
experiences of the macro processes. Similarly, Elif Akçetin’s study is an example of
focusing on the peasantry at the time of Global Depression. Akçetin analyzes the
export-oriented towns of Western Anatolia between 1929 and 1933 and presents how
peasants experienced that period and adopted state policies to survive in the time of
crisis.8 Murat Metinsoy’s study about the impact of the Second World War on society
is a significant example which displays the reflections of the socio-economic
conditions of the war in the everyday life of the people, even the Turkish Republic did
not join the War.9 Again, Metinsoy’s very detailed work regarding the everyday
experiences of the peasants and workers in the early years of the Republic clearly
6 Şevket Pamuk, “War, State Economic Policies and Resistance by Agricultural Producers in Turkey
1939-1945,” New Perspectives on Turkey, 2, p. 19-36.
7 Cem Emrence, “Politics of Discontent in the Midst of the Great Depression: The Free Republican
Party of Turkey (1930).” New Perspectives on Turkey 23 (2000): p. 31–52.
8 Elif Akçetin, “Anatolian Peasants in Great Depression, 1929-1933,” New Perspectives on Turkey, No.
23 (Fall 2000), p.79-102.
9 Murat Metinsoy, İkinci Dünya Savaş’nda Türkiye: Savaş ve Gündelik Yaşam, (İstanbul: Homer
Kitabevi, 2007).
12
displays the realities of the everyday life of the ordinary people including taxation,
monopolies, crime and working conditions of the labor. Metinsoy discusses the
informal ways of politics of the lower classes to manifest their dissenting opinions
about the state’s policies and gaining their demands from the high politics. 10
Although there are several accounts of working class in the Modern Turkish history,
most of them deal with the formal and organized movements of the labor force rather
than the everyday life of the workers in which they produce and present their demands.
On the other hand, one who examines the 1930s press can observe daily contacts of
workers with the power holders which can be seen as trivial things in terms of the
organized labor movements. These contacts explain the extent of the labor’s
capacity in changing the organization of daily urban life such as workers'
transportation, childcare, and their health and feeding. For example, a worker living in
Buca had to write a letter to a newspaper in response to a request to forbid the train
whistle in the morning time and stated that this whistle is a form of an alarm clock to
start the day and go to work for workers.11 Furthermore, the municipality had to permit
selling food on the street due to the high number of workers in the neighborhoods.
Therefore, the daily realities can reveal daily grounds between the state agencies and
society based on fulfilling remarkably simple needs. In this respect, Görkem Akgöz’s
study analyzes citizenship, class, and national identity by focusing on the working and
living journey of two weavers working at the state-owned Bakırköy Cloth Factory,
10 Murat Metinsoy, Everyday Politics of Ordinary People: Public Opinion, Dissent, and Resistance in
Early Republican Turkey, 1925-1939, (Unpublished Phd. Dissertation, Boğaziçi University,
Department of History, 2010).
11 “İşçilerin Aydın Kumpanyasından,” Yeni Asır, 07.01.1931.
13
namely Ahmet and Enver from the different regions of the Anatolia, is a crucial
account in terms of displaying the people’s opinion and their way of claiming about
the class and the national identity. 12
In Izmir case, the social history of the post-Turkification period is a neglected sphere,
as well. Despite the very fertile environment of the city in terms of the social course
of life, as mentioned previously, the demography related, specifically the population
exchange, occurrences were the primary theme for the scholars to analyze the case of
Izmir. Most of the studies focus on the international and national bureaucratic process
and legal issues about the settlement during and after the population exchange such as
the numbers of the newcomers, arrival of these people to their settlement places, and
political discussions regarding the population exchange. On the other hand, a
comprehensive account which presents social aspects of the settlement process along
with the bureaucratic procedure of the population exchange is Ellinor Morack’s study
named The Dowry of the State? The Politics of Abandoned Property and the
Population Exchange in Turkey, 1921–1945. Morack focuses on one of the significant
and controversial issues of the entire population exchange process, which is abandoned
property. While Morack clearly follows the legal procedures regarding the abandoned
properties, which were exceedingly difficult to chase, the study also presents
reflections of these legal processes in the real life of the people. Morack examines the
petitions and complaints penned by the different contested groups among society like
locals and exchangees to the state authorities with the purpose of claiming over the
12 Görkem Akgöz, “Citizens on the Shop Floor: Negotiating Class, Citizenship and National Identity in
a Turkish State Factory,” Labor History, 61:1, p. 24-35.
14
properties in the city, which is a very sufficient example to observe the diverse groups
and identities, and also their relations among the society.13
In addition to the narrow focus on politics, those who read the pieces concerning the
formative years of the Republic also might see that both the nationalist and liberal
readings of early Republican history share the very same attribution to the Turkish
state and the society, despite their different ideological positions about the single-party
era of the Turkish Republic. They depict the state as a strong and coercive actor to
transform society in the direction of modernization; and depict society as the receptors
of social change. On the one hand, there are traditional accounts which underlines the
modernizing process of the Republic with a special emphasis on the Republican elites
and locating the state as the independent tool of the elites to actualize the change. 14
On the other hand, the other accounts which are more critical to the single-party period
of the Republic also distinguish the state as the main and central actor and treat it as a
power which does not need to struggle to gain its legitimacy, to strengthen its authority
and to cooperate with the societal actors because of the strong state and weak society
presumption. 15
However, the idea of clear-cut borders between the strong state and the weak society
is challenged by the newly emerged theoretical insights and field studies which
13 Ellinor Morack, The Dowry of the State? The Politics of Abandoned Property and the Population
Exchange in Turkey, 1921–1945, (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2017).
14 Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), Niyazi
Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey, (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1964).
15 Metin Heper, The State Tradition in Turkey, (Beverley: Eothen Press, 1985).
15
criticized the ways of evaluating the state and the society in formative years of the
Republic. Hale Yılmaz’s Becoming Turkish: Nationalist Reforms and Cultural
Negotiations in Early Republican Turkey 1923-1945 presents the everyday
experiences of the modernization period through the reforms of clothing of the men
and women, language, and national celebrations. Yılmaz demonstrates how the state’s
policies regarding the mentioned spheres were experienced in the grounds. Yılmaz
questions the widely accepted idea of the scholars about the gap between the reforms
and the society by displaying the ways these reforms reached society.16 Similarly,
Sevgi Adak’s dissertation is one of the important contributions challenging the elitecentered
perspectives and focusing on the societal aspects of the policies with a more
relational lens to the modernization period of the Republic. Focusing on the antiveiling
campaigns in the 1930s, Adak indicates how state policies were experienced at
the local level and more importantly the capacity of the local actors in shaping the
state’s policies.17 Another account criticizing the binary approach to state and society
is Lamprou’s study dealing with the People’s Houses, Halk Evleri, in which Lamprou
discusses the local and social dynamics of the Houses rather than ideological and
discursive dimensions. Lamprou examines the People Houses of Kayseri and Balıkesir
as the grounds to observe the forms of interplay between the state and other social
forces in the provinces and underlines the use and consumption of the state reforms by
the social actors. For example, in the case of Kayseri House, he determines six
members of the House and analyzes their writings to understand their individual
16 Hale Yılmaz, Becoming Turkish: Nationalist Reforms and Cultural Negotiations in Early Republican
Turkey 1923-1945, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2013).
17 Sevgi Adak, Kemalism in the Periphery: Anti-Veiling Campaigns and State-Society Relations in
1930s Turkey, (Unpublished Phd. Dissertation, Leiden University, 2015).
16
perspectives and experiences about the House project. Moreover, in Balıkesir example,
Lamprou investigates the local power relations by centralizing the journey of a local
notable, Esat Adil, from being the chairman of the House to his exile from Balıkesir
after a court trial due to his articles. This study enriches our understanding about the
local contexts in this period. 18
In conclusion, these studies provide a place to see the real-life experiences of the
modernization and nation building processes during the formative years of the
Republic from different aspects rather than the narration of politics around the elite
cadres of the regime; and they also offer alternative theoretical insights discussing the
established definitions and assumptions about the state and society such as
strong/weak and coercive/passive and introduced new sources to observe the people’s
agenda such as petitions and complaint letters.
On the other hand, it should be noted that studying society through the lenses of some
approaches which aim to hear the voices of ordinary people by proving or showing the
people’s active role in politics like resistance or negotiation in terms of the relations
with the power holders might cause some problematic pre-assumptions. Examining
the societies under the authoritarian regimes attributes some total and essentialized
status to the people such as the members of subaltern and repressed groups, which
causes some inadequacies. To illustrate, there can be a risk of assigning voices to
people rather than hearing the voices of the people by reading their actions as
18 Alexandros Lamprau, Between Central State and Local Society. The People’s Houses Institution and
the Domestication of Reform in Turkey (1932-1951), (Unpublished PhD Dissertation., Leiden
University, 2009).
17
conscious acts of ideologized principles in every phase of life. This fact is a significant
matter for this study. Since it suggests changing harsh and material challenges of
everyday life brought by the global and domestic contexts as the primary motivation
of the relations rather than the deliberate actions of given statuses like being a
subaltern.
In this respect, the social history of the crisis period, the period until 1940s can be
evaluated as the crisis period in Izmir –not a war, but a resettlement of all aspects of
life- requires readings which are more extended over time to see the actors' positions
against the changing conditions and over concrete and mostly simple cases. Apart from
the discussions on Modern Turkish history, a distinct perspective about the politics
and history of everyday life can provide this perspective. Shannon L. Fogg’s The
Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners, Undesirables, and Strangers
provides an alternative and outside insight to understand the everyday interacts within
a separate economic, political, and social context from the Turkish example. This study
underlines the importance of material needs regarding the shifting of relations among
society rather than ideological positions. In this account, Fogg focuses on a rural
community in France between 1939 and 1944 and examines the interactions of local
people with outsiders like Gypsies and refugees during the War. Fogg presents an
alternative frame in explaining the attitudes towards outsiders; and demonstrates the
material conditions such as food, housing, and shortages rather than ideological
stances as the major determinant in interactions among the society. Fogg explicitly
18
explains the role of the material needs in shifting the French people’s attitudes to the
outsiders and underlines the capacity of daily life in shaping the politics. 19
Due to the nature of the research topic of this study, this work focuses on the period
between 1924 and 1939. Because the research line of the study necessitates an
environment without any severe and extreme situation in the city. Pre-1924 period is
a very intense period in terms of the acute outcomes of the war and Greek invasion,
the fire, and the refugee crisis in the city; on the other hand, post-1939 is also the
beginning of the Second World War. Therefore, the identified period was selected due
to the relatively stable and ordinary daily life.
This study uses a variety of primary sources. In addition to the materials from the
Republican state archives, it benefited mostly from the sources in which the societal
aspects could be caught, because the main aim of the study is to localize the historical
processes and its actors and to understand the relationship between them. Thanks to
the developed and widespread local press activities in Izmir, which was inherited from
the Ottoman past, contemporary newspapers and journals made it possible to
determine and, most importantly, trace the agenda of the city. At this point, it should
be underlined that a study, using the press as a source, should inevitably be aware to
what extent the papers reflect the public opinion of ordinary people whose literacy
level is limited. However, in Izmir, the local newspapers are quite effective at
expressing the voices of the ordinary people, especially peasants’ voices. Because of
the export-oriented agricultural production in Izmir, the rural segments of the city were
19 Shannon L. Fogg, The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners, Undesirables, and
Strangers, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
19
strongly bonded with the urban segments. That is, the agricultural production in rural
Izmir did not remain limited to those villages and the producers of these goods. There
was a group of people who were holding a part of agricultural production process with
farmers in the city such as merchants, representatives of the foreign firms or the
workers working on the port or the factories and workshops to process this agricultural
production. For this reason, the agricultural producers frequently found place in the
press, for example there are several letters written by the peasants and sent to Yeni Asır
which presented their demands from the government about the agricultural policies
CHF. This is another reason to see why the press underlines the conditions of rural
population. There was a strong opposition group to the policies of CHF, and they were
mostly the editors or owners of these papers. The newspapers namely Yeni Asır, Serbes
Cumhuriyet and Işık provide a place to give voice to the rural population with the intent
of discussing and criticizing the economic policies of the regime. Therefore, the issues
of the newspapers and journals between the period of 1924-39 namely Ahenk, Türk
Sesi, Işık, Yeni Asır, Hürriyet, Serbest Cumhuriyet and Anadolu newspapers, and Yeşil
Tire and Yeni Ödemiş journals were studied for this study. The complete collection of
the papers used in this study is in the Ahmet Piriştina City Archives (APİKAM) in
Izmir. The second source which discloses the voices of the people from different
regions of the country is the petitions which were penned to the Petitions Commission
of the Grand National Assembly, (hereafter, Arzuhal Encümeni). The lists of these
petitions were published by the Grand National Assembly (hereafter GNA) with the
name, occupation, and the place of residence of the applicants, a summary of the
petition indicating the wish of the applicant and the final decision of the commission.
These publications could be reached from the library of the Grand National Assembly.
For the present research, the petitions which were sent from Izmir and its periphery
20
and published in the yearbooks of the National Assembly between 1926 and 1939 were
scanned. The other source is the minutes of the city council meetings. These meetings
were organized monthly with the participation of the city council members and chaired
by the city's mayor. The minutes of the meetings which were conducted in the period
between 1930 and 1938 were used for this research. This source presents a great
amount of information about city life from the issues related with infrastructure of the
city to urban taxes, from issues about the taxation of urban artisans to public health
issues. They also display micro level political debates based on the local agenda. The
other significant source is the wish lists of the people. These lists were prepared in the
local CHF congresses by the local representatives according to the demands and
necessities of the districts and the villages of the city; and they were categorized
according to the subject of the demands like economy or internal affairs and submitted
to the Ankara, the general secretariat of the party.
This dissertation is structured in five chapters. Following the Chapter One which is the
introduction part indicating the research question and the departure points of the
present study with reference to the current Contemporary Turkish historiography, the
second, third and fourth chapters consist of the body of the study. Each of them focuses
on one of the above-mentioned themes, namely the rural segment, the settlement in
practice and the political opposition, and follows the research inquiries of the study
which is to make a path for the understanding the interactions between the state and
society.
Chapter Two begins with a detailed examination of the countryside of Izmir with a
special emphasis on the reflections of the CHF’s economic policies in the daily life of
21
the people who were living and producing in the countryside of Izmir. In this direction,
the archival research of this study reveals following issues as the primary fields to
observe, namely the agricultural prices, taxation processes of the producers and
heavily indebted agricultural sector for the inhabitants of the rural part. Examining the
cases and chasing these cases in time, this part discusses the people’s perceptions about
the state’s place in this rural deprivation and problem-solving mechanism of them. In
this part, it can be concluded that the peasants were experiencing a wide range of
complications which were very urgent in terms of the maintenance of their production
and their livelihood such as procuring seed to catch up the next harvest season, paying
the land taxes, reducing the interest expenses and negotiate with the foreign companies
or State Monopolies to get higher prices for their production, especially after the Great
Depression. In this regard, the presence of the state in the rural areas of Izmir was very
visible through institutions. The state agencies were perceived as the creator of the
deterioration due to the malfunctional economic organization such as the incapacity of
the Agricultural Bank for providing credit for the production by peasants. However, at
the same time, these agencies were also perceived as the authorities where the state
was requested to intervene in economic matters in the cases of unexpected economic
developments to the detriment of the peasants, for example during the fluctuation in
the agricultural prices. The state agencies were also perceived as the protectors of the
peasants when there was an unfair attitude of the foreign companies’ middleman in the
course of purchasing agricultural production. For that reason, it can be considered that
the interplay between state and the people was a more target-oriented and changeable
position for each rather than a fixed and ideologized stances such as an opposition to
the state intervention in economy, around the material needs.
22
Chapter Three focuses on one of the identificatory elements of Izmir which is
demographic dynamism of the city. By dynamism, the ongoing settlement processes,
and the daily outcomes of the relocation of the people including forced or voluntarily
migration starting from the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century
can be understood. This chapter examines how these relocations which were one of
the outcomes of the ideological foundations of the Turkish nation-state building
process were experienced in the daily life of people. Rather than tracing the legal
procedures of the migration which was settled by international and national law,
specifically the Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, this research
focuses on the daily reflections of this macro process, namely the demographic
transformation. The aim of this chapter is moving beyond the
Turkification/homogenization argument and discuss the effects of the newly emerged
microenvironment due to the demographic mobilities to society. In this regard, this
research deals with one of the crucial outcomes of the settlement issue, which is the
distribution of the source of living, in other words the abandoned property, emvali
metruke. The findings of this research demonstrate that the settlement process led to
the emergence of new struggle spheres for people who were affected from the
migration movements, which was the struggle over property and compensation
process. This struggle over property among society is the key factor in understanding
the social formation of Izmir during formative years of the Republic. In addition to the
property issue, the settlement process could not be completed due to the incapability
of the Turkish state, even in Izmir. This incapability accumulated people’s acute
concerns such as finding a house, gaining land to cultivate and to complete the
compensation process. These concerns come to daily politics as the cornerstone in the
interaction between the state and people. This chapter also discusses the two sides of
23
the settlement process to underline the difference between the image of the state and
the real capabilities of the state. On the one hand, there were the legal procedures which
were arranged by the power holders in international and national law. On the other
hand, there was the actualizing of these procedures in the field. These two sides were
very opposed to each other, and it led to an unended settlement until the 1940s.
Chapter Four traces the local politics and scrutinizes the local elites who are
participating in the public discussion about national politics such as Monopolies and
the economic policies of the CHF. Following the local elites’ opinion in the determined
period who were generally in a critical stance towards some specific policies of the
ruling party, this chapter seeks how politics worked in Izmir. In more detail, the nature
of the opposition will be depicted by focusing on the programmes and workings of the
independent candidates and deputies in 1931 elections at the local level, concept of the
fırka/fırkacılık which frequently used within the opposition circle, and the perceptions
of some concepts such as statism, socialism, and state socialism, which were emerged
in local press after the economic crisis. Izmir and its inland are generally marked as
the center of the economic-based opposition which was manifested in the case of the
local support to SCF. In doing so, the study indicates the swaying economic positions
of the local elites from the supporter of more liberal economic policies which criticize
the state intervention in the economic system via monopolies to an advocate of state
socialism and state planning; and also depicts their adaptation to the CHF’s economic
policies depending on the changing economic conditions, especially after the Great
Depression.
24
To sum up, this dissertation is an attempt to add a layer to social history of early
Republican Turkey by distinguishing Izmir as the space of analysis. It focuses on the
local contexts of everyday experiences of society in the contexts of rural segments,
settlement, and the opposition, and aims to understand whether there is a meaningful
path in the relation between the state and society or not.
25
CHAPTER 2
THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR AND THE STATE: AGRICULTURAL
PRICES, TAXATION, AND INDEBTEDNESS IN IZMIR, 1924-1939
In the official report which was compiled by the governor of Izmir to submit the
Agricultural Congress of Turkey in 1938, Izmir and its agrarian environment was
portrayed as follows:
Izmir province is one of the most exceptional parts of Turkey in many respects.
Nature has been very generous to this province. For this reason, there are so
many varieties of production in this region. Because of this variety of
production, producers have too many demands and too many sufferings.20
“Too many demands and too many sufferings” might be the most convenient term to
define and to understand the running of agricultural production in rural parts in Izmir
including its agricultural inlands. Given the diversity in production range which was
mostly market-oriented, it is hard to determine a single narration and analysis
concerning the agricultural segment of Izmir. However, it is possible to determine that
regions such as Çukurova and Black Sea Region, Western Anatolia was more fragile
to economic fluctuations which was the main reason of the demands and sufferings in
the rural segments of the city. Cem Emrence underlines this geographical
differentiation among the regions according to their production features and stated that
the peasants of these regions were the most affected ones from the economic crisis in
Turkey with the impact of Global Depression. In addition to the nature of production,
20 Ankara’da açılacak Ziraat Kongresi’ne sunulmak üzere hazırlanan Zonguldak ve İzmir illerinin zirai
ve iktisadi durumu hakkında raporlar. BCA. 30-10-0-0. 184-267-3, 14.04.1938
26
peasants of these regions who were producing for the global market were more
dependent on the market to meet their consumption needs.21 Therefore, agriculturally
speaking Izmir and its inlands can be seen as an economic district with a diverse
product range in agricultural manner and a fragile economic organization which was
open to any kind of global and national crisis.
In addition to the nature of agricultural production in Izmir, which accelerates the
impact of the economic crisis in rural segment, there is one more key factor to
understand the rural parts of the Western Anatolia. The massive demographic changes
are the most distinctive factors regarding the socio-economic structure for the rural
segment in these regions. Following the National Struggle and the foundation of the
Turkish Republic, the population exchange was a key factor for political and
ideological targets of the newly founded Turkish state in terms of realizing the
demographic homogenization ideal. On the other hand, this demographic change
affected the socio-economic life in rural areas radically. Even though demographic
exchange caused an increase in agricultural production due to the substitution of the
labor shortage after years of wars, the implementation of this extensive mobilization
which was supposed to start with the transportation of thousands of immigrants and
complete with the settlement of immigrants into proper regions according to
immigrants’ profession, this demographic movement brought some issues into the
daily life of the society, which were directly related with the agricultural segment.
These two features, namely the nature of the agricultural production and the
demographic movements which were experienced by the society during the formative
21 Cem Emrence, 99 Günlük Muhalefet Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası, (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2014),
p. 63.
27
years of the Republic, can be determined as the most crucial points to observe the
socio-economic conditions of the rural segment in Izmir.
Given the fact that these two factors as the determinant force in the agricultural area
in Izmir, it is possible to see how the issues experienced by the agricultural producers
in the field were interwoven and complicated. The report mentioned above strongly
underlines this reality in the daily life of producers. The primary sources like the report
in 1938 clearly display the total portrait of the production and the rural life which was
built around the production in Izmir in the formative years. Besides, these resources
also demonstrate how the agricultural sector was dominant in the regions’ sociopolitical
agenda.
To be more explicit, it is not an exaggeration to argue that the issues in agricultural
sector was could not be solved with a specific policy without causing or increasing any
other issue due to the above mentioned two features of agricultural production in this
region. This fact makes Izmir a geographical entity which can be defined as the center
of agricultural production but also a center of demands and malfunctions of the state
policies, which pushed the rise of demands by the society from the state. For example,
it should be kept in mind that while an agricultural producer in Izmir was in a struggle
to maintain and derive a profit from her/his producing activities, s/he was probably
holding a migration/settlement status such as muhacir, mübadil or harikzede who was
also in a struggle to arrange his/her immigration status and to gain his/her allocation
from the state revenue. In addition to this fact, s/he was probably producing one of the
products such as tobacco, grape, fig, or cotton, but these products required diverse
28
ways of taxation processes, different purchasing processes, different production costs
and different purchasers such as foreign companies or state Monopolies.
In this part of the study, the principal findings of this research which was conducted in
the local resources regarding the rural parts and agricultural production will be
addressed due to the significance of this sector as the determinant factor of the socioeconomic
and socio-political contexts of the city. Unlike many other regions of
Anatolia, there was such an economic organization in Izmir that the agricultural
production was not only related to the production, consumption, and trade in the city.
In addition to economic organization, the social and political organizations were also
an outcome of the economic structure emerged from the agricultural production. This
chapter has three major themes obtained from the primary resources as the most
articulated issues in these local resources. These themes are agricultural prices, taxes,
and indebtedness. Even though there were numerous issues on the daily agenda of the
city to raise and discuss, these three themes namely agricultural prices, taxation and
indebtedness were the most repeated issues raised by the local citizens including
peasants, publicists, intellectuals, and politicians. Besides, these three themes present
considerably convenient grounds in order to achieve the present study’s research
question. All were a meeting ground of the state and the society which were emerged
from the everyday issues by the ordinary citizens themselves.
This chapter starts with a brief historical background to remind how agricultural
production had played a role in the making of modern Izmir and continues with a
concise recall about policies of the state towards agricultural segment to grasp the
presence and the disposition of the other side of this mutual relation. Following this
29
part of the chapter, each of the three themes will be addressed by presenting actual
cases related with the issue and these cases will be discussed within the frame of how
the state agencies like institutions or authorities responded these cases which emerged
from the society’s actual, and material demands.
2.1. Agricultural Production and Izmir in pre- Republican period
The history of Izmir can be defined as the history of agricultural production, in a sense,
because of agricultural production’s role in accumulating wealth and turning it into a
port city of the Eastern Mediterranean world. Until the fifteenth century, Izmir is a
sparsely populated small town with a responsibility for securing the foodstuff of the
capital which is known as provisionism. For this reason, Izmir and its hinterland’s
production activities were tightly controlled by the center at that time. There are
several edicts by the Ottoman center which warned the local authorities about
smuggling and not selling production such as grape and wheat to other ships rather
than those sent from Istanbul.22 Daniel Goffman explains this position of the Western
Anatolian coast in the economic system of the Empire as the “fruit basket” for the
capital of Ottoman Empire whose commercial relations were intentionally kept in
limited to maintain provisioning duty to the capital.23 However, this limited position
did not stay the same. It is thanks to the geographically advantageous location of the
city, which makes it a quick adopter for the long-term developments of the global trade
22 Neslihan Ünal, İki Osmanlı Liman Kenti: İzmir ve Selanik, (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi, 2015), p. 77.
23 Daniel Goffman, “Izmir from Village to Colonial Port City,” in the Ottoman City between East and
West: Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 86.
30
and production conditions, Izmir’s rise as a port city began in the seventeenth century.
The transformation of the city from a small Turkish-Muslim port town into an
important entrepôt began in 1550 and 1610.24 Starting from the late seventeenth
century, the increasing need of the European industries for raw materials made
agricultural production the driving force of Izmir. The demand for agricultural
production such as cotton, grape and opium caused a meaningful increase in
agricultural growth in the nineteenth century. For example, while the volume of
agricultural production had increased four times and exports more than five times in
Western Anatolia, 25 the income per person which was generated from the agricultural
sector had increased from 1.9 to 6.5 pound in 30 years, 1845-1876, per person.26
Therefore, agricultural production is a milestone for the region in numerous ways
including economic integration of the Western region to the World economy,
demographic and cultural fabric of the city and the political positions of the inhabitants
due to the region’s portion in the financial and taxation system of the Ottoman Empire.
It is necessary to clarify how this wealth expanded to the countryside and to what
extent this wealth was shared with the peasants who were the creator of the wealth.
According to Kasaba, an extremely limited amount of wealth was shared with the
villages in the hinterland. There was a discrepancy between the large city, especially
Izmir, and the countryside in terms of their contribution to production and their profits
24 For a detailed information about the case of Izmir see: Hank Driessen, “Mediterranean Port Cities:
Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered,” History and Anthropology, Vol: 16, 1 (2005), p.132.
25 Reşat Kasaba, The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy: The Nineteenth Century, (Suny: State
University of New York, 1988), p.94.
26 Ibid., p. 95.
31
from the trading of production. The intermediaries who were trading the agricultural
production had the capacity to change the peasants’ purchasing power temporally and
relatively if they channelized the high prices into their transactions in the countryside.
Moreover, the payments by the intermediaries to the producers were the one and only
channel to distribute the money to the countryside.27 Therefore, it should be noted that
the presence of the intermediaries in agricultural production relations and their ability
in affecting life conditions in the countryside is a well-grounded feature in this region.
Because this fact also continued in the Republic with the foreign companies and their
capacity to affect the peasant’s life conditions. For example, like many others, foreign
Tobacco Companies had a very direct affect over the tobacco producers’ living
conditions due to their ability to fix prices in a low level in market during the 1930s.
Therefore, in the presence and dominance of intermediaries in agricultural production,
it can be drawn a parallelism between the Ottoman Izmir and the Republican Izmir.
Attaining its pioneer position in agricultural production in the nineteenth-century
economic structure, Izmir, like other parts of Anatolia, experienced a series of political
crises which directly affected the city and the rural segment. The process starting with
the Balkan Wars continued with the First World War, the Greek Occupation and the
Turkish War of Independence which ended with a destruction of the city in terms of
infrastructure and demography. This process impacted the agricultural sector by losing
the labor force in the country. Most producers were conscripted, and the other ones
hesitated from producing activities due to the risk of confiscation of their production
by the state. Because of the unpleasant experience of the Balkan Wars, in which
27 Ibid., p. 96.
32
peasants had to give their production for household consumption to the state, the
peasants gave up production for the market. Coercive methods of the state to maintain
supplying the food for army and big cities had deteriorated the relationship between
the state and the peasants. In fact, peasants started to hide what they had in their
hands.28
The wars and the massive changes brought by wars like migration changed
demography radically. The population fell to 13 million from 17-18 million and
agricultural production declined sharply during the war years. 29 In the case of Izmir
and the Aegean Region, Keyder indicates that this region managed to maintain its
production for the market during the First World War and was not affected as much as
the inner and Eastern parts of Anatolia.30 Keyder points out the period between 1919
and 1922 as the destructive period, rather than the First World War, due to an
additional loss for the region. In addition to the war losses, almost 500.000 Greek
agricultural producers who mostly produce for the market had to leave the country.
The Greek census conducted in 1926, shortly after the population exchange, can
clearly display how significant this lost labor force for production. According to this
census in 1926, refugees had produced the two-thirds of the total production of tobacco
in Greece. 31 Additionally, the Great Fire was also a factor in terms of the deterioration
28 Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat, (İstanbul: Doğan Kitap, 2012), p. 441.
29 Roger Owen and Şevket Pamuk, A History of Middle East Economies in the Twentieth Century,
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 11.
30 Çağlar Keyder, State and Class in Turkey, A Study in Capitalist Development, (London; New York:
Verso, 1987), p. 91.
31 Çağlar Keyder, The Definition of a Peripheral Economy 1923-1929, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1981), p. 26.
33
of economic structure of the city by destroying the trading infrastructure of the city. 32
As a result, even though the Izmir district as an agricultural unit was damaged from
wars, the population losses were the major factor which affected agricultural
production adversely by causing labor shortage. On the other hand, this decrease was
not permanent. Muslim immigrants who were mostly from the Balkan regions were
determined to fill this labor gap by the authorities.
Having looked at the population exchange from the aspect of agricultural production,
Izmir and its hinterland were designated as the fourth settlement area by the Turkish
authorities According to the regulation, Turkish tobacco producers from Drama and
Kavala, and the Turkish immigrants from the coastal part of the Greece and the islands,
specifically Crete Island, would be settled in the region. 33 In addition to the
demographic homogenization expectations of the state authorities from the population
exchange process, there was also a major expectancy from immigrants, in economic
sense. The immigrants were expected to contribute to the restoration of the countryside
and increase agricultural production. The state authorities frequently were frequently
referring the exigency of turning the newcomers into agricultural producers, müstahsil,
as soon as possible.
In brief, by 1923, Izmir and other parts of Western Anatolia were experiencing the
effects of the devastating decades. The countryside in Izmir and its hinterland at that
time can be portrayed with its destroyed and abandoned villages with uncultivated
32 Keyder, State and Class, p. 92.
33 Kemal Arı, Suyun İki Yanı, Mübadele, (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2015), p. 56.
34
lands. On the other hand, there were scores of newcomers who were waiting to be
resettled into their new living habitats, who were mostly without land, seed, and
draught animal and very stranger to their new living and producing space. While the
objective conditions were such in agriculture related spheres, the Turkish state was in
a struggle to execute this multifaceted and over scaled process by settling inhabitants
in the appropriate lands according to their production skills. However, even though
there were regulations and commissions to conduct the process smoothly, in practice,
this process could not be executed as planned and expected. There were several cases
indicating that immigrants who were settled unsuitable lands for their production
backgrounds. This was the portrait of the agricultural production of Izmir in the very
early stage of the Turkish Republic. Having completed the National Struggle, the
Turkish state launched to design crucial policies in terms of agricultural production. In
the following part, the economic policies of the Turkish state will be addressed with a
special reference to its intervention in agricultural production in order to understand
interactions between the state and peasants on these meeting grounds.
2.2. State in Economy: A Panoramic Look Towards the State Intervention in
Agricultural Sector
By the mid-1920s, it is possible to say that there was relatively a stable atmosphere,
apart from the ongoing settlement process of the newcomers in the rural areas.
Similarly with the other parts of Turkey, Izmir was in search of the restoration of the
economic structure in many ways. Both two sides of the process, the state, and the
peasants, were experiencing the restoration process. The current structure of the
economy was remarkably like that of the late Ottoman era. Commercial agriculture
35
and trade were the main activities in the economy. While coastal areas produced cash
crops for the world market, central Anatolia continued to be more integrated into the
internal market by producing cereals. The total population was around 13 million, 80
percent lived in rural areas and 6 million people worked in the agricultural sector. In
the mid-1920s, the share of agriculture in total production was around 48 percent. 34
As regards production methods, the technology used in production could be considered
predominantly primitive compared to the period’s technological advancement.
According to the agricultural census conducted in 1927, in which the number of
farmers, the agricultural land in use, amount and value of the production, livestock and
agricultural tools were counted by the Statistical Office of the state, the number of total
agricultural tool was 15.711. 35 However, there were 1.751.239 families in agricultural
production. 36 Moreover, the primitive plough was still the main tool used by the
farmers. There were 501 tractors in 1923-1924, 486 of which were state property in
use.37
While the material conditions like this, the Republican cadres’ expectations from the
peasants were to produce. In the very early years of the Republic, agricultural
34 Şevket Pamuk and Zafer Toprak, “Sunuş” in Türkiye’de Tarımsal Yapılar (1923-2000), (Ankara: Yurt
Yayınları, 1988), p.12.
35 İlhan Tekeli and Selim İlkin, “Devletçilik Dönemi Tarım Politikaları (Modernleşme Çabaları),” in
Türkiye’de Tarımsal Yapılar (1923-2000), (Ankara: Yurt Yayınları, 1988), p. 84.
36 Haluk Cillov, İktisadi İstatistiklerimizde 50 Yıllık Gelişmeler, p. 35, available online:
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/8585
37 Oya Silier, Türkiye’de Tarımsal Yapının Gelişimi, (1923-1938), (İstanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi,
1981), p. 20.
36
production increased and reached the pre-war level. 38 This increase was the result of
returning the labor force to production and immigrants being able to fill the labor force
gap rather than the contributions of some specific policies within the intervention
principles of an economic roadmap. In addition to the increase in production,
agricultural prices were also in favour of producers until the devastating impact of the
droughts in 1927 and the Great Depression in 1929. Prior to these two developments,
the prices increased in favour of the peasants due to the high demand in markets.
However, high prices in the global market during that limited period were the first
steps of the economic troubles which producers were to deal with in the following
years. Most of the peasants remember these years as the years of abundance, geniş
yıllar, but with adverse consequences for the next years. 39 However, the role of state
policies in these relatively well conditions and the recovery of the agricultural sector,
in terms of production volume and prices, was limited. Before the devastating impact
of the Global Depression in 1929, the state’s role in the agricultural segment was
indistinct. There were some initiations to modernize the taxation of agricultural
production, modernization of agricultural production methods, modernize the finance
of peasantry. However, they were not based on a systematic frame which was adopted
by Republican cadres. Three crucial attempts of the governments in this period were
the abolishment of the tithe, aşar, the initiation of some scientific research to
modernize the agricultural production methods and expanding the amount of credit to
peasants via Agricultural Bank. Also, monopolies in various production spheres were
another intervention of the Turkish state in agricultural sector. It should be noted here
38 Oktay Yenal, Cumhuriyet’in İktisat Tarihi, (İstanbul: İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2017), p. 71.
39 “Köylünün Derdi,” Yeni Asır, 06.06.1933.
37
that all these steps were initiated to increase production rather than a systematic reform
and change.
Firstly, although, the Turkish state was strongly dependent on the agricultural surplus
for the economy of the Republic, the most important agricultural tax which contributed
to the state revenue namely tithe, aşar, was abolished in 1925. This was a revolutionary
step for the public finance system due to the important share of this tax in total budget.
Because at the year it was abolished, 22 % of total budget revenues were derived from
tithe, aşar. The motivation behind the abolishment of such a crucial revenue source by
the state was multifaceted. As a newly founded Republic, the Turkish state needed the
population and especially the peasant’s support, but the collecting method of tithe
based on delegating the tax collection made the relation between the state and the
society more fragile. For this reason, this step can be seen as a way of modernization
of taxation procedures and a symbolic break from a feudal taxation practice which
collected through the intermediary rather than state. In addition to this strategic and
symbolic motive, the Turkish state expected that the producers, who were freed from
the tax burden, would increase their production, and pay more taxes. On the other hand,
to what extent this reform meets the objective of enhancing production and living
conditions of the peasants is indefinite. Despite it is a fact that the abolishment of tithe
can be correlated with the Republican regime’s stance in favor of the peasantry, the
compensation of tithe revenues was essential for government. Unaffordable prices of
daily needs such as sugar, coffee, gas, and salt caused the disappearance of what the
abolishment of tithe provided them. 40 On the other hand, according to Boratav, this
40 “Türk Köylüsü,” Yeni Asır, 13.10.1932.
38
crucial tax regulation which was a very essential step to reduce the tax burden of
agricultural producers accomplished transferring the tax load from the agricultural
producers to consumers via new indirect taxes on sugar and kerosene. Therefore, it is
possible to say that with the abolishment of tithe, the income transfer from the urban,
working, and consuming classes to the agricultural sector. 41
The second presence of the state in the agricultural sector was various initiations to
modernize production methods and to introduce the agricultural technologies of the
time to the farmers. Because of the primitive features of the production methods at that
time, the principal attempts of the authorities to educate specialists on agricultural
technologies. For instance, with the law of 254 which was enacted in 1922, agricultural
middle schools were founded in 12 regions within 2 years. Furthermore, in parallel
with the aim of agricultural mechanization, agricultural schools, which accepted
primary school graduates, were established in Ankara and Adana in order to raise
machinists. Following these attempts, a radical step was taken in 1928. All of
agricultural middle schools, together with Halkalı Agricultural School, were closed
and all the instructors were sent to Europe, mostly to Germany, to receive a modern
education.42 Mustafa Kemal in his speech which was made due to the opening of the
parliament accepted this deficiency regarding the agricultural education and stated that
“we should bravely say that we do not have enough experts who are qualified to realize
the agricultural development which our country deserved.”43 Therefore, the early
41 Korkut Boratav, Türkiye İktisat Tarihi, 1908-2002, (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi), p. 54-55.
42 Tekeli and İlkin, Devletçilik Dönemi Tarım Politikaları, p. 37-89.
43 Ibid., p. 43.
39
years of the Republic can be interpreted as a period of legal regulations and search in
terms of being familiar to the modern agricultural technologies and importing them
into the agricultural regimen of the country with the leading role of the state. Another
legal regulation to encourage the mechanization of agricultural production was
enacted. Some production inputs such as some tools, fuels and chemicals were
exempted from custom fees and tax reliefs were launched for these tools by the state
between 1926 and 1930.44 However, many of the observations in the rural areas
illustrate that the production and living conditions of the villagers were still primitive
in the mid-1930s. As İsmail Hüsrev Tökin stated regarding the agricultural
mechanization in Anatolian villages who was an Agricultural Bank inspector making
tours in Anatolian villages in 1930s with the aim of detecting where to establish credit
cooperatives and also a writer in Kadro, the mechanization of agricultural production
and usage of modern technical tools like tractor, sowing machines, thrasher and trieur
was extremely limited. Primitive plough was still the dominant tool used by the
peasantry. As he addressed, according to 1927 agricultural census, the number of
ploughs was 1.187.007. Tökin observed that technical base of the agricultural
production was primitive and added this dramatic definition about the conditions in
rural segment that in the struggle with the nature, Turkish peasants were equipped with
the labor tools which were holdover from the Noahic period. 45
The third and one of the most significant presences of the Turkish state in agricultural
sector was its effort in expanding financial support and providing credits to the
44 İlhan Tekeli and Selim İlkin, 1929 Dünya Buhranı’nda Türkiye’nin İktisadi Politika Arayışları,
(Ankara: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi 1983), p. 189.
45 İsmail Hüsrev, Türkiye Köy İktisadiyatı, (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1990), p. 42-43.
40
peasants. Prior to the establishment of the credit cooperatives, the Agricultural Bank
was holding a key role in this duty. The reason behind the necessity for credit lies in
the emergence of the division of labor between the urban and the rural. Prior to that
peasantry fall under the influence of market economy, agricultural production
activities were limited with covering the family needs in kind. Also, the relation
between these agricultural producers with the market was inconsiderable. For this
reason, there was no need for money as a tool for circulation. On the other hand, with
the impact of integration to the world economy and the division of labor between rural
and urban, monetization of the peasantry was started. Even in 1860s, the need of an
organization to provide credit to peasants was on the agenda and a fund to finance the
credit needs of the peasants was founded by Mithat Paşa under the name of Memleket
Sandıkları in 1863. As these funds’ successor, the Agricultural Bank remained its
unique position in agricultural credit providing until 1929. 46 Designed to provide
credit to the agricultural segment, the transactions of the Bank became a center of
complaints by the producers. Since, with the reorganization of the Bank in 1924, the
Bank’s field of activity was expanded, and it was allowed to provide credit to other
sectors. 47 On the other hand, most of the producers criticized the Bank due to its
inability to provide enough credit resources to maintain production and also for the
imbalance between the credits which were devoted to agricultural production and the
commercial credit. As regards this imbalance, Tezel stated that almost 60 and 80
percent of the total credit resources were given as commercial loans rather than
46 Asım Süreyya İloğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Kredi ve T. C. Ziraat Bankası, p. 95, available online:
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/9376
47 Yusuf Saim Atasagun, Türkiyede Ziraî Borçlanma ve Ziraî Kredi Politikası, (İstanbul: Kenan
Matbaası, 1943), p. 27.
41
agricultural production by the Agricultural Bank. 48 This scarcity of credit turned into
a prevalent and serious indebtedness reality which directly affected the daily life in the
rural segment. Because most of the producers had to borrow from the individual credit
providers namely usurers, murabahacı, with high rates of interest in order to fulfil the
financial needs to continue production activities. Consequently, given the fact that the
incapacity of the peasantry in the early Republican years in meeting financial
necessities, the credit policy, and the main actor of this policy namely Agricultural
Bank was not able to carry out a proper and balanced loan policy towards the producers
which was designed according to their income and current production conditions. The
issues related to the peasantry's financial expansion by getting loans were to be one of
profound problems in the following years with the Global crisis's impact.
Having inherited from the Ottoman Empire’s traditional monopoly system on some
specific production and trading activities, the Republican state also adopted and
sustained the Monopolies. To illustrate, production and trade of some agricultural
products and consumer goods such as tobacco, cigarettes and cigarette papers, salt,
alcoholic beverages, matches, and lighters were monopolized by the Turkish state.
Monopolization of the production and trading of these items and also administrative
monopolization like running of the ports brought a significant amount of income in the
state budget. It is an indisputable fact that the monopolies were holding a crucial role
in the financing of the state’s financial programme in the early years of the Republic.
48 Yahya S. Tezel, Cumhuriyet Döneminin İktisadi Tarihi, (İstanbul: İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2015),
p. 493.
42
In fact, the monopolies consisted of %10-14 total state revenues in that period.49 The
reflection of the monopolies on the daily life and producing activities of the
agricultural segment can be seen as a kind of indirect taxation mechanism by imposing
additional fees and restrictions on producing activities, and also raising additional costs
to consumption needs of peasants. However, as can be understood from the following
chapters of this research, the relation between the producers and the Monopoly system,
in other words the state, was complicated and layered relation which can transform
based on global and domestic economic conjuncture. For example, it is possible to
observe how people as an agricultural producer or consumer tried to avoid Monopolies
restrictions by producing and trading some items such as tobacco, cigarettes, and
alcoholic beverages illegally. Also, it is possible to witness several smuggling
activities of the producers and traders to improve their profit from production and to
avoid taxation. According to Metinsoy’s research, these activities could be seen as a
kind of resistance to challenge the coercive, exploitive, and restrictive implementation
of state through the Monopolies.50 On the other hand, it is also should be taken into
consideration that one who investigate the complaints and demands of the producers
from the Monopoly Administration probably comprehend that these positions were
quite changeable according to economic conjuncture, which will be discussed in
afterwards. Consequently, the Monopoly system was an institutional intervention of
the state in agricultural production. Because of the nature of the agricultural production
of Western Anatolia, the working mechanism of Monopolies is very crucial for this
49 Fatma Doğruel and A. Suut Doğruel, Osmanlı’dan Günümüze Tekel, (İstanbul: Tekel, 2000), p. 151.
50 Murat Metinsoy, ““Social Smuggling”: Resistance to Monopolies in Early Republican Turkey,”
SIYASAL-JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCES, vol.29, no.2, p. 247-269, 2020.
43
research. Since, in the present study, monopolies are treated as the institutional
presence of the state in the everyday life of the rural segment. For this reason, it is
necessary to address how this system worked and in which aspects the agricultural
segment was affected in more detail.
The years after 1923, several economic activities including production, importing, and
trading, which were under the state monopoly, were passed to some licensed private
and foreign companies which was very designed for the period’s economic
atmosphere. 51 For example, Match and Lighter Monopoly, responsible for producing,
importing, and distributing the matches, was founded in 1925 with a partnership of a
Belgian company namely Societe General Allumettiere et Forestiere. In the following
years, because of the disagreement between the government and the company
regarding the establishment of a match factory in Sinop which was a requirement of
the agreement, the privilege passed to an American Company in 1930.52 Although
these economic activities were given to the company, the state’s control over the
activities continued. For example, Turkish government demanded price
rearrangements according to global prices. After the Global Depression deteriorated
the financial balances in the country, in 1934 the Turkish government declared that the
price of matches should have been reduced thirty paras. As a result of this pressure by
the state, the prices decreased gradually from 100 paras to 50 paras within almost one
year in 1934-35. 53 Therefore, even though the state did not involve the process
51 Korkut Boratav, Türkiye’de Devletçilik, (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi, 2006), p. 47.
52 Ayşe Eryaman, “Cumhuriyet’in İlk Yıllarındaki İnhisar Uygulamalarına Bir Örnek: Kibrit İnhisarı
(1924-1943),” Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Dergisi XXXVII, no. (2021), p. 200.
53 Ibid., p. 203.
44
directly, in a specific conjuncture like economic crisis, it kept pressure on the
companies in favour of society. Another branch under the monopoly system is the
producing and trading of spirit and alcoholic beverages. This was taken under state
control in 1926. According to the law, the authorization of producing, importing, and
selling all kinds of spirits beverages including wine, beer and all kinds of liqueur was
taken to the state monopoly. 54 Existing factories were also taken under the control of
the state. The government delegated all authorization to a company namely The
Turkish Incorporated Company of Sprits and Alcoholic Beverages, İspirto ve
Meşrubatı Küuliye İnhisarı Türk Anonim Şirketi which was established with the
partnership of a Polish Company namely Naçelya Organizaçya. 55 However, the
company went bankrupt after one year due to illegal production and high license fees,
so the state regained the monopoly in 1927. 56 For the case of Western Anatolia and
specifically for Izmir, this monopoly was truly relevant because of the grape, fig, and
aniseed production in the region. Salt was another crucial item for peasants due to the
fact that it is an agricultural and husbandry input and also an input for weaving and
leather industry. In 1927, the directorate of Salt Monopoly was established to
monopolize producing and exporting the salt and producing and trading of salt were
limited with the licensed traders.57 It is possible to see in the press the importance of
salt for the farmers from the complaints regarding the prices.
54 Doğruel, Osmanlı’dan Günümüze Tekel, p.144.
55 Cezmi Emiroğlu, Türkiyede Vergi Sistemi: Vasıtasız Vergiler, (Ankara: Damga Matbaası, 1932), p.
77.
56 Metinsoy, “Social Smuggling,” p. 251.
57 Emiroğlu, Türkiyede Vergi Sistemi: Vasıtasız Vergiler, p. 64.
45
At this point, the Tobacco Monopoly should be underlined due to Izmir’s place in
tobacco production. Following the abolishment of Régie’s monopoly in 1925, which
is a private company authorized for the production, processing, and trading of tobacco
in the Ottoman Empire in 1884, the government took over the authorization for the
entire process of producing, processing, selling, and importing and exporting tobacco
and the related items. The General Directorate of Tobacco Monopoly, Tütün İnhisarı
Umum Müdürlüğü was established. Tobacco was an irreplaceable product for the state
budget. To be more specific, the contribution of the Tobacco Monopoly to finance the
construction of railroads and the industrialization project of the state waws essential.
58 On the other hand, the tobacco business was also a controversial issue on the political
and economic agenda of the political figures of the period. Since there were separate
groups who supported different sides. While some of them supported monopolizing of
the tobacco business under the authorization of the state, the other side criticized the
protectionist policy and suggested the elimination of all restrictions over the tobacco
business.59 The entire process of tobacco production was strictly controlled by the
state. Each step of the process was under the supervision of the state institutions. In
the very first phase, the cultivation of tobacco seed was subject to state permission.
The Monopoly Administration had the authority to restrict or allow to cultivate tobacco
in certain regions. Also, the institution had the authority to specify the type of tobacco
seed to cultivate, quantity of tobacco and the farmers of tobacco. Each producer had
58 Bilsay Kuruç, Belgelerle Türkiye İktisat Politikası, Vol. 1, (Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Siyasal
Bilgiler Fakültesi Yayınları, 1988), p. 251.
59 Neslisah Leman Basaran Lotz, “The Merchant Bourgeoisie Fighting for Liberal Economy:
Discussions on Tobacco Monopoly in the First Decade of the Republic of Turkey,” Journal of Applied
and Theoretical Social Sciences 4 (2), p. 216.
46
to get a license which indicates the amount of their plantation and their cultivation
areas. The administration also had the power to determine the prices, and which
licensed merchants and companies could trade the tobacco. The process which started
with buying tobacco from peasants and completed with the transporting tobacco to
foreign countries was under the full control of the Monopoly officials. According to
law, merchants, even after they completed their transaction and stocked tobacco in
their warehouses, had to be open to control of Monopoly Administration in any time.
Any kind of transportation had to be reported to the officials and obtaining a
transportation license was compulsory. 60 When it comes to the effect of Monopoly
Administration on tobacco producers, it was generally the center of complaints due to
fixing low prices. To illustrate, while a small package of cut tobacco was sold for 120
kuruş, the Administration paid only 10 kuruş for per kilo of tobacco. 61 Moreover, like
other companies, the Monopoly Administration also lowered the price while
purchasing from producers by claiming that the tobacco was of an inferior quality.
Therefore, when it is looked at from the producers’ side, smuggling became a way of
avoidance from the restrictions and increase the profit from the production for tobacco
producers. In addition to low prices, the process was full of difficulties for a tobacco
producer in terms of bureaucracy and fees in every step of the trading. For instance, a
producer had to pay 15 kuruş to declare his cultivation, 15 kuruş to present a petition,
15 kuruş to take a transportation license.62 On the other hand, as will be mentioned in
the next part, the presence of the state in the agricultural production sphere as the form
60 Emiroğlu, Türkiyede Vergi Sistemi: Vasıtasız Vergiler, p. 44.
61 Metinsoy, “Social Smuggling,” p. 252.
62 Metinsoy, Everyday Politics of Ordinary People, p. 67.
47
of Monopoly Administration should be evaluated as a more comprehensive and
nuanced reality. Since, the Administration’s role was a kind of regulatory authority
which could intervene the market in favor of producers, as well. Therefore, while the
smuggling activities were realities of the sector for profit making by bypassing
restrictions imposed by Monopoly Administration, the institution was also perceived
as a kind of protector at certain times between the market conditions and the producers.
Administrative Monopolies, like monopolizing the operation of the ports, was another
form of the monopoly system in the 1930s. The operation of the Istanbul, Izmir,
Trabzon, and Mersin Ports was under the monopoly of the state in 1925 and the
operation of these ports was assigned to the companies.63 It should be noted that ports
were an input for agricultural production. As a hub to move production out to the
foreign markets, they imposed extra fees to the production and trading activities, which
was a very heavy burden for producers especially for those whose production was
export-based.
The impact of the Monopolies was not remained restricted with the debates over
economic dimensions of the system, on the contrary, the Monopolies became a
political debate among the political figures and brought major historical outcomes for
the history of Modern Turkey. For instance, the emergence of the SCF was directly
related to the opposition towards the Monopolies. Fethi Okyar, the leader of the party,
criticized the operation of the Monopolies with the private companies. 64 The massive
63 Boratav, Türkiye’de Devletçilik, p. 48.
64 Ibid., p. 75.
48
support to SCF in Western Anatolia, where the monopolies were everywhere due to
the nature of products, can be analyzed from the strong critiques regarding the
Monopolies by the SCF.
In conclusion, the Turkish economy until 1929 was not totally differentiated from the
economic structure of late Ottoman period. This period can be evaluated as a period of
rebuilding in the circumstance of an open economy. 65 The expectation from the
agricultural segment in the early years of the Republic was to increase production. A
quick rehabilitation of the rural part was the major desire of the Republican cadres. In
parallel to this expectation, the state launched crucial tax regulation and abolish the
tithe which was a very essential step to reduce the tax burden of agricultural producers,
tried to expand credit capacity, promoted to modernization of the agricultural
production methods, and sustained its control over some agricultural production to
improve the incomes of the budget via Monopolies. Here it should be underlined that
unlike the industrial segment, in which the prices were fixed at a high level via
protectionist policies, the prices in the agricultural sector were not protected.66 All in
all, the presence of the Turkish state in agricultural segment, at that period, was not
based on a specific and well-designed agricultural policy. But when global
developments hit agricultural prices, and the impoverishment of society, mostly rural
poverty, became evident, the ruling elites had to create a solution. The first steps
towards the protectionist policies on the agricultural segment were released, not
surprisingly, after 1929. The first direct intervention of the state was the establishment
65 Boratav, Türkiye İktisat Tarihi, p. 39.
66 Tekeli and İlkin, Devletçilik Dönemi Tarım Politikaları, p. 41.
49
of the credit cooperatives in 1929 with the law of 1470 to suppress the effect of the
individual credit providers and to reduce the costs of credit. 67 Other direct intervention
by the Turkish state to the agricultural sector was the launching of direct purchasing
of wheat from the producers in 1932. According to the law of 2056, to protect and
regulate wheat prices, the government started to purchase at the determined prices via
the Agricultural Bank.68
2.3. A Selective Invitation to the State in Agricultural Segment
2.3.1. Agricultural Prices in Crisis
After profiting from the high and stable agricultural prices before 1929, the Anatolian
producers were destroyed by the sharp declines with the Great Depression in 1929. A
peasant compared the financial conditions of the producers in these different periods
and explained the situation as follows: “We could not know that the production which
had been sold in 200 liras one year before was to be sold in 60 liras. Our production
was of excellent value.” 69 Nationally speaking, decline in products such as grape, fig,
cotton, tobacco, and hazelnut was destructive because of the share of these products in
total export income of the Turkish Republic. They constituted four-thirds of the total
export revenue. The impact of the decline in prices of these products in the budget of
67 Hülya Kendir Özdinç, “Tarımda Kamu Politikalarının Başlangıcı: “Buğday Meselesi”, 1932-1945.”
Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 10 (2010), p. 3.
68 Ibid., p. 5.
69 “Köylünün Derdi,” Yeni Asır, 06.06.1933.
50
the Turkish State was a decrease from 224 million in 1929 to 205 million in 1933. 70
When it comes to the effects of this sharp drop of the Turkish export products’ prices
in the global market, Izmir and its inland as an export-based producing region and the
peasants who were producing to the market in this region were devastated. Long-term
effects of this crisis began to come to the political agenda of the Republican elites as
economic, social, and political consequences.
Basically, the Great Depression, which was one of the most influential events of the
20th century’s political, social, and economic contexts, means the collapse of Wall
Street in September-October in 1929. As soon as the fluctuations started on the New
York Stock Exchange, its deteriorating effect started in financial circles. Production
and trading volumes began to slow down, and the unemployment rate rose to 25 %.
However, the hit was not limited to a small-scale business circle. It exceeded the
national borders and business circles and also its time of occurrence. The impact of
this event was so enormous that the intellectual and emotional consequences of it could
not disappear from people’s minds until the 1980s. In terms of agricultural segments,
even a small-scale agricultural producer was pulled down by the effects of the crisis.
Because of the decrease in trading volumes and the deceleration in production, the
agricultural products could not be sold in the market. To illustrate, thousands of tons
of coffee stocks could not be depleted by the producers in Brazil and Cuba, and so
products were set to fire to increase the prices.71
70 Taner Timur, Türk Devrimi ve Sonrası (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi, 2013), p. 137.
71Ali Çimen, 1929 Dünya Ekonomı̇k Bunalımının Dünyaya, Türkı̇ye’ye ve İzmı̇r’dekı̇ Üzüm Fı̇yatlarına
Etkı̇sı̇, (Unpublished Master Thesis, Dokuz Eylül University, 2007), p. 21-22.
51
In national level, economic, social, and political impact of this major event were overt
as well. Economically, the reflection of the Crisis in Turkish economy was the decline
in the agricultural prices due to the decrease in demand. The export revenues of Turkey
between 1928 and 1933 fall at the rate of 48 on the basis of Turkish lira. Furthermore,
even though farmers procured 10 % more than the production amount of 1929, their
income from products was less than one in three. Because of the scarcity of foreign
credits, imports also decreased half and half. 72 In economic manner, the loss of the
state budget was so significant that the state had to impose new taxes in 1931. The
Economic Depression Tax and Equalization Tax were imposed to compensate loss of
tax revenues at that period. The following table demonstrates the impact of the Global
Economic Depression on the state budget between 1928 and 1932. 73
To be more specific regarding the agricultural prices, the fluctuations on tobacco prices
as one of the major export items of the Republic and also a primary export products of
Izmir region, can be particularly useful to notice the deterioration experienced by the
producers. Reaching their highest level in 1927, the tobacco prices gradually declined.
Within 5 years, the prices fell by 66%. The decline continued after 1932, as well. Prior
to Depression, tobacco was priced at 300 to a minimum 100 kuruş per kilo, after that
time price was 20-30-40 kuruş. As a matter of fact, in Izmir region, most producers
had to sell their tobacco at the price of 10-15-20 kuruş.74 Furthermore, the grape prices
72 Yenal, Cumhuriyet’in İktisat Tarihi, p. 77.
73 Ibid., p. 78.
74 Şevket Raşit Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, (Ankara: Yüksek Ziraat Enstitüsü, 1936), p. 35.
52
also showed a drop tendency, almost 73.4 %, in 8 years, compared to the high prices
in 1927. Even in the Izmir region, grape growers sold their grape for 5-8 kuruş, while
the price was 50-60 before. 75 The other impact of the crisis was the reduction in value
of the vineyards in the Aegean economic district. Before and during the crisis in 1929,
the value of a decare of vineyard in Kemalpaşa was 500 liras. On the other hand, in
the following years, in 1933, a decare of vineyard was assessed as only 20-30 liras. 76
In addition to the revenue loss and the impoverisher effects of the Depression, the
Turkish lira also started to lose its value. For example, English lira increased from 900
kuruş to 1070 kuruş between 1927 and 1929. 77
Table 1. Impact of the Global Depression on the State Budget
Change (Million Turkish
Lira)
1928 Budget (Total
%)
Total Loss of Tax Revenue 38.3 17.3
Customs 25.7
Transaction Taxes 9.9
Income Tax 2.3
Total Decrease in Regular
Income
51.0 23.0
Emergency Taxes 43.0 19.4
Total Loss of Budget
Income
7.7 3.5
Increase in Debt Payment 41.1 18.5
Decrease in Public
Expenses (Except debt
payment)
48.8 22.0
Source: Oktay Yenal, Cumhuriyet’in İktisat Tarihi, (İstanbul: İş Bankası Kültür
Yayınları, 2017), p. 78
75 Ibid., p. 45
76 Çimen, 1929 Dünya Ekonomı̇k Bunalımının, p. 115.
77 Ibid., p. 26.
53
Turkish state should have responded immediately to the negative impacts of the
Depression. To this end, direct intervention to the sector started and the first political
precautions regarding the economic crisis enacted by the government. Reaction of the
bureaucracy against the economic difficulties was prohibitions, restraints and closing
the domestic economy to external world. 78 As mentioned previously, the direct buying
of wheat from the producers to fix the prices at a prominent level started. 79 Also, the
credit cooperatives were founded in 1929 in order to provide credit in more affordable
conditions to the sector. 80 What necessity for emergence of the credit cooperatives
while there was a Bank which was founded exactly for this reason is the unbalanced
distribution of the loan by the Bank. According to a report written by Mr. Schmidt in
1925, an expert from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Bank mostly had
provided credit to business firms rather than farmers. He also underlined that farmers
had to borrow from individual credit providers with % 30 rates, while even the
Agricultural Bank’s interest rates, almost % 12, were unaffordable for peasants.81
Also, the law of protection of the value of Turkish currency was enacted and the
Central Bank was founded in 1930 to prevent instability and to control the foreign
currency transactions.
78 Keyder, State and Class, p. 97-98.
79 Zvi Yehuda Hershlag, Turkey: An Economy in Transition, (The Hague: Uitgeverij Van Keulen N.V.,
1958), p. 145.
80 Bülent Varlık, “1930-1940 Yılları Arasında Türkiye’de Tarımsal Kooperatifler Üzerine Bir Deneme,”
Ekonomik Yaklaşım 1, no.3 (1980): p. 105.
81 Atasagun, Türkiyede Ziraî Borçlanma, p. 106.
54
Even in political sphere, the Turkish state needed to take some steps to soften
destructive effects of the crisis and prevent these effects from turning into a political
and social unrest. In this respect, the establishment of the opposition party should be
located in this socio-economic context. At the period of the effects of the crisis,
Mustafa Kemal decided to establish an opposition party to criticize and to inspect the
government, which could be kept under control.82 The party program of SCF shows
how the economic conjuncture was the basis of the opposition. The fundamental issues
in the daily realities such as scarcity of credit, usurer issues, monopolies and the
reorganization of the Agricultural Bank perfectly matched the party’s programme. The
renovations in the electoral system such as allowing independent candidates in 1934
elections can also be evaluated as the outcome of this socio-economic and sociopolitical
context. To be sure, the economic crisis was not the only motive behind these
political regulations, however, impoverishment in rural segments was at the edge of
social and political unrest in 1930s.
In more regional, the sharp drop of the Turkish export products’ prices in Izmir and its
inland was devastating. The abundant years, geniş yıllar, of peasants ended. Reflection
of the crisis in daily life was traumatic for society and individuals experiencing the
crisis. The press gave a headline as “There is a suicide outbreak.” Several suicide
incidents in the city which were associated with the financial burden such as debt,
bankruptcy, and poverty were reported by the local press. For instance, a well-known
stockbroker Alaaddin Bey who was known with his business ethic committed a suicide
on August 15, 1930, and Moralizade Abdi Bey, an opium merchant, who has been very
82 Ahmet Demirel, Tek Partinin İktidarı Türkiye’de Seçimler ve Siyaset (1923-1946), (İstanbul: İletişim
Yayınları, 2018), p. 107.
55
depressed lately because his business began to worsen also committed suicide. Also, a
worker committed suicide on an olive farm due to poverty and starvation.83
While the daily reflections of the deprivation were overt, the economic crisis became
a subject of discussion in the political sphere, as well. Local opposition figures in the
city criticized the economic policies of the government in penned articles publicly.
The ruling party, CHF, Halk Fırkası, and its improper economic policies became the
focus of critiques. Since, these critiques claimed that the reason of the deprivation in
city was not a result of the Global Depression. Because the depression in global
markets was an outcome of overproduction, sürprodüksiyon which means production
increased, and prices fell. However, they claimed that there was not an overproduction
issue in Turkish agricultural segment. We produce less and more expensive. Therefore,
the crisis in Turkey emerged because of the CHF’s fiscal and economic policies.84
Muhittin Bey, an expert on cooperatives, also differentiated Turkey’s conditions from
the global context and stated that “the depression in our country is not the same
depression in the global system which is an industrial and speculation crisis. Our
depression is an outcome of an economic structure without any kind of economic
organization, iktisadi teşkilatsızlık.”85 Whether this argument of the local political
figures is enough accurate to explain the causal relation between these two
developments is questionable. But it should be noted that inadequate agricultural
policies of the Turkish state towards agricultural segment before 1929 made the
83Alev Gözcü, “Bir İntiharın Sosyo-Ekonomik Arkaplanı: Dünya Ekonomik Bunalımının İzmir
Örneğinde Gündelik Yaşama Yansımaları,” in Çağdaş Türkiye Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi 6 (2007),
p. 86.
84 “Bizdeki Buhran,” Serbes Cumhuriyet, 02.12.1930.
85 “Bizdeki Buhran,” Yeni Asır, 16.12.1930.
56
agricultural segment more fragile against effects of the Global Depression. Moreover,
it should also be noted that the economic crisis was not the only challenging factor at
that time, the settlement in the rural part of Izmir was continuing. For this reason, it
was not only the prices which hit society, specifically the agricultural segment. The
demographic mobilizations including migration and their outcomes such as housing
and land distribution deteriorated the society’s resistance capacity against the crisis.
Therefore, it should be addressed that there were two separate, but simultaneous
processes in the rural segment, which made the socio-economic and socio-political
conditions more complex. As the most affected region of these two processes, Izmir
was at the intersection of the economic and settlement crisis in the formative years of
the Republic. Not surprisingly when the crisis in society arose, the interaction between
the state and society began to be more frequent and visible in daily life. The following
part will focus on these interactions regarding agricultural affairs. The archival
research of the present study suggests three major meeting grounds of the state and
society, in terms of agricultural aspects, in Izmir will be examined. The negotiations,
demands, conflicts and responses between the state and society which arose around
the themes namely agricultural prices, taxation of the agricultural segment and the
indebtedness of the producers will be analyzed.
“Who protects Peasants, Zürra?”
Whether and to what extent the state should be involved in agricultural production is
a controversial issue even after the 1930s when the necessity of protectionist policies
became evident. As a subject of intellectual and political discussion, protectionism and
its borders were pretty popular among the local publicist or politicians in the 1930s.
57
On the other hand, repercussions of this debate in the real-life experiences of people
were vital. With this part, it is aimed to demonstrate how the idea of protectionism
became concrete in daily life. To be more specific, it will be examined that how the
term of protection interpreted by the agricultural segment by asking that what was the
relation between the state and the agricultural segment on the basis of the issue of
protection.
In the case of Izmir, the Monopolies and tobacco production were the most convenient
spheres in which the interactions around the term of protection were very evident.
Before the first steps of the protectionist intervention to economy in 1930s, the Turkish
state was already an actor of the tobacco production as a planner of production,
purchaser, processer of the tobacco and exporter of the tobacco, and most importantly
the regulator of the market via different methods. Robert Carey Goodman’s account
about the tobacco trade and its effects on the American and Turkish relations between
1923 and 1929 explains how and what extend the Turkish state involved in tobacco
business. According to his research, Monopoly already had power on the tobacco
market. The consulate reports in Izmir shows that “Monopoly purchases in August
1925 of 4.4 million pounds supported the market and firmed prices, and the monopoly
anticipated making total purchases of over 22 million pounds.” Moreover, Monopoly
bought directly from the producers in some areas, which was a different
implementation from the previous implementation. According to him, this also means
an increase of the state’s capability to implement a more politically minded purchasing
program.86 The question of whether this direct buying attempts could be evaluated as
86 Robert Carey Goodman, The Role of The Tobacco Trade in Turkish-American Relations, 1923-29,
(Unpublished Master Thesis, 1988), p. 102.
58
a way of protection of producers or not by the producers is an also open to discussion
and very hard to answer, while there were other actors in the market which increased
the prices. But it is also quite explanatory to show how this perception was content and
conjuncture based.
By enjoying a monopoly over some certain products like tobacco, the Turkish state
obviously aimed to increase state revenues for the realization of industrialization and
infrastructure projects. But how to maximize revenue and what was the cost of this
increase in terms of the agricultural sector are crucial to ask. The debates, both
intellectually and practically, over the low prices and restrictions of the state which
prevented free production and sale came into view at this point. Since some accounts
like Metinsoy’s one evaluates the perception of Monopolies by individuals including
consumers, producers, and traders within the paradigm of exploitation and resistance.
According to him, most of the producer and consumer used smuggling activities as a
way of survival method to avoid from the Monopoly’s restrictions and a way of lifeimproving
action for society in the early Republican era. In terms of tobacco
producers, the major tension against the Monopoly was that Monopoly Administration
tried to determine low prices. For example, in the market a little package of sliced
tobacco was priced as 120 kuruş, the Monopoly was giving 10 kuruş for a kilo. 87 The
low prices by the Monopolies were the fact of Izmir’s tobacco cultivators. There was
a difference between the foreign companies’ prices and Monopoly’s prices. For
example, the American companies were the first buyers in Izmir with the highest
87 Metinsoy, “Social Smuggling,” p. 252.
59
prices. In 1928, while the American firms bought tobacco at with an average price of
$.30 per pound, libre, the tobacco monopoly was giving $.045 to the producers. 88
Even though, it may be argued that Monopolies restricted the free production and
implemented a low-price policy which resulted with smuggling activities, one should
also take the differences in perceptions based on the economic conjuncture. Archival
evidence of the present study demonstrates that in some certain contexts such as that
the foreign companies dominated the market with low prices or stop purchasing to
manipulate the market, monopolies were invited to the market to protect producers.
For example, even in a newspaper which was in the liberal side of economic policy
debates by criticizing the state’s role in economy, there was a demand that the start of
the purchasing of grape and fig by the Monopoly of the Spirits and Alcoholic
Beverages immediately, if the state aimed to rescue the producers. 89 Therefore, it is
important to keep in mind that flexible stances which are changeable according to
socio-economic conditions present more nuanced causal explanation containing local
and current contexts. In other words, concepts like resistance or exploitation ignore the
economic and social contexts regarding the existence of Monopolies in agricultural
production.
Looking in more focused lenses to tobacco cultivation which was the most prevalent
agricultural activity for Izmir and the inland of Izmir shows that the relation between
producers, foreign firms, and the state. Firstly, it should be reminded that in 1927, the
“Big Four” firms of tobacco business had offices in Izmir to purchase tobacco. They
88 Goodman, The Role of The Tobacco Trade in Turkish-American Relations, 1923-29, p. 149.
89 “Müstahsilin Sıkıntısı,” Yeni Asır, 13.09.1932.
60
were Alston which represented P. Lorillard, Gary, Liggett & Myers; American of the
Orient, American Tobacco and Glenn, R. J. Reynolds. 90 It is a fact that firms were
very capable of price determination, and not surprisingly they mostly offered high
prices. When this kind of case is taken into consideration, one can be suspicious about
the role of the state, Monopoly Administration, however the organization of the state
in tobacco business was not limited with the prices and the protection issue became
concrete at this point. An example from the 1927 harvest in Izmir and its inland clearly
shows the position of the state in this producing and purchasing activities. This
example also portrays growers’ perspective. Edward M. Yantis, the manager of the
Gary Tobacco Firm in Izmir began to buy tobacco from the producers secretly in
August, before the opening of the market. Besides, the firm offered 40 kuruş, 10 kuruş
higher than the average price. This started a competition between the American firms
and the rivalry made the prices “48 piasters in a within a few days, 83 piasters in a few
weeks, and to as much as 107 piasters per pound for some tobacco.” 91 But it should
not be forgotten that these prices were offered for the crops which were still growing
in the fields, not harvested products. Producers’ expectation of benefiting from the
rivalry in the market was an obvious advantage. The local press also reported this case
in an incredibly positive tone and praised the manager’s cleverness. But the end of this
story was not as positive as it was in the beginning. The case turned into a tension
between producers who wanted to use guns and the company. When the delivery
deadline came, the American firms declined the payment due to the low quality of the
products and did not make the payment.
90 Goodman, The Role of The Tobacco Trade in Turkish-American Relations, 1923-29, p. 137.
91 Ibid., p. 44.
61
Thereupon, the vice president of the local branch of the Turkish Hearth Organization,
Türk Ocağı, in Akhisar, inland from Izmir, gave a speech to the tobacco growers in a
very nationalist tone and said:
Farmers, you know that the American tobacco companies must have
your tobacco. Are you men? Are you Turks? If the foreigners do not
take it, let us drive them out of our country. You have guns; don't you
know how to use them? Prove that you are Turks.92
The withdrawal of the American Company from buying can be understood as a kind
of exploitation strategy to maximize their profits by ensuring their purchasing in the
initial stages of the harvest season. In fact, using the low-quality accusations as a
reason to hesitate from paying the offered amount was a quite common policy of the
companies. İsmail Hüsrev Tökin, reported in his observations that this tactic was used
in the tobacco cultivating regions by the foreign companies and merchants repeatedly.
As Tökin narrated, a merchant rejected almost 20-25% of the production as wastrel,
ıskarta, and as a discount, iskonto during the acceptance of the production. Also,
foreign companies mostly rejected 6 of 20 units tobacco as wastrel, ıskarta, and 2 of
them were counted as discount, iskonto. Thus, producers could only get paid for 12
units. Besides, the products which were counted as wastrel were not given back to the
producers. 93 On the other hand, when the production skills and the methods of the
Turkish agricultural segment in that period are taken into consideration, it might be
true that the quality was an issue, especially for the American firms with clear
standards about tobacco and a business type made over the estimated numbers. The
reports portrayed the production quality in Izmir as follows:
92 Ibid., p. 145.
93 Tökin, Türkiye Köy İktisadiyatı, p. 149.
62
In the Izmir region many growers who had sold their crops in the field, did not
put great effort into timely harvesting, carefully curing, or selectively sorting
their tobacco. Instead, they delivered much unripened, poorly dried leaf to the
purchasers, a portion of which was rain and disease damaged. The entire crop
was regarded as inferior; as much as 25% of it was damaged. Naturally, the
foreign buyers, and especially the Americans who demanded the highest grades
of tobacco, would not pay for inferior goods, and returned the low-quality leaf
to the growers. The growers demanded the agreed upon price for their entire
crop, waste, and all.94
In fact, the production and cultivation methods of the farmers were not sufficient for
some companies. For that reason, even in 1938 almost ten years after this case,
American Tobacco Companies had to manifest their expectation from the production
and suggest the methods of cultivating in a newspaper. The manifest stated that
“American tobacco companies and other tobacco buyers in Izmir advise tobacco
growers to carefully read the following advice, if they want to sell their products at
good prices.”95 They explained the entire tobacco cultivation step by step to the
producers who were producing the same plant for almost a decade. Their manual starts
with the selection of the land to seed the tobacco and continues with instructions for
each step such as how to plough, how to select the seed, and how to cut and clean, and
bale the harvest. For this reason, while the quality issue was a practical tool to press
the prices, it is an undeniable fact that there was a quality and standardization issue in
the production activities.
Two points in this case should be emphasized. The standpoint of the producers is the
first thing. The example shows that tobacco business became a national issue when the
94 Goodman, The Role of The Tobacco Trade in Turkish-American Relations, 1923-29, p. 144.
95 “Amerika Tütün Kumpanyaları,” Yeni Asır, 23.09.1938.
63
payment was declined and also demonstrates that the producers were sharing the same
goal with the firms, to maximize the profit. Therefore, flexible, and profit-oriented
actions of the peasants due to the acute and heavy conditions of Izmir might be more
explanatory to depict the total countryside of Izmir and inland of the city rather than
consistent stances such as accommodation of the state policies and the resistance
towards the state’s policies. The second point is that the capability of the state to
monopolize should be reconsidered. Since, as can be seen from the example that the
monopoly was not able to limit the negotiations between the producers and the firms,
even in a supposedly “rigidly controlled sector.” These companies, at the same time,
were limiting the Monopolies’ capability to administrate and maintain the services by
giving high salaries to the skilled experts “who scouted the tobacco as it grew and
provided estimates of the production and crop damage.” They paid 200 to 1000 liras
per month to an expert, while the Monopoly Administration paid 80 and 100 liras. 96
Despite their different aims and organizations, both Monopoly and the foreign
companies in the tobacco business were criticized regarding the low prices they
offered. Those who investigate the local press can see news and articles about prices
in every day for a long period starting from the mid-1920s and to the late 1930s, which
is that “the companies are reducing the prices.” At this point, the inquiry of the present
study should be asked. What was the expectation from the Turkish state regarding the
protection issue? The following cases from the inland of Izmir and Izmir’s countryside
might provide a point of view about the producers’ perception about the state role in
this issue.
96 Goodman, The Role of The Tobacco Trade in Turkish-American Relations, 1923-29, p. 151.
64
Contrary to the accusations of exploitation, which led to formation of a kind of
resistance strategy in society towards Monopoly, the Monopoly administration was
evaluated as an institution to protect the producers in some contexts. To illustrate, a
letter written to Yeni Asır by a cultivator from Kuşadası, Mustafa’s son Mehmet,
Mustafa oğlu Mehmet, shows that producers expected an immediate intervention to the
market from the state authorities namely Monopoly Administration by starting to
purchase. He explained the current situation in the village and demanded from the
authorities that:
A few people, who were in a hurry to dispose of their third and fourth type of
tobacco out of their hands immediately, sold their tobacco to the purchasers of
the Glen Company for 100 kuruş. Unfortunately, this instancy damaged the
entire Tobacco market in Kuşadası. The experts of the Glen Company who
were alone in the market lowered the price after they bought some tobacco.
Then they continued to buy from the 70 or 80 kuruş. Considering that the other
companies did not come to our region, it can be seen that our producers, zürra,
were unprotected. If this continues and the Monopoly Administration does not
start to buy immediately, the producers will be faced with more disastrous
results. 97
This case is a very explanatory and crucial example to see that the prices were crucial.
On the other hand, it is also more crucial in terms of seeing how the state and its
institutional tool were internalized by the producers as a kind of protector of peasants
when the unfair implementation of the merchants or foreign companies raised.
Glen Company was also accused of using an underpayment tactic by reducing the
amount of production. According to the newspaper, the Company paid for only 500
okkas of 1000 okkas of total production and counted half of amount as wastrel, ıskarta,
97 “Kuşadası’nda Tütün Piyasası Nasıl Açıldı,” Yeni Asır, 03.10.1932.
65
in Akhisar. The reason for this mistreatment, according to the peasants, was because
peasants were unprotected.98
What peasants demanded from the authorities was an organization against the
companies unfair and exploitative strategies. Because producers suffered from the lack
of a capability for resisting low prices. According to an expert, who was authorized
for the region’s tobacco business, “if there is an organization which protects the
producers and stands against the companies, our tobacco would not be sold under a
dollar which means 185 kuruş.” 99
In addition to the protection duty of the state in the minds of the people, the Monopolies
were also expected to bring competition to the market by buying products, when there
was no competition between the companies. One publicist added his comment about
the issue as “Even the ones who criticizing statism concluded that there is not any
solution during that time of crisis.” In fact, the merchants also demanded Monopoly to
purchase their stocked tobacco in their warehouses. There were 70-80 merchants in
Izmir region whose tobacco had to be purchased.100 Therefore, even the merchants,
who strongly opposed the presence of the state in the economic organization and said
that “the state cannot be a merchant”, paradoxically demanded a solution that made
the state a merchant after the crisis. For this reason, day to day positions which changed
98 “Zavallı Tütüncüler,” Yeni Asır, 04.12.1930.
99 “Ecnebi Kumpanyalar,” Yeni Asır, 06.11.1932.
100 “Merhun Tütünler,” Yeni Asır, 19.05.1931.
66
according to the daily developments might provide a better understanding about the
society’s positions and relations with the state policies.
When the economic conditions worsened, and an extremely limited amount of tobacco
was sold by the producers after the 1931 harvest, even in Yeni Asır newspaper, it is
recommended that unsold tobacco be purchased by the state. Producers who could not
sell their tobacco were in debt and they were suffering from poverty. The newspaper
added that in these conditions the Turkish state cannot say that it is impossible to buy
more. Turkish state could not have left the producers alone and unprotected in these
conditions. The state should have depleted the stocks in order to prevent the harmful
effects on next year’s market.101 The tobacco producers were not the only ones; the
grape producers also invited the state into the market to dominate the market. Grape
producers in Manisa, which is a part of Izmir’s economic region, strongly demanded
that Monopoly and the Agricultural Bank should enter the market. However, according
to some experts penned articles to the newspapers, this request was mistaken.
Cooperative expert, Muhittin Bey defended that this was not a solution for the low
prices. He suggested the foundation of the purchasing organization, satış kooperatifi,
as a solution.102
In the other side of this connection, the government took steps in the direction to block
the companies’ mistreatments. For example, in 1934 İsmet Paşa personally gave an
order to take some measures against the merchants who were trying to drop the fig
101 “Satılmayan Tütünler Devletçe Satın Alınmalıdır,” Yeni Asır, 22.12.1931.
102 “Üzüm Niçin Düşüyor,” Yeni Asır, 01.05.1933.
67
prices in Izmir. He said that although the production is less than that of the previous
years, the prices are also lower; and he added that the Monopoly Administration should
transact over the scrap fig.103 On the other hand, demands from the producers were not
welcome every time by the authorities. A request from the grape producers from
Bornova in terms of increasing the prices was declined by the General Manager of the
Monopoly Administration. Because the administration already planned to buy grapes
as a favor to the producers and the prices were already determined and submitted to
the producers. Therefore, there cannot be a rearrangement in the prices. 104
In addition to manipulating prices for producers’ benefit, a structural reorganization of
the entire agricultural production was also at the top of the local agenda. Organization
of the production, teşkilatlandırmak was the immediate suggestion of the local figures
in order to prevent fluctuations in the prices, to stabilize the prices and to break the
power of intermediaries. The cruciality of production and consuming cooperatives was
an accepted idea among all actors of agricultural production as a key concept in solving
all the difficulties. Actually, there was a good example to see how the cooperative
contributed to the production and improve the producer’s living conditions. The
Cooperative of Fig Producers in Aydın seemed like proof of the necessity of the
cooperatives in terms of producers.105 In fact, the Aydın Cooperative was able to
prevent price reductions in the Global Depression by purchasing figs and distributing
103 İzmir’de tüccarın incir fiyatlarını düşürmesine karşı tedbir alınmasına dair İsmet İnönü’nün talimatı,
BCA, 30.10.0.0.166.154.9, 27.08.1934.
104 “İnhisar Umum Müdürü Gitti,” Yeni Asır, 28.07.1933.
105 “Satış Kooperatifleri,” Yeni Asır, 03.12.1933.
68
money to its partners. Also, when the prices dropped, the Cooperative paid 12.3 kuruş
per kilo to the partners. 106
The establishment of an export cooperative for producers also was requested by the
producers from the authorities. The tobacco producers from Alaçatı expressed their
wishes to the governor, Kazım Paşa, in a meeting. The representative of the 543
producers said “I am begging you on behalf of the producers to you for rescuing our
production which we produced under the sun with our whole family from the
intermediaries and the profiteers. You saved us two years ago from the moneylenders
and made us producers. Provide us an outlet to export to be able to sell our production
in true value.”107
The capability of the peasants to negotiate over prices also should be addressed. The
low prices were offered; but what was the peasants’ response to these offers? In some
cases, they had to sell their production. On the other hand, when they have some buffer
zone, they can wait or choose the merchants to sell their products. For instance, when
the producers of Çeşme allied with each other and decided to not sell their tobacco to
the small merchants who did not make wholesale purchasing, the market was not able
to be opened. Producers waited for American firms to start buying.108 The capacity of
the state, on the other hand, in controlling tobacco production was a controversial
106 Özlem Yıldırır Kocabaş, “Cumhuriyetin İlk Yıllarında Aydın İncir Müstahsilleri Kooperatifi’nin
Durumu,” Çağdaş Türkiye Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2 (1994) p. 107.
107 “Müstahsilin Sesi,” Yeni Asır, 06.04.1932.
108 “Müstahsilin Sesi,” Yeni Asır, 06.04.1932.
69
issue. Regarding the state’s control over tobacco production, Goodman depicts the
actual conditions as follows:
In Turkey, the regime's efforts to control the tobacco trade were unsuccessful,
despite the tobacco monopoly's continuing regulation of all phases of the
tobacco industry. Much more influential were factors such as weather, growing
conditions, international demand for Turkish leaf, and especially American
buying habits. The drastic swing from peak production in 1927 to low in 1929
vividly demonstrates the Turks' lack of control over the trade.109
However, Turkish state used different tools to keep the foreign companies in the
tobacco trade under pressure in the very early years of the Republic such as
extraordinary taxation of the companies which made purchases from the market. For
example, in 1925 the local director of finance, defterdar, decided that most of the
American tobacco companies in Izmir had to pay a school tax. In the same year, local
authorities in Izmir again imposed on the Gary Tobacco Company a military
transportation tax. The amount was 15.000. The company stated that the amount of the
tax was illegal. Since a Turkish firm holding a comparable capitalization value would
only pay 30 or 40 Turkish Lira.110
All in all, regarding the state’s role in agricultural sector and the producer’s point
towards this role should not be analyzed only within the borders of the whether the
prices low or high and the impact of the state’s agricultural policies over the prices.
The protection was a key concept during the formative years of the Turkish Republic.
Although the state’s control over some production and prices via Monopolies can be
understood as a repressive mechanism of the Turkish state, the producers selectively
109 Goodman, The Role of The Tobacco Trade in Turkish-American Relations, 1923-29, p. 156.
110 Ibid., p. 109.
70
invited the Turkish state to intervene to the market in the production and purchasing
process in favor of the peasants against the other actors of the market. In Izmir, this
invitation might be a little higher because of the domination of market-oriented
production which necessitates more protection from the state than the other regions.
2.3.2. Taxation of the Agricultural Sector
It is a fact that the Turkish government relied on the agriculture as the foundation of
the economy and also as the financial provider of the modernization projects. In order
to catch the agricultural surplus, taxation of the crops and livestock were the crucial
tools. When the current conditions of the peasantry in the formative years of the
Turkish Republic are considered, this much of responsibility on the agricultural
segment could not be sustained without causing a burden on peasantry. As mentioned
previously, in the very early years of the Republic, the abolishment of the tithe was the
major step to decrease the tax burden of the peasanty and contributed to transfer of tax
load to consumers rather than agricultural sector. The apparent reason behind the
abolishment was to decrease the cost of production and remove the tax burden of the
peasants.111 However, additional taxes on the agricultural segment increased the tax
load of the peasantry in practice. The Land Tax, arazi, the Livestock Tax, ağnam or
sayım, and the Road Tax, yol, were the sources of the burden on the peasantry.
111 İzzettin Önder, “Cumhuriyet Döneminde Tarım Kesimine Uygulanan Vergi Politikası,” in
Türkiye’de Tarımsal Yapılar (1923-2000), (Ankara: Yurt Yayınları, 1988), p. 119.
71
All the owned lands within the borders of the Republic were leviable unless it was
exempted from the tax with a special decree. The assessment of this tax was the value
of the land. The tax rate was 10 ‰ for the lands with income, while the rate was 5 ‰
for lands without income. 112 These rates were increased by the state with the same law
which eliminated the tithe in 1925. The contribution of the land tax to the budget
revenues was 2.5 % between the years of 1925-1935. Nevertheless, the value of the
lands could not be determined accurately, and this made this tax full of setbacks. Even
in the time of the Depression, which was the period of the sharp drops of the
agricultural prices, the rates of the Land Tax did not decrease, and it continued to be
paid according to the value. This means that while peasants gained less income from
the same land, they paid the same amount of tax because the value of the land was the
same.113 In the following table, it can be seen how the Land Tax assessment became
challenging for peasants. Table 2 shows three types of land with different values and
how the equivalent of the imposed tax increased in time in the form of wheat/kilogram.
As can be seen from the table, the Land Tax became another financial burden which
took the place of tithe. According to a survey which was published in Cumhuriyet
newspaper, about the agricultural taxation in 1930, most peasants generally yearned
for the tithe due to the difficulties brought by the new taxes. 114
112 Emiroğlu, Türkiyede Vergi Sistemi: Vasıtasız Vergiler, p. 40-43.
113 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 76.
114 M. Asim Karaömerlioğlu, “Elite Perceptions of Land Reform in Early Republican Turkey,” The
Journal of Peasant Studies, 2000, 27:3, p. 116.
72
Table 2. Types of Lands and Tax Equivalent in Years
Year Type 1 Land
Kilogram/Wheat
Type 2 Land
Kilogram/Wheat
Type 3 Land
Kilogram/Wheat
1927 2,32 1,55 0,77
1928 2,07 1,38 0,70
1929 2,32 1,48 0,74
1930 3,48 2,32 1,28
1931 6,00 4,00 2,00
1932 5,66 3,75 1,88
1933 5,08 3,40 1,70
1934 6,71 4,47 2,23
1935 5,08 3,40 1,70
Source: Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 76
Like the Land Tax, Livestock Tax, Ağnam or Sayım, was one of the taxes imposed on
the peasantry. It was a kind of a wealth tax which was collected for per animal.115 In
1926, the content of the tax was extended to all animals, prior to this regulation it
comprises limited kind of animals. Also, the tax increased in 1926 and 1929. For
example, while, in 1925 the amount was 23, it was 30 in 1926. And it increased to 60
per sheep in 1929. Therefore, it is possible to see a gradual increase in the amount of
tax. The reflection of this tax in daily life was significant. As Metinsoy’s article shows,
there was a joke among the Anatolian peasants which can clearly demonstrate how this
tax became a burden and how peasants tried to overcome the tax. The joke as follows:
One day a peasant named Çavuş Emmi (Uncle Sergeant) says to İbik Dayı
(Uncle İbik), “If my donkey dies, I will skin it and cover my cow with its skin
115 Önder, Cumhuriyet Döneminde Tarım Kesimine Uygulanan Vergi Politikası, p. 125.
73
so that I can escape from the livestock tax.” Thereupon, İbik Dayı suggests that
Çavuş Emmi wears this skin to avoid the road tax.116
The impact of this tax on the peasants was noteworthy. In fact, most livestock owners
had to sell their animals and also most were in search of a person to give the animals
temporarily in return for paying the livestock tax in Central Anatolia. 117
The Road Tax, yol parası, was another direct obligation of peasants. The underlying
logic of this obligation was to contribute to the economy by benefiting from
unproductive labor force, especially agricultural labor.118 In this respect, it is directly
related with the agricultural sector due to the mentioned aim which was utilizing the
unproductive labor force in the agricultural sector. The Road Tax was not a newly
invented tax by the Republican Regime. Starting from the late Ottoman period to the
time of Independence War in 1921, it was a devastating reality for peasants. After the
Independence War ended, it was again imposed as a source to finance the country's
reconstruction. According to the law enacted in 1925, all males between the ages of
18-60 and living in Turkey, apart from disabled ones, poors, soldiers and the those
who had 6 and more children, had to pay the tax annually. The amount of the tax was
determined as the equivalent of the labor force which an ordinary person could do in
6-12 days.119 It was expected to be paid either money or labor force. According to the
116 Murat Metinsoy, “Negotiating the Price of the New State and Republican Modernization: Resistance
to the Agricultural Taxes in Modern Turkey,” New Perspectives on Turkey, 63 (2020), p. 80.
117 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 79.
118 Önder, Cumhuriyet Döneminde Tarım Kesimine Uygulanan Vergi Politikası, p. 127.
119 Yol Mükellefiyeti Kanunu, No, 542, Date. 23.02.1341.
https://www.kanunum.com/file/cid6019_vid26743_fid17229
74
last version, issued in 1929, a taxpayer had to work ten days on construction or had to
pay eight liras. 120 In daily life, this tax might be the most dramatic tax due to the
collection methods. Those who could not pay the tax in cash had to pay their
transportation fees to arrive at the working places which made this tax heavier. The
significant point here is that most peasants choose to pay the tax with physical force
rather than cash. This was probably not a voluntary choice but a result of the shortage
of cash and impoverishment in the rural part due to the drop agricultural prices.
Although the regulation had fixed the conditions of physical working, this was open
to abuses. That is to say, most peasants were abused by the contractors, highway
officials, engineers, and local administrators. Peasants were forced to work in more
distant places and also forced to work long hours than the law fixed. There were several
cases regarding this misconduct of the officials. For instance, according to Köroğlu
newspaper, some peasants from the İsabeyli Village of the Çal district in Denizli
reported that officials had forced them to work 18 days while the law says 12.121
The mentioned three taxes were the source of financial burden in peasants, but there
were other additional fees which made peasants and, specifically agricultural
producers’ life insufferable in terms of financial matters and solvency. In Izmir region,
a villager, Sefer Çavuş, from Ahmetbeyli Village complained about the additional
costs after his tobacco harvest and at the stage of selling by saying that “I am an
exchangees, mübadil, from Langaza and I have been living here for seven years. I
produced tobacco and sold it to the Ostro Company. I paid for transportation and other
120 Önder, Cumhuriyet Döneminde Tarım Kesimine Uygulanan Vergi Politikası, p. 126.
121 Metinsoy, Negotiating the Price, p. 88.
75
things. Now I have nothing left. When I went to the Company to settle accounts, I
could not pay the hancı’s pay.”122 Besides, peasants had some local obligations. To
illustrate, the Village Law dictated obligatory works in village which means more
financial burden. The law expected the peasants to support the infrastructural
improvement of the villages by building a village square, roads, a place for village
council, a guest room, planting trees and building a school. 123 Similar to extra fees in
tobacco production, extra inputs such as salt were another indirect financial burden to
peasants. In an article in the press, which complained about the financial burden on the
peasantry, salt, as an essential substance for animal husbandry, was defined as a crucial
item for peasants, even more crucial than bread. Since bread could be made by
peasants, while salt required money to buy. Therefore, 90 % of the total revenue of
the Salt Monopoly was derived from agricultural producers. For this reason, salt prices
were very related to producers, and they complained about the burden on their budget
coming from the salt prices. Because, while the salt’s price for one okka was 10 kuruş,
the price of the barley was 50 or 60 paras. 124 The Monopolies and the officials of the
Monopolies were the symbol of being squeezed by the brunt of the financial
obligations. During a visit of the local journalists in the villages of Izmir, this bias
became apparent, which was probably an outcome of the memories of tax collection
methods. During this visit to Bulgurca Village, journalists came over to the village
coffeehouse. Being tired of tax collectors or monopoly officials, the owner of the
coffeehouse asked journalists whether they were state officials or merchants. Peasant
122 “Köylerde Tetkikler, Köyler Ne Halde,” Yeni Asır, 7.12. 1930.
123 Köy Kanunu, No, 442, Date. 07.04.1924. https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/1.3.442.pdf
124 “Beş Okka Arpa,” Yeni Asır, 13.10.1933.
76
continued as follows: “If you are merchants our tobacco is at your service, but if you
are state officials, now we are not in a mode to meet with a state official.”125
To sum up, despite there were some attempts to eliminate the financial burden on the
agricultural segment by eliminating major tax of the sector, the newly levied taxes
namely Land, Livestock and Road Taxes, and also other additional costs on production
and consumption prevented financial relief in the agricultural segment. With the
impact of economic deprivation in 1929 and onwards, the demands regarding tax rates,
methods and payment capacity of the peasantry became a focus point in the connection
between the state and society.
“Who Pays the Taxes, Only Those Who Earn Less and the Peasants”126
As previously addressed, taxation of agricultural production, obviously, was the
primary instrument in the hands of the government for increasing the state revenue. In
political debates, this instrument and reflection of this implementation on the daily life
were at the top of the political agenda, as well. Following the financial burden
deepened and the first opposition attempt gained mass support shortly after the Global
Depression, taxation of peasantry and the actual material conditions of peasants came
into political debate, even within the ruling party. In the third Congress of CHF, for
instance, Emin Bey, a deputy from Eskişehir, criticized the policies of the government
by defending the peasantry’s interests like supporting the tax amnesties, shares his
ideas about the effects of the taxes on the peasantry. According to him the total amount
125 “Köylerde Tetkikler,” Yeni Asır, 09.12.1939.
126 “Vergileri Kim Ödüyor,” Yeni Asır, 11.11.1932.
77
of the taxes collected from peasants did not seem to exceed 5-6 million liras. However,
the reality was different. Because there were other financial burdens on peasants such
as fees on salt and fees on customs, which made the charged amount of tax
responsibility much more than the estimated amount. He criticized the implementation
and stated that “we are adding the amount of the reduction we gained from the direct
taxes on the indirect taxes.” 127 On the other hand, Hasan Bey, a deputy from Kars,
defended that it was not the taxes itself which deteriorated the burden of peasants, but
the developments which limited the financial capacity of peasants. To him, taxes are
not heavy. Since peasants were paying the Land Tax for 5-6 years. But they had
difficulty in the last 2 years due to the low prices of their productions.128 This argument
can be consistent to some extent. Because it is a fact that while the production volume
of peasants was 10% higher in 1931 than that of the1929, the income was almost onethird.
129 Unsurprisingly, the budget revenues also dropped drastically. This led to the
introduction of new taxes. The Economic Depression Tax, İktisadi Buhran Vergisi,
and the Equalization Tax, Muvazene Vergisi, were levied by the government in 1931
and 1932. 130 But it should be noted that these taxes were collected from the wages
and salaries rather than the agricultural segment.
When the conditions indicated this kind of squeezing in agricultural sector due to the
heavy taxes, society became more demanding and open to connection with the state
authorities who were related to tax related issues. Complaints about taxation arose
127 Kuruç, Belgelerle Türkiye İktisat Politikası, p. 151.
128 Ibid., p. 149.
129 Yenal, Cumhuriyet’in İktisat Tarihi, p. 76.
130 Ibid., p. 78.
78
from society via letters and petitions. In Izmir, Yeni Asır newspaper, which was at the
opposing view of the economic policies of the ruling party and a manifested supporter
of the more liberal economic views and SCF, gave place to these complaints
frequently. Those who examine these complaints can coincide with three major bases
related to the taxation procedures in the early years of the Republic in Izmir. Not
surprisingly, the first one is that the taxes were heavy for peasants. The second one is
that peasants believed that the taxation policies of the state were blind to pay regard to
fairness and balance among society. The third complaints about the state’s inability to
arrange the tax rates according to the current conditions. While peasants sent their
complaints, they also demanded from the authorities. These demands can be analyzed
in two categories. The first group of demands is more urgent and more palliative
demands such as tax amnesties and discounts on tax debt. The second group consisted
of more fundamental requests; they targeted the taxation policy of the state itself. In
short, the title of an article which was penned in 1933 by a local journalist clearly
demonstrates the expectation of peasants. It says: “The Republic should launch the
period of ‘giving’ to the peasantry, anymore.” 131 As regards to tone of the peasants
in these complaints, Metinsoy who analyzed several petition and letters of peasants
from the different regions of the Anatolia states that:132
Rather than using anti-government or seditious language, the peasants
generally grafted their opinion on to the official discourse by praising the new
regime in order to present their demands and complaints as legitimate and to
invite the leaders to live up to their commitments and the RPP’s principle of
populism.
131 “Köylüye Vermek Devri Artık Açılmalıdır,” Yeni Asır, 12.01.1933.
132 Metinsoy, Negotiating the Price, p. 94.
79
An article which was titled as “Who pays the taxes?” is a typical example to see
peasant’s perception about the unfairness in the taxation practices of the Republican
regime. According to this article, reductions in some taxes like livestock tax was an
essential step for the improvement of the peasants’ financial conditions, but the main
issue was not the mount of the taxes. The main issue was the unfair sharing of taxes
in society. The article defended that the duty of filling the state budget belonged to the
peasants. Unsurprisingly, all the land and livestock taxes were paid by the peasants,
but also other payments such as duties on customs, monopolies and consumption taxes
were also paid by peasants.133
In another example, the state was alleged for being indifferent to the destructive impact
of the Depression on the financial capacity on peasants. According to peasants, tax
assessments were calculated wrongly. Even though the peasants earned less than in
previous years, the tax assessments remain the same as the previous years.
Furthermore, the amount of the taxes did not match up with the real value of the items.
This was another point of the critiques from the society. For example, the livestock tax
of a goat was 50 kuruş, while the total value of it was the same today. 134
Unfairness issues continued in collection of the Road Tax, as well. Since it was
collected as the same amount from the people without making a distinction between
poor and wealthy people. In other words, it was an unfair policy to collect the same
amount for individuals with 100.000 lira wealth and a worker or peasant who could
133 “Vergileri Kim Ödüyor,” Yeni Asır, 11.11.1932.
134 “Köylüye Vermek Devri Artık Açılmalıdır,” Yeni Asır, 03.04.1931.
80
not afford a bite of bread. So, it damaged the justice of taxation. The governor of Izmir,
Vali Paşa, should have conveyed this demand of justice to the National Assembly. 135
Upon this demand, the local officials including the provincial treasurer, local manager
of the revenue and other officials from the finance offices hold a meeting to discuss
and prepare a report about this unfair and primitive tax law. This example shows that
it is a clear fact that the amount of the taxes was unaffordable for peasants in the
economic conditions of the country and, specifically in the region. In Izmir, there were
almost 5000 taxpayers who could not pay the Road Tax and were sent to constructions
in 1931. 136 However, this perception is not limited with the heaviness of the taxes, and
it also demonstrates that in societal level, the socio-economic classes and unfair
implementations among these classes were concrete issues in public debates, despite
the Republican regime strongly claimed that Turkish Republic is a classless society
comprised of different professions, rather than classes. Also, it depicts that poor
peasants’ perception about the Republican regime’s stand in terms of which segment
of the society was favored in economic policies and it might be useful for
understanding agricultural/industry or peasant/workers dichotomies in the formative
years of the Turkish Republic.
In addition to the letters and articles in newspapers, personal petitions were also
another instrument for conveying personal sufferings regarding the taxation by
peasants. Even at the time of war, petitioning as a form of tool to inform the authorities
about their problems and demand solutions for these problems was used by different
135 “Yol Vergisi Haksızlık,” Yeni Asır, 01.11.1931.
136 “Yol Parası,” Yeni Asır, 01.11.1931.
81
social and economic status. Therefore, in the formative years of the Turkish Republic,
this practice continued. In 1933, according to a petition which was sent from Izmir to
the petition commission of the GNA, there was a demand from a person for a solution
to a 4-year tax debt due to the Road Tax. Şamil Efendi penned a petition to commission
and explained his conditions. Şamil Efendi came from East, Şark provinces and made
his own shed on their own. And he did not have any capability to pay the taxes, so he
asked for mercy for Road payment. However, this request was declined by the
commission. Because there was not any reason to be exempted from this obligation.
137 The case of Şamil Efendi displays how complicated the socio-economic status of
that period, being an immigrant and a taxpayer with difficulties in tax paying at the
same time demonstrates the intertwined identities with their own complications.
Three years after this petition, Road Tax was still on the political agenda of the
politicians. In the CHF’s provincial congresses organized in 1936, there were still
demands from the society and conveyed to the local authorities to be sent to the center
of the ruling party. The requests sent from Izmir were the necessity of a reassessment
of Road Tax in accordance with people’s income and also remission of the tax debt
left from the previous years.138
In the other side of the taxation practices, there was the Turkish state with an enormous
need of revenue for budget making. As mentioned before, the debate about the
rearrangements of the tax system and the discount on the taxes was always on the
137 TBMM, Arzuhal Encümeni Haftalık Karar Cetveli, 25.11. 1933, p. 29.
https://acikerisim.tbmm.gov.tr/handle/11543/2647
138 CHP 28/12/936 Tarihinde Toplanan Vilâyet Kongresi Zabıtnamesi, (İzmir: Anadolu Matbaası,
1937), p. 139-148.
82
political agenda. Most of the political figures were aware of the harsh realities of
taxation policies on the living and producing capacity of the peasants. Those who
aimed to understand to what extent this awareness reflected on the policies might not
find an exact response. On the other hand, those who examine the government
programmes during that period, fourth in 1930 and fifth in 1931 İnönü governments,
can probably see that there was a specific emphasis on the taxes, especially the taxes
on the peasantry. İsmet İnönü declared that the government is aware of the particular
difficulties experienced by the agricultural producers and added the projected attempts
regarding taxation policies. According to programme: i. Methods to calculate the
value of the Land Tax were to be renovated. ii.Taxes of lands without income, marshes
and shrubberies were to be discounted. iii. Those who cultivated forests, vineyards and
fruit trees were to be exempted from the tax for a long time. iv.Livestock Tax was to
be rearranged by considering the balance between income and tax assessment. If the
current prices damage the balance between income and the tax, the tax will be
rearranged. 139
As these demands arose, the government enacted renovations on tax rates. For
example, tax rates on livestock in 1931 and 1932 were reduced.140 In the table 3, it can
be seen the reduce of the livestock tax per animal within years.141
139 İsmail Arar, Hükümet Programları, (İstanbul: Burçak Yayınevi, 1968), p. 57-58.
140 Metinsoy, Negotiating the Price, p. 96.
141 Ali Rıza Gönüllü, “Milli Mücadele Ve Cumhuriyet Döneminde Hayvanlar Vergisi (1920-1962),”
Selçuk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 1, (38), p. 69-102.
83
Table 3. Livestock Tax in Years142
1924 1926 1929 1931 1936 1938
Sheep 23 30 60 60 40 40
Hair Goat 23 30 60 60 40 40
Angora Goat 20 25 50 40 30 25
Camel 100 150 230 200 100 100
Pig 200 200 350 350 100 100
Source: Ali Rıza Gönüllü, “Milli Mücadele Ve Cumhuriyet Döneminde Hayvanlar
Vergisi (1920-1962),” Selçuk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, p. 84-85
Tax amnesty was another major demand from peasants. With the law of 2566, the law
of the liquidation of arrears of some taxes, vergi bakayasının tasfiyesine dair kanun,
which was enacted in 1934, some debts were erased. 143 As the most devastating taxes
on agricultural segment, the land and livestock taxes were one of these taxes.
According to law, some arrears of these two taxes were erased. On the other hand,
after two years of this liquidation, which was a kind of amnesty with specific
conditions, the provincial party congress of CHF in Izmir demanded an amnesty for
land tax debt in 1936. 144 Therefore, it can be concluded that the tax debt issue became
an unresolvable social phenomenon. On the other hand, in 1939, another law was
enacted with the number of 3586 namely the law of the cancellation of arrears of land
tax until the end of the 1935 fiscal year, arazi vergisinin 1935 malî yılı sonuna kadar
142 The table was prepared and summarized by the author.
143 Vergi Bakayasının Tasfiyesine Dair Kanun. No.2566, Date. 04.07.1935,
https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/arsiv/2750.pdf, p. 4126.
144 CHP 28/12/936 Tarihinde Toplanan Vilâyet Kongresi Zabıtnamesi (İzmir: Anadolu Matbaası, 1937),
p. 253.
84
olan bakayasının terkinine dair kanun. The law imposed that the Land Tax debt and
fines which were assessed until the end of 1935 and not paid would be erased. 145
Whether these reforms or rearrangements were able to change the financial capabilities
of the peasantry who was squeezed by the heavy taxes and whether the peasants’
pressure over the state was able to change the entire taxation system/policies in the
agricultural segment completely in favour of agricultural segment could be answered
by checking the rural conditions of the country. Even at the end of the 1930s, it cannot
be seen a visible improvement in the countryside of the country. The tax liquidations
initiated by the state in the middle and late 1930s, in fact, might demonstrate that how
the setbacks which started at the end of the 1920s in the agricultural segment
deteriorated ability of peasantry to pay their taxes and how these setbacks accumulated
in ten years. At this point, it should be noted that the indebtedness of the peasants, to
state, to bank or individual credit providers, in 1930s, became a social, economic, and
political issue because of this destruction on the balance of payment capacity.
As regards the relation between the state and peasants in this ground based on taxes,
tax burden was the fact of the rural poor. The tax policies of the Turkish state were
the focus of critiques by peasants. Petitions and letters penned to authorities to reflect
their demands were the major tools of peasants. Moreover, the unequal distribution of
the tax obligations among the social groups and unfunctional mechanisms of tax
assessments were seen as the source of the problem by peasants. However, as the
executive of this unfunctional mechanism, the state and its officials were the only
145 Arazi Vergisinin 1935 Malî Yılı Sonuna Kadar Olan Bakayasının Terkinine Dair Kanun. No. 3586,
Date.07.11.1939.
https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/KANUNLAR_KARARLAR/kanuntbmmc019/kanuntbmmc019/
kanuntbmmc01903586.pdf
85
authority to apply and to demand individually rather than collective action. On the
other hand, the government, which was already in search of fiscal policy for
agricultural segment, made attempts to solve the problems which were experienced by
the peasantry in terms of tax rates and tax collection in rural areas. Therefore, even
though, these initiatives were mostly designed to solve daily and urgent needs rather
than structural reforms for tax burden on the agricultural sector, it can be said that the
Turkish state was not indifferent to the demands of the society.
2.3.3. Indebtedness in the Agricultural Sector
While sharp drops in agricultural prices and heavy taxes which exceeds the peasant’s
payment capacity were the harsh realities in the early years of the Turkish Republic in
terms of agricultural segment, inevitable consequences were indebtedness and usurers,
murabahacı. To begin with, it should be addressed the indebtedness reality of peasants
after the Great Depression in 1929. When the objective conditions of the Turkish
peasantry are considered, peasants needed for money for two reasons. The first reason
was the lack of capital in the agricultural segment. The structure of the peasantry,
during the formative years of the Republic, was not capable of obtaining the production
inputs such as agricultural machinery, fertilizers, and seeds without borrowing money.
For this reason, borrowing money was a routine part of the production process.
Secondly, borrowing was a necessity so that peasants could continue to pay their
payments such as taxes.
A contemporary expert, Şevket Raşit Hatipoğlu explained the relation between the
capital and the agricultural production in the country, the capital was an issue for the
86
current structure of agricultural production at that period. He stated that “agricultural
production had been working on with a limited amount of capital. The primary role in
agricultural production was nature. The business was holding second place. While the
place of capital was third.” 146 Therefore, it is possible to say that there was a lack of
capital in the agricultural segment during that period. Actually, when the agricultural
prices were at a satisfactory level, the flow of capital to production started with the
purpose of establishing new firms or renovating and organizing old ones. For example,
thanks to the capital, there was an improvement in terms of cultivation of cotton and
tobacco in Adana and Izmir region during that period. The Depression also hit this
capital flow to the agricultural segment. In addition to this pause in capital flowing,
the previously invested money was also withdrawn from the sector. The withdrawal of
the capital from the sector caused the peasants to melt their own capital. 147
The stopping of capital from flowing to production caused a credit crisis. As a matter
of fact, those who looked at the existing credit mechanism at that time could see that
the credit mechanism was very primitive. Peasants had borrowed money and repaid it
at the time of payment. The borrowed money was not used for establishing an
agricultural business or improvement of the business. On the contrary, the mechanism
worked within the limits of the borrowing and repaying the money. Here, it should be
noted that the reason behind the borrowing money was generally for meeting an urgent
need. The peasants borrowed loans to pay debt and taxes to the state, when the crop
yield was not decent, and to meet an urgent need. In short, most of the credit was used
146 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 89.
147 Ibid., p. 89.
87
for consumption rather than any investment in the agricultural business and Turkish
peasants were living with loan which was taken and paid annually. 148 Even worse, this
primitive running of the money borrowing became much poorer with the impact of
Great Depression and the mechanism totally collapsed due to the decrease in
repayment of credits. Since, most of peasants could not pay their debts. In the meeting
of the Budget Law in 1931, Enver Bey, a Balıkesir deputy, described this debt crisis
among the producers as follows: that “Look at the producers. They are in a debt spiral.
Debt and debt interest have been loading on the debt for years. By borrowing and
paying the debt, their debt is growing like an avalanche.”149
The political, economic, and social reflection of collapse in credit providing system
was noticeable. That is to say, at the economic level, it caused a disruption of the
maintenance of production. Politically speaking, Agricultural Bank became a matter
of political debate due to the critiques towards its operational incapability in providing
credit to agricultural sector. The impact on the social level is it caused a serious
usuriousness, murabahacılık, issue in society which was the result of incapacity of the
state institutions such as Agricultural Bank. In the next section, the issues around the
indebtedness in the rural side of Izmir will be explained by asking the how the peasant
located the state and the state policies in these issues.
148 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 89.
149 Kuruç, Belgelerle Türkiye İktisat Politikası, p. 172.
88
“Again, Farmers are at the Hands of Usurers”150
There were three ways of getting credit used by peasants in the early years of the
Turkish Republic namely Agricultural Bank, some private institutions and individual
credit providers. Despite the Agricultural Bank being the specific institution to meet
the credit needs of the agricultural sector, the capital of the Bank was not sufficient to
meet the credit needs. In addition to this incapacity, when repayment rate of the credit
to the Bank decreased, the Bank restricted the credit amounts and also aggravated the
conditions.151 The complaints about the Bank were prevalent among society. In the
third Congress of the CHF, Vasıf Bey, an Izmir deputy, explain the conditions that
“wherever we went, when we asked what the complaints were, it was the Agricultural
Bank which collected most of the complaints.”152 The gap was filled by individuals.
For this reason, individual credit providers became more available and inevitable
actors in the loaning process of peasants. The individual credit worked in two ways.
The first one is purchase on credit. In this system, peasants were making purchase all
the annual necessities from merchants with interest rates in towns or cities, which
could not be paid in cash. Peasants paid debt to merchants at the time of harvest with
their products, but from the merchant’s prices. In addition to low prices, merchants
also manipulated peasants by under assessment of the products. So, the debt became a
deadlock which devolved on the next year and never ended. The second way, on the
150 “Çiftçi Yine Murabahacının Elinde Kalıyor,” Yeni Asır, 02.07.1931.
151 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 90.
152 Kuruç, Belgelerle Türkiye İktisat Politikası, p. 143.
89
other hand, was directly money providers rather than in kind loaning. These are the
typical usurers, and they were the disruptive ones.153
As an institution which was devoted to the agricultural sector specifically, the role of
the Agricultural Bank should be addressed in this issue. It is an obvious fact that the
scarcity of credit sources was strongly related to the economic conditions of the bank
and low repayment capacity of peasants. In fact, according to the report written by the
Agricultural Bank in 1935 namely Turkey Agricultural Bank: A General Report on the
Accounting Period, Türkiye Ziraat Bankası: 46 ıncı Hesap Devresine Ait Umumi
Rapor, the reason for the minimizing the credit sources to peasants was related to the
fact that the Bank could not collect the payments from the peasants. The Bank was
able to collect only 39.26% of the total debt in 1933. This amount included all the
forms of repayment such as cash, in product or renewing of the bill. 154 On the other
hand, distribution of credit resources by the Bank was also an issue in this controversial
issue. Because even though the bank was the main responsible body for providing the
credits to the agricultural sector, the main clients of the Bank were merchants rather
than the producers during the 1920s and 1930s due to the low interest rates in
agricultural credit. It is also possible to say that the Bank minimized the agricultural
credit to make more profit. In between 1923 and 1940, almost 60 and 80% of the total
amount of the credit provided by Agricultural Bank was commercial credit. 155
According to Tezel, the credits which were marked as agricultural credit were mostly
153 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 90.
154 Ibid., p. 94-95.
155 Tezel, Cumhuriyet Döneminin, p. 493.
90
granted to the big landowners, who were merchants at the same time, and they mostly
supported their trade business. 156 As Keyder noted, the picture looked like as follows:
“Agriculture did not receive a significant share of the total bank credit; close to ninetenths
of the credit disposed of by institutional loan suppliers was received by
merchants.”157 In the political sphere, the Bank was the target board, in a sense. Besim
Atalay’s, a deputy in GNA, words about the issue clearly show how the Agricultural
Bank’s position was evaluated in politics. He stated that “We called it Agricultural
Bank, we robbed the zürra…. The title is Farmer Bank, but the farmer has never
benefited from it. Search it and you will see that the people who have received money
so far are the city-dwellers. 158
In the absence of a well-organized and functioning credit providing system, despite
peasants trying to find alternative ways to overcome the outcomes of this situation and
solve credit needs, production was unable to escape from the setbacks. Peasants with
none or limited capital could not maintain production. The first reason is that
agricultural inputs such as seed could not be afforded by producers. To illustrate, a
producer, Süleyman oğlu Muharrem, from the Seydiköy, could not obtain seed for the
next harvest season because it seemed like he could not pay his debt. 159 In addition
156 Ibid., p. 493.
157 Keyder, The Definition of a Peripheral, p. 20.
158 Tezel, Cumhuriyet Döneminin, p. 493.
“Ziraat Bankası dedik zürraı soyduk…. Adı Çiftçi Bankası, fakat çiftçi katiyen bundan istifade
etmemiştir. Tetkik ediniz, göreceksiniz ki şimdiye kadar para alanlar şehirlilerdir.”
159 “Tohum İstiyorlar,” Yeni Asır, 28.12.1930.
91
to that, the indebtedness also affected production in a different way. Sequestration of
the peasants’ production means and production itself became the everyday reality of
the agricultural segment. Işık newspaper, a supporter of SCF, demonstrates the
situation as follows: Almost 90 % of peasants’ land and property were sequestrated or
pledged in Izmir. Also, the production of peasants was under seize by creditors.
Peasants did not have any assets to maintain their life. Moreover, if these assets were
to be sold for a bargain price, peasants were to be homeless next year with debt. Most
importantly, the author pointed out the usuriousness and defines the usurers as the
owner of almost one million captives in Turkey at the twentieth century. Furthermore,
the usury issue was defined as an administrative problem rather than individuals’
problems. The author says the debts of peasants are not debts of Ahmet or Mehmet
Ağa’s anymore, it became an administrative problem. For this reason, the state should
have intervened and regulated the relation between the creditors and peasants in debt
via several financial regulations. In this way, peasants would begin to breathe like a
free person who is loyal to party and government and would become a productive
citizen. However, these are temporary precautions. The major point is that legal
measures should be taken to prevent repeating these issues. For example, sequestration
of the land and estates of peasants should be prevented, and cooperatives should be
established. The article ended with a call to Prime Minister Paşa, İsmet İnönü, who
had taken radical steps and brought revolutions to the country to do the same thing for
peasant’s debts.160 These calls were able to reach the politicians and some steps were
taken in favor of peasants in debt. In 1935 the Agricultural Bank accepted and
implemented a new plan for agricultural debts and prepared a new five-year instalment
160 “Köylü Nasıl Kurtarılabilir,” Işık, 15.10.1932.
92
plan.161 In another example from Torbalı, the Agricultural Bank seized a peasant’s
harvest without leaving a little amount for the household and animals’ consumption.
Moreover, all products were sent to the warehouses of the Bank in Izmir. Accordingly,
the peasant asked, “what will we eat and what will our animals eat?”162 All in all,
having been seized by the creditors, peasants found themselves in a vicious circle. On
the one side, there was an accumulated debt burden, on the other side there was the
fact that their production means which were essential to eliminate the debt such as
lands or directly their products were captured.
While peasants were in struggle to keep their production means such as land and
livestock and products at their hands and to clear their debt, due to the non-functioning
and unorganized banking system, unofficial mechanisms of credit providing could take
more place from this system. In practice, this situation means extremely high interest
rates reality and dependency of the peasants to usurers with the exploitative interest
rates. The abovementioned example from Işık newspaper in which usurers are defined
as the owner of millions of captives clearly demonstrates to what extent the
usuriousness was a severe problem. In fact, high interest rates were the destroyers of
the agricultural segment. However, it should be indicated that the exorbitant rates were
not only those of usurers. According to Murat Metinsoy’s research on the official
report of CHF, a peasant had to pay averagely 9-10% interest rate for loaning from
bank, but there were other additional fees like commission. Therefore, the real rates
equated with between 15 and 25 %. Also, interest of some local banks in Anatolia was
161 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 95.
162 “Bir de Müstahsili Dinleyelim. Ziraat Bankası Köylüden Tahsilatını Nasıl Yapıyor,” Yeni Asır,
19.08.1932.
93
35 % per year.163 Complaints from peasants indicate that these rates were unaffordable
for peasants. The following quotation clearly demonstrates how the Bank was
criticized for neglecting its responsibility and also for its extortionate interest rates.
The expectation from the Bank was as follows:
“The interest rate should be 3 or 4. The Agricultural Bank should be
Agricultural Bank, if it can accomplish, it can reduce the interest rate to 3 or 4.
The Bank should totally withdraw from the commercial credit. The state should
provide 100-million capital to the cooperatives.”
Indeed, these rates were not the worst ones. In the unofficial process of loaning, interest
rates were variable according to region and individual. But it is a fact that when the
farmers’ financial circumstances deteriorated, their income dropped and they were in
debt burden, the interest rates increased. 164 For example, in Tire, usurers charged
interest between 5 % and 12 monthly, depending on the individual. Sometimes, they
charged interest of 5% per week. A famous moneylender from Tire clarified this
situation by saying that our one kuruş works for one para in a day. According to
Tökin’s calculation this means that while the regular interest rate was 9%, the interest
rate of usurers was 900%.165
In every step of the indebtedness and usuriousness issues in the agricultural society,
especially after 1929, there was a role of the Agricultural Bank’s, in a sense. As
mentioned previously, the Bank was criticized by society and politicians due to
providing credit to merchants rather than peasants. Individuals who could get credit
163 Metinsoy, Everyday Politics of Ordinary People, p. 88.
164 Hatipoğlu, Türkiyede Ziraî Buhran, p. 91.
165 Tökin, Türkiye Köy İktisadiyatı, p. 146.
94
from the Bank, mostly merchants and big landowners, used these loans to provide
credit to small producers with high interest rates. 166 In a sense, the Bank feeds the
illegal mechanism of money borrowing while its duty was to fight with the
usuriousness. Furthermore, another implementation of the Bank also pushed peasants
into the hands of individual credit providers. Because small producers could not give
enough personal guarantee for getting credit from banking system owing to the fact
that most of peasants did not have a title deed due to the lack of land registry and
cadaster. 167 According to the wish list, which was compiled by the local branches of
CHF, the peasants demanded from the government to do more cadastral work in their
villages or towns. For example, in 1936, peasants from Izmir region demanded a
mobile deed officer from the government and registration transactions. 168
For the very reason of this problem, foundation of credit cooperatives was encouraged
by the Turkish state with a new and easier guarantying methods for loaning such as
joint surety, zincirleme kefalet. In 1929, the Turkish state enacted the law of 1470,
which established the credit cooperatives with the aim of offering credit in a more
affordable form. 169 The enaction of this new law, despite there was already a law
which was regulate the small-sized and local agricultural credits enacted in 1924,
indicates that the Turkish state reached the conclusion that this law did not perform its
duty and there was a new organization in agricultural credit mechanism. On the other
166 Metinsoy, Everyday Politics of Ordinary People, p. 86
167 İbrahim İnci, “Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türkiye’sinde Tarımsal Kredi Konusundaki Gelişmeler (1923-
1938),” SAÜ Fen Edebiyat Dergisi (2010-I), p. 103.
168 CHP 1936 İl Kongre Dilekleri, Ankara, p. 255.
169 Varlık, 1930-1940 Yılları Arasında, p. 105.
95
hand, the intervention of the Turkish state to the credit related problems by establishing
credit cooperatives in country did not solve the problem completely. According to
Tökin’s observations, similarly with the abuse in banking system, cooperatives were
also captured by some merchants and usurers. They became members of
administration boards and benefited from cooperatives in their favor. 170 According to
the wish list of Izmir district, there were still demands from peasants who were in debt
to cooperatives regarding the reorganization of their debt in 1936.171 Therefore,
indebtedness issue continued even after some policies were initiated by the state.
In the Izmir press, usuriousness, murabbahacılık, was one of the main topics. While
the articles and news defined this reality as a struggle between society and the usurers,
the state was generally invited to solve the problem. The title of the article shows how
important the society evaluates this situation, the title was “there is a need for wide
and cheap credit to fight with the usurers.” One of the suggestions from the press was
involvement of another state institution. It was suggested that the Central Bank should
provide more credit to the Banks. 172 Actually, from the beginning of the economic
crisis in the early 1930s, various articles can be seen in the press to call attention to
this chaotic and ongoing reality of daily life with serious social outcomes. Even in
1938, after several precautions were taken, Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, Izmir deputy,
penned an article about this issue in Yeni Asır and defined a usurer as a threat to nation
not only individuals. He stated:
170 Tökin, Türkiye Köy İktisadiyatı, p. 150.
171 CHP 1936 İl Kongre Dilekleri, Ankara, p. 255.
172 “Tefecilerle Çarpışmak,” Yeni Asır, 17.04.1933.
96
The usurer is an enemy of the Republic and the nation. The usurer is a robber
with the money of the people. The usurer is a thief, and a bandit. He is a thief
who waggles his arms around the city streets and wanders around the city parks.
He is a bandit who gave epidemics to the cities. Hundreds of thousands of
people are taking their last breaths under his feet.
Bozkurt also depicted the impact of this issue on the life of people. He underlined the
fact that the usurers seized the assets of the people and pushed the next generations
into nothingness. However, he also added that peasants had to do this. They went to
usurers by accepting the results of this transaction because there was not any other
chance. 173 Bozkurt continues by saying that we should be transparent about the
problem to solve. He gives very tragic examples of people who lost everything to a
usury and a young man who had to kill the usury.174
A tobacco producer from Çeşme namely Necmettin, had to send an open letter to Yeni
Asır. Actually, the letter was written to the manager of Izmir branch of Agricultural
Bank and said that farmers are again in the hands of the usurers. According to
Necmettin, despite the manager had made an announcement that 750 liras credit was
to be paid to the partners of Çeşme Central Cooperative and this announcement was
taken kindly by the farmers, the payment was not made to the partners of the
cooperative after 15 days from announcement. Necmettin also warned the manager
that unless the payment is not realized properly, peasants probably will fall into the
hands of usurers. 175 Another open letter was written to the governor, Vali Paşa, from
Çeşme and informed him about the delay in the formation of the Cooperative in
173 “Ellerimiz Tefecilerin Yakasında,” Yeni Asır, 18.08.1938.
174 “Ellerimiz Tefecilerin Yakasında,” Yeni Asır, 18.08.1938.
175 “Çiftçi Yine Murabahacının Elinde Kalıyor,” Yeni Asır, 02.07.1931
97
Çeşme. Since, despite all the bureaucratic works done by partners of the Cooperative,
the Agricultural Bank did not approve the foundation. But the situation is urgent. The
only solution which could save peasants from usurers and eliminate the usuriousness
issue was the foundation of the Çeşme Cooperative immediately. Because producers
who pay 300 lira interest for 100 liras could not overcome this burden. 176
Examples which were referred so far depict the social context in where the agricultural
price crisis in agricultural segment, deterioration of the payment capacity of peasants
and the absence of well-organized and functioning credit mechanism were overlapped.
In this context, the Turkish state attempted to solve the issue by introducing different
policies. The Law on the Affairs of Lending Money was enacted in 1933 in order to
regulate the credit providers. With this legal regulation, the state aimed to keep the
pressure on these providers by imposing clear borders. The first thing the law brought
is that each credit provider had to get permission from the government to provide
credit. The second thing is that the law fixed a maximum interest rate as 12%. Besides,
those who provide credit without an official permit and exceed the interest rates were
to be sentenced to monetary fine and most importantly sentenced to imprisonment. 177
But in practice, the above-mentioned examples in terms of the interest rates show that
the rates could not be decreased, and dominance of the unofficial credit providers could
not be demolished.
177 Ödünç Para Verme İşleri Kanunu, No. 2279, Date. 08.06.1933.
https://www.kanunum.com/file/cid2028_fc_fid7334
98
At this point, the relation between the drop in agricultural prices, indebtedness, and
usuriousness should be emphasized in order to understand the effect of this relation to
Izmir’s socio-economic context. That the departing point of this issue is the radical
drop in agricultural prices which intensified the rural deprivation and made the position
of Izmir and its hinterland more critical. As one of the main producing and exporting
points of some agricultural items such as tobacco and grape, one of the most affected
products in this decline, more credit was needed by the producers in Izmir and its
inlands. As the necessity and search of credit increased and met with the absence of
well-organized and well-functioning credit providing mechanism, this reality turned
into social crisis, which is indebtedness and usuriousness, murabahacılık. On the other
hand, it should also be underlined that the state and its inabilities became the target of
criticisms among peasants and also local political figures such as publicist in local
press in managing the economic and indebtedness crisis and planning and executing
the proper economic policies in favor of agricultural segment. The state was still
pointed out as the force to find a solution. In this direction, the expected move from
the state was more intervention to the credit providing system by monopolizing the
right to give permission to be an individual creditor, regulating interest rates and
introducing more accessible credit institutions for small peasantry like credit
cooperatives. However, that unending debt and usury agenda in the city shows that
these intervention attempts could not overcome the dominance of unofficial credit
mechanism in practice.
99
2.4. Conclusion
Based on the local sources, this chapter demonstrates three major contexts of the
agricultural segment in Izmir and its hinterland during the formative years of the
Turkish Republic which are agricultural prices, taxation, and the indebtedness realities.
With a specific emphasis on the idea of these three contexts are the most explanatory
grounds to understand the societal dimension of the early Republican Turkey and the
interaction between the state and society in Izmir, this chapter underlines the flexible
positions which can change according to the material realities of the socio-economic
context rather than politically driven intentions in terms of the interaction between the
state and society. More clearly, when the socio-economic realities in the everyday life
like when the foreign companies abuse agricultural producers by imposing low prices
or high interest rates crushed the small peasantry, state institutions and state sanctions
were invited to intervene in the agricultural production relations, which can be
summarized as a selective invitation of the state to intervention in the economy.
Given the well-known image of Izmir as the supporter of opposition in politics of the
early Republican Turkey, it might be concluded that those who suffered from the
economic policies of the Turkish state and did not approve the state’s role in economy
canalized their political and mass support to SCF due to new party’s critical position
about the state’s presence in economy. However, examples which this research provide
reveal that when the economic parameters indicate an economic crisis with a risk of
turning into a social crisis, the state agencies, in a form of new institution or a new law
which were designed according to problem were called to intervene in economy as the
protector of the people, as the organizer of the market and as the solver of the problems.
100
CHAPTER 3
THE LIMITS OF THE GRAND NARRATIVE OF DEMOGRAPHIC
HOMOGENIZATION: THE SETTLEMENT IN THE EVERYDAY LIFE IN
IZMIR
The Convention concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish nationals in Greece
and Turkey was signed in Lausanne on January 30, 1923. According to the first
article of the Convention:
As from the 1st of May 1923, there shall take place a compulsory exchange of
Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox religion established in Turkish
territory, and of Greek nationals of the Moslem religion established in Greek
territory.178
With this article, millions of people became officially refugees in the coming years
and both two states and societies experienced a massive transformation. The exchange
involved relocation of nearly 1.5 million people. As indicated in the third article, the
Greeks and the Muslims who moved from their territories during the Balkan Wars
were also considered as the subject of exchange. Article 3 of the Convention states:
Those Greeks and Moslems who have already, and since the 18th of October
1912, left the territories the Greek and Turkish inhabitants of which are to be
respectively exchanged, shall be considered as included in the exchange
provided for in Article 1.179
178 https://www.mfa.gov.tr/lausanne-peace-treaty-vi_-convention-concerning-the-exchange-of-greekand-
turkish-populations-signed-at-lausanne_.en.mfa
179 https://www.mfa.gov.tr/lausanne-peace-treaty-vi_-convention-concerning-the-exchange-of-greekand-
turkish-populations-signed-at-lausanne_.en.mfa
101
Such an enormous event can be analyzed with different stresses on distinct aspects of
it. The literature usually reads this event as the last move of a macro project with highly
motivated ideological expectations. Demographically speaking, the Convention was
the last phase of this project which is Turkification. However, by Turkification, it can
be understood that a wide scope of policies which were designed to impose Turkish
ethnic identity as the hegemonic identity in every sphere of social life. 180 The scope
of the implementation of Turkification policies was broad. Almost every sphere of
daily life from education to working life was the target of this motivation. For example,
the campaign of “Citizen, Speak Turkish” is a pretty telling example to see the
Turkification policies in practice and to see also the aspects of the nation building
process of Turkey. This campaign was organized in 1928 by the Law Faculty Students’
Association of Istanbul University. 181 The campaign was supported by the state and
continued in the 1930s. The motive of the campaign was to spread of the Turkish
language and to prevent the usage of native languages of minorities, and finally to
eradicate the presence of non-Turkish languages. In economic sphere, the reflection of
this project was an intention to discourage the economic activities of non-Muslim
minorities. The Turkish State imposed some measures to foreign companies like
forcing them to keep their books in Turkish and employing Muslim Turks rather than
non-Muslims in 1920s. But, with the law of Restricting certain Professions and Trades
to Turkish Citizens only in 1932, the economic and working spheres of life became
180 Ayhan Aktar, “Homogenizing the Nation, Turkifying the Economy: Turkish Experience of
Population Exchange Reconsidered” in Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory
Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, ed. Renee Hirschon (New York: Berghahn Books,
2004), p. 29.
181 Senem Aslan, “‘Citizen, Speak Turkish!’: A Nation in the Making,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics
13, no. 2 (2007), p. 250.
102
legally center of the Turkification policies. This law imposes restrictions over some
professions and open these professions to only Turkish citizens such as barbering,
being workers on some industries, being a waiter, being a veterinary and being a
chemist and so on.182 In addition to social and economic sphere, the most compelling
sphere for the state and most painful sphere for people was the demographic phase of
Turkification, but the most essential stage of the process. Settlement policies were the
way of practicing the Turkification ideal of the Republican regime in demographic
manners. With different official and unofficial implementations, Turkish state aimed
to define and limit the borders of citizenship. To be able to transform of population
within these limits which is projected by the Republican cadres, the population
exchange was crucial. Izmir, as one of the major regions with a population to be
exchanged, experienced the repercussion of this move intensely. In this chapter, daily
reflections of this comprehensive and ideological move of the Turkish Republic will
be the focus. The departing point of selection of this focus rather than high politics of
the demographic Turkification is that the archival investigation of this research
presented that the settlement and settlement related circumstances were crucial
elements in the daily life of the people until 1940s. Whereas, most of the studies
regarding the population exchange/settlement issues ignored the major setbacks in the
realization of the process. On the other hand, those who follow the local resources of
that time might clearly observe that the process produced several setbacks in practice.
The departure point of this chapter is reflecting the real-life experiences of ordinary
people who were the subjects of the nation-state’s homogenization or Turkification
ideal. In short, this chapter seeks an answer to what can be said about the life of these
182 Türkiye’de Türk Vatandaşlarına Tahsis Edilen Sanat ve Hizmetler Hakkında Kanun, No. 2007, Date.
11.06.1932, https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/arsiv/2126.pdf, p. 1564.
103
people after they migrated or were forced to migrate to Izmir, the center of the
exchange.
In his significant research about the population exchange, Onur Yıldırım explicitly
explains the point of this research. Yıldırım states “Where refugees figured in the
picture, they were studied not on their behalf but due to the importance of their
activities to the cause of the political agency, namely the nation-state.”183 Izmir case is
an exact example of this kind of approach. The demographic transformation in the very
early years of the Republic is usually pointed out as the final stage of the history of
Izmir. Because it is generally believed that the Turkification project of the Turkish
nation-state was completed by relocating thousands of people. In societal level, the
picture was different and the reflections of the process in the daily life had just begun.
The most crucial stage of the Turkish nation state’s macro plan turned into a sphere of
society to struggle over the distribution of the source of income and struggle of mostly
poor peasants over the resources such as abandoned properties or lands. These
struggles also were the meeting grounds of the interactions of the state and society,
and also grounds of the interactions among the society.
So far, very little attention has been given to these societal aspects of the last stage of
the Turkification of demography. To date, only a limited number of accounts focus on
how the demographic transformation, specifically the population exchange was
experienced by people in practice rather than following the bureaucratic steps. Ellinor
Morack’s study is one of the primary accounts which goes beyond the classical
183 Onur Yıldırım, Diplomacy and Displacement Reconsidering the Turco-Greek Exchange of
Populations, 1922–1934, (New York & London: Routledge, 2006), p. 16.
104
understanding of the literature which evaluates the Turkification process as a way of
capital/wealth transformation and enrichment of the Muslim middle class or business
class. Because the Turkification process and the departure of the Greeks and
Armenians were generally seen as the loss for the most useful labor and business
know-how for the country. With this article, Morack underlines that not the wealth but
also the poverty of the poor classes was Turkified.184 To me, this article spreads the
envisagement regarding impacts of a very extensive ideological ideal such as
Turkification on unpredicted areas of daily life. Based on the case of bread issue in the
city, Morack discusses the loss of non-Muslim population and the effects of this to the
emergence and expansion of the bread question in 1924 and 1926. Again, Morack’s
other comprehensive research on the population exchange presents cases from society,
while it discusses the legal frame of the exchange. Focusing on the abandoned property
issue of the population exchange, Morack presents reflections of the legal process in
the life of the people.185
Before passing to the findings of this research, it should be emphasized two things to
provide more explicit understanding of the cases. First one is that what was the goal
of the newly founded Turkish state by realizing the population exchange and secondly,
what was the socio-economic conditions in Izmir before and during this massive
migration was occurring.
184 Ellinor Morack, “Turkifying Poverty, or: the Phantom Pain of Izmir’s Lost Christian Working Class,
1924–26,” Middle Eastern Studies, 55:4, p. 499.
185 Ellinor Morack, The Dowry of the State? The Politics of Abandoned Property and the Population
Exchange in Turkey, 1921–1945, (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2017).
105
3.1. Settlement Policies and the Crisis of Izmir Prior to the Population
Exchange
Prior to the Population Exchange in 1924, there were a substantial number of official
and unofficial attempts of relocation of inhabitants of a specific region in the country.
Having inherited the late 19th century’s policies about interventions to demography,
the newly founded Turkish state continued to benefit from migration and settlement as
the ways of designing the demography. In addition to the exchange of Anatolian
Greeks with the Muslims of Greece after the War of Independence, the inner
inhabitants of the country such as nomadic tribes and rebellious groups in Eastern
regions were also subject to interventions with the Settlement Laws of 1926 and 1934.
In other words, in the nation-shaping aims of the Turkish Republic, settlement was a
key instrument. Basically, the desire of the Turkish state from the settlement policies
were constructing culturally and linguistically homogenous nation by locating
strategies to distribute the people into the different areas of the country according to
their ethnic and linguistic identities.
Turkification of some specific regions like Izmir with a significant amount of non-
Muslim population and experienced an occupation and fire had unique outcomes,
mostly setbacks. When the effects of already started demographic movements of the
non-Muslim inhabitants in Western Anatolia before the population exchange and the
flow of thousands of people to Anatolia with the population exchange was overlapped,
Izmir turned into a place of several crisis like housing and production. Since as the
executer and the regulator of this migration, the Turkish state’s organization was
106
insufficient. As can be said before, the demographic movements and changes had
already taken place in Izmir before the signing of the Convention in 1924.
Change of demography in Western Anatolia can be analyzed in four stages. The first
stage is the period between 1913 and 1914. In that period, the Greek inhabitants of the
Western Anatolia including Izmir and its inland were forced to migrate with different
methods such as violence, economic boycotts and settling new inhabitants to the
neighborhoods of the Greek inhabitants.186 During that period, almost 100.000
refugees, muhacir, were settled in Izmir, while the numbers of the outgoing Greeks
were 98.552.187 The second stage can be marked between 1915 and 1918. In that
period, the Greek inhabitants of the Western Coast of the Anatolia were forced to move
to the inner parts of Anatolia. In the third stage, the Greek Occupation of Izmir caused
the Turks living in the Western Coast to migrate. 188 According to the reports, almost
120.000 refugee had to migrate. 189 By October 1919, almost 30% of the total Turk
population had to migrate due to pressure of the Greek Army. 190 The fourth stage
started in the last days of the War of Independence and the start of the Fire in 1922.
When the Turkish Army recaptured the city, the local Greek inhabitants of the region
186 Fuat Dündar, Modern Türkiye’nin Şifresi: İttihat ve Terakki’nin Etnisite Mühendisliği (1913-1918),
(İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2008), p. 197-211.
187 Engin Berber, Sancılı Yıllar: İzmir 1918-1922: Mütareke ve Yunan İşgali Döneminde İzmir Sancağı,
(Ankara: Ayraç Yayınları, 1997), p. 58.
188 Mesut Çapa, “Anadolu’da Yunan İşgalinin Sebep Olduğu İç Göçler,” Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi
Dergisi X, no. (1994), p. 379.
189 Hatice Yıldırım, Mütareke Döneminde Göç ve İskân (1918-1923), (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu
Yayınları, 2020), p. 16.
190 Berber, Sancılı Yıllar, p. 59.
107
fled to the coast. They were waiting to go to the Aegean Islands and Greece to avoid a
potential revenge of Turks.191
Experiencing these massive population movements, the city’s demographic structure
had changed in many aspects. Numerically speaking, while Izmir’s population in 1912
was almost 300.000, in 1927 it decreased to 154.000. Further, in terms of social and
economic fabric of the population, almost 50% of the total exchangees who were sent
to Greece were urban based residents with professionals and artisans rather than
agricultural producers. On the other hand, most of the incoming were from the rural
segment who were agricultural producers.192 Therefore, turbulence might be the most
matching term to explain the demographic structure in Izmir in the period between mid
1910s and until the population exchange.
In the eve of the population exchange’s official start, Izmir was experiencing a kind of
chaos. Following the victory of Turkish Army and the Great Fire, city, and its inlands
of it were totally destructed and most of the Greek inhabitants of the city were on move
to leave the city. In addition to these developments, the abandoned property of the
leavers became a target for many people. When this target and the insufficient control
of the authorities to ensure security combined, the term of chaos became the reality for
that period. In more detail, Kemal Arı describes the conditions, of Izmir after the
victory of Turkish Army as follows:
After the victory, Izmir became a city of immigrants and refugees due to
internal and external migrations. Being a trade and production city until
191 Arı, Suyun İki Yanı: Mübadele, p. 35.
192 Biray Kolluoğlu, “Excesses of nationalism: Greco-Turkish population exchange,” Nations and
Nationalism, 19(3), 2013, p. 540.
108
recently, having fertile lands and especially the excitement of getting a share
from the abandoned properties which were left by the Greeks, started an intense
migration campaign towards Izmir.193
Therefore, even very before from the start of a massive migration flow from Greece,
the city was totally suffering from the effects of fire and effects of domestic migration
to reach the abandoned properties, and absence of an authority to provide stability.
These chaotic conditions, which had already been on the surface, were to be the
foundations of serious problems in the settlement process.
At this stage, it is essential to identify the groups of people in the city at that time,
which is prior to the Exchange. While Muslims who fled from Greece were waiting to
arrive in Izmir even before exchange’s start, there were various groups of people in
city with different reasons being in Izmir. The first reason is the domestic migrations
to Izmir from different parts of the country because of the expectation to reach better
living conditions. For example, according to news from Ahenk newspaper, there were
people in Izmir who came from Konya to find a better life conditions.194 The other
group was the old inhabitants of Izmir, who had previously fled from Greeks to the
inner sides of Anatolia, and they were returning to Izmir after the occupation ended.
Inhabitants of the inner part of the Western Anatolia who were damaged by the Fire
were also migrating to Izmir. Looking at this demographic mobility, it can be said that
prior to the population exchange and the settlement process, demographic movements
were already existing in Izmir. Those who look at the status of the people in Izmir at
193 Arı, Suyun İki Yanı: Mübadele, p. 37.
194 Ahenk, 16.07.1339.
109
that period can clearly understand the complicated conditions. These statuses are the
victims of the Fire, harikzedes, victims of the disaster/war, felaketzedes and the
refugees, mülteci. Some resources show these numbers as follows: There were 20.000
victims of the disaster/war felaketzede in Izmir in 1924, 3773 victims of the Fire,
harikzede and 1931 refugee, mülteci in Izmir. 195
In addition to the city’s chaotic demographic structure, there was another major factor
in the city which accelerated disorder. The abandoned property issue was at the top of
the city’s agenda. In such a context where there was a limited state control over the
administration, the looting became one of the major troubles in the city.
The debates of politicians in the parliament about the developments in Izmir are very
telling about the picture of Izmir which mentioned as a chaotic situation previously.
Salih Efendi, a deputy of Erzurum addressed a question to Hasan Fehmi Bey, the
Minister of Finance about the looting in Izmir. He asked that “Efendim, who stole all
that money? Four refugees? So much has been looted, who is this doing this?” Further,
another deputy from Mardin İbrahim Bey also asked the following question:
We heard that many officers and army commanders participated in the plunder
of Izmir. Is this real? Is it true that the Commander of the First Army took all
the cash and goods and distributed many of them. Is this real? How much is
that cash? Then, many of our deputies entered the houses with their furniture
and they have been living in those houses until now, is this true? I am asking
these.196
195 Arı, Suyun İki Yanı: Mübadele, p. 39.
196 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/GZC/d01/CILT03/gcz01003147.pdf, p. 1134
110
Hasan Fehmi Bey replied to these questions with a shy tone and said that it is essential
to identify the looters, but it is impossible. But he accepted that there were all kinds of
people who participated in looting. Besides, the housing crisis was also on the agenda
of political debate. The minister explained the situation as follows: “Izmir burned,
almost 20.000 houses. A housing crisis began in the city. Everyone who entered the
city including officials, army and even those from refugees from Manisa, Salihli and
Kasaba had to find a place to live.”197 Therefore, it is obvious that properties which
were identified as the settlement place of the Muslims who came from Greece as
exchangees, mübadil, were already under the occupation of some other groups of
people. All in all, prior to the beginning of the difficulties of the population exchange
in terms of organization and implementation, there were already several problems such
as occupation of houses and unorganized migration. When the flow of thousands of
people from Greece started, the chaos became apparent. The archival research of this
study revealed that settlement and settlement related developments remained as the
major topic of the local political and social agenda in Izmir almost until 1940s due to
the reflections of the society. These reflections are addressed in the following sections.
3.2. The Compulsory Population Exchange: The Legal Frame and the
Implementation
With the signing of the Convention concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish
nationals in Greece and Turkey after long negotiations between Turks and Greeks
sides, those who were to be included and excluded as exchangee, mübadil were
197 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/GZC/d01/CILT03/gcz01003147.pdf, p.1131
111
specified. The agreement affected almost 1.5 million people from Greece and Turkey.
However, it was not the only people who were to be exchanged, but the properties also
were subject to exchange. Agreement imposes the establishment of a Mixed
Commission including Greek, Turkish and neutral members. This Commission was
responsible for registering, valuing, all of the property left by the exchanges and also
for documenting this value. Thus, exchangees, mübadils, would take the property
which was of equal value to their left properties.198 Whether these regulations could
be implemented in practice or not is a considerably important question for the
following questions of this study. However, at this point it should be noted shortly that
the picture was different in different.
In the Turkish side of this massive movement, as mentioned previously, the migration
had already started. Therefore, the newcomers from Greece with the Population
Exchange Convention were not the only ones who were supposed to be settled in the
city. Unlike the other regions, in Izmir, it is possible to see three groups of people in
the entire settlement process. Basically, these groups can be categorized as: i. those
who were subject to exchange, ii. those who were not subject to exchange and iii. those
who were the victims of the disasters/war/fire. Each of these categories were granted
different rights and also different obligations in terms of the distribution of
property/income and settlement rights. This diversity of rights and obligations is very
crucial for this study. Because these different implementations/rights/obligations
caused the arise of struggle grounds among the individuals and also caused turning the
198 Ellinor Morack, “Refugees, Locals and ‘The’ State: Property Compensation in the Province of Izmir
Following the Greco-Turkish Population Exchange of 1923.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies
Association 2, no. 1 (2015), p. 148.
112
process, which was aimed to homogenize the individuals, into a conflict zone. In the
following table which was prepared by benefiting different sources, it can be seen the
settlement categories and rights of these categories to settle and take property. 199
Table 4. Different immigrant status
At the legal basis, a separation was made between the immigrants based on the state’s
role in the settlement process. Those who were settled by the state is defined as
immigrant with settlement, iskanlı göçmen, and those who were not settled by the
state are categorized as free immigrants, serbest göçmen. The exchangees, mübadils,
199 The table was prepared by the author.
Immigrants
Exchangees/Mübadils
*Those who are subject to the
exchange
*to be settled in Greek exchangee's
property
Those who came before Lausanne
and after the year of 328.
*right to default settlement/adiyen
iskan if they are in need
Those who came after Lausanne
(after 1923)
*right to default settlement/adiyen
iskan without any restriction
Non-exchangees/Gayrimübadils
*Those who are not subject to the
Exchange
*to be settled in the Yunan property
whose owners left Turkey before
1912
Those who had migrated before the
declaration of the First Balkan War
The victims of the Disaster/War,
felaketzedes
Eastern refugees, Şark mültecileri
who migrate because of the invasion
of enemies during the First World
War.
Victims of the Fire, harikzedes
Those who fled from the war regions
like Cyprus, Aleppo, İskenderun,
Antakya, Syria, Caucasian, Russia,
Irak and other Muslim countries.
They were called as refugee, mülteci
113
belonged to the first group who had a right for property compensation. According to
the law, settlement of the exchangees, mübadils, had to be maintained and concluded
by the state without any exception, ‘ale’l-ıṭlāḳ. They were under the legal
arrangements of the default settlement, iskanı adi.200
As regards the distribution of property and land, the regulation was issued on July 6,
1924. This regulation indicated how the abandoned properties were to be distributed
to the exchangees. According to this regulation, the abandoned properties including
lands, gardens, vineyards, and trees were to be distributed, adiyen, default. By default,
adiyen, it should be understood that providing of 20 % of the land which the exchangee
had a right to take. That is to say, the regulation was protecting the exchangees by
giving the guarantee of their property could not be under the 20% value of their
previous property left behind in Greece. The regulation also clearly identified the
phases of the distribution of the properties. According to these steps, the Distribution
and Allocation Commissions, Tevzi and Taksim, were in charge for identifying the
borders and drawing the borders in the villages by consulting the community councils,
ihtiyar heyeti, who were familiar with the borders and the current situations of the
lands.201 The values of the land were determined according to the lands’ productivity.
After the value was fixed by the committees, the lands were granted to the families by
paying regard to number of people in the families. However, such an uncontrolled
authority was open to corruption. In fact, in the rural areas, many of the local people
attempted to use this openness. To illustrate, many villagers laid a claim on the lands
200 İskan Tarihçesi, (İstanbul Hamit Matbaası, 1936), p. 36.
201 Kemal Arı, “Türkiye’de Toprak Mülkiyeti ve Tarımsal Değişmede Mübadiller,” in 75. Yılda
Köylerden Şehirlere, (İstanbul: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, 1999), p. 109.
114
left by Greeks by stating that lands belonged to them. Villagers explained this
complicated claim as before the Greeks left the lands, they bought these lands from
them. But they could not make legal procedures as Greeks had to leave the country.202
This was a particularly good example to see how abandoned lands became a conflict
zone.
At this point, it should not be forgotten that properties of the exchangees left in Greece,
were documented by their declaration in their liquidation documents, tasfiye
talepnamesi. These documents can be seen as a declaration of people which indicate
information about moveable and immovable properties of the exchangees to
compensate. These documents were supposed to be filled by the exchangees under the
surveillance of the Mixed Commission in the original country of the exchangees,
before arriving to Turkey. But, in practice this picture was also different. Morack’s
study shows that these documents were not filled properly by following the
instructions and steps. Most of them were filled in Turkey, while the instructions
suggested to be filled in Greece. 203 Another setback was that the legal regulations
followed the implementations. For example, soon after the arrival of the exchangees
in Izmir, the distribution of land or house to the exchangees had already started, but
the law organizing the actual property compensation was issued four months later, in
April 1924. 204 This was the result of the acute problems in the city, the primary aim
was to provide a house for newcomers rather than organizing the legal arrangements.
202 Ibid., p. 109
203 Ellinor Morack, “Claiming “imagined property”: Tasfiye Talepnames and the Lost Material World
of Migrants after the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923–24”, Diyâr 1, 1 (2020), p. 129.
204 Morack, The Dowry of the State, p. 239-240.
115
All in all, the properties, even at the very early phase of the population exchange,
looked like the attraction and conflict point of the process. On the other hand, it can be
very helpful to take a glance to Izmir’s current situation in terms of the vacant
properties to be distributed the immigrants. As Hasan Fehmi Bey states as the head of
the National Property, there were three types of property in Izmir. First one is the
properties which belonged previously to those who were subject to the exchange, the
second one is the properties of the Armenians and some missing Jews’ properties, and
the third group is the properties which had belonged to the foreigners and now under
the control of the government.205 The state officials generally believed that the
properties including lands and houses in Izmir were sufficient to compensate the
exchangees’ left properties. In some parliament discussions deputies were saying that
“if 100.000 people plundered Izmir for two months, these properties would be
impossible to finish.” 206
This statement can be evaluated as an exaggeration obviously to underline the failure
of the politicians regarding the looting of Izmir after the Fire and to criticize the losing
control of the officials in the city. The distribution of the properties was planned in
three stages. According to plan, the properties of Greeks who were subjected to the
exchange would distribute to the exchangees, mübadils. The non-exchangees,
gayrımübadils, would take the Yunan properties who were not included in the
population exchange. Armenians’ properties were to distribute to the victims of the
205 Tülay Alim Baran, Bir Kentin Yeniden Yapılanması İzmir 1923-1938, (İstanbul: Arma Yayınları,
2003), p. 110.
206 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/GZC/d01/CILT03/gcz01003147.pdf, p.1137
116
Fire, harikzedes.207 However, these projects, which were very direct and clear turned
into a problem in practice and became a settlement crisis which could not be solved
until the 1940s.
Consequently, those who look at Izmir and its inland with lenses of property issue
might see three realities in the field. First is that other inhabitant of the city and its
inlands such as locals and other immigrants who had no right to take property,
demanded property. Secondly, there was occupation of the properties by people such
as state officials and locals. Third one is the incapability of the Turkish state to conduct
the distribution and allocation regulations properly and to prevent the corruptions over
the properties. When these realities in the practice are taken into consideration, it can
be comprehended that regulations like mentioned above could not catch the realities
of the settlement in the field.
Another point here should be noted, as well. Most of the newcomers were peasants at
the same time. This is a key factor of the socio-economic dimensions of Izmir in the
early years of the Turkish Republic. Because rural deprivation in the 1930s became a
catalyzing factor for the conflict over economic resources like abandoned property. To
put it more simply, while landless peasantry was the fact of agricultural segment at
that period, on the other side, there were available economic resources left from the
outcoming Greeks. Therefore, this kind of overlap in socio-economic conditions made
conditions more convenient for struggle and conflict over the resources. This is such
an important aspect that this struggle over economic resources turned into a collective
207 Alim Baran, Bir Kentin Yeniden Yapılanması, p. 111.
117
position. That the non-exchangees established an association namely the Association
of non-exchangees and also organized a congress in 1930 is a good example to see this
collectiveness. 208 The reason for the Association’s emergence was to protect nonexchangees’
rights and eliminate the injustices and mistreatments which they suffered
in terms of their property rights. In this direction, the Association compiled a report
to explain their current mistreatments by the state in terms of their property rights. Not
surprisingly, the demand was the lands which were allocated them, the Yunan
properties. According to the report, almost 2000 pieces of the Yunan property which
belonged to non-exchangees legally were given to the exchangees. 209 This
collectiveness which arises from different micro identities with their own interests
which were wanted to be protected by these micro groups demonstrates a very telling
picture regarding the local societal factors which the state and society interactions take
place on. Also, the emergence of these kind of micro groups among the society with
their own interest like non-exchangees shows that how a large-scaled policy like
Turkification of the population created indirect and unintended conflict zones rather
than the conflict zones which emerged from Turkification related identities. In societal
level, as previously said, homogenization of the population reflected to society as a
struggle over resources at the time of economic and settlement crisis.
Returning to these conflict zones, as previously indicated, migration waves of diverse
groups to Izmir at various times complicated the projected implementation of the
settlement and as a result of these migration waves, diverse groups with different
208 “Gayri Mübadiller Ne İstiyor,” Milliyet, 14.06.1930.
209 Anadolu’da Yunanlılardan kalma mal ve gelirlerin bir an önce gayri mübadillerin ihtiyaçlarına göre
dağıtılması gerektiğine dair Türk Gayri Mübadiller Cemiyeti Raporu, BCA. 30.10.0.0.140.3.5., 29. 08.
1929.
118
interests and expectations came into view to the social, economic, and political agenda
of the city. For instance, there were refugees in the city from some specific parts of
the country and they were categorized as Eastern Refugees, mültecis, who had
migrated to Izmir between 1914 and 1923 from Erzurum, Trabzon and Gümüşhane.
Also, there were refugees in the city from Erzurum and Diyarbakır in 1926 and 1927,
refugees from Erzurum, Bayburt, Bitlis and Trabzon in 1929 and 1932 and demanding
property from the state.210 Another group was the victims of the Fire, harikzede, who
demanded compensation for their damage. According to projected regulation, they
would be settled in the properties of the missing people, eşhası mütegayyibe.211
However, the dissimilarity in practice and regulation was visible here, as well. A
petition written by three exchangees from Urla, clearly shows this contrast in practice
and on paper. These exchangees indicated in their petition that their assigned houses
were under the occupation by a victim of the Fire, harikzede.212
Institutional responsibility of the execution of the population exchange, when it is
looked from the side of state, was allocated to the Department of Refugee Affairs in
the Ministry of Finance. On the other hand, such a gigantic process with different
aspects from transportation to housing, necessitated a specific institution which was
designed to deal with the current and future issues of the immigrants more properly.
This necessity was highlighted frequently and recommended by several politicians and
journalists. In fact, there were several suggestions and discussions regarding the need
for a specific institution. To illustrate, Mazhar Bey, a deputy of Denizli, strongly
210 Alim Baran, Bir Kentin Yeniden Yapılanması, p. 112.
211 İskan Tarihçesi, p. 32.
212 Morack, The Dowry of the State, p. 283.
119
defended that a directorate could not be enough to conduct such a massive work. For
this reason, in order to execute the process properly and on time, a specific Ministry
with experts on this issue was essential. So, Mazhar Bey presented his legislative
proposal for establishment of the Ministry of Reconstruction and Resettlement, but
this proposal was declined. The issue of property was also on the political agenda in
this situation. Several political figures from different political sides addressed that
properties which were left from Greeks should be protected carefully and the state
agencies should be prepared for potential problems due to the migration movements.213
Despite the proposal being declined, political discussion on this issue continued. Upon
these discussions, the Ministry of the Exchange, Reconstruction and Resettlement,
Mübadele, İmar ve İskan Vekaleti, was established in October 1923.214 The duties of
the Ministry were arranged by the Law of Exchange, Reconstruction and Resettlement
in November 1923. The Ministry was responsible for the transfer, settlement, and
provisions of the exchangees. But this institution was also responsible for all the
settlement processes of the immigrants, refugees, victim of the fire, victim of the
disaster/war and the members of the tribes who had arrived since 1912 and not subject
to settlement process.215 In practice, the ministry formed local branches to execute the
settlement works; namely, Commission of Exchange, Reconstruction and
Resettlement, Mübadele, İmar ve İskân Komisyonu. These commissions were
composed of five members including the governor, two officials from the center and
213 Yıldırım, Diplomacy and Displacement, p. 99.
214 Mübadele, İmar ve İskân Vekâleti İhdasına Dair Kanun, No. 352, Date. 13.10.1339.
https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/KANUNLAR_KARARLAR/kanuntbmmc002/kanuntbmmc002/
kanuntbmmc00200352.pdf
215 Nedim İpek, Mübadele ve Samsun, (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 2001), p. 35.
120
two officials from the local administration.216 In spite of these legislation and
organization, it is very interesting to see that the ministry could not survive more than
one year, and it was abolished in December 1924, after changing three ministers in one
year. Shortly after one year from establishment, deputies in the parliament began to
criticize the Ministry and express the idea that ministry should be turned into a
directorate within the Interior Ministry. Discontent among the deputies regarding the
Ministry, as previously mentioned, was strongly related to the malfunction in the
exercising the settlement procedures. Specifically, abolishment was related to the
unnecessary occupation, fuzuli işgal, of the abandoned properties in Izmir. Thus, the
process which led to the emergence of a new political party began. The Ministry was
being criticized by the press and politicians for a long time due to the failures in the
settlement process in practice and the accusations for the misuses and the abuses in the
local branches. Most of the critiques and the discontent were towards the officials of
the Ministries in local branches, especially in Izmir, due to the misconduct and
favoritism in the distribution of abandoned property.
Upon these discontents, a motion of no confidence, gensoru, was presented to the
Assembly regarding the actions of Ministry of the Exchange, Reconstruction and
Resettlement by Hoca Esat, Menteşe deputy. Accusations towards the Ministry’s
incapability did not stop with this confidence motion. Again, Hoca Esat criticized the
Ministry in a parliamentary session by indicating a very significant statement. He said,
“Those who came from mountain were settled in plains, but those who came from
plains were settled in mountains.” Moreover, he also stated that exchangees and
216 Yıldırım, Diplomacy and Displacement, p. 171.
121
properties which belonged to them became ruinous and various corruptions were
created but removed from the agenda. 217 This movement against the Ministry and
harsh critiques towards its insufficient works affected political history of the Turkish
Republic. Ali Fuat Cebesoy commented this case as “one of the factors which led to
the emergence of a party.”218 Accusations about corruption and critiques for
incapability of the Ministry were sufficient to intimidate the government and the
Ministry was abolished on December 11, 1924, and its duties were delegated to the
Department of Settlement which was under the Ministry of Interior with the Law of
529. 219 All in all, foundation of the Progressive Republican Party (hereafter TpCF)
accelerated with these accusations and the opposition within the party regarding the
settlement process. The cruciality and the fragility of the settlement and abandoned
property issues for both society’s side and the state’s side can be understood from the
abolishment of the Ministry and emergence of a new political party. More importantly
it shows how these issues could break in the resilience of the single-party regime.
In 1930, the directorate was also abolished, and the small offices were founded under
the General Directorate of Population Affairs, Nüfus İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü. In
February 1931, the entire practices of the exchange of population and property
allotment were ended. 220 However, in practice the remnants of the population
217 Erhan Çelebi, Mübadele, İmar ve İskân Vekâleti (Kuruluşu, Teşkilât Yapısı Ve Faaliyetleri),
(Unpublished Phd. Dissertation, On Dokuz Mayıs University, 2005), p. 269.
218 Ibid., p. 268.
219 Mübadele İmar ve İskan Vekaletinin Lağvile Vazifesinin Dahiliye Vekaletine Devri Hakkında
Kanun, No. 529, Date, 11.2.1340,
https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/KANUNLAR_KARARLAR/kanuntbmmc003/kanuntbmmc003/
kanuntbmmc00300529.pdf
220 Yıldırım, Diplomacy and Displacement, p. 173.
122
exchange remained and accumulated as a series of socio-economic and socio-political
problems, as will be explained below.
In conclusion, settlement and abandoned property, the most significant aspect of the
population exchange, were supposed to be put into practice in the direction of the
mentioned regulations. However, even after the exchange was seen as completed on
bureaucracy, the course of daily life in Izmir indicates that it was not completed. On
the contrary, this led to the rise of new spheres of interaction between the state and
society such as struggle over property. The following part focuses on these struggles
of the individuals and groups who were affected by the settlement. Focusing on these
struggles, it is aimed to display “settlement in the field” by discussing state’s
incapability to maintain and to complete the process, and also to indicate the property
related conflicts over the abandoned property among the inhabitants of Izmir such as
exchangees, non-exchangees, locals, refugees, and other categories like victims of the
Fire or Disaster/War.
3.3. The State and the Society: Settlement in Practice
After six years of signing the Convention, a letter was published in a local newspaper
of Izmir. In this letter which was penned to the governor of Izmir in Ahenk newspaper,
Izmir’s settlement affairs were complained by stating “Although we established a state
in six years, the settlement affairs of Izmir have not finished for five years.” 221 As a
matter of fact, the settlement affairs in Izmir were in a chaotic order due to the abovementioned
issues such as scarcity of the properties due to the unnecessary occupation,
221 “Izmir’in İskan İşleri,” Ahenk, 07.02.1929.
123
fuzuli işgal, complicated legal procedures, the limited capacity of the state, variety in
the legal status of the immigrants, and the remaining problems of the locals from the
occupation and war periods. While this is the portrait of one side, on the other side of
this issue, the society was in an effort to find a way of maintaining their life including
immigrants and locals. These efforts of people to reach an economic resource like
lands revealed two kinds of interaction. Demands of society from the state over the
economic resources can be counted as the first type of interaction ground, while the
second one is interaction within the society to reach the economic resources. The
following cases demonstrate these interactions around these efforts.
3.3.1. Demanding from the State
It is not surprising to see conflicts in such a problematical process which caused a
political fraction even within a single-party regime. Suffering from the adverse impacts
of socio-economic developments of the period, most of immigrants were deprived of
economic resources and full of demands. Changing settlement area and demanding to
be settled in a new region was one of the recurrent requests of the newcomers. Because
the petitions which were sent to the authorities generally complained about the
settlement regions due to several reasons. For example, one of the migrants, muhacir,
from Crete, Hasan oğlu Ahmet, asked to be relocated to Izmir where his brother lived
in 1927. This request was accepted by the authorities.222 Relocation to the regions
where the petitioners’ relatives were living was a prevalent demand from the
222 Girit Resmo muhacirlerinden Hasan oğlu Ahmet’in Bornova’daki biraderinin yanında iskanının
uygun olduğu. BCA, 272.0.0.12.52.119.32.
124
newcomers. Archival research also displays conditional acceptances of relocation
demands. In some cases, petitions of those who wanted to change their settlement
locations and demanded to move another place were accepted if they renounce their
rights such as property allocation, if they pay their own expenses, if they built their
own houses, if they do not benefit from any of the state resources and if they do not
want anything from the state. For example, the request of an exchangees, Bekir oğlu
Nail, to be relocated in Izmir was accepted and approved under the condition that he
does not want anything from the government, hükümetten bir şey istememek
şartıyla.223
However, demands to be relocated and complaints about settlement locations were
not the reason for tensions, in spite of restrictions imposed by state and also the
permission was mandatory. Since these were not directly related to abandoned
property. Claim over an asset, and generally more than one claim over an economic
resource were the procuring reason for the showing up conflict grounds.
3.3.1.1. A Violent Demand from the State: The Case of the Serçin Village
It is probably the Serçin Village Case which was the most clarifying incident in which
all actors related to the abandoned property were involved. Most importantly, all actors
were present with holding the socio-economic and socio-political circumstances of
their class/profession/social status in this case. There were peasants as the
representative of landless or small landowners who were in need for land, former party
223 Selanik mübadillerinden Bekir oğlu Nail’in bir şey istememek şartıyla İzmir’de iskanının uygun
görüldüğü, BCA. 272.0.0.12.62.180.16., 06.06.1929.
125
trustee of CHF, mutemed, as the representative of the ruling party and an economic
resource which was a 5000 acre of land in Söke. The mentioned land was indicated as
an abandoned property, emvali metruke, which had belonged to a missing person,
mütegayyib, by peasants.
According to peasants’ claim which was sent to the Ministry of Interior, 5000 acres
of land around the Dalyan district was under the unnecessary occupation of Hüseyin
Bey who was the former, mutemed of CHF. Further, peasants were forced to work as
sharecroppers in this land. At this point, it is necessary to briefly explain what the
mutemed was and what the function of this position was. As can be comprehended
from the regulations of 1923 and 1927 of CHF, mutemeds were the representatives of
CHF in the cities and towns, and they also head of the administrative committee of
local CHF branches. They were appointed by the center of the party. While this
organization had administrative duties within the party, it should also be understood
what a mutemed mean for society of the that time. Local officials of ruling party’s
administrative boards such as mutemed in cities and towns, were pretty triggering
figures which fed the displeasure of society. According to reports, mutemeds were
generally identified with nepotism and corruption, and also seen as the reason of
disconnection between the party and society due to their arrogant and negative
attitudes. 224 For example, during the well-known and important incident, Fethi
Okyar’s visit in Izmir, those who were at the streets to welcome and support Fethi Bey
manifested their reaction to the mutemeds. Upon the cheering of Salih Bey, mutemed
224 Döndü Sena Göndürü, “1930 Yılı Sonlarında Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası Taşra Teşkilatı: Heyet
Raporları Üzerinden Bir Değerlendirme,” Atatürk Yolu Dergisi 0 (2020), p. 135.
126
of CHF, as “Long Live CHF,” those who were in the streets replied to him by saying
“Down with mutemeds, Long Live Fethi Bey.” 225 Again, an example from the visit of
Vasıf Bey, a deputy of Izmir, evidently explains the meaning of these party officials,
specifically mutemeds, to society. Vasıf Bey made a press statement and admitted that
the party was aware of the disturbance of people due to the mutemeds. He also stated
that the mutemed would be abolished. Instead of the appointment, party members
would elect the local committee of CHF and any candidates would not be nominated
by the center. 226 This protest and statement reflect that local political figures with
significant positions and authorizations within the ruling party became a target of
people who were suffering from the socio-economic shortcomings of the period.
Turning back to the Serçin incident, peasants of Serçin Village applied to the district
governor, kaymakam, to report the illegal occupation of the land which belonged to
Directorate National Estate and requested Hüseyin Bey to end this occupation. But,
district governor, kaymakam refused the peasants’ legal requests out his respect to
Hüseyin Bey. After these requests and declines, while Hüseyin Bey and the kaymakam
were visiting the land, peasants prevented them. The gendarme was invited, and there
was a clash between the gendarme units and the peasants. Upon this and following
clash, some peasants were arrested. The accusations against Hüseyin Bey were not
limited to this land. According to the paper, there were two other lands which belonged
to the National Property in Sarı Kemer and Çiksort under the occupation of Hüseyin
Bey and his relatives. At this point, it would be very helpful to recall the corrupt and
225 Necdet Aykaç, “Yönetsel Alanda Değişimler ve Devrim Hareketlerine Karşı Gerici Tepkiler
“Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası – Menemen Olayı,” Atatürk Yolu Dergisi 11 (2009), p. 15.
226 “Vasıf B. Ve Arkadaşları İzmir’de,” Vakit, 23.11.1930.
127
nepotistic image of mutemed in society, which referred previously. The paper added
this comment to the news: “The power of the government protects the occupation of
Hüseyin Bey.” 227 Hence, while there was a former local figure with political power
and strong connections with current administrators on the one side of the picture, there
were peasants who claimed that they were subjected to injustice on the other side. The
aim was, on the other hand, same for both.
Discussions continued in the following days. A person named Efendizade Mehmet Ali
from Söke wrote a letter to the paper. According to his letter, he is not a peasant from
the village, but he could explain the case because a peasant from Serçin Village
explained the case to him in detail. While he was reading news about what happened
in Serçin Village from the newspaper and discussing this case with a friend that
whether such an injustice could be in a democratic country or not, a peasant from the
Serçin village heard their conversation and explained the case to him. Upon peasant’s
explanation about the case, he wrote the peasant’s explanation to the newspaper.
Peasant said to Mehmet Ali bey follows:
There are 120 households in our village. Our village was surrounded by the
Menderes River and the dalyan, which belongs to Hüseyin Bey, the clerk of
Söke. Except one or two, all peasants have to work in Hüseyin Bey’s dalyan.
We heard that the government enacted a law and would give land from the
abandoned property, emvali metruke, to the peasants without land. We always
prayed to the founders of the Republic and thought that the government would
give these lands to us. For this reason, we cultivated land. We were extremely
excited to be able to be producers and landowners. Two days later, the
kaymakam, Hasip Bey, and the gendarme commander came to the land and
forbade us. We told them about the law, but they did not listen to us. But how
could we know that Hüseyin Bey had occupied these lands. We could not
understand how these lands, which are registered to the name of Kiryako, son
of İspiro and Dimitri, son of Sokrat, can be captured by Hüseyin Bey. Also, the
gendarmes used force against the peasants. There was a wounded peasant. They
took us here, arrested us. finally released us. However, we will protect our
227 “Söke’de Bir Arazi Meselesi,” Yeni Asır, 4.12.1930.
128
rights and prove that these lands belonged to these missing persons not Hüseyin
Bey. The allegations of the newspaper about the other lands under the
occupation of Hüseyin Bey were also true. All the property of the Revenue was
looted.
After explaining the incident, peasant also added that “I hope my words would be
published in paper and an inspector come here and listen the helpless peasants and we
would tell him other cases, as well.” As a reply, Efendizade Mehmet Ali who wrote
the letter said to peasant that “I will write these words to paper. Also, in the time of
the Republic, a whole village could not be sacrificed for a person’s good. Before the
law, there is not any difference between you and Hüseyin Bey.”
As center of the accusations of nepotism and corruption, Hasip Bey, kaymakam,
needed to explain the situation to the public. He sent a response letter to the newspaper
and denied the peasants’ claims. According to his explanation, peasants claimed that
the land which was cultivated by Hüseyin Bey was an abandoned property, emvali
metruke. They also demanded land to take back from him and give to the peasants.
However, according to kaymakam, it is an obvious fact that the land belonged to
Hüseyin Bey with a deed registration. Therefore, there was not any unfair and illegal
implementation. In spite of the fact that they informed peasants about the situation,
peasants invaded the land and prevented the cultivation in land. This illegal action, not
surprisingly, required a gendarme intervention to surpass. After two days, the peasants
did the same thing again. They were warned and also informed about the law and
punishments of their actions. However, peasants ignored warning and attempted to
invade the land again with their guns and slingshots very next day. Thereupon,
gendarme forces were sent to the district. However, peasants did not obey the law and
what is worse, they resisted the gendarme forces, beat them, and tried to take
129
gendarme’s weapons. For this reason, these peasants were arrested because of breaking
the law. Hasip Bey strongly underlined that “This land does not belong to peasants; it
belongs to the state or Hüseyin Bey. There is not any right of peasants over this land.
Despite this reality, they are trying to take the land with the force of gun.” 228
In his letter’s second article, Hasip Bey denied the favoritism accusations made against
him and stated that all of his actions were based on law. He also blames the peasants
for having other aims rather than having land. Because he offered another land to
peasants, but they insisted on taking Hüseyin Bey’s land and continued their demands.
Hasip Bey also denied that peasants needed land. Because there are 9000 acres land,
1200 acres range, 10.000 acres olive grove in this village. According to his claims,
almost 90% of the peasants are not landless.
The most critical point in this case is the following words of Hasip Bey. He explains
the situation as an illegal and violent riot against the government by the peasants who
were provoked by those with secret aims and factious. Since, there were other villagers
who benefited from the government’s policy by following the legal procedure within
the legal arrangements. He said “the people's government, the Republican
administration” gives the properties left from the abandoned property, emvali metruke,
as a favor and help to the needy and poor peasants. Yeniköy, Balat and Batnaz villages
of the district benefited from this policy. However, in this case the condition was quite
different due to the violent and illegal actions of the villagers. He underlined their
actions as a riot to Republic and supported the gendarme’s implementation and the
228 “Köylü ve Toprak,” Yeni Asır, 10.12.1930.
130
arrest of the peasants by stating the following: “The government can show only the
prison corner to this kind of people, not land. The beneficences of the Republic belong
to the Republicans and those who obey and trust the laws of the Republic.” 229
This case is immensely telling to see the existence of the alternative and simultaneous
micro and macro contexts at the same time. It depicts how a macro policy turned into
micro struggles in daily life. In this case, a specific policy of the Turkish nation-state
to actualize the demographic Turkification turned into a struggle over the property
among the peasantry with the state. This case also illustrates another major point which
is the intersection of different socio-economic and socio-political contexts. In this case,
while the settlement process and property distribution to the newcomers was
continuing in the region, there was also a fundamental problem about the landless
peasantry in the rural part. Apart from the newcomers with the property right, there
was one more actor in this equation to be considered, which was the local peasants,
mostly the landless peasants. The issue of abandoned property, emvali metruke, should
also be considered in the landless peasantry context in the early years of the Republic.
3.3.1.2. A Critique to Liquidation Law for the Equality Against Class Privileges
In addition to the conflicts between the individuals for land owning, another fragile
issue was the compensation methods of the properties. The unended property
distribution and chaotic compensation issues of the right owners including exchangees
and other immigrants were another tension ground for those who believed that some
implementations of the process were against the sense of equality. This was the focus
229 “Köylü ve Toprak,” Yeni Asır, 10.12.1930.
131
of the complaint from the group of immigrants. As mentioned previously, even after
years, there were considerable and various issues which were in a pending position
regarding the settlement and property allocations. Settlement affairs remained as one
of the topics on the local agenda. In 1930s, it is possible to meet with harsh critiques
in local press towards the Office of Settlement Affairs because of the incapability to
provide deed registrations to the immigrants and also for the open dossiers of
individuals which could not be closed in years. While the regulations indicated clear
steps in distribution of properties by imposing specific policies and criteria such as
valuation of properties and the criteria of allocation, the reason behind why these issues
could not be resolved and distribution process could not be completed lays on the
Izmir’s very unique conditions.
The liquidation law which was enacted in 1931 was one of these implementations
which was evaluated as a kind of violation of equality between the exchangees who
all in a difficult position were. Those who look at the newspaper headings concerning
the law can comprehend that although the law was enacted to find a solution and to
complete some gangrened problems about the compensation, it was criticized in
public. Before moving to a detailed analysis of this law and discuss how this law
became a notion of inequality in public, it might be useful to glance at background in
the property compensation.
The first law for property distribution to exchangees was enacted in April 1924, after
the first group of exchangees reached the city. With this law of 488, which comprised
of ten articles, property rights of exchangees and the procedure of property distribution
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to exchangees, also known as tefviz, were put in an order.230 This law indicated a
temporary allocation of abandoned property from Greeks not a permanent allocation
with full property rights including deed registration which is temlik. The second article
of the law indicates that those who were holding documents showing that the value of
their possessions left in Greece is up to 50.000 liras would take property, but only the
value of 20 % of what their documents indicate. Those whose declaration of value
excess 50.000 lira would wait for the end of the process to compensate the rest of the
value. Because tefviz procedure relies on the exchangee’s declaration about the value
of property left in Greece, the law implied a sanction on this issue. Article 4 states that
allocated properties would be able to be taken back or extra payment would be able to
be demanded from the exchangee if the declaration of exchangees about their
possessions was not consistent. As regards identifying which property would be given
to which exchange, article 6 states that the property which would be allocated to an
exchange would be within the borders of settlement location of the exchange. Most
importantly, the law indicates that quality, reputation, and status, nevi, şeref and
mevkii, of the previous properties of the exchange left in Greece would be taken into
consideration in the allocation of new properties. This means that those who had
owned land, ranch, store, all sorts of real estate, mill or factory would be given the
very same properties, with same quality, reputation, and status. Besides, as addressed
previously, those who took property with tefviz procedure did not have a full
authorization over the properties like transferring to another person, bey'ü ferağ,
mortgaging these properties, terhin, or making any maintenance works on properties.
230 Mübadeleye Tabi Ahaliye Verilecek Emvali Gayri Menkule Hakkında Kanun, No.488, Date.
16.04.1924.
https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/KANUNLAR_KARARLAR/kanuntbmmc002/kanuntbmmc002/
kanuntbmmc00200488.pdf
133
According to the seventh article, any change in the shape of properties, tebdil ve tağyir,
any destruction, hedim or demolition, tahrib, were forbidden. For any necessary
reparation, permission and approvement from the authorities is compulsory. Those
who violate these regulations would be punished in the same way that they destroy
another one’s property. At this point, it is important to note that while this law was
enacted and discussions about the law and regulations such as rule of 20 percent, the
works of commission to document and valuation of the previous properties of
exchangees were not completed. However, house and livelihood need of exchangees
were immediate. For this reason, preliminary distribution had become essential. 231 In
political sphere, this law which imposed the rule of twenty percent was also on the
agenda. In a parliament discussion, Hasan Fehmi Bey, the Minister of Finance,
opposed the rule of 20 percent rule “[Let’s say] I leave behind property worth 50,000
Lira, but you are only giving me 15,000. Such a law is totally inadequate.” 232 All in
all, the law of 488 regulated the tefviz procedure which was temporary allocation of
the abandoned property of the Greeks until the new law’s introduction to the
implementation.
Despite, there was a law which was issued in 1926 concerning term and conditions of
pay back, of the properties and other kinds of economic resources such as land, seed,
or agricultural implements, the law of 1331 can be counted as the second legislative
attempt in regulating the property distribution. The point of the law which necessitated
a highlight is that this law imposed the providing deed registration of the properties
231 Morack, The Dowry of State, p. 243.
232 Ibid., p. 245.
134
which allocated temporarily with the previous tefviz procedure. More simply, with the
first article of this law, the temporary allocation documents of the exchangees turned
into a deed registration with permanent rights over their properties. This law gives the
right of deed registration to exchangees within the limits of their previous properties’
value and documentation type which were used in the tefviz procedure as a way of
documentation of previous property possessions, for example of their procedure
declaration document, tasfiye talebnamesi, deed registration with value or deed
registration without value. With the second article of the law, exchangees who had not
left any property in Greece, non-exchangees, refugees, individuals with tribal
affiliations, aşiret efradı, and victims of Fire, harikzede were able to take title deed for
their assigned properties, but servient deed. Further, article five of the law imposed
an obligation to the settlement bureaucracy by indicating a deadline for the completion
of the procedure which was one year. However, the law of 1331 dated 1928 could not
meet the expectations to end the procedure. According to law, the process of settlement
would have been completed in one year, but in practice this could not be made happen.
Contemporary newspapers of Izmir frequently reported insufficient workings of the
bureaucracy. In Izmir, tefviz procedures continued to be processed even after the
deadline. The press mostly criticized the offices and the officials which were
responsible for processing the dossiers of the exchangees by complaining about the
excessive paperwork of the dossiers which they called kırtasiyecilik. In Izmir, there
were many cases in which the exchangees and other immigrants were dissatisfied with
their allocated properties. Also, there were other exchangees, mübadil, with different
problems. For instances, there were those who had to pay the excessing amount of
their rights, those who had to pay a rent for their houses because of the unended process
and those whose rights to property was decreased because the value of their property
135
in Greece was evaluated as disproportional. The liquidation law in 1931 was issued
to overcome these issues certainly during the Turkish economy was experiencing the
impact of Global Depression which directly affected the capability of individuals to
pay their debt. In addition to the standard and usual payment related with the
production and taxes, those who were granted property also had to pay additional fees
for property distribution process such as rent for their allocated houses, extra payments
for properties because of incorrect valuation of the properties and transaction fees for
official registration processes. Therefore, it is possible to say that there was a financial
burden on individuals which was an outcome of remaining payments from property
distribution and also the ongoing impacts of Global Depression. In such a condition,
there emerged a need for a solution. The law of liquidation was enacted in March 1931.
Before addressing how this law turned into a controversial topic against the sense of
equality, it is very beneficial to see the reflection of the law in press in order to
understand the expectation from the law. The article which criticized the current
conditions of the settlement and property distribution process presented this law as an
attempt to overcome the challenging works between the government, the National
Treasury, and the people, but in favor of people.233
Given the accusations for introducing new inequalities and causing new unrest among
society, it is necessary to ask what novelty this law brings in the procedure. Here, free
distribution, meccanen temlik, and social status, içtimai durum, were the key concepts
233 “Biraz da İnsaf Etmeli,” Yeni Asır, 10.05.1931.
136
which needed to be addressed.234 That the law approved free distribution, meccanen
temlik, under some conditions and that the social status, içtimai vaziyet, was put as a
criterion in the distribution process were considered as the violators to the sense of
equality among individuals those who were affected from the difficulties of the entire
migration process. As a matter of fact, the complaint about new implementations
which was introduced by the law was intense, even the law was evaluated as, in an
exaggerated tone, a threat to the new Turkey’s ideal of classless society.
Basically, liquidation means the state’s withdrawal from ongoing debts of some
individuals which emerged from the property distribution. The fourth article of the law
indicates that exchangees who did not submit their application within the limits of the
previous law about the property allocation and those who came from Bulgaria under
the law of 1341 and refugees, muhacir, would be given to them free, meccanen temlik,
regardless of the origin of property. By saying free, it should be understood that it is
limited with their standard rights, the amount which exceeds their standard rights to
take property would be debited. The fifth article of the law is about the victims of the
Fire, harikzede. The article imposed that the properties which were under the
occupation of victims of the Fire, who were in need of property, would be given to
them regardless of the origins of the property. In a similar vein to the those who fourth
article mentions, the excessive amount of their standard allowance would be debited
in this case, as well. There were also other articles which provided some conveniences
such as exemption from extra fees such as deed registration. However, the fourth and
234 Mübadele ve Teffiz İşlerinin Kat'i Tasfiyesi ve İntacı Hakkında Kanun, No. 1771, Date. 19.03.1931.
https://www.kanunum.com/content/673256#.ZBLDV-zMKWA
137
fifth article were the main concerns. Upon these concerns, a person felt a need to
explain how the law would affect two people with different immigrant status by
sending a letter to the newspaper.
According to two cases in this comparison, there is an exchangee, mübadil, who was
settled in Alsancak neighborhood and granted for tefviz which means he/she had left
property in home country. As the second case, there is a refugee, muhacir, who was
living in the same area and in need of property. The contested thing in this comparison
is that while the former one who had property in Greece had to pay the excessive
amount of their right, the latter one could benefit from the right of free distribution,
meccanen temlik, which was imposed by the liquidation law. Further, such an among
immigrants was addressed by this person as the potential conflict for the following
days.235 Indeed, this projection regarding that the free distribution would be a
disturbance came true in the following days. Various complaints about the liquidation
process came to the agenda.
Another key concept was social status of the family, içtimai vaziyet. According to the
chart indicating the criteria to be used for property distribution, içtimai vaziyet became
an indicator to calculate the standard/default right for property distribution. What
should be understood from social status, içtimai vaziyet, of a person or a family is
ambiguous. It might be understood as an instruction which states that those who had a
higher social status were able to take larger houses. An additional note in the law might
be useful to grasp the social status, içtimai vaziyet. This note suggests that if one of the
235 “Tasfiye Meselesi,” Yeni Asır, 06.05.1931.
138
immigrants had an education of agriculture, medicine and veterinary, or higher
education would be given more property. Therefore, it is not wrong to assume the term
of social status, içtimai vaziyet, could be understood as an indicator of the immigrant’s
profession. At this point it should be noted that before the liquidation law, the social
status, içtimai vaziyet, was already a problem for the procedures. Since there were
some cases in which allocated houses were retrieved from migrants’ possession.
Because of the unsymmetrical property allocations in accordance with the social status
and legal status of the person. Therefore, these wrong transactions mean new problems
and new difficulties for the working of the institutions.236
In a similar vein with the mentioned article, another article also highlighted this
controversial aspect of law in a very strong critical tone. The title of the article is “We
cannot stay silent against class and status privileges in our country.” In this article
where the author compares two cases, the liquidation law was discussed in a very
political and exaggerated tone by stating that accepting the concept of social status,
içtimai mevki, mean that there are classes and class privileges in Turkish country. As
regards cases, the author took two victims of the Fire, harikzede. On the one side, there
was a worker or artisan harikzede with a burned house. This person was living in a
five-roomed house in Izmir with three family members. On the other side, there was
another victim of the Fire, harikzede, whose house was burned in the same way as
those of the previous harikzede and also has the same number of family members. The
only dissimilarity between the cases of these two homeless people is their profession.
While the former one was a worker or artisan, the latter one was not a worker, but a
236 İskan Tarihçesi, p. 118.
139
merchant, a manager of a bank or a well-known writer. The impact of the liquidation
law comes into view here. While the former one was charged with mortgage debt due
to the low social and legal status, the second one could get the property in which s/he
was living without any mortgage debt, meccanen, because his social status was
sufficient for the house.
The perception of this implementation turned into a very serious critical stance which
is not limited only to the law and its implementations, but also a political critique. In
the article, before making the comparison between two cases, author also addressed
why social status, içtimai mevki, was unacceptable for Republic. Because each
individual of the nation is treated equally before the law and courts. Countries where
democracy was in command class dominance and class supremacy could not be
present. The author dispraised the concept of social status very strongly and addressed
it as a trouble for humanity from of old. Accepting this concept indicates that there
are classes and class privileges; however, even dynasty, saray zümresi, was destroyed
by Turkish people and class privileges were removed. Thanks to abolishment of class
differences, citizenship consciousness and public sovereignty could be realized in the
country.
While these politically intense critiques are like this, the author defined Turkey as a
country where there was not any social status in society in the time of the Republic,
but only professions. According to him, each profession held distinct roles in the
country and the rights of the people could not be shaped according to the professions.
The author added none of the state institutions such as the property commissions, the
Governorship or the Ministries could say to citizens that their social status was not
140
high. He continued “the class distinction and class privileges cannot exist in Turkey.
These are the things of the past.”
In conclusion, this example provides two points of view for the settlement and
abandoned property issues. First, although new regulations were initiated by the state
to overcome the difficulties of settlement in practice, the chaotic and multidimensional
features of the entire settlement and the abandoned property politics prevented these
attempts. Secondly, instead of bringing a solution, the law was considered as a new
ground which caused a new and a crucial problem, which was a threat to equality. All
in all, it can be said that when the economic conditions such as debt were combined
with some of the controversial implementations such as free distribution, meccanen
temlik, with a reference to the status in the society, içtimai vaziyet, there emerged new
contested grounds among the individuals. The abandoned property was a pretty sharp
example of these contested grounds.
3.3.1.3. A Demand for a Collective Interest
As explained in the previous parts, there were sub-categories in the population
exchange. The category of non-exchangee, gayribübadil, was one of these
subcategories which were specified with the settlement regulations. To remind who
non-exchangees, gayri mübadil, were, these people were the ones who had moved off
from Greece before the First Balkan War. In the other side, there were also other people
who were in the very same position. They are the ones left Turkey before the First
Balkan War. Here, the crucial point is that the properties left from these people in
Turkey was specified as Yunanlı or Yunan property. Regulations prescribed that these
141
properties would be allocated to the non-exchangees.237 However, as in many other
cases, these properties were not properly distributed to the legal owners within the
legal frames. In Izmir most of exchangees were settled in these properties with the aim
of solving the housing crisis in the city at the very early months of the exchange.
Contrary to this, non-exhangees were not settled in other properties, for this reason the
non-exchangees defended that they should benefit from properties of Armenian and
Rum. 238 In fact, most of the property which was supposed to be given to nonexchangees
was allocatedto other individuals. These individuals were asked to pay
rent for their occupancy. Upon these rent requests, there emerged other complaints
from those who had to pay rent. Therefore, this conflict over the non-exchangees’
properties which can be defined as Yunan property became a point of conflict which
waited for an urgent solution in the settlement affairs in Izmir. Auctions and bonds
were presented as the solutions to solve this issue. The policy was that bonds would
be distributed to the non-exchangees, and they would buy Yunan properties with these
bonds from auctions which were organized by the Agricultural Bank. At this point it
should be noted that, until these properties were presented for auctions, operation was
carried out by the Agricultural Bank. Hence, the rental income from these properties
was accumulated in the Bank, but non-exchangees claimed that this income also
belongs to them and demanded it from the Bank.239 In November 1931, the first auction
was launched in Izmir with ten pieces of property. 240 According to some news, in
237 Alim Baran, Bir Kentin Yeniden Yapılanması, p. 154.
238 Ibid., p. 155.
239 “Gayrimübadillerde Hoşnutsuzluk Uyandıran Bir Karar,” Yeni Asır, 13.11.1931.
240 “Yunan Emvali,” Yeni Asır, 10.11.1931.
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Izmir there were 1267 pieces of the Yunan properties which were identified as pieces
to sell at auctions.241 Unsurprisingly, this solution based on auction and bond could
not be implemented in practice without causing new problems. The problems were
mostly results of corruption and malfunctions in the system. For example, in a similar
vein with the problem in agricultural segment, the fact of usurers was in presence in
this issue, as well. There was a possibility that these bonds might be taken possession
of by some usurers with 40-50 % discount by exploiting their needy situation. For this
reason, the specific bonds which are written for a name was recommended. 242 Indeed,
this possibility of usurers’ takeover of bonds became reality. Some news in the local
press reported that most of the non-exchangee lost their bonds to someone with a 25%
loss in their value. 243 Further, auctions became a kind of looting place of properties.
Because most of the non-exchangee could not buy any property from these auctions
due to the speculations over prices. Many of the properties were bought at very low
prices from these auctions and sold with higher ones.
In conclusion, it is not incorrect to say that like many others the non-exchangees were
one of the sufferers of the property politics and the difficulties brought by the legal
procedures. However, the unique aspect in this case, which is also significance for this
research, is that when the entire migration process is taken into consideration which
had begun during the Balkan Wars and ended with the compulsory population
exchange, the non-exchangees were the only group who aimed to protect their
allocated rights in a collective base. By saying collective, actions such as the
241 Alim Baran, Bir Kentin Yeniden Yapılanması, p. 157.
242 “Gayrimübadillerin İşleri,” Yeni Asır, 01.01.1931.
243 Alim Baran, Bir Kentin Yeniden Yapılanması, p. 157.
143
establishment of an association as a pressure group in order to follow and protect the
rights of non-exchangees can be understood. In fact, this association was established
and made contacts with political figures to lobby for the rights of the group. A
document in the archive indicates that this pressure on the political sphere could reach
its goal. According to a document in the archive, a committee directly applied to
Mustafa Kemal and explained their demands to him. Upon this demand, Mustafa
Kemal wrote an instruction to the Prime Ministry which ordered a quick solution and
to complete the non-exchangees property procedures in five or six months. 244
Moreover, members of the Association frequently visited Ankara to discuss the nonexchangees'
issues and to present their demands to the related Ministries. For example,
the Association applied to Ministry of Finance and demanded an increase in the
determined value of the non-exchangees’ lands and also requested almost 1.000 pieces
of the properties which were under the occupation of the migrants, muhacirs in Izmir
in 1930. 245 Also, there is another important example to see how this pressure group
chases the interest of the group. According to a clipping from Cumhuriyet newspaper,
in 1937 Şehab Bey, the general secretariat of the Association, visited the Ministry of
Finance in Ankara and informed the authorities about their demands. Unsurprisingly,
a considerable amount of the demand was related to property issues such as valuation
of the properties, which were very usual demands. On the other hand, this visit
differentiates itself from the other ones because Şehab Bey requested another and
important economic resource from the authorities, which was the revenues of coal
mines. Because the coal mines belonged to a missing person and the properties of
244 Gayrimübadillere yapılmakta olan mal dağıtım şeklinin değiştirilerek hızlandırılmasına dair
Cumhurbaşkanı Gazi Mustafa Kemal’in Başbakan İsmet Paşa’ya direktifi. BCA. 30.10.0.0.140.3.8,
30.12.1930.
245 “Gayrimübadiller, Cemiyet Hükümetten Yeni Bazı Temenniatta Bulundu,” Cumhuriyet, 07.01.1930.
144
missing persons transferred to the non-exchangees, the Association demanded from
the revenues of these mines which were under the administration of Etibank.246 In
addition to political contacts, when there was a political context which overlapped with
their agenda, the association sent telegrams to the authorities. For example, during the
negotiations between Greece and Turkey in 1926 for Ankara Agreement, the
association sent a telegram to İsmet Paşa which demanded protection of their rights in
the negotiations. 247 Besides, when the Ankara Agreement was signed with Greece in
1930, a telegram was sent to Prime Minister which was signed by Hüseyin Bey, the
chairman of the Association and also an İstanbul deputy in the GNA. According to this
agreement in which the three problems between Turkey and Greece were aimed to be
solved, together with etabli and patriarchate issues, assets which were left behind was
probably the most significant issue on the agenda. The issue about assets left by Greeks
in Turkey is that according to Greek side, Turkish government should pay an
indemnity for their valuable assets left in Turkey. The claim of the Greek side was that
their immovable assets in Turkey were very valuable. On the other hand, Turkish
government defended that the lands were ruined due to the wars, especially the
Western coast, therefore there were not any valuable asset in Turkey now also Turkish
side claimed that the assets which were left in Greece by Turkish more valuable than
those of Greeks.248 Therefore, it might be said that negotiations were continuing about
the assets and values of these assets at the international level. While this negotiation
246 “Gayrimübadillerin Ankara’da Yaptıkları Temaslar,” Cumhuriyet, 08.04.1937.
247 Morack, The Dowry of the State, p. 313.
248 Damla Demirözü, “The Greek-Turkish Rapprochement of 1930 and the Repercussions of the Ankara
Convention in Turkey,” Journal of Islamic Studies, 19, no. 3 (2008): 3, p. 314.
145
was continuing, the association reminded their presence by sending this telegram and
demanded quick and full compensation process.
In addition to the establishment of an association as a pressure group and passing the
collective demands to the politicians to chase their interest, another attempt which is
to establish a company by exchangees might be counted as a second collective effort
to protect their group interests. The attempt was directly related with the aim of
protecting the value of bonds and properties. The authorities in the exchange groups
believed that the establishment of the company was essential to solve the massive
issues about the exchangees’ properties. Because, as mentioned formerly, properties
would put on the auctions. When such a big amount of property such as houses, lands
and mines came up for sale, it was impossible for non-exchangees to buy these
properties during such an economic depression period. Also, the owners of a small
amount of bond would not afford anything and this huge amount of supply would
decrease the value of the properties. 249 On the other hand, the fact that above
mentioned demand in 1937, was made by the name of president of Association might
show that the attempt of establishment of a company remained as a project. 250 But it
also demonstrates the consciousness of these people about their status and its legal and
practical impacts on their life. It seems that they were aware of how political and legal
attempts would affect them and what they should do to get maximum profit from these
developments.
249 “30 Milyonluk Şirket,” Yeni Asır, 17.08 1931.
250 Morack, The Dowry of the State, p. 313-316.
146
This might raise a question about the composition of this group which enables them to
organize a pressure group and make political contacts. At this point a minor note
should be put here to understand the composition of the group, the chair of this
Association was also a deputy in GNA. As regards to this issue, Morack compares
two immigrant groups which are exchangees, mübadil, and non-exchangees, gayri
mübadil, in terms of their social statuses and their political activities. As a result,
Morack concludes a very clear explanation about this comparison which is as follows:
All documents concerned with this group suggest that the average
gayrimübādil had, as a rule, a higher social status and was politically better
connected than the mübādils. This point may partly be explained by the fact
that many among the gayrimübādils had either left Greece before 1912 (thus
having more time to adapt) or had been absentee landlords who lived in Thrace
or Anatolia already. 251
The example of non-exchangees who organized around their immigrant status, being
a gayrimübadil, indicates two things in terms of how the settlement policies affected
the daily life of people. First, this case shows that how a sub-category in the massive
settlement process turned into a collective identity and secondly it shows that the
existence of a pressure group which aimed to chase and protect the group’s interest via
Association and Company.
3.4. Conclusion
With a particular emphasis on three examples which reflect the impacts of the
population exchange in practice, this chapter displays that how a population
homogenization project of the Turkish state experienced in daily life of the people.
251 Ibid., p. 317.
147
Rather than underlying homogenization paradigm, the aim of this part is to discuss the
reflection of this policy in daily life. The findings of the research demonstrate that
despite that the population exchange with Greece was a crucial point of the nation
building process of Turkish Republic, this macro process had different impacts on
societal level.
The first impact is that while the Turkish state’s project is to homogenize the
population by intervening the ethnic and religious composition of the population
throughout the migrations, this intervention, namely the population exchange, revealed
non-homogenous categories in the society. Indirectly, demographic homogenization
policy of the Turkish state pushed the emergence of new micro identities among
society such as exchangee, non-exchangees, refugees and victims of fire with various
rights and obligations regarding the settlement rights in Izmir. Therefore, it might be
said that there emerged, even in a different base, a new kind of heterogeneous society.
The second impact is probably the most crucial one which is that these examples show
that the homogenization project caused new conflict grounds between state and society
and society itself, the abandoned property distribution was the major ground in this
connection. Based on the three chosen examples from Izmir and hinterland, it can be
concluded that the abandoned property and related issues with these properties such as
legal regulations became one of the most prevalent and contested issues in the daily
life of the people as a landless peasant, as an exchangee with a debt of property
allocation or as a group of people who could not receive the properties which were
prescribed to them.
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CHAPTER 4
THE OPPONENT AEGEAN IN QUESTION: HOW THE POLITICS
WORKED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL?
The Turkish Republic was ruled by a single party in two decades following the
foundation, 1923 and 1945. With a charismatic revolutionary leader and a ruling cadre
with the power of legitimacy, which was inherited from the victory of Independence,
this period might be marked as a period having a limited political sphere. However,
together with a formal form of exercising politics via two political parties namely SCF
and TpCF, the single party period had its unique ways of exercising politics. By saying
exercising politics, in an informal form, a kind of action of conveying ideas and
presenting alternative outlooks publicly can be understood. Izmir and its inhabitants,
with a wide range of press organs which were the sufficient tools to present ideas
publicly, could use these tools efficiently to carry critiques and alternative point of
views to the state and its policies. Therefore, even though the political sphere of the
single party regime might be evaluated as sparse in terms of political activities of
ordinary people, it should be noted here that until 1946 there was not a direct electoral
system which provided a firsthand participation of people to politics, there were
remarkable number of examples of presenting points of views raised by ordinary
people including merchants and publicists. This part of the present study treats these
examples as a way of exercising politics and observes these examples to reach out that
in which bases the politics was exercised. Drawing on a variety of local sources
including newspapers such as Yeni Asır, Serbes, Cumhuriyet, Hizmet and Işık, this
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part asks how politics worked at a local level during a single party regime rule of the
Turkish Republic. The reason behind chasing these papers specifically is the fact that
these press organs were directly attached to the political side, which was in a more
detached position to the single party and its policies. For example, the editor in chief
of Hizmet Zeynel Besim and the editor in chief of Yeni Asır, İsmail Hakkı Bey, were
very close names to Fethi Bey, the chair of SCF. In fact, during Fethi Bey’s visit to
Izmir to organize the local branch of the new opposition party Zeynel Besim Bey
accompanied the leader of the party. Further, these two publicists were invited to SCF
by Fethi Bey in person. 252 Hence, press and politics were very interwoven during the
period. This interwoven relation provides an extremely helpful stage to follow politics.
Together with presenting daily developments, articles penned by the local publicists,
interviews with significant local figures, and the interpretation of the local/national
news regarding economic, social, and political developments explain a great deal about
the outlooks of the people who were mostly in the critical stance in the political
conjuncture of the period. In short, it might not be wrong to treat these newspapers as
a kind of local place where politics was exercised. On the other hand, those who benefit
from these resources to grab some clues about politics should be aware that it is a
definite fact that there were limits in publicly discussing politics and being a side in
politics in a single party regime. However, archival research on these resources can
indicate that even very fragile issues regarding the single party regime, such as the
Party itself, became a matter of debate.
252 İhsan Sabri Balkaya, 1930 Sonun Başlangıcı Serbest Fırka’nın İzmir’de Teşkilatlanma Serüveni,
(Ankara: Berikan Yayınevi, 2016), p. 53.
150
Another point is that those who were familiar with the region and the developments of
the early years of the Turkish Republic know that the Western Anatolia, specifically
Izmir, and the political stance of the inhabitances of this region are generally associated
with an opposition position during that period. The concept of “opponent Aegean” is
a prevalent assumption in Modern Turkish historiography. This argument relies on the
massive support from the region towards SCF during the rural deprivation. In his very
inspiring study, Emrence locates the Party and the massive support gained from society
into the economic crisis of the period and presents very sufficient explanation about
the social dynamics of this massive support. Emrence explicitly defines the SCF case
as a kind of politics of unrest/dissent.253 The other account which focuses on the SCF
case by centralizing its lenses on Aegean region to read the journey of opposition party
in the region is Eyüp Öz’s “Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası ve Muhalif Ege.” 254 While Öz
addresses the larger political developments which caused the emergence of the party,
his focus on socio-economic realities of the daily life in the city such as excessive costs
of living, unending problems in the settlement process and the abuse of local party
figures such as mutemeds, presents a very comprehensive local and societal contexts
which were very specific to Izmir.
On the other hand, the politics, both in the form of opposition or not, should not be
limited to the SCF’s journey. Because the archival research of this study on the abovementioned
sources shows that there were several issues related with politics and
policies of the ruling party from the international politics to a micro policy about the
253 Cem Emrence, 99 Günlük Muhalefet Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası, (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları,
2014).
254 Eyüp Öz, Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası ve Muhalif Ege, (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2019).
151
peasantry in the press. Because this study treats these sources as grounds for politics,
aims to see the workings of the politics by going beyond the SCF experience and also
aims to correlate the politics and daily life realities, it presents alternative subjects and
developments as the cases of politics at the local level. The present study grabbed three
subjects from these resources in terms of exercising politics by local actors at a local
level during the single party rule.
The first one is the election of 1931. This election is significant because of two reasons.
Firstly, it is a historically significant case because for the first time in the single-party
regime, non-party candidates could run in elections. Secondly, it was the first stage in
which individuals could reflect their political positions after the SCF withdrew from
politics in such a context where the independent candidates were permitted to
participate in elections. This step by the CHF which opened the political sphere to nonparty
candidates found an important place in the political circles of Izmir. Those who
aimed to be a deputy with an independent position used the press to display their
opinions and more importantly their programmes. In the first part of the study, these
programmes of the people who differentiated themselves from the ruling party and the
workings of the elected deputies for the independent seats will be examined to see the
borders of the opposition and the grounds in which they were differentiated themselves
from the ruling party. Secondly, those who take a glance at the local press in Izmir will
encounter a very specific term in use by the local elites such as publicists, this term is
fırkacılık which can be called partisanship. By chasing this concept and its usage by
the individuals, this part aims to reach how the ruling party and its working were
perceived by individuals and also to understand in which themes the party was
associated and not associated. The third subject which was determined as one of the
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frequent themes in the local political circles is the introduction of some concepts to
public discussions such as socialism and state socialism. By focusing on the reasons
why and how these concepts started to find a place in these discussions, this part
underlines the changing positions in politics.
4.1. The Elections of 1931: The Independent, Müstakil, Candidates, and the
Borders of Opposition
Shortly after experiencing the existence of a formal canal to canalize the social dissents
with the SCF and also experiencing the abolishment of this mechanism, the ruling
party initiated a new policy in 1931. This mechanism was independent candidates,
müstakil. By allowing non-party candidates to run for election, an alternative
mechanism was presented to society as another form of tool to reflect their point of
views. The mechanism would work as follows: CHF would leave some spots in
specific polling districts for the non-CHF candidates. In accordance with this aim, in
twenty-two polling districts, thirty seats were left for non-CHF candidates. The
motivation behind this attempt to introduce a new mechanism for the electoral system
was to bring a kind of opposition and supervision mechanism to the parliament and to
the party, however with individuals rather than groups such as SCF. This is the same
motivation as the emergence of SCF. According to Demirel, the party preferred
individuals rather than a group as an opposition and supervision mechanisms with the
aim of preventing the emergence of an alternative organization to CHF. The
expectation from the independent deputies was not turning their opposition into an
153
organized opposition movement with social support.255 The motivation of this
attempt was explained by the party secretariat as follows:256
In the election, no candidates would be presented on behalf of the party for 30
seats in the 22 polling districts determined by the General Secretariat of the
Party. The purpose is to allow room for the citizens who aim to work in the
parliament as a deputy, but with a different programme from other than that of
CHF. In this way, CHF would continue to expect to benefit from the critiques
and examinations of those who embrace different principles than CHF and also
expect to benefit from the comparison of these principles on the public.
As a matter of fact, at that period of the single party regime it is possible to see the
pursuit of such mechanisms to supervise the party and the government, and also to
direct popular discontent of people which came to light with the SCF to another, but a
controlled group. In 1939, this pursuit turned into an official mechanism within the
ruling party and parliament. The independent group in the party and parliament was
formed officially in 1939 with the Fifth Congress of the CHF.257 Upon the request of
İsmet İnönü and with a change in the regulation of CHF, an independent group which
consisted of twenty-one deputies was established. This group was allowed to make
their own decisions in accordance with their group decision in parliament. The group
members could participate in CHF’s parliament discussions but could not vote, make
speeches, or participate in the government. Members of the independent group,
müstakil group were selected by the Congress of CHF. 258
255 Ahmet Demirel, Tek Partinin İktidarı, p. 116.
256 Esat Öz, Tek Parti Yönetimi ve Siyasal Katılım, (Ankara: Gündoğan Yayınları,1992), p. 170.
257 CHP Beşinci Büyük Kurultay Zabıtları, Ulus Basımevi, Ankara, 1939, p. 31.
258 Hakkı Uyar, Tek Parti Dönemi ve Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, (İstanbul: Boyut Yayınları, 2012), p.
125.
154
On the other hand, prior to the independent group in parliament and in the party, the
independent individuals could be seen as the first attempt to create a separate group
with the duty of supervision of the government. In the direction of the decision made
by CHF’s cadres, in 1931 elections, independent candidates were presented on the
CHF’s list. As mentioned previously, the Party did not indicate candidates for thirty
positions in twenty-two polling districts. For Izmir elections, two places were left
vacant for the independent candidates. At this point, it should be remembered that the
electoral system during the mentioned period was indirect, which means the secondround
voters could vote for candidates. There was no mass voting reflecting the general
will, which was one of the main opposition subjects. Hence, in such a context voting
became a confusing action for these voters. Because most did not comprehend how
they could vote for other candidates rather than CHF candidates. As can be seen from
the examples in the following parts, elections with non-party candidates became a
controversial issue among the second-round voters. Upon raising these confusions,
Mustafa Kemal made a personal declaration which indicated his request from secondroute
voters to vote for independent candidates in April 1931. In this declaration,
Mustafa Kemal stated that it is expected from the voters to vote for candidates who are
not supporters of the Party’s programme by the Party. Because the Party believe that
they should be a subject of criticism. However, there were essential features to be
expected from these candidates, being secular, republican, nationalist, and sincere. 259
259 İkinci Seçmenlere Beyanname, 20.04.1931, https://atam.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/tamim-son-
Onar%C4%B1ld%C4%B1.pdf
155
In addition to the attempts of opening the parliament to non-CHF deputies, there was
another initiation in this election. The Party also aimed to expand the scale of
representation in parliament. In this direction, like independent candidates, the Party
also decided to nominate peasants and workers as candidates in the elections. In fact,
this decision had broad repercussions in the press and several names were discussed
as candidates and as representatives of peasants and workers. To illustrate, according
to a statement in the press, Memduh Şevket Bey would interview workers who work
in the underground in Zonguldak and select one literate candidate among these workers
as the representative of the workers. Also, peasant deputies would be selected among
the citizens who personally plow the lands.260 According to Demirel, giving places to
the ordinary workers and peasants in the parliament is a way to prevent the
bureaucratization of the parliament. This initiation could also be read as a message to
ordinary people that ordinary people also could be a deputy in the parliament. 261While
this argument is a very consistent one, it should also be considered that peasants and
urban poor like workers were experiencing a destructive economic crisis at this period,
as previously explained. Therefore, giving a place to workers and peasants could be
considered from the lenses of receiving public support by giving voices to these
classes, specifically, after seeing the massive support towards SCF.
Following these decisions and declarations which encouraged voters to vote for
independent candidates and also encouraged the ones who wanted to be an independent
candidate, several individuals made an application to be a candidate, especially in big
260 “Çiftçi ve İşçi Mebuslar Seçiliyor,” Yeni Asır, 10.04.1931.
261 Demirel, Tek Partinin İktidarı, p. 118.
156
cities like Izmir. Those who wanted to be a candidate sent letters to the press. These
letters included their programme and their ideas about specific issues such as electoral
law and critiques of the economic policies of CHF. These letters and programmes
which were penned by the candidates are very valuable tools to examine politics
directly and to realize differences in the programme of those who differ from CHF.
The first candidate, Halif Tevfik Bey, was a lawyer in Izmir. In the beginning of his
letter written to Yeni Asır, Halil Tevfik Bey first introduced himself as a devoted
citizen to his country and an extreme supporter of the Republic. After this introduction,
he presented his position as an opponent to economic affairs and sorted out his
opinions about the economic policies of the CHF. Monopolies were the pivotal
subjects of his opposition. To him, monopolies should be eliminated, lavishness in
Monopolies should be ended, and the taxes which were collected on behalf of the
Monopoly Administration should be used for the wealth and improvement of people.
In addition to the Monopolies, another point which he underlined is the Agricultural
Bank. Because the Agricultural Bank should have provided enough support to
agricultural producers seasonally, which was one of the most crucial issues of the
agricultural segment during the economic crisis. Halil Tevfik Bey presented various
suggestions about exporting, which is a very coherent suggestion with the region’s
economic features. He highlighted the need to find new export channels for national
production and an organization promoting national production in the international
market. In spite of the fact that he declared his opposition within the borders of
economic aspects, he also addressed some political concerns as well. The electoral
system is one of the points of his concern. He underlines the necessity of the power of
the people in the laws and stated his critiques about the electoral system by saying that
157
“Turkish nation did not need a guardian and an intermediary in order to elect a deputy.”
To him, Turkish nation proved its competence in interiorizing new and the most
civilized laws in the past five years. 262 When the socio-economic context of the period
and the region is taken into consideration, it is a fact that Halil Tevfik Bey’s
programme referred to the economic conditions of Izmir.
The second candidate was one of the well-known political figures from the opponent
side in Izmir, Dr. Mustafa Ali Bey, also declared his candidacy for parliament. As the
previous chair of the Tire branch of SCF, Dr. Mustafa Bey was a noteworthy political
figure in the city. According to the newspaper, he was a notable individual in Tire,
Bayındır and Ödemiş districts for his idealistic personality, mefkureci. Dr. Mustafa
Bey also sent his three-article programme to the newspaper. The first article was an
introduction part and the candidate introduced himself as a liberal, secular, and
Republican. Following this introduction part, he strongly addressed what he would in
the parliament. In his programme which included very political ideas, he stated that he
would defend freedom of thought and any kind of personal liberties in parliament. The
second article in the programme was about the political system and he suggested a new
governmental system. In his letter, it is suggested that the legislative power, kuvve-i
teşriiye, should be divided into two units namely Mebusan and Ayan, and that a
separation between the executive power, kuvve-i icraiye, and the legislative power,
kuvve-i teşriiye, and an independent justice system, kuvve-i adliye. It is also proposed
that the president of the Republic should be elected by the general will, re'y-i âm, and
should be in an independent position from the political parties. The third point of the
262 “İzmir Ve Aydında Müstakil Olarak Namzetliklerini Koyan Zevatın Fikirleri,” Yeni Asır, 20.04.1931
158
programme is about the economic aspects. The candidate located his outlook about the
economy into individualism rather than statism. According to him, the state’s
intervention in the economy should be of minimum level. After Mustafa Ali Bey’s
programme arrived in the newspaper, an interview with Dr. Mustafa Bey was
conducted. In this interview, Mustafa Bey declares his attitudes toward the CHF and
the CHF’s policy regarding independent candidates. He stated that CHF’s decision to
give a place to the independents in the parliament demonstrates that CHF considered
presence of an opposition in the parliament as a legitimate and an essential aspect of
our democracy. He also declared that they had to believe that CHF would be tolerant
towards its opponents. Finally, Dr. Mustafa Bey underlines that he would advocate his
ideal which was defended by millions of people around the world, despite there being
limited numbers of liberal deputies. Upon the question of in what aspects are you
opponent to CHF’s programme and policies, Mustafa Bey pointed out several aspects
of CHF in terms of political and social organization. To him, while the ruling party is
a democrat party which internalizes the ideals of the unity, vahdet, and homogeneity,
tecanüs, in the political and social organization, liberals like him support the
improvement of the social organization through diversities, tenevvü. Personal liberties
and individualism were also highlighted by him as the key factors for the improvement
of Turkish society.263
Hulusi Bey who defined himself as Republican, secular and populist was one of the
candidates for the independent positions and also a proponent of liberalism. He
objected to the indirect electoral system (two-level elections) and the single-party
263 “Liberal Bir Mebus Namzetinin Fikirleri,” Yeni Asır, 22.04.1931.
159
regime. Hulusi Bey defended the necessity of the opposition in parliament and an
assembly of notables, ayan, which was elected by the people. Monopolies and other
restrictions were the other issues criticized by Hulusi Bey. In addition to the critiques
with a political tone, Hulusi Bey also questioned some implementations which were
exercised by the state, the military recruiting process was one of them. According to
his outlook, a youth organization could be responsible for military training. In this
way, military service can be completed in a brief time. He was also of the opinion that
there was a need for foreign capital in the country. 264
Another programme which was sent to be published publicly belonged to lawyer,
Ömer Bey. In his very brief and goal-driven programme, Ömer Bey suggested the
necessity for reforms in the educational system, abolishment of the bureaucratic
procedures in the state offices and bringing prosperity to the peasants. According to
his programme, Monopolies should be abolished as far as possible, the freedom of the
press should be raised, taxes should be reduced, and the state should struggle against
corruption. 265
The tobacco Monopoly should be maintained with the banderol system. He is a
defender of long-term loaning in the fiscal system and suggested educational system
reforms. This programme is significant because it targeted the state’s officials directly.
İsmail Hakkı Bey criticized the bureaucratic processes and the state officials. The law
of the public officials was considered as the source of corruption by İsmail Hakkı; in
264 “Yarın İntihap Var,” Yeni Asır, 23.04.1931.
265 “Yarın İntihap Var,” Yeni Asır, 23.04.1931.
160
addition to this law, the civil law and some of the laws he laws regarding debt
enforcement and bankruptcy were also pointed out as the points which should be
changed according to the current conditions of the life. Reorganization of the state
offices such as civil registry, rearrangement of the taxes, a new and direct electoral
system rather than a two-levelled system and the importance of the freedom of press
and thought were also included in İsmail Hakkı Bey’s programme. 266
These were the names of the ones whose political positions were separated from the
ruling party and prepared a political programme to represent in the parliament. When
these programmes were examined, it is possible to see that while some of them were
more detailed and more ideologically oriented with truly clear alternatives to the
existing policies in the direction of an ideological principle, the other ones mostly
resembled a kind of wish list. Regardless of their contents, these declarations are very
telling documents to see the political discussions and/or opposition at a local level. As
regards the content of these documents, it is possible to observe that after the
elimination of SCF, which made it possible to canalize the social dissent of people to
an opposition movement, similar issues were raised by these political figures. On the
other hand, some different points which were mostly political issues such as electoral
system were also addressed in these documents to be defended in the parliament.
In addition to these names who sent their programmes, another twenty names ran for
an independent candidacy. According to the declaration signed by Sezai Bey who was
the Mayor of Izmir and the responsible official for the elections, the other independent
266 “Yarın İntihap Var,” Yeni Asır, 23.04.1931.
161
candidates as follows: Lawyer Halit Tevfik Bey, lawyer Ömer Fuat Bey, author Raif
Nezih Bey, author Abdullah Abidin Bey, Sürmeli Z. Yusuf Ziya Bey, farmer Mehmet
Nuri Bey, Dr. Mustafa Ali Bey, dentist Ahmet Hakkı Bey, retired colonel Mehmet
Hulusi Bey, Hidayet Keşfi Bey, İsmail Hakkı Bey, lawyer Hasan Reşat Bey, reserve
officer Hamdi Bey, lawyer Alemdar Z. Lütfi Bey, dentist Refik Şevket Bey, Dr.
Kayyum Z. Suat, Sabri Bey from Urla, lawyer Emin Aslan Bey from Torbalı, Hüsnü
Bey from İsmet Paşa neighborhood and owner of Yavuz library Hüsnü Bey.267
Following the announcement of independent candidates, the election was held on 24
April 1931. However, although the headquarter of CHF suggested second-round voters
to vote for the independent candidates, the voting process was painful for both secondround
voters and the independent candidates. On the election day, there was a
confusion regarding the independent candidates, most of the second-round voters
including the head of the stock market of Izmir and instructors at the schools in Izmir
discussed whether they should vote for independent candidates or not. According to
the reporter who followed the elections in the field, second route voters thought that
they should not vote for independent candidates by referencing the 81st article of the
Party’s regulation. On the other hand, they also tried to take Mustafa Kemal’s
declaration into consideration which suggested voting for independents. The voting
process was started with 336 second-round voters by Sezai Bey, mayor of the city.
According to the reporter, there were individuals who accused the second-round voters
of disobeying Mustafa Kemal’s declaration. At the end of the voting, independent
candidates received forty-three votes. Halil Bey, Halil Menteşe, who was one of the
267 “Yarın İntihap Var,” Yeni Asır, 23.04.1931.
162
significant political figures of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic and acted
as the minister of foreign affairs and minister of justice between 1915 and 1918, and
Şekip Bey were elected as the independent deputies from the Izmir district. At this
point, it should be noted here that both names did not stand as a candidate in elections.
These names were elected with the votes of the second-round voters who were
members of CHF at the same time. However, with the votes from Seferihisar district,
Şekip Bey lost his position. One of the independent candidates Hüsnü Bey, owner of
Yavuz library, was elected as deputy from Izmir. 268
“The deputies were chosen, but not elected” 269
Although, election was completed and one of the independent candidates became a
deputy in the parliament with the duty of bringing a different programme from CHF,
reflection of the election continued in the press in a form of disappointment. The ruling
party, electoral system, local representatives of CHF, and most importantly Mustafa
Kemal’s ideal and his declaration to bring non-CHF deputies to the parliament were
the most discussed points in the press organs. Most publicists who were also political
figures in the city strongly criticized the entire election process. However, the most
stressed aspect of the election was second-round voters and their disobedience to the
decision of the leader of CHF which suggested voting for independent candidates.
268 “İzmir İntihap Dedikoduları,” Yeni Asır, 26.04.1931.
269 “İntihabattan Sonra,” Yeni Asır, 27.04.1931.
163
The result of the election makes clear that most of the second-route voters hesitated to
vote for independent candidates, even though they were encouraged to do by the very
head of the Party. This conflict between the representatives of CHF at the local and
those at the center of CHF is an interesting point to understand the relation between
the local representatives of the party and the center of the party. There can be several
interpretations regarding why second-round voters did not follow the directions from
the top of the ruling party. According to Koçak, it was the result of the second-round
voters being more partisan than the headquarter of the party. 270 However, it can also
be a key factor that the second-round voters could not have taken the possible risk of
being labelled as those who voted for opponent figures in the limited political and
social environment in which they were living and working. When the social and
economic compositions of these voters were examined, it can be seen that most of the
voters were state officials such as teachers in Izmir. According to Hakkı Uyar’s
analysis regarding the socio-economic bases of the second-route voters of the 1935
election in Denizli, Konya, Bursa and Mardin, state bureaucrats and the local notables
were the core of the second-route voters. These figures can change according to the
socio-economic features of the district; for example, while the small artisans were the
local notables in Bursa, in Mardin they were the leaders of the tribes who were counted
as the local notables.271 Consequently, it was a fact that voters who had various
political and economic relations with the central government abstained from voting for
non-CHF candidates, despite the directions from the center of the party. For example,
270 Cemil Koçak, “Parliament Membership during the Single-Party System in Turkey (1925-
1945),” European Journal of Turkish Studies [Online], 3 | 2005,
http://journals.openedition.org/ejts/497.
271 Hakkı Uyar, “Türkiye’de Tek Parti Döneminde Chp’nin Toplumsal Kökenleri: İkinci Seçmenler
Örneği (1935),” Bilgi ve Bellek, no.2, 2004.
164
in the Istanbul elections, none of forty-eight independent candidates received even a
single vote from the second-round voters and four seats left empty, in spite of the fact
that one vote was sufficient enough to be elected as deputy. 272 Unlike Istanbul, two
independent positions which were reserved for independent candidates were filled in
Izmir with the votes from Seferihisar, not from the center of Izmir. But this could not
be sufficient to eliminate the reaction in the press, on the contrary, the critiques became
bitter.
It is thanks to Mustafa Kemal’s declaration, which indicates the necessity of an
independent group in the parliament, the party became the principal target of political
critiques by the local opponents. Because the declaration provided a ground on which
the party and Mustafa Kemal separated from each other. Therefore, any criticizing
comment which targets the electoral system gained legitimate ground. Because both
the opponents and Mustafa Kemal, the Saviour of the nation and the leader of the
Republic, were aiming the same thing which was bringing a supervision force to
parliament and government. But second-round voters who were the members of CHF
failed this shared aim. This was a very proper starting point to build the opposition
on it. From now on, the opposition enabled to find an opportunity to build their
critiques on the idea that the Party’s members, especially in the local organizations,
deviate from the leadership’s instructions. Many of the second-round voters were
accused of not being able to figure out Mustafa Kemal’s ideal. In an article, for
example, narrow-minded politicians who could not understand the intent and advanced
thoughts of the head of the state and the partisans, fırkacılar, were blamed for
272 Demirel, Tek Partinin İktidarı, p. 135.
165
preventing the realization of the leader’s ideal.273 Accusations about neglecting the
leader’s ideal against the Party and the members of the Party did not stop. On the first
day of the fourth term of the Assembly, Yeni Asır gave a headline as “A narrowminded
party which cannot be deemed worthy of its Great Leader.” In the same article,
second-round voters were demonstrated as the ones who were tied to the party with
personal benefits. Also, while Mustafa Kemal was depicted as the one who prioritizes
the prosperity of the nation, the second-round voters were depicted as those who acted
only for themselves and ignored the ideals of the leader. 274
Examples which were presented so far might be useful to interpret the making politics
in the single-party regime of the Turkish Republic. These examples tell that the
opposition side put a clear distinction between the party and government, and Mustafa
Kemal to raise a reaction or a critique. Mustafa Kemal was separated from the
discussions. The discourse of the opposition side shows that while there was the Gazi,
founder of the Republic and the Saviour of the nation, with a great horizon for his
nation on one side, on the other side, there was the party and party members which
were depicted as the responsible of the absence of well-functioning economic and
political system. This separation between the leader and the party provided a legitimate
ground for opposition. In addition to legitimacy, this separation also provided another
concept for the opposition circle in the city, which was partisanship, fırkacılık. The
concept of fırkacılık turned into a very safe and useful tool of making politics,
specifically making opposition in Izmir. Thanks to this concept which was a way of
273 “Gazi Muhalefet İstiyordu,” Yeni Asır, 03.05.1931.
274 “Meclis Açılırken,” Yeni Asır, 04.05.1931.
166
challenging the policies of the ruling party, opposition made exercising politics
possible by abstracting the target of the opposition while underlining the issues.
Because this concept was very prevalent in the political agenda, it will be the focus of
the next part. However, before mentioning this useful and pragmatic concept, which
was used by the opposition, the following part will deal with the two independent
deputies of Izmir and their works in the parliament to be able to see the borders of the
independency from the ruling party.
The Independents in the parliament: Halil Menteşe and Hüsnü Kitapçı
Turning back to the elections of 1931, as indicated before, two independent deputies
namely Halil Bey (later Menteşe) and Hüsnü Bey (later Kitapçı) became the
representatives of the Izmir in the fourth term of the GNA. Nationally speaking, twenty
independent deputies were elected, but two of the deputies from Kütahya were not
approved by GNA. Hence, there were eighteen independent deputies in the
parliament. However, ten of them participated in CHF shortly after, which means only
eight deputies served as independent deputy in the parliament between 4 May 1931
and 23 December 1934. 275 The deputies who were elected from Izmir
remained independent until the end of the term. That one of the aims of this chapter is
to see the borders of the differentiation from the ruling party, it is essential to ask to
what extent these deputies acted as opposition in the parliament. But it should also be
noted that one of the deputies Halil Bey was not an official candidate in the elections,
275 Yasemin Türkkan Tunalı, “Tek Partili Siyasi Hayatta Demokrasiyi Yaşatma Çabaları: IV. Dönem
Bağımsız Milletvekillerinin Meclis Faaliyetleri (1931-1934),” Çağdaş Türkiye Tarihi Araştırmaları
Dergisi 20 (2020), p. 670.
167
but he was elected by the initiative of the second-round voters. This aspect should be
kept in mind.
This makes these two candidates remarkable for two reasons. First it enables us to
grasp an example of ones who differed from the CHF’s programme and remained
independent in parliament. Hüsnü Bey’s works in parliament might demonstrate how
a non-CHF deputy worked in politics. In addition to this, Halil Bey is significant
because of another aspect which is that he was a very major political figure from the
Ottoman Empire to the Republic, and also, he was not an official independent
candidate but elected as deputy. Given the fact that despite not being a candidate, he
was in the polling building during the election, he might know that he would be elected.
According to reporter, Halil Bey was not pleased with the number of votes to him. 276
When these clues are taken into consideration, it is not wrong to assume that Halil
Bey as one of the pioneer figures of the Committee of Union and Progress, a minister
of the Ottoman governments the president of the Council of State of the Ottoman
Empire and holder of many important political positions in the previous periods, did
not share the same political outlook with the CHF’s cadres and he had personal
frictions with the other major figures within the ruling party. On the other hand, he
wanted to be a candidate but did not want to make propaganda with other candidates
as a very pivotal political figure in history. Therefore, voting for Halil Bey might be a
result of local connections and discussions within the party and other state officials.
As regards politics in practice, the works of these deputies such as speeches and
276 “İzmir İntihap Dedikoduları,” Yeni Asır, 26.04.1931.
168
legislative proposals might be quite pointer to understand what their political positions
which differentiate them from CHF’s programme was, if there were any.
To begin with, Halil Bey was a significant figure in the late Ottoman politics. Also, he
was a very assertive political figure in the early years of the Republican period, as well.
He was adeputy candidate of TpCF in the midterm elections of Izmir district in 1924.
Considering these aspects, his political opposition to CHF can be evaluated as an
obvious fact. However, after his first term in parliament, Halil Bey participated in CHF
and continued to be a CHF deputy in the fifth, sixth and seventh terms of the Assembly.
What this tells about the features of politics might be that it shows how unstable the
political positions are.
In the session in which Mustafa Kemal was elected as the president for the third time
in 4, May 1931, Halil Bey made his first move parliament by opening a methodological
debate regarding the presidential election. Claiming that the election of 1931 was an
immediate election, the presidential election should be held in November, not in May;
otherwise, the term of presidency would have been expanded by six months.277 Claims
of Halil Bey were disaffirmed by other deputies, especially Recep Bey, the General
Secretariat of CHF, strongly opposed the claim. Following the methodological
discussion, Mustafa Kemal was elected as President in the same session. However,
this case did not remain limited with this parliament discussion. A telegram which was
sent to parliament with the signature of Mehmet Ali Bey, the interior minister of Damat
Ferit Paşa’s government and one of the 150 people who were exiled from the Republic
277 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c001/tbmm04001001.pdf, p. 3-4
169
of Turkey shortly after the War of Independence, on behalf of the Association of the
Political Refugees, Siyasi Mülteciler Cemiyeti, created more discussion and
disturbance. The telegram was sent shortly after Halil Bey launched a discussion about
the presidential elections and sent directly to Mustafa Kemal. Then, it was forwarded
by Mustafa Kemal to the parliament to respond. The telegram was protesting the
parliament and presidency elections by claiming that they were against the
Constitution. 278 As soon as telegram was read in the session, most of the deputies
criticized the telegram and protested these names by stating that those were traitors,
impertinent ones, betrayers who accepted Sevres. 279 Upon this telegram, as the
initiator of a debate over the presidential elections, Halil Bey had to explain his
position in this issue, after a long introduction with a full of historical information
about these names and indicated that his criticisms were about the procedure of the
election, not to legitimacy of the election.280 In parallel vein with this instance, upon
the question of a deputy to government regarding the damaging activities of some
newspapers, Halil Bey made a speech. In this speech which included historical and
legal references to the Ottoman Empire's political developments and his memoirs
about these periods, Halil Bey stated that the presence of opposing press increased the
278 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c001/tbmm04001003.pdf, p. 35
Mustafa Kemal Paşa, Çankaya, Ankara
Kanunu Esasiye mugayir olan teşriî intihabat ile gayri kanunî Riyaset intihabım şiddetle protesto ederiz.
Türkiye Siyasî Mültecileri Cemiyeti
279 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c001/tbmm04001003.pdf, p. 36
280 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c001/tbmm04001003.pdf, p. 38
170
security crisis in the country. In the time of the Depression, the most harmful thing
was the security crisis. For his reason, he stated that if the press intentionally threatened
the authority of the state, according to him, this was a betrayal.281 As can be seen from
these declarations, Halil Bey’s position when the issue was regime and security was in
the same alignment with CHF.
The distinctive point, but also a limited distinction, which differentiated Halil Bey’s
position from CHF policies might be a small number of economic policies. The
economic depression in the 1930s was one of the most stressed issues in his agenda.
His speech about the 1933 budget included very crucial points such as the Agricultural
Bank, taxes, agricultural indebtedness in the agricultural segment and interest rates of
the credits. 282 Therefore, it is accurate that the material realities of people were on the
agenda. However, this is not specific to him, most of the deputies echoed these issues
in parliament. The major point which can be seen as a distinction can be the distinction
in the outlook on foreign capital. According to Halil Bey, the purpose of the national
economy is to provide economic balance, to improve the national industry and reduce
the need for import. However, the resources of the country were not sufficient for
realizing these purposes, because this aim required expertise and technology, which
there was not in the country. Halil Bey suggested that foreign expertise and capital
should be invited to the country without any hesitation and fear of foreignness.
Besides, he also suggested borrowing foreign loans in the direction of this programme.
283
281 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c003/tbmm04003022.pdf, p. 42
282 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c015/tbmm04015050.pdf, p. 81-84
283 Türkkan Tunalı, Tek Partili Siyasi Hayatta Demokrasiyi Yaşatma Çabaları, p. 679
171
The parliament discussions on the legislative proposal to monopolize importing tea,
sugar, and coffee by the government in 1932 is a very explanatory example which
provided a picture regarding the perception of Halil Bey’s in the state’s position in the
economic system. In the discussions between Mustafa Şerif Bey, the Minister of
Finance, Halil Bey declared his opponency to the law. According to him, monopoly
policies in the different areas of the economy limited business circle of country, iş
sahası. Those who had invested capital for doing business in these areas would be
affected undesirably from these policies. Contrary to this policy, expanding the
business circle is the thing which should be done in the time of the crisis. Upon these
claims, the Minister, Şeref Bey, declared that “with the existing law, the state has never
intervened in trade.” 284 He strongly added that these precautions were the necessary
steps which had to be taken according to the conditions of the economic situation. The
liberalism and statism discussions began at this point. While the Minister accused Halil
Bey of not understanding the precautions which were taken according to economic
conditions and necessities due to his liberal way of thinking. Halil Bey denied this
accusation and defined his point of view about economic affairs as a supporter of
national economy and not a liberal. He also added that he is also a defender of
protectionism but within some limitations. But according to him, the government
exceeded the statist principles and intervened in the economy even if there was no
need. 285
284 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c009/tbmm04009076.pdf, p, 446
285 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c009/tbmm04009076.pdf, p. 447
172
The existence of Halil Bey in the parliament can be evaluated also from the points of
class and the state. Based on Halil Bey’s declarations regarding the Agricultural Bank
in 1937, Gücüm claims that Halil Bey was the representative of the opposition towards
statist policies in economy on behalf of the big landowners together with Hüsnü Bey,
the second independent deputy of Izmir (Muğla deputy in 1937). In this discussion,
Halil Bey defended that transforming the saving funds into a state bank in 1888 was a
mistake. According to him, the state should provide financial resources to the
agricultural segment via the specific institutions of farmers, not via the Agricultural
Bank. He also supported the idea that the Agricultural Bank should provide credit to
big landowners who had sufficient guarantee rather than small-land owners who did
not have any guarantee. But, to him, credit cooperatives should provide credit for small
peasantry.286 Actually, prior to this law and discussion about Agricultural Bank, that
Halil Bey appreciated the changing of economic administration in 1933 when Celal
Bayar became the Minister of Finance and thanked Bayar for declaring his support to
private enterprise. He also presented his support to Bayar’s new economic programme
which made the borders of the statism brighter.
On the other hand, Halil Bey also presented a legislative proposal to the parliament
which suggested a form of direct intervention of the state to the economy. His proposal
included banning importing some products which can be produced in the country as
long as the crisis continues, but his proposal was declined by the committees. 225 This
can be seen as a contradiction to his ideas criticizing the state intervention, but this
286 Kuntay Gücüm, “Türkiye’de Devletçilik ve Sınıflar,” in Teori, Kasım (2016), p. 36-38.
173
case also demonstrates the determinant power of the daily developments like crisis in
shaping and changing the stances regarding the economic policies.
When these actions of Halil Bey in parliament are taken into consideration, it can be
concluded that Halil Bey’s statism, he defined himself as a statist in discussions,
indicated a limited state intervention in economy which provides a sphere for private
enterprise. It can also be understood that his idea about statism is in a flexible form
which was open to change according to the daily conditions. At this point, the
significant question is that in what extent the local agenda of Izmir brought by him
into the politics. This question can be answered in two ways. The impacts of economic
depression which was undergone by society could find a place in some speeches, but
not with a special focus of Izmir’s socio-economic conditions such as tobacco
producers/workers or immigrant’s problems. On the other hand, given the fact that
Halil Bey’s political background, it might not be surprising to see high politics and
some personal and historical debates in his agenda.
The second independent deputy from Izmir was Hüsnü Bey. On the contrary to Halil
Bey, Hüsnü Bey did not have a background in politics, and he was a candidate in the
elections. He was a merchant in Izmir who had served as judicial official in the
Ottoman Empire. In the parliament, Hüsnü Bey actively participated in the discussion,
especially about the taxes, monopolies, legal regulations about the settlement and
debts. Before detailing these points individually which were very crucial issues of
Izmir at that period, it might be helpful to mention the basic opposition points of Hüsnü
Bey. As can be estimated, the monopolies were the point of his critiques. But his
speeches explain that his opposition is due to the absence of these state institutions'
174
capacity for trading. In a discussion regarding the budget of the Administration of
Tobacco Monopoly in 1932, Hüsnü Bey clearly explained his critiques about the
Monopolies. According to him, the Tobacco Monopoly could not make a profitable
trade due to the absence of business knowledge. For instance, the Administration
should have considered selling more products at cheaper prices in order to prevent
smuggling and supporting peasants. Further, because the Monopoly Administration
could not manipulate the prices, the foreign companies bought very high-quality
tobacco at a low price. Hüsnü Bey demanded that the Administration would buy
tobacco from producers. Based on his conversation with some peasants, he stated that
peasants would accept even sale on instalments. Finally, he stated that it is the
government’s duty to save these producers from the hands of merchants.287 Therefore,
in his point of view, the Monopoly Administration should be criticized due to the
absence of business mindset in the organization rather than the state’s intervention.
The proposal obviously proves that he accepts state protection over agricultural
producers under some conditions. As an addition to Tobacco Monopoly, during the
budget discussion of the Administration of Gunpowder and Explosive Substance
Monopoly, he said that there was no need to maintain this Administration by
underlining the financial conditions of the institution. According to him, factories
which belonged to Administration consumed all their revenues. Therefore, disposing
of these institutions was more profitable. 288 Another critical position of him was the
law regarding the postal services between ports of Turkey, he overtly opposed to the
law which took these services under the state control and impose the establishment of
287 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c008/tbmm04008052.pdf, p. 261-
262.
288 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c008/tbmm04008053.pdf, p. 298-
299.
175
ta company. Because several people invested in this business and bought ferries for
this business, even the state encouraged this sector and gave them some exemptions.
There was no need to establish a Monopoly in this sector. 289 Consequently, Hüsnü
Bey believed that the state should not intervene in every business sphere; if the private
sector was insufficient, the state should exist. Actually, this was the CHF’s policy, but
he claimed that the government prevented private sector in every year and limited the
business area of the private sector.290
In more regionally speaking, those who examine the activities of the deputy of Izmir
can observe that his positions on some issues were perfectly matching with the Izmir’s
socio-economic conditions and inhabitant’s agenda such as high taxes, exchangees’
debts, problems related to settlement and abandoned property procedures, and high
interest rates in the agricultural segment. He suggested a reduction on the debts of
exchangees, mübadil, within the limits of their default settlement rights. 291 He also
opposed some calculations and implementations of Equalization Tax, muvazene by
stating that the ministry of Finance counted each income and each salary as a subject
of taxation. His suggestion was to increase the minimum wage to be exempted from
this tax from 20 to 40 liras.292 In a similar vein to the suggestions regarding some
reductions over the debts and taxes, Hüsnü Bey also proposed a new regulation
regarding the Economic Depression Tax, which was supposed to be collected from
289 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c009/tbmm04009081.pdf, p. 523-
525.
290 Türkkan Tunalı, Tek Partili Siyasi Hayatta Demokrasiyi Yaşatma Çabaları, p. 686.
291 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c003/tbmm04003028.pdf, p. 125.
292 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c008/tbmm04008052.pdf, p. 251.
176
buildings. To him, buildings with income should be taxed rather than those used for
living.293 In 1934, again Hüsnü Bey strongly objected to the excessive and unequal
taxation of people by defending that when a tax is levied on people, society’s
conditions and fairness should be considered. Again, he defended that properties
without income should not be subject to tax. Moreover, this speech is a particularly
good example to see the reflection of the socio-economic realities of people to the
politics. Because it shows that Hüsnü Bey aimed to describe the economic and living
conditions of the people. He stressed a very crucial reality of society and described the
situation as “those who visited villages and towns know that there are numerous of
people who could not afford salt, it is a proven fact that there were citizens who could
not pay the Road Money and consented the imprisonment.” 294
As a result, the 1931 election with independent candidates was an unusual incident
which made room for those not affiliated with the CHF to engage in politics. The
reflection of this attempt was intense in Izmir. Following the elimination of SCF and
such a period of search for a new way to channel the very harsh socio-economic
conditions, the independent candidates received considerable attention from local
figures who were already in political circles in Izmir. Most of them tried to be a deputy
from the Izmir polling district and made their endeavor visible by writing programmes
to be published publicly. In fact, two places which were left for independent candidates
were filled in Izmir. Hence, at the local level, this attempt to expand exercising politics
reached its target in Izmir. However, when the second stage of the new policy which
293 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c008/tbmm04008054.pdf, p. 358.
294 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/TBMM/d04/c021/tbmm04021039.pdf, p. 68.
177
is bringing opposition to the parliament individually is examined, it can be said that
within the limits of the single party regime, economic policies of the government such
as taxes and Monopolies could be addressed and criticized. More importantly,
alternative policies and implementations were suggested by the deputies. However, it
should be noted that these critiques and suggestions were mostly related to economic
policies of the single party regime. After chasing the politics which surfaced from local
politics and went to parliament, the next part will deal with the politics in more local
level, it will be about the politics against the Party, fırka, in Izmir.
4.2. Fırka/Fırkacılık: A Discursive Way of Opposition
As the previous part which briefly stressed the fact that there was a line separating the
Party, CHF, and Mustafa Kemal, in terms of being a subject of opposition, the party,
fırka, was a quite practical discursive apparatus in politics to declare any dissent.
Especially, after the elimination of SCF from the political sphere, the Party, fırka, was
located into the center of the politics and socio-economic difficulties by those who
were critical of the ruling party. For instance, shortly after the SCF was closed, the
Party was defined as: “For years, the People's Party had fallen into a deep sleep in the
narrow space of its own thoughts and perceptions of its own environment. It had put
an enormous wall of negligence against the critiques and objections.” 295 According to
the supporters of SCF, with the impact of SCF, the ruling party had to change its
indifferent attitudes towards the people’s concerns and produce some policies for these
concerns. For example, the abolishment of the party trustees, mutemed can be
295 “Maziye ve Hale Bir Bakış,” Yeni Asır, 16.03.1931.
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evaluated within this framework. Because during Fethi Bey’s visit to Izmir, massive
protests showed that this position was at the center of public anger.
Those who examined the local press after the SCF was closed can see the impact of it
on society. Fethi Bey and the SCF were seen as a kind of rescuer. On the other hand,
when the party programme is examined, it is not surprising to see this impact. Having
a perfectly matching programme with the daily realities of people, SCF could easily
reach its target group in Western Anatolia and in Izmir. At this point, it might be
particularly useful to briefly explain these matching points to understand the reason
for this massive support which will turn into a dissent against the CHF, fırka, after a
short time. For example, the second article of the programme underlines the tax issue.
It suggests that taxes should not exceed the people’s economic capacity and they
should be reduced. This suggestion should not be surprising, because taxation was a
crucial issue for Fethi Bey. The tithe, aşar, was abolished at the time he was the prime
minister.296 The sixth article also highlighted another major trouble of the peasants’
economic conditions which needed to be improved, which is the Agricultural Bank.
The Bank’s reorganization was suggested by the party’s programme. Besides, the
eighth article was also very crucial for Izmir’s conditions. As a city experiencing
several problematical issues related to settlement and abandoned property, the article
which indicates the cruciality of the decreasing the bureaucratic procedures and
struggling against misconduct and corruption clearly overlaps with the features of the
city. When the abundance of the allegations towards corruption in settlement and
296 Osman Okyar and Mehmet Seyitdanlıoğlu, Atatürk, Okyar ve Çok Partili Türkiye Fethi Okyar’ın
Anıları, (İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2014), p. 73.
179
abandoned property issues in Izmir is taken into consideration, this article presented a
well-suited solution to people of Izmir. Hence, massive support was not very
unsurprising. The most important thing here is that this programme obviously
demonstrates how the realities of daily life were determinant factors in the shaping of
politics. In practice, the reflection of this programme was overt. The municipality
election in 1930 was a success for the new party. SCF won the election in Kuşadası,
Seferihisar, Bergama, Menemen, Urla, Buca, Armutlu and Kınık. 297 However, the
journey of SCF could not continue for a long time, but its impact remained in the public
opinion and public debates in Izmir. It constituted a base for politics, and the local
figures who had supported SCF started to locate their criticism into this foundation.
Even after the party was closed, seeing articles which deal with the question of why
SCF was closed might be very telling to grasp the expectations of the public figures,
who were mostly local elites, from the new party.298 That the expectation was
enormous the conflict became extensive. It seems that while difficulties like economic
crisis were sufficient reasons to be opponent, with the elimination of the SCF who was
believed to be solver of these difficulties boosted the presumption against the CHF,
fırka. Henceforth, the Party was assumed not only as the responsible organ of
economic difficulties, but also a preventer of the solutions to people’s problems.
At this point, an emphasis on one of the local elites Zeynel Besim Bey, chief editor of
Hizmet newspaper and a supporter of SCF, should be quite beneficial to see how a
local elite withdrew from CHF. It is essential to understand this withdrawal, because
297 Cemil Koçak, Belgelerle İktidar ve Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası, (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2014),
p. 311.
298 “Tarihten Bir Yaprak Serbes Fırka Nasıl Açıldı, Nasıl Kapandı,” Yeni Asır, 22.04.1931.
180
when the societal foundations of CHF are examined, it is possible expect that from an
intellectual in Izmir being closer to the Party, which was the case actually. However,
Zeynel Besim Bey resigned from the party. He explained his reasons of withdrawal as
follows: “I attacked the reign of mutemeds, I opposed Monopolies, I criticized the
economic policies. And finally, I left the issues which can be solved in time, but I
asked, at least, to end of the reign of mutemeds.” 299 In his letter of resignation, he also
stated very clearly the foundations of his disengagement from the party as follows:
My proposal for dismissal of the mutemeds who act like a tyranny and
oppressed the people by violating the law, and as a start the dismissal of the
mutemed of Alaşehir was declined. Also, my proposal which suggests that the
party should gain back the people’s attachment via an important cleaning in the
party was declined. Protecting the tyrant by ignoring the people is the worst
thing, to me. 300
After indicating his critiques, Zeynel Besim Bey declared his loyalty to Mustafa Kemal
by saying: “I am a man of principles and ideas, and a follower of Gazi.” 301 Zeynel
Besim Bey’s letter pointed out one more prominent issue which is that the socioeconomic
conditions which sharply hit society, were not the only reason behind the
support towards the SCF. Even though these difficulties can explain the massive
support, the dynamics within the CHF also contributed to the unrest among local
intellectuals and elites. At this point it should be underlined that, with the Regulation
of 1931, the trusteeship, mutemedlik, was abolished by article 70 which imposed the
299 “Zeynel Besim B. Tasrih Ediyor Halk Fırkasına Dönmedim Diyor,” Son Posta, 08.10.1930.
300 Eyüp Öz, Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası ve Muhalif Ege, (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2019), p. 123.
301 Ibid., p. 124.
181
election of the local committees of party.302 Therefore, CHF and the concept, which
is used to criticize the party, fırka and fırkacılık became a widespread theme in the
politic environment of the city. In the local press, these concepts fırka and fırkacılık
turn out to be practical tools to direct the complaints. While, in some cases there was
a concrete target by indicating fırka or fırkacılık, in some cases, they were used to
indicate an ambiguous target. Turning back to the local affairs, the response of CHF
to the massive support towards the SCF from a wide range of social groups such as
peasants and local intellectuals was rapid. Four deputies namely Celal Bey, Münir Bey,
Vasıf Bey, and Halit Bey visited the city, shortly after the closure of SCF in December
1930. As Yeni Asır reported, the reasons for this tour were rehabilitating the
organization of the Party and to understand the reason of the opponency.303 This tour
and the meetings organized by the deputies are good examples of the grounds to
observe the relation between the Party and people. The committee visited Ödemiş,
Tire, Bayındır and Torbalı. The reporter of Yeni Asır depicted the arriving of the
committee as follows; they were encountered with an indifference, lakaydı. According
to the reporter, the reason behind this indifference from society is complaints about
Dr. Mustafa Bey, mutemed. Besides, according to the reporter, the connection between
the commission and the people was also limited. To illustrate, there were only a limited
number of supporters and only state officials in the meetings. Further, in another
meeting, also there were only 80 people, even though the meeting was declared before
and local intellectuals were invited to the meeting. Like the previous meeting, also in
302 CHF Program ve Nizamnamesi, (Ankara: TBMM Matbaası, 1931), p. 15.
303 “Ağır Mesuliyetler,” Yeni Asır, 07.12.1930.
182
this meeting most of the attendees were officials, teachers and those who were CHF
supporters all along. In this meeting, Vasıf Bey made a speech and admitted mistakes
and that the Party neglected the youth and intellectuals. But he also added that in the
new organization of the Party, youth and intellectuals would be the ones which the
Party rely on. Relying on his observations on the tour, the reporter evaluates the
meetings and the visit as a limited connection. To him, deputies reached only a limited
number of people who were already the supporters of CHF. The reporter also
underlined that the visit did not inspire confidence in the people.304
After Ödemiş, the committee visited Tire and organized a meeting here, as well.
Security forces invited the people from the coffee houses and a crowd gathered in the
meeting places. Then, the meeting turned into a conference. According to the reporter
there was not any intellectual who could explain the difficulties experienced by people
by presenting proof. While people knew their problems, they could not analyze and
convey to the deputies. A tobacco producer Sait Ağa complained about the tobacco
merchants and Monopoly Administration and explained their actions to Vasıf Bey and
a young namely Muammer demanded a middle school for Tire. According to the
reporter, the meeting was unsuccessful because the sufferings of the region could not
be conveyed adequately to the authorities. 305
While the mentioned stops of the tour demonstrate how the representatives of the Party
were received by the local people, the committee's visit to Menemen is a more
304 “CHF Teşkilat Heyeti Ödemişte Lakaydı ile Karşılandı Halk Fırkanın Samimiyetini Sözle Değil İşle
Ölçüyor,” Yeni Asır, 03.12.1930.
305 “Tire’de CHF,” Yeni Asır, 07.12.1930.
183
explaining case to see this connection between the Part and the people. In the meeting,
people complained about agricultural prices, the Agricultural Bank, heavy taxes and
neglection of the youth. However, they also complained about the ones who
represented the party at the local level. According to their claims, some people from
the Party prevented an exhibition which would be organized by the Turkish Hearth,
Türk Ocağı, because of personal concerns. They also stated that as long as these kinds
of people were in power, success could not be realized. In addition to this, a young
person who defined himself as a supporter of SCF, Serbestçi, also spoke in the
meeting and asked whether it is a crime to support this party. This young person also
claimed that some people from CHF insulted them, and they did not have the right to
behave like this. 306
On the other hand, even though the tour was reported as an unsuccessful attempt by
the reporters, Vasıf Bey evaluated this tour as a successful visit, and he also stated that
he was pleased because of the people’s sympathy towards the committee. He also
declared that he believed that the committee’s explanation regarding the conditions of
the country would affect the perception of the party in a positive way. 307 Following
the tour in the peripheral regions in Izmir, the committee arrived in Izmir and organized
a series of meetings with diverse groups of people. As can be understood from the
article, teachers and doctors of the city were one of the groups. However, the other
major group in the city targeted by the CHF deputies were the merchants. The city's
merchants were invited to the meeting, and 15 of them joined. In the meeting, Vasıf
306 “Menemen’de Halk Dertlerini Döktü,” Yeni Asır, 09.12.1930.
307 “Vilayette Bir İçtima,” Yeni Asır, 07.12.1930.
184
Bey’s speech was very remarkable. Vasıf Bey said that in every region in the tour, they
see that there was propaganda to accuse the Party as the only responsible for the crisis
of country, but, to him, the crisis was global. Further, with this speech, Vasıf Bey
declared that in the new organization attempts initiated by the party, it is aimed the
participation of all people from the lowest strata of the society to the highest one. For
this reason, he invited merchants to participate in the Party. In doing so, he believed
they could dictate their economic needs to the politicians. This is an interesting
example which challenge the established perception regarding the nature of the singleparty
regime of the Turkish Republic. It shows that the Party needed social support.
Rather than being an autonomous entity, CHF's attempts to reorganize the party
branches, to invite the merchants to the party in Izmir shortly after the case of SCF and
to organize a tour to the city in order to explain the projected attempts shows that the
single party regime did not feel safe enough to be blind to the popular support, but
instead, there was a search of explanation of policies, accepting the responsibilities
and expanding the popular support for the Party. As Metinsoy stated, the single-party
state of the Turkish Republic should not be evaluated as a rigid bureaucratic entity
which is autonomous from the society, contrary, it should be seen as an entity which
needed to paid attention to social conditions and popular opinion.308 In this respect, the
tour of CHF deputies in Izmir and their meetings in such a context when the dissent
was at top level due to the end of SCF is a significant case.
308 Murat Metinsoy, “Fragile Hegemony, Flexible Authoritarianism, And Governing from Below:
Politicians’ Reports in Early Republican Turkey,” International Journal of Middle East Studies. 43
(2011), p. 699–719.
185
Several well-known merchants of Izmir participated in the meeting and presented their
complaints to the CHF committee. Their complaints were predictable, such as taxes,
monopolies, and economic policies. However, after the meeting merchant Fevzi sent
e letter to Yeni Asır and explained why he did not attend the meeting and the reasons
for his position against the Party. These documents explain very clearly the other side’s
perceptions in this relation. The letter started with very well-defined statement: “We
do not believe in their truthfulness.” According to the letter, it is believed that CHF
deputies could not learn the merchants' problems from this meeting, because the
authorities of the party did not learn from several meetings, reports, newspaper articles
and applications to the government. Secondly, these meetings were nothing, but only
party propaganda, for him. Merchant Fevzi toughly criticized Vasıf Bey’s invitation
to merchants to the party and evaluates this invitation as a kind of condition to pay
attention to merchants’ problems. To him, this meeting was organized to push
merchants to participate in the party, not to understand their problems.309 Merchant
Fevzi Bey continued to display his ideas about this meeting between the Party and
merchants. In this article, published after 2 days, we learned that the name, Fevzi, was
not his real name. In his second article, according to Fevzi Bey, CHF’s desire to
everyone became a party member, even though they had different political ideas is an
attempt to form the tower of babel in political manner.310 In his final letter, Fevzi Bey
continued his critiques regarding the organization and the administration of the Party.
He claimed that the administration system of the party was based on a kind of military
discipline which did not accept any objection to any decision made in the center of the
309 “Niçin Bulunmadılar,” Yeni Asır, 10.12.1930.
310 “Ne İçin Halk Fırkasına Girmiyoruz,” Yeni Asır, 16.12.1930.
186
Party. According to him, those who hold a position in the party were chosen from those
who could not object to any decision. Secondly, he criticized the party for not being
confident enough and defended that the center administration of the Party did not trust
even their own members and approached everyone with suspicion. The expectation of
the Party, to him, was to obey the orders. Because of the distrust towards people, the
party could not nominate more than the quota in the elections. In addition to these ideas
of merchants about the Party, the local press also shows that merchants as the ones
whose voices against the Party’s economic policies were the loudest one hesitated from
the possible negative effects of these conversations with the deputies. In a similar vein
to the anonymously signed letters as indicated above, one of the reasons for not
attending was stated as the risk of being labelled and preventing their business such as
getting credit from Business Bank. Because they claimed that those who supported
SCF in municipality election lost their jobs after the election.311 All in all, it is an
obvious reality that the merchants did not evaluate this communication with the CHF
deputies as a helpful step for their problems by assuming that the party was indifferent
to these complaints.
On the other hand, while the tour of CHF deputies depicts the relation between the
individuals and the Party as a mistrustful one by criticizing the Party and the workings
of the Party, in daily life the impact of fırkacılık/fırka is an evident reality. Mostly,
these concepts were associated with corruption and nepotism. In an article penned by
İsmail Hakkı, the municipality was the center of critiques; it was accused of being a
resource of distributing beneficence to the members of CHF, fırkacı. In the minds of
311 “Ne İçin Gitmemişlerdir,” Yeni Asır, 11.12.1930.
187
municipality officials, priority was the Party, fırka, because the party was the resource
of their prosperity, while the law was secondary in their mind. However, the reason
behind this accusation was the mayor's absence from his office during the daytime.
According to İsmail Hakkı, as an institution who took its power from people, the
mayor did not concern about the people’s problems and was not attentive to the
people’s works in the Municipality.312 Another case also displays that people’s
perception about CHF. Upon the whisperings about the resignation of Behçet Salih
Bey who was the head of CHF in Izmir, the press asked what the relevant thing for
people in this news is. According to the news, 999 of total 1000 total citizens would
ask what the relevant thing to us is. Since the Party could not be interiorized by
people.313
In addition to this kind of perception regarding CHF, another point of critique is about
the trade and party relationship. Local networks which include politics and trade are
very related issues in Izmir’s political and economic agenda. As one of the major
centers of trade, dealing with trade in Izmir was very profitable, but also competitive,
as well. There were many merchants and companies in the city from various sectors.
In such a context, the political power and connections can put some merchants in front
in this competition. The impact of the Party in trade was also evident. To illustrate,
being a member of the local branches of CHF might have been useful to conduct trade
activities. When the composition of the local administrators of CHF in Western
Anatolia is examined, it is possible to see that they were mostly local entrepreneurs.
312 “Vazife Aşkı,” Yeni Asır, 06.03.1931.
313 “CHF Teşkilatı,” Yeni Asır, 20.07.1931.
188
To illustrate, in Aydın most of the upper party administrators were entrepreneurs,
especially those in the textile industry.314 Therefore, it is not a wrong assumption to
say that trade and politics were very interwoven. To illustrate, in the case of timber
trade party connections were pointed out as the reasons of corruption. According to
article, titled as the “the claw of the Party reaches even to the trade, the accusation was
that being a Party member opened the ways of gaining license to import timber. Şerif
Şerif Remzi Bey, who was a member of CHF’s administration could not obtain the
required license to import the timbers in time. According to the writer, somehow by
benefiting from a law, he could get the license. The reason behind this, for the author,
is because he is from CHF. For this reason, he was not subject to the law; the law was
subject to him.315 In another case in which the trade, politics, the Party, and the
Monopoly Administration were interwoven with each other, Talat Bey was accused of
being protected by the Monopoly. According to claims of the newspaper, Turgut Bey
who was a member of administration board of CHF, had 250.000 kilogram of tobacco
and stocked these products in his warehouse since 1928. This tobacco was to be bought
by the Monopoly Administration. The accusation started at that point. The author
criticized the Administration for buying from such a rich merchant rather than buying
from small producers such as Hasan Ağa with 1500 kilograms and Mehmet Çavuş with
2000 kilograms. In a very satiric tone, author asks what a coincidence that the
Monopoly Administration run to help Talat Bey who was from the Party’s
administration board.316
314 Murat Metinsoy, “Kemalizmin Taşrası: Erken Cumhuriyet Taşrasında Parti, Devlet ve Toplum,”
Toplum ve Bilim, 2010. p. 31.
315 “Fırka Pençesi,” Yeni Asır, 11.06.1931.
316 “Halkçılıkları Tersine Geyilmiş Plütokrasi Küllahına Benziyor,” Yeni Asır, 14.06.1931.
189
In conclusion, the concepts of fırka/fırkacılık, were very frequent concepts on the
agenda of the city’s daily life from politics to trade. Politics, mostly opposition, was
generally located on these concepts by the opposition. While the Party and the people
who were engaged to it were associated with corruption and also with indifference
towards the society by the local opposition, these concepts provide very practical
discursive tools to opposition to raise their criticisms towards the ruling party by
separating the Party from the leadership. The portray of the opposition and politics in
Izmir, shortly after the SCF experience was ended, looked like this. On the other hand,
the opposition towards CHF was not the only feature to describe the politics within the
political circles in the city. It is interesting to see that when the crisis deepened, the
search for an economic paradigm surfaced in the following years and the state
increased its protectionist economic policies, the politics/opposition was shaped
differently in Izmir. This change is the next part’s inquiry.
4.3. What the State Should Do: Unstable Positions between Statism and
Liberalism in Economy
Despite Izmir is known for its economic-based opposition to CHF during the early
1930s, this political position was not a stable position during the single-party period.
At the time of searching for economic strategies during the 1930s, Izmir’s well-known
image of supporting liberal views in economy and criticizing the state’s presence in
economy did not remain same. The intellectual debates regarding the economic
principles of liberalism and that of statism were very prevalent in the press. In fact,
such an existence of this kind of economic and intellectual discussion in press should
190
not be unexpected. In more detail, the Monopolies, trade licenses, quota
implementations in trading activities, restrictions on some importing activities and
state support towards the agricultural sector can be counted as the subjects of these
discussions. In Izmir, the above-mentioned issues were the main subjects of the city’s
economic agenda. Especially, in Yeni Asır newspaper, most of the local intellectuals
discussed the economic principles of socialism, capitalism, statism, and other
economic outlooks from the point of searching the well-suited programme for Turkish
economy. To illustrate, there was a debate between Burhan Asaf Bey and an
anonymous author of the Yeni Asır regarding the principles of liberalism and
socialism.317 This kind of polemic was also on a national scale. The most known
example was the one between Şevket Süreyya Aydemir and Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın. As
the representatives of two different ecole, respectively, in Kadro and Fikir Hareketleri
journals, political and economic paradigms of statism and liberalism were debated.318
In that time of search of economic paradigm in 1932, Celal Bayar became Minister of
Finance. The expectations of the press in İzmir from this change were expanding the
business circle, increasing the exporting and industrial activities and free importing of
some items.319 Whereas, after the declaration of Celal Bayar which explained his
projected economic policy, the expectations were declined in the press. The
disappointment was explained as “after all, İsmet Paşa’s cabinet belongs to
317 “Biz Liberal Miyiz,” Yeni Asır 13.07.1931.
“Bizim İstediklerimiz,” Yeni Asır 20.09.1931.
318 Temuçin Faik Ertan, Atatürk Döneminde Devletçilik-Liberalizm Tartışmaları, Şevket
Süreyya(Aydemir)-Hüseyin Cahit (Yalçın) Polemiği, (Ankara: Phoenix Yayınları, 2010).
319 “İktisat Vekili Celal Bey İşe Başladı,” Yeni Asır, 11.09.1932.
191
CHF.” When these intellectual debates which were very related with the actual issues
of people including trade and agricultural segments were evident in public, the Turkish
state increased its intervention to economy in the early 1930s. The agricultural sector
was aimed to be protected via different policies such as direct purchasing. In such a
context, there was an unexpected change in İzmir’s press, the concepts of planning and
some other related concepts such as state socialism were brought to debate by
contemporary intellectuals. According to Kazgan, the concept of planning was
introduced by some intellectuals in journal of Kadro namely Şevket Süreyya Aydemir,
İsmail Hüsrev Tökin, Vedat Nedim Tör and Burhan Asaf Belge and they defended the
statist policies in economy.320 At this point, the significance of İsmail Hüsrev Tökin
should be emphasized, his observations in the villages of Anatolia in 1930s were
frequently used in this research. In short, planning which means more state presence
in economy was on the political and intellectual agenda. This policy can seem contrary
to that of İzmir’s public opinion which was previously in a critical position towards
the state intervention to economy, especially the trade circles. However, state
interventionism was the distinctive point of the 1930s, together with the promotion of
domestic industry.321 The statism basically was based on the principle that the state’s
leading role as producer and investor in the urban sector.322 Prior to the first five-year
plan which was prepared and implemented between 1934 and 1938, there were some
references to planning and state socialism in the press. What the publicists understand
from these concepts was actually some concrete economic policies which will be
320 Gülten Kazgan, Tanzimat’tan 21. Yüzyıla Türkiye Ekonomisi, (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi
Yayınları, 2006), p. 60.
321 Owen and Pamuk, A History of Middle East, p. 10.
322 Ibid., p. 30.
192
addressed below. On the other hand, it should also be underlined that when the Russia
and its economic paradigm such as planning became familiar to the public opinion,
these concepts such as planning were emphasized by the press. The local press showed
an interest on Russia and its method in economy, which was planning, planlaşmak.323
Those who investigated the local discussions about the economy at the end of 1931 can
see how political positions such as being liberal or being opponent were changing in
accordance with the economic realities. The mentioned article was the most explaining
document for this fact. As the leader of the principles of liberal economies and the
supporter of the minimum existence of the state in business, especially in trade, Yeni
Asır newspaper, admitted that the principles of liberal ecole and that of the capitalist
economy failed to overcome to difficulties brought by the economic depression.
According to article, even in England, France and America, state was called to control
economy, to put it in an order, and to administrate the economy. Besides, even those
who objected to socialism were treating it as a way of salvation. In the article, planning,
which was designed according to new conditions of the global economy, was
addressed as the reason behind the success of the Soviets. According to writer, this is
the deficiency of Turkey’s economy, not having a plan. The author gave a very
significant example of this deficiency. To him, when the tobacco companies abuse the
tobacco producers, most people demanded that the Tobacco Monopoly would
intervene in this issue similarly with other cases such as fig, grape, cotton or Japan and
Russian dumping cases. All people say: “state should intervene.” However, the
intervention could only be realized if and when there was a plan.” The author who
323 “Acele Bir İhtiyaç,” Yeni Asır, 15.10.1931.
193
signed the article by A.A. concluded his article by saying “It is needed a plan to protect
our agriculture and promote our industry.” 324 In another article which criticizes the
tobacco policies of CHF, Russia and the steps which were taken in economic sphere
were indicated as the sample case to see the contribution and improvements which
brought by the plan.325 The interest on Russia and the economic program imposed by
Russia continued in press. Upon the visit of Litvinof to Turkey, the commissar of
foreign affairs of Russia, it is suggested that rather than seeking help from America to
organize the economy, it should be followed Russia’s step of planning. Further, this
visit was seen as way of benefiting from the experiences of Russia. 326
In addition to the interest on the term of planning policy in search of economic
strategies, another term which was discussed by the previous opposition circles is the
concept of state socialism. Those who examine the local press in İzmir at the end of
1931 could probably realize the frequent use of the concept of state socialism. Within
the context of period, this term was used mostly as the equivalent of statism by the
publicist. It is interesting to see that while the complaints about the state’s presence in
the economy were the center of the dissent, now the local press, who had been the
liberal side of the political scale, strongly defended the state’s existence in the
economy. Even more, the economic system which is under the state administration
was defended and recommended by the authors.327 The impact of Russia on the İzmir’s
324 “Acele Bir İhtiyaç,” Yeni Asır, 15.10.1931.
325 “Muvaffak Olmak İçin,” Yeni Asır, 28.10.1931.
326 “Litvinof Yoldaş Ankaraya Gidiyor,” Yeni Asır, 26.10.1931.
327 “Yıkılan Dünya Yakında Yapılan Dünya,” Yeni Asır, 29.11.1931.
194
press was not limited with these opinion articles, in the following days, newspaper
published a series of article about the new life in new Russia, which explained various
aspects of the economic structure in Russia such as agricultural structure in the country
and collective and state farms, soykoz and kolhoz. .328
In practice, this interest towards Russia’s economic advancements through planning
from the press, turned into a plan in Turkey, as well. The first five-year plan was
launched in 1934 with the guidance of Soviet advisors.329 Turkey became the first
country which adopted planning after Russia. 330 In more detail, with adaptation of
statist policies in 1932, the Turkish state took the duty of primary actor as the capital
accumulator with a series of industrialization policies. The five-year industrialization
plan was designed to coordinate the investment programs of the state economic
enterprises.331 The plan included industrial investment projects in different sectors
which were mostly consumer goods and imported goods. 332 The investments were to
be in textiles, sugar, mining, paper and cellulose, ceramic, glass, and simple chemical
products. At this point, it might be beneficial to mention the period after the initiation
of the first plan in 1934. Even such a responsibility in the hands of the state was
welcomed by the local press in İzmir. This plan was evaluated as the step towards the
major aim of the Turkish Revolution which is the realization of Yüksek Hayat by
328 “Yeni Rusya’da Hayat,” Yeni Asır, 17.12.1931.
329 Owen and Pamuk, A History of Middle East, p. 18.
330 Kazgan, Tanzimat'tan 21. Yüzyıla, p. 60.
331 Şevket Pamuk, “Political Economy of Industrialization in Turkey, ” MERIP Reports, Jan. 1981, No.
93, Turkey: The Generals Take Over (Jan., 1981), p. 2.
332 Mehmet Gökhan Polatoğlu, Türkiye Cumhuriyet Devleti’nin İlk Planlı Dönem Sanayileşme
Faaliyetleri (1934-1938), (Ankara: Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Yayınları, 2020), p. 89.
195
providing an opportunity to vast majority of people to gain vital and civilized needs.
Turning back to the period prior to the five-year plan and to İzmir, there is one more
point to emphasize at this point. In addition to the power of the material realities in the
political positions including economic policies, the other point is that looking at the
expectations of the society from the state socialism, socialism or planning could be
very helpful to understand how these concepts were understood by people in practice.
Examples from the press demonstrates that the authors mostly assess these concepts
as tools for contributing to living conditions of the life of people with very concrete
implementations such as enacting a Labor Law to regulate the working conditions of
the workers. For instance, from the following article in which the terms of socialism
and statism were mentioned, it can be understood that socialism was seen as a power
to provide work for everyone. In the same article which penned to discuss the speech
of İsmat Paşa in the Congress of Medicine regarding nutrition, the author discussed
the food issue with references to socialism and statism. To him, in a well-organized
statist economy, everyone could reach work and, hence, food. In order to provide this,
the state capital was needed. Another interesting point in this article is that the tone of
the statement was very strong and full of analogies. To illustrate, the author defined
socialism as a power which takes dessert and champagne from one’s table but puts
many others’ table bread and soup.333 In another article, surprisingly, CHF was
accused of not being statist and also accused of not escaping from the influence of
capitalism by the author in Yeni Asır who had been strongly against the statist policies.
333 “Herkese Tam Gıda,” Yeni Asır, 25.09.1931.
196
The reason of this accusation was the incapability of CHF to provide a labor politics
and also the indifference of the party in protecting the port workers’ rights. 334
In conclusion, the political positions of the public figures in the local press who were
generally assumed as the opposition side should not be seen as fixed entities. Debates
around the concepts such as statism, socialism and state socialism and their potential
effects to Turkish economy in İzmir’s press illustrate that when the crisis deepened
political positions were changed.
4.4. Conclusion
The region of Western Anatolia and İzmir as the urban center of the region were
generally approached as the heart of the opposition towards CHF in the formative years
of the Republic. In some respects, this is a valid interpretation. As the most beaten
region of the country by the Global Depression, individuals channeled their support to
an alternative organization whose principles and programme were perfectly matched
to their complaints. On the other hand, evaluating political positions, in this case the
position is opposition, within this limited sample case caused an ignorance of the
multifaceted aspects of opposition.
This chapter demonstrated the complexity of the opposition. Utilizing from specific
cases, the elections of 1931, concepts of fırka/fırkacılık and some concepts which were
new in the public debates such as socialism, state socialism and statism, this part
334 “Herkese İş, Herkese Hayat ve Herkese Refah,” Yeni Asır, 16.9.1931.
197
portrayed different figures from several social groups and different cases in which
individuals separated themselves from the ruling party and in which they criticized the
ruling party. These examples provided three points regarding the nature of the politics
and opposition in the city. The first one is that, as can be understood from the first
case, after the opposition channel was closed, the new channel, independent
candidates, gained attention from people in Izmir. While the independent candidates
presented their programme to the public and tried to be in parliament, the election was
perceived as a failure because of not voting for independent candidates. Secondly, in
local level politics, the Party, CHF was located into the very center of the critiques. It
was generally associated with corruption and indifference to society by referring to the
fırka and fırkacılık concepts. The third point is that the local press and the debates on
these organs clearly show that how the concepts and political positions could change
in accordance with the economic and social realities, even from being a supporter of
liberalism to that of socialism.
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
The present study aims to explore the societal aspects of Izmir in the formative years
of the Turkish Republic. Utilizing from local resources and the Modern Turkish
historiography related to the region, the study aims to reveal local themes which can
provide more nuanced understanding of the early Republican Turkey and also provide
a local and micro processes in Izmir which undergo simultaneously with the macro
processes. This is the departing point of the present study. Generally associated with
the city's demographic components, Izmir and Western Anatolia are still discussed in
the homogenization/Turkification paradigm. While the exodus of the Greek
inhabitants of the region and the massive population exchange has changed the city’s
socio-economic and socio-political conditions radically; this paradigm limits to reveal
socio-economic realities of the period. Thanks to an extensive local press collection in
Izmir, it is possible to reach and follow the agenda in the city. With an examination on
these local press organs, the study suggests that three major and local themes to
understand the socio-economic and socio-political realities in Izmir by going beyond
the grand narrative of demographic homogenization and reach the experiences of the
inhabitants of Izmir at the period of “post-Turkification/homogenization.”
The results of the investigation on these local sources show that agricultural sector,
abandoned property issue and local politics were the most embracing themes to explain
and to analyze the local socio-economic and socio-political realities in the city. These
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themes and the sub-themes clearly portray the impacts of the macro processes in the
local contexts. After this investigation, the second phase of the study comes into view.
The second aim of this study is to investigate the interaction between the state and
society on these themes. The major inquiry to be asked about these themes is how
society located state and state related entities such as institutions, laws, and the ruling
party into these grounds. In Izmir case, these entities are unique and local to the region
such as the Monopoly Administration, the Agricultural Bank, the law which regulates
the abandoned property politics, local officials of the ruling party.
As the center of export-based agricultural production, the agricultural sector in Izmir’s
occupies a considerable place in the city’s socio-economic dimensions. In parallel to
this crucial place, the agricultural sector, including producers and other actors in these
production activities is full of issues to be discussed. The findings of the study indicate
three major themes to be identified as the most crucial themes in the agricultural sector.
The agricultural prices, the taxation of the agricultural segment and the highly indebted
agricultural segment are these sub themes which can provide a full depiction of the
agricultural segment of Izmir in the early years of the Republic. As the most frequent
issues in the local press and in the local complaints sent to state officials, these themes
were examined in detail by Chapter 2. By treating these themes as the most frequent
reality of the daily life in the agricultural sector, this chapter counts these themes as
the most frequent grounds of the relation between the state, related institutions or
officials, and the individuals. In this chapter, each sub theme was dealt with by
questioning the same question which is the how the state was located in this issue by
individuals. Each of the sub themes indicates different perceptions and expectations.
In more detail, given the fact that the agricultural prices which is the first sub theme
200
were the major agenda and they declined sharply after the Global Depression, it can
be concluded that the state institutions like the Monopolies were called to intervene
the prices with various methods such as price manipulations. In addition to the price
issue, the state was expected to have another duty in some specific cases such as the
foreign companies’ abuse/exploitation became reality, which is the very particular
component of the agricultural production and the trade in Izmir. Protection of the
producers against the foreign companies’ actions was another responsibility of the
state. The related state institutions were frequently invited to this business relation as
the protector of peasants. Taxation, on the other hand, can be marked as one of the
sufferings in daily life. Even though the Turkish state aimed to reduce the tax burden
from the agricultural sector, the cumulative effects of the crisis which had started with
the Global Depression made this burden unbearable. The taxation policies of the
Turkish state were the focus of complaints. Demands of society were tax reductions
and tax amnesties. When the question is asked the question of what the state’s position
in this issue was, the answer might be both, the creator, and the solver of the problem.
While the state was blamed for unequal distribution of the tax obligations among the
social groups and unfunctional mechanisms of tax assessments, it was also evaluated
as the authority to apply individually. On the other hand, the position of the state
against this social burden in this segment of society is not counted as indifferency. Tax
reductions and tax amnesties were presented as the solution, mostly to solve daily and
urgent needs rather than structural reforms for tax burden on the agricultural sector.
Indebtedness, as the result of the previous two developments in society, was
destructive for the agricultural segment. Almost every producer had a tax or a credit
debt to the state institutions such as the Agricultural Bank. In addition to the official
loaning, the disruptive element of this issue was individual credit providers which were
201
known as usurers or murabahacı. Usuriousness was prevalent in the rural part of the
region, and it also became a social crisis. The absence of a well-organized and wellfunctioning
credit providing mechanism by the state institutions caused the state and
the individuals to come face to face in this point. While the Agricultural Bank was at
the center of complaints, the demand was an intervention from the state to the credit
providing system by monopolizing the right to give permission to be an individual
creditor, regulating interest rates and introducing more accessible credit institutions
for small peasantry like credit cooperatives. However, these mechanisms could not be
realized by the state. In conclusion, while this chapter reveals the three major societal
realities of the inhabitants in Izmir’s rural segment in the early years of the Turkish
Republic, it also provides an outlook about the interplay between the individuals and
the state on these grounds. The study highlights the daily realities which emerged from
the society itself, as mentioned three themes, and also the significance of the material
realities in analyzing the relations between the state and society.
Examination of the local resources also displays the reflections of the population
exchange in practice. The reflection of the population exchange in daily life is the
revealing of the new conflict zones between the state and society, and among the
society itself. This contested ground is the politics of abandoned property. As the
originator of new interests, new collective and personal identities, new legal
regulations, and new alliances, abandoned property became a conflict ground in the
early years of the Republic in Izmir. In order to benefit from this economic resource,
individuals both with rights to benefit and other ones without rights claimed share over
these properties. With a special focus on three cases which represent different aspects
of the distribution policies of the abandoned property, this part claims that even though
202
the population exchange, which is evaluated as one of the instruments by Turkish
nation-state to homogenize the population in the process of Turkish nation building
process, in societal level it caused new micro differences. The mentioned cases
indicate that complexities which were brought by migration and population exchange
processes, led to the birth of new complexities. While the first case indicates how the
fact of abandoned property overlapped with the landless peasantry reality of the early
Republican Turkey, the case also underlines another major point of the Turkish
Republic in the formative years. Local power relations of the single-party state in daily
life surfaced in distribution of the abandoned property. A party trustee, mutemed, and
peasants had a disagreement over an abandoned property and claimed right over this
land. Second case underlines the fact that how Turkish state was incapable of ending
the property allocation process without causing new contested grounds. Focusing on
the liquidation law in 1931, this case illustrates how the legislation attempts of the state
to end and solve the ongoing problems of the property distribution process constituted
new conflict zones which were perceived as threat to the equality notion in the society.
The third case was selected to display another indirect impact of the population
exchange, which is the emergence of the new collective identities which were built
around the abandoned property. When some implementations of the state were
perceived as unfair in the property issue, an interest group was formed with the aim of
protecting rights against the deficient implementations of the state institutions. This is
a very telling case in order to comprehend the significance of property issues in the
relation between the state and society. To sum up, this chapter aims to highlight the
significance of the reflections of the macro policies in daily life. In the demographic
homogenization process, the reflection was surfacing of the new conflict zones such
as abandoned property between individuals.
203
Those who investigate the local press in Izmir can see that politics was a dominant
subject in the press. Almost every day a specific issue from the national or local agenda
was discussed by the publicists. The interesting point here is that these publicists were
also, in a sense, political figures. For this reason, following these public discussions
provides explicit data to observe the political insights of these figures. When politics
and especially the opposition became a question, SCF experience in Izmir and Western
Anatolia was generally addressed. SCF and its programme was perfectly matched
Izmir’s local agenda. By presenting exact solutions for settlement related problems,
economic crisis and rural deprivation, the party could reach its target group. On the
other hand, evaluating the exercising politics within the frame of the massive support
to SCF and limiting the political activities in the city with the SCF experience might
cause a wrong presumption about the nature of politics in the city by generalizing the
entire political activities within the opposition paradigm. Locating the city into a
natural opposition position towards the current politics might be misleading to
understand the dynamics of politics in the city. Because when articles of the public
figures who discussed politics such as economic policies of the CHF in the press are
examined, it is hard to specify a fixed political position. On the other hand, it is not
that hard to specify the changes in accordance with the subject and context. Out of
this big amount of data, which consists of many articles about politics in almost every
aspect, three topics were selected for this part to understand in what grounds the local
politics/opposition arose. Th first one is selected to see the separation from the CHF.
With the new regulation in CHF, the independent candidates could be nominee to the
deputy elections in 1931. In Izmir, those who wanted to be an independent deputy sent
their personal programmes to the newspaper and specified their split from the CHF
204
policies. In this part which examines the entire process of the election from the
beginning of the preparing the programmes of these candidates to the workings of the
“elected” candidates in the parliament, the exercising of the politics and opposition are
questioned. In addition to the politics in national and parliamentarian level, the second
concept was specified to see the local level politics. The concept of partisanship, fırka,
fırkacılık, was selected because it was frequently used terms in usage to make politics
and criticize the policies of the ruling party. By treating these concepts as the discursive
way of exercising politics, this part focuses on how the ruling party was located into
politics. These concepts were helpful to see local connections around trade activities,
politics, and CHF. Within the secure limits of the concept of fırka/fırkacılık, local
opposition was prevalent. Mostly criticized for being indifferent to society and being
the center of corruption, the ruling party was intensely targeted by the local figures.
Following the articles in the press over time provided an opportunity to see the changes
of the positions according to the context. The third case of this part was selected to
expand the borders of the idea of opposition by indicating unstable positions of those
who were known for their opposition towards the ruling party. This part basically
underlines the fact that when the crisis deepened, economic policies and principles
were reviewed, and positions fundamentally changed. In Izmir case, this change was
a transition from being an opposite to the statist economic policies of the state by
challenging the state’s position in economy to defending more interventionist policies
in economy. Due to the changing economic conditions of the period, most people who
were engaged in politics had to reorient their point of views about economic policies
and defended more state intervention to the economy. Therefore, the existence of
changing positions rather than fixed positions in politics, specifically in opposition, in
205
accordance with the current economic conditions might be a useful outlook to
understand the politics and opposition in such a context.
Focusing on the before-mentioned three contexts, this dissertation is an attempt to add
a layer to social history of early Republican Turkey by differentiating Izmir as a space
of analysis. Although the mentioned contexts namely the agricultural sector,
settlement in practice and the politics were not the peculiar context to only Izmir’s
socio-economic and socio-political conditions, the uniqueness to Izmir is the
combination of these three contexts in the same place and time. In other words, the
intersection of these themes such as abandoned property crisis, tobacco production or
having an established press tradition to allow space for political debates were the
unique condition of Izmir. Therefore, the combination of these local contexts
constituted a meaningful portrayal to analysis the socio-economic developments of the
city during the early years of the Republic. Such a combination, which was full of
complexities experienced by individuals, led to the establishment of a relation between
state and individuals on demands to eliminate acute material problems. In a similar
vein with Cem Emrence’s suggestion which is the politics of discontent in examining
the SCF experience, these problems which covered every sphere of the life of people
are the main foundation in the relation between the state and society in Izmir during
the formative years of the Turkish Republic. All in all, politics of everyday realities
which were emerged from the socio-economic and socio-political peculiarities of
Izmir; and also, day-to-day expectations and critiques towards the state can be marked
as one of the key insights to deepen the understanding about the social history of the
Modern Turkish history and also for the relational researches on this topic.
206
REFERENCES
PRIMARY SOURCES
1. Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Directorate of State Archives,
Republican Archive, Ankara (BCA)
BCA Başbakanlık, Muamelat Genel Müdürlüğü Fonu BCA, 30-10- 0- 0
BCA Toprak İskân Genel Müdürlüğü, Muhacirin Fonu, 272-0-0-0
2. TBMM, Arzuhal Encümeni Haftalık Karar Cetveli.
3. Local and National Newspapers
Cumhuriyet
Yeni Asır
Serbes Cumhuriyet
Işık
Ahenk
Vakit
Milliyet
4. Newspaper Articles
“Izmir Hatıraları.” Cumhuriyet, 03.07.1929.
“Açlıkla Mücadele.” Yeni Asır, 05.01.1930.
“İşçilerin Aydın Kumpanyasından.” Yeni Asır, 07.01.1931.
“Türk Köylüsü.” Yeni Asır, 13.10.1932.
“Köylünün Derdi.” Yeni Asır, 06.06.1933.
“Bizdeki Buhran.” Serbes Cumhuriyet, 02.12.1930.
207
“Bizdeki Buhran.” Yeni Asır, 16.12.1930.
“Müstahsilin Sıkıntısı.” Yeni Asır, 13.09.1932.
“Amerika Tütün Kumpanyaları.” Yeni Asır, 23.09.1938.
“Zavallı Tütüncüler.” Yeni Asır, 04.12.1930.
“Ecnebi Kumpanyalar.” Yeni Asır, 06.11.1932.
“Merhun Tütünler.” Yeni Asır, 19.05.1931.
“İnhisar Umum Müdürü Gitti.” Yeni Asır, 28.07.1933.
“Bir de Müstahsili Dinleyelim. Ziraat Bankası Köylüden Tahsilatını Nasıl Yapıyor.”
Yeni Asır, 19.08.1932.
“Müstahsilin Sesi.” Yeni Asır, 06.04.1932.
“Beş Okka Arpa.” Yeni Asır, 13.10.1933.
“Köylerde Tetkikler.” Yeni Asır, 9.12.1939.
“Vergileri Kim Ödüyor.” Yeni Asır, 11.11.1932.
“Köylüye Vermek Devri Artık Açılmalıdır.” Yeni Asır, 03.04.1931.
“Yol Vergisi Haksızlık.” Yeni Asır, 01.11.1931.
“Yol Parası.” Yeni Asır, 01.11.1931.
“Tohum İstiyorlar.” Yeni Asır, 28.12.1930.
“Üzüm Niçin Düşüyor.” Yeni Asır, 01.05.1933.
“Köylü Nasıl Kurtarılabilir.” Işık, 15.10.1932.
“Tefecilerle Çarpışmak.” Yeni Asır, 17.04.1933.
“Ellerimiz Tefecilerin Yakasında.” Yeni Asır, 18.08.1938.
“Kuşadası’nda Tütün Piyasası Nasıl Açıldı.” Yeni Asır, 03. 10.1932.
“Çiftçi Yine Murabahacının Elinde Kalıyor.” Yeni Asır, 02.07.1931.
“Izmir’in İskân İşleri.” Ahenk, 7.02.1929.
“Vasıf B. Ve Arkadaşları Izmir’de.” Vakit, 23.11.1930.
“Söke’de Bir Arazi Meselesi.” Yeni Asır, 4.12.1930
“Köylü ve Toprak.” Yeni Asır, 10.12.1930
208
“Gayrimübadillerde Hoşnutsuzluk Uyandıran Bir Karar.” Yeni Asır, 13.11. 1931.
“Yunan Emvali.” Yeni Asır, 10.11.1931.
“Gayrimübadiller, Cemiyet Hükümetten Yeni Bazı Temenniatta Bulundu.”
Cumhuriyet, 07.01. 1930.
“Gayrimübadillerin Ankara’da Yaptıkları Temaslar.” Cumhuriyet, 08.04.1937.
“Çiftçi ve İşçi Mebuslar Seçiliyor.” Yeni Asır, 10.04. 1931
“Izmir ve Aydında Müstakil Olarak Namzetliklerini Koyan Zevatın Fikirleri,” Yeni
Asır, 20.04.1931.
“Liberal Bir Mebus Namzetinin Fikirleri.” Yeni Asır, 22.04.1931.
“Yarın İntihap Var.” Yeni Asır, 23.04.1931.
“İzmir İntihap Dedikoduları.” Yeni Asır, 26.04.1931.
“İntihabattan Sonra.” Yeni Asır, 27.04.1931.
“Gazi Muhalefet İstiyordu.” Yeni Asır, 03.05.1931.
“Meclis Açılırken.” Yeni Asır, 04.05.1931.
“Maziye ve Hale Bir Bakış.” Yeni Asır, 16.03.1931.
“Tarihten Bir Yaprak Serbes Fırka Nasıl Açıldı, Nasıl Kapandı.” Yeni Asır,
22.04.1931.
“Ağır Mesuliyetler.” Yeni Asır, 07.12.1930.
“CHF Teşkilat Heyeti Ödemişte Lakaydı ile Karşılandı Halk Fırkanın Samimiyetini
Sözle Değil İşle Ölçüyor.” Yeni Asır, 03.12.1930.
“Tire’de CHF.” Yeni Asır, 07.12.1930.
“Menemen’de Halk Dertlerini Döktü.” Yeni Asır, 09.12.1930.
“Vilayette Bir İçtima.” Yeni Asır, 07.12.1930.
“Niçin Bulunmadılar.” Yeni Asır, 10. 12. 1930.
“Ne İçin Halk Fırkasına Girmiyoruz.” Yeni Asır, 16.12.1930.
“Ne İçin Gitmemişlerdir.” Yeni Asır, 11.12.1930.
“Vazife Aşkı.” Yeni Asır, 06.03.1931.
“CHF Teşkilatı.” Yeni Asır, 20.07.1931.
209
“Gayri Mübadiller Ne İstiyor.” Milliyet, 14.06.1930.
“Fırka Pençesi.” Yeni Asır, 11.06.1931.
“Halkçılıkları Tersine Geyilmiş Plütokrasi Küllahına Benziyor.” Yeni Asır,
14.06.1931.
“Biz Liberal Miyiz.” Yeni Asır, 13.07.1931.
“Bizim İstediklerimiz.” Yeni Asır, 20.09.1931.
“İktisat Vekili Celal Bey İşe Başladı.” Yeni Asır, 11.09.1932.
“Acele Bir İhtiyaç.” Yeni Asır, 15.10.1931.
“Muvaffak Olmak İçin.” Yeni Asır, 28.10.1931.
“Litvinof Yoldaş Ankaraya Gidiyor.” Yeni Asır, 26.10.1931.
“Yıkılan Dünya Yakında Yapılan Dünya.” Yeni Asır, 29.11.1931.
“Yeni Rusya’da Hayat.” Yeni Asır, 17.12.1931.
“Herkese Tam Gıda.” Yeni Asır, 25.09.1931.
“Herkese İş, Herkese Hayat ve Herkese Refah.” Yeni Asır, 16.9.1931.
“Satış Kooperatifleri.” Yeni Asır, 03.12.1933.
“Zeynel Besim B. Tasrih Ediyor Halk Fırkasına Dönmedim Diyor,” Son Posta,
08.10.1930.
5. Related Laws
Arazi Vergisinin 1935 Malî Yılı Sonuna Kadar Olan Bakayasının Terkinine Dair
Kanun. No. 3586, Date. 07.11.1939. Available:
https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/KANUNLAR_KARARLAR/kanuntb
mmc019/kanuntbmmc019/kanuntbmmc01903586.pdf
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A. CURRICULUM VITAE
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Surname, Name: Özçeri Alyurt, Ece
EDUCATION
Ph.D: Middle East Technical University, Department of History,
Ankara- Turkey
Thesis Title: State and Society Interaction at The Intersection
of Agriculture, Settlement and Politics in Izmir, 1924-1939
Thesis Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nesim Şeker
MS: Middle East Technical University, Department of Middle East
Studies, Ankara-Turkey
Thesis Title: Displaying the Empire: A Search for Self-
Representation of The Ottoman Empire in The International
Exhibitions of the Nineteenth Century
Thesis Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Selçuk Dursun
BA: Middle East Technical University, Department of
History, Ankara- Turkey
219
SCHOLARSHIPS: TÜBİTAK BİDEB Graduate and Doctorate Scholarship
WORK EXPERIENCE: Project assistant, October 2015- December 2018
Project name: Legal Forms of Firm Organization,
Corporate Governance, and Business Expansion in the
Middle East between 1887 and 1950
Project owner: Prof. Dr. Cihan Artunç (University of
Arizona) Assist. Prof. Dr. Seven Ağır, (Middle East
Technical University)
220
B. TURKISH SUMMARY / TÜRKÇE ÖZET
İZMİR'DE TARIM, İSKAN VE SİYASETİN KESİŞİMİNDE DEVLET
TOPLUM ETKİLEŞİMİ, 1924-1939
Bu çalışma, 1923-1939 yılları arasında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun ve aynı zamanda
yeni kurulan Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin en önemli kentsel ve tarımsal üretim
merkezlerinden biri olan İzmir kentini ele almaktadır. On yıllarca süren savaş ve nüfus
hareketlerinin ardından, Batı Anadolu Bölgesi ve özellikle bu bölgenin merkezi olan
İzmir kenti kökten bir yıkım ve bu yıkımın ardından köklü bir değişim yaşamıştır.
Kentin hemen hemen her alanında görülen yıkım ve değişim, kendine özgü sosyoekonomik
ve sosyo-politik bağlamlar oluşturmuştur. Bu çalışmanın ortaya çıkış
noktası bu bağlamlara ulaşabilmektir. Genellikle sahip olduğu kozmopolit nüfus yapısı
ve bu nüfus yapısının değişiminden yola çıkılarak yapılan çalışmalarla ele alınan İzmir
kentinde, Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi’nde toplum tarafından tecrübe edilen çok farklı
ve kente özgü gelişmeler vardır. Bu çalışma İzmir ve Batı Anadolu’nun yoğun şekilde
demografik bileşenleriyle ele alınmasına ve yukarıda da değinilen farklı iktisadi ve
politik gelişmelere yeterince yer almadığı fikrinden yola çıkarak, İzmir kentini ve
kentin art bölgesinde yer iktisadi mıntıkasına odaklanarak, bu açığı kapatmayı ve erken
Cumhuriyet Dönemi’nde bahsi geçen bölgede tecrübe edilen yerel bağlamları ortaya
çıkarmayı amaçlamaktadır.
Çıkış noktasını, İzmir kentinin demografik bileşenlerle ve bu bileşenlerin
Türkleştirilmesi paradigmasıyla fazlaca ilişkilendirilmesinden dolayı, toplumsal
221
olarak tecrübe edilen önemli mikro süreçlerin göz ardı edildiği fikrinden alan çalışma,
İzmir kentinde oldukça köklü bir basın geleneğinin varlığından yola çıkarak, yerel
kaynakları kullanmak ve bu kaynaklardan kentle ilgili dönemin toplumsal güçleri
tarafından üretilen gündemlerine ulaşmayı hedeflemiştir. Bu doğrultuda, İzmir Kent
Arşivi’ndeki birincil kaynaklardan yararlanılmış ve Yeni Asır, Işık ve Serbes
Cumhuriyet gibi gazeteler bahsi geçen dönem içinde takip edilerek, bu sürede basında
yer alan ve toplumsal olarak sıklıkla kullanılan bazı temalar belirlenmeye
çalışılmıştır. Yerel basın kaynaklarına ek olarak, bu çalışma aynı zamanda Cumhuriyet
Halk Partisi’nin yerel çalışma organları tarafından hazırlanan ve kentteki ve çevre
ilçelerindeki parti yetkilileri tarafından Parti’nin merkezine sunmak üzere hazırlanan,
dilek listelerine ve buna ek olarak bireyler tarafından Meclis’e gönderilen dilekçelerin
yer aldığı kaynaklardan da yararlanmıştır.
Sıradan insanların günlük yaşam tecrübelerine ulaşarak makro süreçlerle eş zamanlı
olarak giden mekâna, coğrafya diye de özetlenebilecek olan, özgü mikro süreçler
olduğunu gösteren bu arşiv araştırmalarında dikkat çeken nokta İzmir ve iç
bölgelerinde yaşanan günlük yaşamla ilgili sorunların fazlalığı ve kentin politik ve
ekonomik gündeminin bu sorunlar üzerinde inşa edildiği gerçeğidir. İleriki kısımlarda
detaylandırılacak olan bu gerçeklik, bu çalışmada toplum ve devlet arasındaki ilişkiyi
belirleyen önemli temellerden biri olarak değerlendirilmiş ve bu temelde gerçekleşen
değişimlerin aynı şekilde devlet ve toplum arasındaki ilişkiyi de değiştirici bir faktör
olduğu gerçeğine ulaşılmıştır.
Yerel kaynakların kullanılarak yerel ve toplumsal gerçekliklere ulaşma amacını
taşıyan çalışma iki aşamalı olarak tasarlanmıştır. Bahsi geçen kaynakların detaylıca
222
araştırılması ve bu araştırmanın sonucu olarak kentin sosyo-ekonomik ve sosyo-politik
durumu hakkında açıklama yapılmasına yardımcı olabilecek temaların belirlenmesi
aşamasından sonra, çalışmanın ikinci aşaması olan bu temalar üzerinden, erken
Cumhuriyet Dönemi’nde ve belirlenen bölge sınırları içinde devlet ve toplum
arasındaki etkileşimi nasıl anlayabileceğimiz sorusunu sorma aşamasına geçilmiştir.
Devlet ve toplum arasındaki ilişkiyi anlamaya yönelik birçok çalışma, genellikle
gözlem zemini olarak Türk Devleti’nin modernleştirici reformları ya da etnik şiddet
gibi temalara odaklanırken, bu çalışmada toplumun günlük şikâyet ve taleplerinden
ortaya çıkan zeminler bulunmuştur. Bu zeminler, toplumsal olarak neler yaşandığını
gözler önüne seren kaynakların izlenmesinin ardından, devlet ve bireyler ve aynı
zamanda bireylerin kendi arasındaki iletişim zeminleri olarak ele alınmıştır. Bu
çalışma yerel ve günlük yaşamla ilgili toplumsal, ekonomik ve politik bağlamların
toplumsal tarih ve devlet ve toplum etkileşimlerini anlamakta daha incelikli ve isabetli
yaklaşımlar sunabileceğini savunmaktadır.
Belirlenen dönem içinde yukarıda adı geçen yerel kaynaklar incelendiğinde bazı
temaların açıkça göze çarptığı görülebilir. Öncelikle genellikle kent merkezinin ticaret
ağları ile tanımlanan İzmir’de tarımsal kesimin kent ekonomisi ve siyaseti de dahil
olmak üzere önemli bir yere sahip olduğu ve tarımsal kesimin sorunlarının kentin basın
organları tarafından sıklıkla değinilen konular olduğu görülebilir. Sıklıkla tarımsal
üreticilere ve köylülere yer veren Yeni Asır gibi basın organları, kentin kırsal kesimi
ve kent merkezi arasındaki bağlantıyı sağlamış ve kent ekonomisinin kır ve kent olarak
iç içe geçtiğini göstermiştir. Dolayısıyla bu iletişimden anlaşıldığı üzere, kırsal
kesimle ilgili olarak üç önemli zemin ve bu zeminler üzerinde kurulmuş olan
devlet/toplum ilişkisi belirlenebilir. Bu araştırmanın arşiv çalışması, İzmir ve iktisadi
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mıntıkasının tarım sektörünün içinde bulunduğu koşulları en kapsamlı şekilde işaret
edilebilecek temalar olarak tarımsal fiyatları, tarım kesiminin vergilendirilmesi
süreçlerini ve tarım kesiminde bulunan yüksek borçluluk gerçeği olarak belirlemiştir.
Tarım kesimi ve içinde bulunduğu koşullara ek olarak, arşiv çalışmaları bölgenin
sosyo-ekonomik ve sosyo-politik koşullarını kapsayıcı ve tanımlayıcı bir diğer unsur
olarak demografik değişimin ortaya çıkardığı iskân ve iskanla ilgili gelişmeleri
toplumsal koşulları yansıtıcı tema olarak işaret etmektedir. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin
kurulması ile başlanan demografik homojenleştirme politikasının bir yansıması olan
nüfus mübadelesi, İzmir kentinde toplumsal alanda bazı yeni zeminlerin ortaya
çıkmasına sebep olmuştur. Türk Devleti’nin ulus devlet inşası sürecinin önemli
adımlarından biri olan demografik homojenleştirme politikasının toplumsal alandaki
yansıması iskân ve göç süreçleri ile ortaya çıkan yeni talep ve çatışma zeminlerinin
ortaya çıkmasıdır. Bir başka deyişle, bu politikanın devlet tarafından
uygulanmasındaki amaç nüfusun etnik olarak homojenleştirilmesi iken, etnik olarak
homojen olarak algılanan bireyler, iskân ve göç süreçlerinin ortay çıkardığı yeni
alanlarda karşı karşıya gelmiştir. Bu alanlardan en önemlisi, iskân siyaseti ve göçün
ortaya çıkardığı terkedilmiş mal politikasıdır. Bölgenin eski yerlileri olan Anadolu
Rumları tarafından gerek zorunlu nüfus mübadelesi öncesi gerek zorunlu nüfus
mübadelesi sonrası süreçte terk edilmiş mallar toplumsal ve devletle çatışma alanına
dönüşmüştür. Dolayısıyla, iskân siyaseti ve buna ek olarak Yunanistan ve Türkiye
arasındaki zorunlu nüfus mübadelesiyle hedeflenen homojenleşmiş toplum, bu
politikanın ortaya çıkardığı iktisadi bir laynak üzerinde mücadele etmeye başlamıştır.
Çünkü yukarıda bahsedilen göç ve iskân politikaları çoğunluğu kente yeni gelmiş,
iskân edilmeyi ve geldiği bölgede bıraktığı mal karşılığında iskân edildiği bölgede
mülk edinmeye çalışan ve genellikle tarımsal üretici olan yoğun bir kitleyi etkiliyordu.
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Dolayısıyla, emvali metruke yani terk edilmiş mallar üzerindeki iddialar demografik
homojenleşme siyasetinin günlük yaşama yansıması olmuştu. Tarımsal kesim ve iskân
dışında, arşiv araştırması kentte yoğun bir siyasi gündem olduğuna da işaret ediyor.
Genellikle, ele alınan dönemde Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi politikalarına muhalif ve
muhalefetin desteklendiği bir kent olarak algılanan İzmir’de siyaset günlük yaşamın
oldukça içinde bir kavramdı. Çoğunlukla yerel muhalefet ağlarında da bulunan
gazetecilerin yazdığı yazılar kentteki politik gündem ve tek parti yönetimi altında
politika yapmanın sınırlarını gözlemleyebilmek açısından oldukça faydalı zeminler
sağlıyor. Yukarıda belirtildiği bu çalışma üç temel zemin üzerinden İzmir kentinin
toplumsal dinamiklerinin ve bu toplumsal dinamiklerin devletle olan ilişkisinin analiz
edilebileceğini ileri sürmektedir.
Geç Osmanlı Dönemi’nden devraldığı tarım üreticisi ağırlıklı nüfus yapısı ve üretim
teknikleri ve koşulları ile ilintili olarak oldukça sıkıntılı koşulları tecrübe eden tarımsal
nüfusuyla Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi’nin tarımsal sektörü ülkenin iktisadi yapısı için
en önemli kaynaktı. Uzun süreli savaşlar ve bu savaşları takip eden göçlerle kaybedilen
işgücü gücü, zorunlu nüfus mübadelesi ile Anadolu'ya gelen Müslüman nüfus
sayesinde yeniden elde edilebilmiştir. Kaybedilen iş gücüne ek olarak, üretim teknik
ve teknolojileri açısından Cumhuriyet’in ilk yılları oldukça sorunlu bir üretim biçimine
sahipti. Dönemin birçok uzmanına göre, ülkedeki üretim teknikleri oldukça ilkel
seviyedeydi. Buna rağmen, kaybedilen iş gücünün yerine konmasıyla, Cumhuriyet’in
ilanından kısa süre sonra tarımsal kesim üretime geri dönebiliş ve üretici hale gelmeye
başlayarak, bütçeye önemli katkıda bulunmaya başlamıştır. Gerçekten de kaynaklara
göre 1927 yılında yaşanan kuraklık ve 1929 yılında yaşanan Büyük Buhran’a kadar
geçen süre zarfında, tarım sektörü kendini toparlayabilmiş ve üretim de hızlıca
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artmıştır. Bu yılların İzmir’de köylüler tarafından geniş yıllar olarak anıldığı dikkate
alınırsa, tarımsal kesimin de hem üretimden hem de ürün fiyatlarından memnun olduğu
anlaşılabilir.
Tarımsal kesimin durumu kısaca bu şekilde iken, yeni kurulan ve üretimi hızlıca
arttırarak kırsal kesimi restore etmeyi amaçlayan Cumhuriyet ise, bu üretim
mekanizmasında 1930’lu yılların başına kadar doğrudan bir müdahalede
bulunmamıştır. Tarım kesimine yönelik uygulamaya geçen önemli yenilikler aşar
vergisinin kaldırılması ve sonucu olarak tarım üreticileri üzerindeki vergi yükünün
azaltılması, tarımsal üretim metotlarını modernleştirmeye yönelik çeşitli
araştırmaların yapılması ve yasal düzenlemelerin yapılması ve tarım kesimine yönelik
kredi politikalarının düzenlenerek, üretimde artışın sağlanmasıdır. Hem İzmir hem de
ülke açısından tarımsal kesimin dönüm noktası, 1929 yılında yaşanan Büyük
Buhrandı. İhracata yani pazara yönelik tarımsal üretimin merkezi olan Batı Anadolu
ve İzmir bu büyük ve global ölçekli ekonomik krizden sarsıcı şekilde etkilendi. 1927
yılındaki kuraklıkla zaten kendini hissettiren ve bu mega olayın etkisiyle iyice belirgin
hale gelen fiyat dalgalanmaları İzmir’de üretim yapan çoğunluğu küçük ölçekli
üreticileri derinden sarstı. Üzüm ve tütün gibi bölge için hayati öneme sahip olan
ürünlerin fiyatlarındaki keskin düşüşler, üreticilerin on yıllarca sürecek olan ve kar
topu gibi büyüyerek devam edecek olan iktisadi açıdan bozulmalarını başlattı.
Dönemin kaynaklarını inceleyenler net şekilde fiyat ve fiyatlarla ilgili diğer iktisadi ve
sosyal problemlerin yaygın şikayetler olduğunu görebilir. Tarımsal fiyatları toplum ve
devlet arasında bir gözlem zemini olarak ele alan bu çalışmada, devletin bu yıkıcı kriz
ve krizin etkileri konusunda üreticiler tarafından nasıl algılandığına bakılmıştır. İzmir
ve çevresinde devletin tarımsal kesimdeki varlığı Tekel İdareleri (İnhisar) aracılığıyla
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oldukça görünürdür. Genellikle tütün gibi üretim ve satışı devlet tarafından sıkı şekilde
kontrol edilmeye çalışılan ve üzüm gibi Tekel İdaresi tarafından alımı yapılan bir
üretim rejimine sahip olan bölgede, devlet ve devlet kurumları seçici şekilde fiyatlara
müdahaleye davet edilmiştir. Tekel İdareleri çoğunlukla düşük fiyat teklifleri
sebebiyle üreticilerin olumsuz algıları ile tanımlanırken, bu çalışmanın verileri
gösteriyor ki üreticiler özellikle tütün üreticileri devlet kurumlarını yani Tekelleri
piyasaya müdahale etmeye sıklıkla çağırmıştır. Kimi zaman piyasanın altında
fiyatlarla tütün alımı yapmakla eleştirilen Tekel İdareleri, çok oyunculu ve oldukça
kırılgan piyasa koşullarında sıklıkla piyasaya müdahale etmeye çağrılmıştı. Çeşitli
şekillerde piyasaya dahil olan Tekellerden beklentiler şöyleydi: Alım başlatarak
piyasayı manipüle etmesi, koruyucu bir figür olarak yabancı şirketlerin kötü muamele
ve fiyatlandırmalarına karşı üreticiyi koruması ve satılmayan ürünleri alarak üreticiye
destek olması. Dolayısıyla devlete üreticiler tarafından, üreticiyi koruyucu ve piyasayı
düzenleyici bir rol verilmiştir.
İkinci olarak tarımsal kesimin tecrübe ettiği ve bir talep/şikâyet ve cevap mekanizması
yarattığı diğer konu is vergilerdir. Vergiler yukarıda bahsedilen fiyat
dalgalanmalarının etkisiyle yıkıcı bir şekilde tarım üreticilerinin gündemine
oturmuştur. Aşar gibi köylüler üzerinde büyük bir olumsuz etkisi olan verginin
kaldırılmasının bu kesim için dönüştürücü ve rahatlatıcı bir etki yaratması beklentisi
gerçekleşmemiştir. Aşarın kaldırılması, köylü üzerindeki finansal yükü azaltmamıştır.
Aksine Arazi, Hayvan ve Yol Vergisi gibi tarımsal sektör üzerine salınan vergiler, bu
kesimde büyük bir yük oluşturmuştur. Vergiler ve devlet ilişkisi konusunda tarımsal
kesimin algısı ise şöyleydi: Vergilerin yüksek olduğu çok açık şekilde beyan edilirken,
bir diğer önemli unsurun da altı çiziliyordu. Köylüler vergilerin toplumsal kesimler
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arasında adil şekilde dağıtılmadığını savunuyorlardı. Buna göre, vergi yükü haksız
şekilde köylüler üzerindeyken, asıl vergi ödemesi gereken kesimlerin vergi ödemediği
algısı hakimdi. Yukarıda bahsedilen talep mekanizmasının işlediği bu zeminde de
köylülerin talepleri vergi indirimler, vergi afları ve en önemlisi vergi hesaplamalarının
ve düzenlemelerinin adil şekilde yapılmasıydı. Bu mekanizmanın diğer tarafından
bulunan devlet ve kurumlarının bu talepler karşısında kayıtsız olmadığı
görünmektedir. Vergi indirimleri, vergi afları ve vergi yükünün Buhran Vergisi gibi
çeşitli yeni vergilerle ücretliler üzerine aktarılması devletin bu konu açısından sunduğu
politikalardı. Fakat bu çözümlerin sistematik bir reform yerine acil ve birikmiş
sorunları çözmeye yönelik politikalar olduğu da bir gerçektir.
Tarım fiyatlarının çakıldığı ve vergi yükünün ödenemez boyutta olduğu böyle bir
iktisadi durumda, iktisadi, fakat sonrasında sosyal bir krize de dönüşecek olan, bir
başka yıkıcı gündem tarım sektörüne girdi; borçluluk. Oldukça çok yönlü bir sorun
olan borçluluk, kriz sonrası tarım sektörünün baş etmek zorunda olduğu yıkıcı bir
sorundu. İzmir’deki yerel gazetelere göre neredeyse her üreticinin ya kredi ya da vergi
borcu vardı. Kredi ve borçlanma konularındaki köklü yapısal eksiklikler nedeniyle
köylüler bireysel kredi sağlayıcılar gibi büyük bir sosyal krizle de mücadele etmek
zorunda kalmışlardı. Tarım kesimine yönelik kredi sağlama görevi ile donatılmış olan
Ziraat Bankası’nın eksik ve düzgün işlemeyen kredi sağlama mekanizmaları
sebebiyle, çoğu üretici bireysel kredi sağlayıcılara yani tefecilere borçlanmak
durumunda kalmışlardı. Çok yüksek faiz oranları ile tarımsal üreticilere kredi sağlayan
tefeciler kentin gündeminde sıklıkla rastlanabilen bir sosyal ve iktisadi gerçeklikti.
Bireysel kredi sağlayıcıların gücü kredi kooperatiflerin kurulması ve bazı yasal
düzenlemelerle kırılmaya çalışılmışsa da basında çıkan haberler gösteriyor ki çok
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yüksek faiz oranlarıyla bile olsa tefeciler tarımsal sektöre finans sağlamaya devam
ettiği görülmektedir. Ayrıca şu da kentin bir gerçekliğiydi: Tarımsal kesim ve içinde
bulundukları fiyat, vergi ve borçluluk dairesine ek olarak, birçok üretici aynı zamanda
göç sürecinin de bir öznesi olarak iskân siyaseti ve getirileriyle mücadele ediyordu.
Tahsis edilen malların alınabilmesi ve istihkaklarından fazla olan kısmın ödenmesi
gibi bir diğer finansal zorluk da toplum tarafından tecrübe ediliyordu.
Türk ulus-devlet inşa sürecinin demografik projesinin bitiş ayağı olan zorunlu nüfus
mübadelesi İzmir için kilit bir tarihsel gelişmeydi ve kente çok sayıda yeni insan, yeni
sorun, yeni yasal düzenlemeler, yeni sorunlar ve yeni gündemler getirdi. Rum ve
yabancı nüfusun kentin çoğunluğu olduğu İzmir’de on dokuzuncu yüzyılın
sonlarından itibaren başlayan ve mübadele ile tamamlanması planlanan göç hareketleri
dönemin önemli gelişmelerinden biriydi. Zorunlu nüfus mübadelesinin başlamasından
önce İzmir kenti zaten köklü nüfus değişimleri yaşıyordu. Kentin Rum nüfusunun bir
kısmı zaten süregelen savaş ve çatışmalardan dolayı zaten göç etmişken, İzmir’deki
Yunan işgalinin son bulması ve takip eden Büyük Yangınla kent bir kaos alanına
dönüşürken, Rum nüfus göç etme hazırlıklarına başlamıştı. Geride bıraktıkları
taşınmaz mallar daha sonra Yunanistan ve Türkiye arasında imzalanan zorunlu nüfus
mübadelesi anlaşması ile Yunanistan’ı terk edip İzmir'e yerleştirilmesi
kararlaştırılanlara verilecekti. Çeşitli yasalar ve düzenlemelerle sınırları belirlenen terk
edilmiş mal politikasının pratikteki uygulamalara yansıması sorunsuz olmadı.
Uluslararası alanda ve önemli uzmanlar tarafından oldukça iyi tasarlandığı iddia
edilebilecek olan mübadele süreci, en başından itibaren aksaklıklar ve
gerçekleştirilemeyen yasal prosedürler yüzünden 1940’lı yıllara kadar çözülmeden
kalan bir dizi sorun bıraktı. Bu sorunların çoğu mülk tahsisleri ile ilgiliydi. Dönemin
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yerel basınını izleyen araştırmacılar, bahsi geçen dönemin sonuna kadar olan sürede
çok sayıda terk edilmiş mülk ve bu mülklerin kullanım hakkıyla ilgili soruna
rastlayabilir. Yukarıda bahsedildiği gibi, Anadolu Rumlarının bir kısmı mübadele ile
kenti terk etmiş ve mülklerini geride bırakmışlardı. Öte yandan, bu kişiler iskân
siyasetinin öznesi olan yegâne giden grup değildi ve bu İzmir’in kentsel durumu için
ayrı bir kriz alanı daha oluşturuyordu. İzmir’de mübadeleye tabii olan Rumlara ek
olarak, Mübadele Anlaşması öncesinde kenti terk eden Rumlar, yine aynı şekilde göç
eden Ermeniler ve mülklerinin idaresini devlete bırakan yabancılar vardı. Bir diğer
taraftan, aynı şekilde kente yeni gelen ve geliş yerleri ve zamanlarına göre
gruplandırılabilecek çok sayıda yeni gelen vardı. Bu farklılaşmanın yarattığı sorun her
bir gruba mensup bireyin hakkı ve yükümlülükleri farklıydı. Örneğin, mübadeleye tabi
bir Rum tarafından bırakılan malın hangi şartlarda kime ve nasıl tahsis edileceği gibi
farklı ve aynı ölçüde karmaşık bir süreçten bahsetmek mümkündür. Göç ve
mübadelenin getirdiği bu gibi gelişmelere ek olarak, İzmir kenti yaşadığı Büyük
Yangın ve iç kesimlerinin Yunan işgalinin sona ermesiyle beraber yaşadığı yıkımın da
etkisiyle iç göç dalgası da yaşamıştı. Bu kaotik ortamda, mülkler planlanan adımlar
gözetilerek tahsis edilmedi. Birçok mülk hakkı olmayanlar tarafından fuzuli işgal
altına alınırken, birçok mübadil başka bir göçmen grubuna tahsis edilmesi gereken
mülke yerleştirildi. Dolayısıyla, 1924 yılındaki İzmir’e baktığımızda görülecek şey:
Yıkım, işgal edilmiş mülkler, iskân edilmeyi ve hakkı olan mülkü yani geçim
kaynağını almaya çalışan çeşitli gruplar ve bu süreci yönetmeye çalışan sınırlı bir
devlet aygıtından bahsetmek mümkündür. Bu şartlar altında, terk edilmiş mülkler ve
bu mülklerin tahsis şartları yukarıda belirtildiği gibi toplumsal açıdan bir çatılma alanı
haline geldi. Bu çalışmanın bulguları üç örnek üzerinden demografik homojenleştirme
politikasının ayaklarından biri olan nüfus mübadelesinin uygulamada nasıl böyle bir
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alana dönüştüğü ve ayrıca mikro kimlikler yaratarak farkı çıkar grupları ve rekabetleri
oluşturduğunun anlaşılabileceğini gösteriyor.
Ele alınan birinci örnekte terk edilmiş mülk, topraksız köylülük ve tek parti iktidarının
yereldeki temsilciler vasıtasıyla işleyişi bağlamlarının örtüşmesiyle ortaya çıkan
rekabet alanının görülmesi mümkün. Söke ilçesindeki bir arazinin geçmişte kime ait
olduğu ve şimdi kime ait olacağı sorusundan ortaya çıkan ve jandarmanın müdahale
etmesini gerektirecek kadar ciddileşen bu örnekte, Kiryako ve Dimitri adında kayıp
bir şahsa ait olduğu iddia edilen ve bu menşei dolayısıyla civardaki topraksız köylülere
tahsis edilmesi gerektiği köylülerce iddia edilen bir arazi, kendilerine tahsis edilmesi
gerektiğini savunan topraksız köylüler ve üzerinde hak iddia eden yerel bir siyasi isim
var. Köylülerin iddiasına göre adı geçen arazi bu önemli isim tarafından haksızca işgal
edilmişti ve topraksız köylüler olarak bu arazi Cumhuriyet idaresi tarafından köylüler
tahsis edilmeliydi. Arazi üzerindeki hak iddiaları ciddi boyutlara ulaşmış. Köylülerin
araziyi işgal etmesi üzerine jandarma olaya müdahale ederek bazı köylüleri göz altına
almıştı. Bu örnek, büyük ölçekli bir politikanın yerel düzeydeki yansımasını görmek
ve oluşturduğu yeni sorunları görebilmek açısından oldukça önemli olmasının
yanında, aynı zamanda topraksız köylülük ve tek parti rejimindeki yerel düzeydeki
politik ağların bu gibi konulardaki etkisini de göstermesi açısından oldukça önemli bir
örnek teşkil etmektedir. İkinci olarak bu çalışmanın işaret ettiği örnek ise tahsis edilen
mülklerin ödemesi sürecinde ortaya çıkan bir mikro rekabet. 1931 yılında karmaşa
haline gelen mülk tahsisi ve bu tahsislerin ödenmesi süreci ile ilgili olan bu
örneğimizde, Tasfiye Kanunu tarafında getirilen bazı uygulamaların aynı şartlarda
mülk tahsis edilen bazı küçük gruplar içinde eşitliğe aykırı uygulamalar oluşturduğu
iddia edilmektedir. Daha detaylıca bakacak olursak, yeni çıkan kanuna göre devlet
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mülk tahsisinde hakkı olan bazı alacaklardan vazgeçmiş ve bazı şartlar dahilinde
tahsislerin meccanen yani para ödemeksizin yapılmasına karar vermişti. Kimin
meccanen bu tahsisten yararlanacağı ilgili kişiler arasında haksızlık duygusu
uyandırmıştı. Çünkü meccanen tahsis hakkı verilmesi sürecinde kriter içtimai
vaziyetti. Bu kriter, konunun muhatapları tarafından Cumhuriyet’in getirdiği eşitlik
anlayışına çiğneyen bir uygulama olarak, eleştirilerin merkezinde yer aldı.
Dolayısıyla, devletin tam bir kaosa dönüşen bir sorunu çözmek üzere hazırladığı yeni
bir yasal prosedür yeni bir soruna ve rekabete yol açmadan hedefine ulaşamadığı
görülebiliyor. Oldukça ideolojik bir üslupla ele alınan eleştiri yazılarında mülk
tahsisindeki bir uygulamanın Cumhuriyet rejimi ve getirdiği ideallere referans
verilerek ele alınması konunun toplumsal açıdan algılanış biçimini anlayabilmek
açısından oldukça önemli bir noktadır. Nüfus Mübadelesinin toplumsal kentin
gündemine taşıdığı bir diğer konu gayri mübadiller konusuydu. Bu çalışmanın ele
aldığı üçüncü vaka olan bu örnekte, terk edilmiş mülklerin dağıtılması politikasının
nasıl bir grup çıkarı ve grup bilinci oluşturduğunu görüyoruz. Bu örneğe göre,
mübadeleye tabii olmayan göçme grubu olarak gayri mübadiller kolektif olarak
haklarını korumak ve taleplerde bulunmak üzere bu kimlikleri üzerinde bir ilişki
geliştirmişlerdi. Mülk dağıtımını düzenleyen yasalara göre, Yunan mallarından pay
alması gereken gayri mübadiller, fuzuli işgal ve düzensiz şekilde yapılan iskanlar gibi
yukarıda değinilen çeşitli sebeplerden dolayı mallarının tahsisleri gerçekleşmediği için
bir dernek kurarak kolektif şekilde çıkarlarını korumaya ve almaları gereken mülkler
üzerinde hak iddia etmişlerdir. Kolektif şekilde geliştirdikleri bazı yöntemlerle siyasi
güçlerle ilişki kurmuş, kendilerini ilgilendiren hem ulusal hem de uluslararası
gelişmelere sırasında taleplerini yetkililere iletmişlerdir. Bu noktada önemli ve ayırıcı
olarak değerlendirilebilecek özellikleri, haklarını ve çıkarlarını takip edecek ve
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taleplerini iletebilmelerini sağlayabilecek bir dernek kurmaları ve eylemlerini bu
dernek üzerinden sürdürmeleriydi. Kolektif bir talep mekanizması kurmaları ve
siyasilerle görüşmeler yapabilecek bir kapasiteye sahip olmaları da dönem için
oldukça dikkat çekici yönlerden biridir. İskân ve iskân siyasetinin en tartışmalı
noktalarından biri olan terk edilmiş mülk siyaseti, İzmir kenti için hayati bir noktaydı.
Çok geniş kapsamlı ve çeşitli yönlerden değerlendirilebilecek olan nüfus mübadelesi
ve demografinin homojenleştirilmesi projesinin uygulamadaki yansımaları yeni
farklılaşmalar ve farklılaşmaların getirdiği yeni çekişmeli alanların ortaya çıkmasıydı,
terk edilmiş mülk siyaseti de bu alanlardan en önemlisi olarak İzmir ve bölgede
yıllarca sürecek bir gerçeklik olarak toplum ve devlet tarafından tecrübe edildi.
İzmir’in gelişmiş bir kent merkezi olması ve yine gelişmiş ve yaygın bir basın ağına
ve geleneğine sahip olması ile yukarıda bahsedile problemli gelişmelerin kesişmesiyle,
İzmir’in basın organları aynı zamanda bir eleştiri merkezi haline gelmişti. Çoğunlukla,
iktisadi politika açısında hükümet politikalarına karşı biraz daha eleştirel bir
pozisyonda bulunan isimlerin sahibi olduğu ve/veya yazı yazdığı bu iletişim araçları
politika kentte yerel düzeyde politika alanlarıydı. Dolayısıyla, politik tartışmaların ve
eleştirilerin buralarda sıklıkla yer aldığı görünebilir ve bu tartışmaların kentin politik
atmosferini anlayabilmek açısından oldukça yol gösterici olduğu da
değerlendirilebilir. Bu çalışma, önemli yerel isimler tarafından kaleme alınan yazı ve
haberlere bir politika alanı olarak ele almayı ve bunu yaparak kentin politik koşulları
ile ilgili değerlendirmeler yapılabileceğini savunuyor. Dolayısıyla, belirlenen
dönemde bu yazıları inceleyenler politika yapmanın ya da muhalefet yapmanın
temellerini gösterebilecek bazı vaka ve kavramlara rastlayabilirler. Bunlardan
birincisi, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi dışında kalan bazı bağımsız adaylara yer
verilmesinin kararlaştırıldığı 1931 seçimleri ve bu seçimlerde uygulanacak olan
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bağımsız adaylık politikasının kentte bulduğu yankıdır. Bağımsız adaylık kentte
kendini Halk Partisi’nin politikalarının dışında tanımlayan kişiler tarafından büyük bir
ilgiyle karşılanırken, bu isimler kendilerini ve benimsedikleri ilkelerini açıkladıkları
programları basın organlarına göndererek kamuoyuna sunmuşlardır. Bu programların
gösterdiği konular ise kendilerini Halk Partisi dışında tanımlayanlarının büyük bir
kısmının Tekeller olmak üzere iktisadi muhalefeti açıkken; aynı zamanda en çok dile
getirilen nokta seçim sistemine yönelik eleştirilerdir. Bu programlara göre, iki dereceli
seçim sistemi değişmeli ve tek dereceli seçim uygulanmalıdır. İzmir’den iki bağımsız
adayın seçildiği seçim süreci ve bu adayların meclis çalışmalarına bakıldığında ise
iktisadi politikaların merkezde olduğu ama aynı zamanda İzmir kentinin vergi ve
borçluluk gibi gündelik yaşam sorunlarının sınırlı ölçüde de olsa yansıtılabildiği bir
süreç olarak bağımsız adaylık girişimini okumak mümkündür. Kentte politik
tartışmalarda sıklıkla görülebilecek bir diğer konsept ise yaygın şekilde kullanımda
olan fırka ve fırkacılık söylemiydi. Bu kavramlar üzerine kurulan politika ve özellikle
muhalefet, kentte oldukça yaygın. Çünkü bu tip bir söylemsel tercih, muhalefet
çevrelerine çok kullanışlı bir eleştiri zemini kurma imkânı sağlıyordu. Daha detaylı
şekilde bir inceleme yapacak olursak, bu kavramlar bazı temalar ile ilişkilendirilerek
kentte iktidar partisine karşı olan eleştiriler dile getirilebiliyordu. Fırka ve Fırkacılar
genellikle yolsuzluk ve kayırma gibi kavramlarla eşleştiriliyordu. Bu kavramlar
üzerinde yapılan eleştirilere bakıldığında, tek parti siyasetinin ve bunun yereldeki
yürütücüsü parti örgütlerinin ve bu örgütlerde görev yapan kişilerin nasıl algılandığını
görmek oldukça faydalı bir bakış açısı sağlamaktadır. Yerel düzeyde parti ve parti
içinde görev yapan kişiler topluma kayıtsızlıkla ilişkilendiriliyordu. Öte yandan yerel
kaynaklar üzerinde ve yine yukarıda bahsedilen aynı kaynaklarda yapılan uzun vadeli
incelemeler bir diğer gerçeğe daha dikkat çekiyor. İlk iki kısımda bahsedilen ve
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kentteki siyasetin eleştirel bir duruştan kaynaklandığını gördüğümüz bu iki örnek,
kentteki politik gelişmeler ile ilgili kısıtlı bir bakış açısı sunuyor, çünkü genellikle
muhalefet kavramı ile ilişkilendirilen İzmir ve İzmir’deki siyaset, uzun vadeli bir
araştırmanın ardından yeniden gözden geçirilmelidir. Çünkü bazı iktisadi ve politik
koşullarda, örneğin iktisadi krizin derinleştiği ve kent ekonomisin krizinin
çözülemediği durumlarda, muhalif olmak ya da iktisadi açıdan liberal olmak gibi net
ve sabit politik pozisyonların değişime uğradığı görülebilir. Basının gündemine giren
planlama ve devlet sosyalizmi gibi yeni kavram ve tartışmaların gösterdiği gibi,
iktisadi gerçekliklerden beslenen politik değişimler bu örnekte net şekilde
görünmektedir. Daha önceleri iktidar partisini ve hükümetini devletçi ve müdahaleci
iktisadi politikaları sebebiyle sıklıkla eleştiren muhalif basın, kriz derinleşince bu
tutumunu değiştirmek konusunda bir engel görmemiştir. Aksine, devletçi ve
müdahaleci iktisadi politikalarını arttıran hükümet politikalarını yeteri kadar
müdahaleci olmamakla eleştirmiştir. Dolayısıyla, bu çalışmanın göstermek istediği
temel noktalardan biri olan günlük yaşamın materyal gerçekliklerin politik
pozisyonların değişiminde oynadığı rolü gösteren bu örnekte olduğu, devlet ve birey
arasındaki ilişkide de günlük ve materyal gelişmelerin belirleyici olduğu faktörlerden
biri olduğu gerçeğidir.
Sonuç olarak, iki aşamalı bir araştırma olarak tasarlanan bu çalışma temel olarak
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin kuruluş yıllarındaki toplumsal unsurları incelemektedir.
Toplumsal unsurların ve yerelliklerin tarihin önemli bileşenlerinden biri olduğu
düşüncesi ve erken Cumhuriyet dönemini ele alan tarih çalışmalarında bu unsurların
yetersiz olduğu gerçeğinden yola çıkan bu çalışma, İzmir ve hinterlandına
odaklanmaktadır. Araştırmanın ilk aşaması, bölgede, ele alınan dönemin toplumsal
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gerçekliklerini yansıtan yerel temaların keşfedilmesidir. Yerel gazeteler gibi geniş
kapsamlı yerel kaynaklardan yararlanan bu araştırma, İzmir'de Türkiye
Cumhuriyeti'nin kuruluş yıllarının daha incelikli bir analizini yapmak için en kapsamlı
ve sıklıkla tekrar eden üç temel yerel ve toplumsal temayı işaret etmektedir. Bu
temalar tarım kesimi, iskana ilişkin sorunlar ve yerel siyasettir. Araştırmanın ikinci
aşaması, yukarıda belirtilen temaları iki aktörün etkileşiminin ortak karşılaşma
zeminleri olarak ele alarak, yeni kurulan Türk devleti ile toplum arasındaki etkileşimi
anlamak ve bu etkileşimi tanımlayabilmek için bir çerçeve belirlemektir. Bu bağlamda,
bu araştırma, Cumhuriyet devleti ve toplumunu analiz etmek için yerel farklılaşmalara
karşı yeterince hassas olmayan mevcut ve tanımlayıcı temalardan ziyade, mekâna özgü
toplumsal unsurların öneminin altını çizmektedir. Buna ek olarak, İzmir örneği için,
bu araştırmanın bulguları, günlük hayatın istikrarsız ve günlük olarak belirlenen
konumları besleyen maddi gerçekliklerinin, devlet ve toplum arasındaki etkileşimin
ana bileşenlerinden biri olduğunu göstermektedir.