| divorce of urban and rural society, and much was said about the Anatolian peasants being the true Turks and the main source of the strength, indeed the culture, of Turkey. Much also has been said about “raising” the villages, and a good deal has been done towards this end. But the social gulf remains. Kayseri, for example, has a radius of suburban villages, in which for a long time schools have existed and townspeople have had summer homes and owned land; very often, when an educated man tells you he is a villager he in fact comes from such a suburban village. But the radius of such villages is small, and I would say with confidence that the number of villages in Turkey of which such conditions hold is a tiny percentage. The notion of going to the villages for recreation, for a holiday, or for a sentimental attraction to their quaintness or their scenic beauty, would be inconceivable to an urban Turk, outside the suburban radius. Two facts illustrate this point: firstly, that, in the early attempts to establish schools in the villages, employing town-trained teachers, it was found impossible to get them to stay in the villages; secondly, far from residing in the villages, Turkish doctors are not prepared even to go to cases in villages at call, unless a taxi is provided by the patient’s relatives, an expense out of the question, even supposing that a taxi could reach the village, for all except the close suburban villages. |
| 2. | Village Law |
| Apart from the imposed changes in law and custom, and the economic policies which I have recounted, the new Republican Government introduced a number of measures aimed directly at reforming or assisting the villages. One of the first acts, and one which was effective, was the abolition of the Ottoman system of tax farming, and the substitution of collection of fixed amounts by properly appointed and accredited officials. This measure was, at first, accompanied by reductions in the amount of tax, but these, both directly and indirectly, have in time increased again. Equally, early in the new regime, a Village Law was passed, which is still on the statute book and is from time to time amended. It is a remarkable document, bearing little relation to existing conditions, except on a few points. It sets out in great detail exactly what villages must do, how they are to be governed, how disputes are to be dealt with, and makes a number of social rules. As it stands it serves rather as a document on the attitudes of the ruling class to the villages than as a basis for understanding what goes on in villages. For this reason I do not intend to discuss it at length. After a section defining a village and laying down regulations about boundaries, the second chapter contains two lists - one of things villages must do, and one things which villages may legally decide to do, and in point of |
| which they may legally coerce defaulters. This first list contains thirty-seven items, including such matters as the building of a covered drain; the type of privy to be used; the building of two village streets to cross obliquely in a village square; the separation by a wall of living rooms and stabling in all village houses; the construction not only of a school, but also of a Mosque; the proper maintenance of the fields and property of orphans by the village as a whole. It is even forbidden to tire animals unnecessarily. The list of permitted activities, thirty-one items long, includes the setting up of various trades in the villages, the provision of books, help for the poor, and the organisation of sport. I have never heard of any village making use of the right to pass local regulations on these matters, nor have I ever heard anyone refer to the existence of such powers. The law then proceeds to detail methods of election of the “muhtar” and the Council of Elders; the sources and uses of village funds; the settlement of disputes, in cases involving up to 50 T.L.; the arrangements for village watchmen and, be it noted, for village Imam; and a few miscellaneous details. The village law is only applied if and when a live issue arises on which it has something to say, or in matters which, in the natural course of events, come to the notice of the authorities - such as the number of members elected to the Council of Elders - and then often only nominally. When village custom already provides an accepted alternative method of dealing with a problem where, as almost invariably, the village has no interest in altering the “status quo”, no notice is taken of the village law. Certainly, no one I met in the villages knows much more about it than that it exists. |
| 3. | Village Institutes |
| Perhaps the most effective direct administrative action by the government is in the field of village education. The change of the Western script makes learning to read a much simpler affair than formerly. First attempts at village education were made with town trained teachers, but it was found that they would not, and I suspect could not, stay in the villages. In 1939, two experiments were tried to deal with this difficulty. Army personnel, on completion of training, were given short courses in reading and writing, and sent back as teachers to give a three year course, in reading and writing only, to children of their villages. The second experiment is on a much wider and more permanent scale. A number of special boarding schools, called Village Institutes, have been founded, situated well away from towns. These take village boys and girls who have completed primary school, in theory at the age of 12, and give them 5 years intensive secondary education, including crafts and skills thought to be |
| of special use to villagers, and some pedagogy. They return to their villages only for two months during the summer, and the rest of the year they are at work at the Village Institute. At the end of their training, all of which they receive free, these students are bound to spend twenty years as village school- teachers. They are sent, often alone, to a village not necessarily their own, to give the compulsory five year elementary education to all children in that village. The estimated number of graduates of these Village Institutes in 1948 was 7,000, (1) and of students 15,000. The first Institute was founded at Hasanoglan in 1937; now there are twenty-one of them all over Turkey, the last being opened in 1949. The Institutes are co-educational but the number of girl pupils is very small - at Pazaroren Village Institute, in the Kayseri Vilayet, there have been only six girl graduates up to 1949, and the number of girl pupils there in August, 1949, was only 27. At Hasanoglan, the Village Institute for the Ankara Vilayet, there is a department for training about 200 boys at a time as Village Health Officers, and a few girls as midwives. It is the intention of the authorities that the graduates of these institutes shall act as village leaders in every respect, encouraging better agricultural methods, better housing, better hygiene, greater political awareness, and so on, besides fulfilling their functions as village school-teachers. In terms of literacy, the experiment is successful, but in terms of these more general Westernising aims, the matter is much more doubtful. Boys of eighteen or nineteen - the first batch of graduates of these Institutes are still under thirty - do no carry much weight in village counsels. What is more, back in their own village environment, they tend to slough some of the new skin they have so laboriously acquired, and to return to traditional values. |
| 4. | Government assistance to agriculture |
| The Government controls the bulk buying of crops, and by this means controls prices. All along the railways, depots for storing and transhipping grain have been established. By means of these depots, the government buys directly the surplus of the peasants at a fixed price according to grade. It holds reserves, and in years of scarcity it sells at a similar price. By this means it prevents prices dropping very low in years of plenty, and soaring to great heights in years of scarcity, thus removing one of the most serious difficulties of peasant producers. The Agricultural Bank (2) which originated as far back as 1863, was reorganised in 1923 as a joint stock company, and in 1937 became a government institution. It gives several types of loans - for improvement, equipment, and so on - but by far the commonest and most important are loans for current expenses, which must be secured jointly by a group, must be supported by the village headman, and must no exceed 800 T.L. (£100). In |
| 1947, a total credit of over 240 million lira was extended to over 1,300,000 families, or on one calculation, approaching half of the peasant families in Turkey. The Average loan for that year was only 186 T.L. (£22). Numerous other schemes for assisting and improving agriculture have been launched. Special crops have been encouraged, such as sugar, tobacco and cotton; tea has been introduced on the eastern end of the Black Sea coast line; experimental stations have been established; improved and clean seed has in some cases been made available; stallions and other male animals have been provided free to peasants to improve stock; and agricultural machinery has been imported, especially under the post war E.C.A programme. The effect of these efforts is confined for the most part to the more fertile areas, and to the little large-scale and government farming which exists; the impact of the techniques of the majority of plateau villages up to date is negligible. One never hears of graduates of the Agricultural Faculty of Ankara University going out as demonstrators or research workers into the remoter villagers. |
| 5. | Administrative system (3) |
| Turkey is divided into sixty-three major administrative units, all in normal usage “vilayets”, now officially “il”, each under a “vali”. Each “vilayet” is divided into smaller areas, “kaza”, now officially “ilce”, and these again into “nahiye”, officially “bucak”. The “vali” is appointed by the Ministry of the Interior, and approved by the Cabinet and the President of the Republic. The “kaza” has a centrally appointed officer, a “kaymakam”, and so also does the “nahiye”. These officials form in fact a special service within the Ministry of the Interior, and must be at least high school graduates. For the “vilayet”, there is also an elected assembly, of which the “vali” is ex officio the chairman, and which has certain limited powers and local administrative duties. Practically all matters, except the law court, are under the control of the “vali”, though some departments - for example, the police - are also responsible to their own central authorities in Ankara. Indeed the “vali” has an impressive array of offices under him. The “kaymakam” also has a considerable staff. In all “vilayets” the area round the capital comes under the direct administration of the “vali”; the number of “kaza” in a “vilayet” varies - in Kayseri there are six besides the central “kaza”. A nahiye usually contains about twenty or so villages, and there may be three or four nahiye in a kaza. The nahiye muduru has to manage on his own, assisted mainly by the local sergeant of gendarmes, who wields a good deal of power and is directly responsible, being a member of the army, to his |
| own superior officer. Police duties in rural areas are performed by these gendarmes, who are in fact conscripts, mostly themselves villagers, and often more concerned with their own comfort and more sympathetic to the villagers than interested in the carrying out of the law, or conscientious in the performance of their duties. In the village, which is the lowest recognised political entity, the principle of centralised appointment necessarily breaks down, and the “muhtar” (headman) is chosen by the villagers. A Council of Elders is also chosen by the village, to act as a check on the muhtar’s authority and to assist him. It has been wisely remarked that the relation between the city educated official and the often illiterate village muhtar is the critical point of the whole administration of rural areas, and I shall discuss it in more detail in the appropriate chapter. Towns and administrative centres should have, and the larger ones do have, a municipal administration under an indirectly elected mayor and council, supervised by the “vali”, or the “kaymakam”, whichever is appropriate. Towns are divided into wards, which have, like villages, a muhtar, though his duties are much less important than those of a village muhtar. The main principle of administration is centralisation. Not only are all these officials appointed from Ankara, but all disputes and difficulties, for example, between the vali and the elected provincial council, must be referred to Ankara. Any large scale enterprise by a local authority requires the approval of Ankara. In fact, initiative does not seem to come up from below at all, but always down from above. Further, I suspect that research will confirm the generally accepted opinion that efficiency decreases with the distance from the centre; for example, the most efficient vilayet is Ankara, while the least efficient are said to be those in the far east, and the most efficiently run kaza in any vilayet will be the central kaza. My own experience of the administration seemed to confirm this rough generalisation. |
| III. | Kayseri and Sakaltutan |
| 1. | Kayseri |
| With a population of sixty thousand, Kayseri ranks eighth in size among the cities of Turkey. It is built on a flat plain, surrounded by hills and flanked by the south west by the mass of Mount Erciyas (Argaeus), 13,000 ft. The main railway line to the east of Turkey runs through it, and the more used of the |