Budget Discussions Allocated to the Gendarmerie According to the Records of the First Assembly

In the War of Independence, the struggle against the occupying forces, as well as the pacification of internal security and public order, was the leading fact of the Government of Ankara. After the Grand National Assembly was opened on April 23, 1920, General Gendarmerie Commandery was established within the Committee of National Defense in order to provide rural security, to end the banditry and to provide internal security by the governments established. Thus, the gendarmerie as a rural security organizationstarted to gain importance. Interviews and discussions aboutthe gendarmerie were also made in Assembly in order to ensure internal security and various decisions were taken. In budget negotiations and expenditures during the first National Assembly period, extraordinary military conditions were effective. The expenditures on public services such as education, health and public works were kept at the lowest levels and all opportunities were devoted to the Committee of National Defense. In this respect, morethanhalf of the budget was spent on internal security and defense including the General Gendarmerie Commandery. In designating the budget of General Gendarmerie Commandery, some subjects such as public order, internal security, revolts and governmental structuring besides the purposes towards national defense were decisive. In this respect, military conditions complicated budget preparation in budget preparation stage. Income and expenses were managed on estimates based on the previous year. Therefore, extraordinary military conditions and emergency expenditure needs necessitated budget-related work to be made after but not before. For this reason, the budget laws of the First Assembly period had more or less the same characteristics. As understood from the budget negotiations, the Gendarmerie was under the influence of the harsh conditions of the country during the National Struggle. Although the Gendarmerie was at a very insufficient level in terms of logistics power, it both obtained the back security of the troops fighting on the front and made important contributions to the integrity of the nation and the homeland by providing safety of life and property of people.In this paper, the interviews on the budgetallocated for the needs of the Turkish gendarmerie during the First Assembly period were examined, and the main sources were based on open memorandum reports. Thus, it was aimed to contribute to the literature by gaining the relevantinformation about this subject which was reviewed from the memorandum reports.