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| 1928, Nov. 10 |
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| ADOPTION OF THE LATIN ALPHABET for Turkish. Writing had previously been done in Arabic script. In 1932 the process of reform was extended even further. An official committee called the Turkish Linguistic Society, which was set up specially for the project, began to purge non-Turkish grammatical structures and—far more radical—Arabic and Persian vocabulary from the existing language at a rapid rate. Since approximately 80 percent of Ottoman Turkish consisted of words drawn from Arabic and Persian, this reform represented a radical linguistic transformation. The process has continued unabated throughout the 20th century. | 1 |
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| 1929 |
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| Removal of Arabic and Persian as subjects taught in Turkish elementary schools. The measure simultaneously struck at the religious establishment and reoriented the curriculum further in the direction of secular studies. | 2 |
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| 1930–50 |
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| The ERA OF ÉTATISM in economic planning. The state assumed the leading role in developing Turkish industry, but without large-scale nationalization of existing firms. The state economic programs allowed private enterprise in industry and commerce and proposed no radical agrarian reforms such as collectivization schemes. Nor did the economic planners in the government favor the establishment of any state monopolies. The function of the state was to provide leadership, capital, and management where the Turkish private sector, due to its internal weaknesses, was unable to do so. | 3 |
| As part of its long-term vision, the state implemented a Five-Year Plan, modeled on Soviet lines, in Jan. 1934. It was the first state-directed economic program of its kind in the Middle East. The main goals of the project were to develop consumer industries, particularly textiles, and to provide the foundations for heavy industry (for example, iron and steel plants). | 4 |
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| 1930 |
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| Suspension of payments on the Ottoman debt in the wake of the world financial crisis. Negotiations led to a reduction of the debt in 1933. | 5 |
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| March 28 |
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| Only Turkish names were henceforth to be used for Turkish cities (for example, Istanbul for Constantinople, Edirne for Adrianople, etc.). | 6 |
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| April 3 |
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| Women won the right to vote in municipal elections. In Dec. 1934 they were permitted to vote in national elections and to sit in parliament. | 7 |
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| April 3 |
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| Law of municipalities, which incorporated all of Turkey's cities and provided them with an official municipal structure. (Turkey's villages had already received a similar status and administrative apparatus in 1864.) | 8 |
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| July |
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| First labor law, which provided for mandatory labor inspections, arbitration committees for labor disputes, and the establishment of minimum working conditions. | 9 |
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| Aug. 12–Nov. 17 |
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| Life span of the Free Republican Party, which existed briefly as a closely supervised opposition party. The government soon grew uneasy with the new party and suppressed it. | 10 |
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| Dec. 30 |
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| Turkish-Greek treaty of friendship. The two countries formally settled their border disputes and agreed to naval equality in the eastern Mediterranean. | 11 |
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