Wars outside the war: social impact of the second World War on Turkey

Abstract

The social impact of Second World War on Turkey has not attracted the attention of scholars because of the politico-historical approach in Turkish historiography, which holds the state, elites, macro-economic developments. and diplomatic events as its focal point. However, although Turkey did not participate in the war, the people were affected by it profoundly. This thesis describes the effects of the war on the small peasants, working class, poor people, children and women. Because the domain of high politics was stable, the state has been regarded as the main actor of the period and in the developments of the post-war era and the people have been regarded as the passive and silent objects of the socio-economic conditions and the state policies. This thesis shows that the people were not passive objects, that they resisted the state policies and socio-economic conditions created by the war. It is argued that their everyday life experiences and resistance should be taken into account in the interpretation of the post-war liberal-turn and institutionalization of the social policy. As for the state, which was called a strong state, the war revealed its weakness in the face of the problems in the social field and social resistance in everyday life. In a nutshell, this thesis opens to question the orientalist conceptualization of the Turkish people as passive objects and the state as strong.