3. The Middle East and Egypt, 1943-2000. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History

The Encyclopedia of World History. 2001.

(See 1944)


3. The Middle East and Egypt, 1943–2000
a. Turkey


1945, May 19

Pres. Ismet Inönü announced the switch to a multiparty state and relaxed the restrictions on party formation. Between 1946 and 1950, 27 new political parties came into being. Only two of them had any real significance: the Democratic Party (1946) and the Nation Party (1948).	1

June 11

Land reform measures. The state began to parcel out unowned land and unused state and community land to peasants. In addition, the new laws called for the expropriation of all private holdings over 500 donums (123.5 hectares), though the ceiling was raised to 5,000 donums in 1950. By 1960, the program had dispensed some 1.7 million hectares of arable land and 1.5 million of pasture land to 360,000 families. Despite the effort to redistribute land, the position of the great landowners remained strong. Even in 1960, only 15 percent of all landowners still owned about half the land. Great estates were most common in eastern Anatolia.	2


The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition. Peter N. Stearns, general editor. Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Maps by Mary Reilly, copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.