Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
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Page 11
The new government deliberately set out to please the villagers, partly by a more tolerant treatment of religion, partly by a more friendly attitude on the part of its officials towards villagers, and partly by reducing taxation (p. 75). Economic expnsion, pursued by inflation, brought a sharp increase in village earning power, and the party won an even greater victory in 1954. But the Government had begun to hamper the opposition and even to interfere with the judiciary. Economic and political troubles increased, and the party's ten years of rule was ended by the 1960 coup d'état. The army claimed that it had intervened in the defence of genuine democratic rule by representative government, and the military junta revised the constitution, conducted elections and handed over to a civilian government in October 1961. Yet the political situation continued to be uneasy.
Government
Turkey is divided into provinces or vilayets, numbering sixty-three in 1950, each under a vali, appointed by the central government. Each province is divided into smaller areas (sing. kaza) varying from four to sixteen or so per province, centering on towns, and each under a centrally appointed kaymakam who nowadays must be a university graduate. The kaza is divided again into districts called nahiye, containing a number of villages, sometimes as many as twenty, under a nahiye müdürü, a townsman who should be a high school graduate and is appointed by the vali.
The vilayet has an elected assembly, of which the vali is ex-officio chairman, and which has certain limited powers and local duties. But, except for the law courts, practically all matters are under the control of the vali, who has an impressive array of officers under him - finance, education, agriculture, public works, security - though many departments are responsible also to their own chiefs in Ankara. His officers also directly administer the central kaza which surrounds the main town of the vilayet. The other kazas, each under its own kaymakam, have a much smaller number of officials. The number of kazas to a vilayet varies - in Kayseri, it was six.
The district officer or nahiye müdürü has no one to assist him
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