Eastern Turkey's Socio-Economic Situation Between 1945 and 1960
In: The international journal of Kurdish studies: IJOKS, Volume 6, Issue 1, p. 1-19
ISSN: 2149-2751
This study evaluates the
Turkish government's economic policy toward the Kurds as well as their position
during the process. The period considered ranges from the transition to multi-party
rule in 1945 to the coup d'état on May 27, 1960. Previously, the one-party
administration had considered the Kurds to be a problem that must be eliminated;
they were ignored, exiled, and assimilated in the early post-republic period.
By 1938, eastern Turkey, where the Kurds largely resided, had been integrated
with the west in a geographical sense due to the security policies implemented.
The Kurds, who had grown weak in the previous two decades, began to face a new state
policy in 1945. The government sought economic integration between the east and
the west to allow for the national market to penetrate the east. In the post-1945
period, the government began to look at the Kurdish problem from a new perspective;
investments in Kurdish areas were finally being discussed and the plight of the
Kurdish people in this process was put forward and considered.