ABSTRACT

The founders of the Turkish Republic wanted to consolidate the process of the Treaty of Lausanne and the proclamation of the Republic with the idea of economic independence through a fast and total development. However, the attempts made for the development at that time faced many politic, social and diplomatic problems. One of the important diplomatic problems was the burning issue of the population exchange which would be performed among the Greeks living in Turkey and the Turks living in the Western Thrace reciprocally.

The settling of the ones among the Turks coming form the Western Thrace who were engaging in the agricultural activities, solving the problems of the agricultural sector and organizing and training the agricultural producers were handled as a whole. The process of development comprehended as a whole in the sense of the economy, the society and the human was supported with many projects. A special example to these comprehensive, foreseeing, modern and innovative projects adopted as a part of the development policies of the Republican Period is “the Model Village Project” of Kazım Dirik, who was the inspector general of Thrace. This project being the most important sign of the aim of the distribution of the development and wealth to the whole society in an equalitarian way still carries a characteristic of an important and applicable project to resolve the regional inequality, create employment and reduce the stress of immigration to the cities.

The aim of this study is to address the link and totality of the topics considered apart and the modernity of the approach at that period by discussing the Republican Period with respect to its years of establishment together with the agricultural development policies selected and implemented with respect to the general conjuncture.