TÜRKİYE İKTİSAT KONGRESİ VE 1923-1938 DÖNEMİ İKTİSAT POLİTİKALARI
TÜRKIYE ECONOMIC CONGRESS AND ECONOMIC POLICIES OF THE 1923-1938 PERIOD

Summary/Abstract: The Republic of Türkiye was founded on October 29, 1923, and the Ottoman Empire was erased from history. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk convened the Türkiye Economic Congress in İzmir on February 17, 1923, before the declaration of the Republic. The decisions taken in this Congress foresaw the development of private entrepreneurship, provision of technical and infrastructure services, and institutional and legal regulations. In the 1923-1929 open economy period, it was decided that the industrialization policy would be under free market conditions, through private initiative, and that the state would step in when necessary. The two main goals in this period were economic independence and rapid development. After the Great Depression of 1929, in the period called the statism period of 1930-1938, protectionist and statist policies began to be implemented in Turkey. While countries around the world played a direct role in their economies due to the Great Depression by increasing public spending, and directly intervening in monetary policy, Turkey did not resort to these interventions. During this period, the First Five-Year Industrial Plan, which was put into effect in 1934 and covered the years 1934-1938, was successfully implemented despite the increases in costs and delays. Progress on the Second Five-Year Industrial Plan was interrupted due to the beginning of the Second World War. During the first 15 years of the Republic, while appropriate payment and balanced budget policies were adopted in fiscal policy, monetary policy was conducted in a stable and sound manner, and importance was attached to the value of the Turkish lira and the aim was to protect its value. After the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Lausanne on customs policy were lifted in 1929, trade surplus was achieved between 1930-1937. GNP grew by an average of 8% in the period of 1923-1938. Beacuse of these achievements in the Turkish economy, which were built on the deficiencies, difficulties and adverse economic structure inherited from the Ottoman Empire, the construction of railways and the nationalization of railways, which were owned by foreigners, introduction of legal regulations, establishment of institutions and banks such as the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye, which are of great importance for the successful functioning of the economy, increase in capital accumulation and vital steps taken for industrialization; it is possible to consider the period of 1923-1938 in the Turkish Economic History as an extremely exceptional, peculiar and successful period.

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