مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The Subsistence Politics of One Party Governments in Turkey During the Years of World War II

Abstract :

In the beginning of Republic, Turkey was dependent on foreign countries in terms of food. By means of a rise in the production, Turkey began to export cereals in the end of 1930s. Turkey, which had to feed a huge army in the years of World War 2, suffered a decrease in cereals production because of bread shortage. The shortage of food forced the government of Refik Saydam to take strict measures. In this period, government expropriated all the cereals by the price which itself determined. Compulsory consumer products were included in price control. The Government of Saydam regulated bread ration card. The Government of Saracoğlu, which came to work in the second half of 1942, canceled price control on a large scale. So the prices (especially food prices) raised unusually. The Government of Saraçoğlu forced the producers to sell a portion of their products to state by the price determined by the government. In the period of Saracoğlu, agricultural products were taxed as %10. Nevertheless, all these measures couldn’t solve the problem of subsistence crisis. In the years of subsistence scarcity and expensiveness, the people who went through the wringer were laborers, the poor and villagers who had small business.