POLITICS OF SETTLEMENT AND LAND DISTRIBUTION: THE MAKING OF THE LAW FOR PROVIDING LAND TO FARMERS

Abstract

This article examines land reform attempts in the early Turkish Republic (1923-1945). The first part of the article deals with the processes of commercialization of agriculture in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire and addresses the question whether commercialization significantly altered land tenure. The articles then moves on to the 1930s, which, for most scholars, was the decade when single-party government’s interest in land reform began in earnest. This part examines legislative initiatives of pre-1945 period with an eye to unearthing government’s purpose in advocating tenurial reform. These initiatives include Settlement Law of 1934, reform bills drafted in 1935-1937 and the constitutional amendment of 1937, which brought a new rule on the confiscation of land. The last and longest part of the article examines Law for Providing Land to Farmers of 1945 in relation to 1930s’ attempts on the one hand and the experiences of World War II on the other.