Implementation of land and agricultural reform law no. 1757 in Urfa (1960-1980)

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the implementation period of Land and Agricultural Reform Law No. 1757 in Urfa which was the region of implementation. The law remained in force between 1973-1978. After the application of the Democratic Party to the Constitutional Court, the law was abrogated in 1977. The Constitutional Court gave a one-year term to pass a new law; however, there wasn’t any attempt to make a new law. As a result, Law No. 1757 ceased to have force in 1978. Until Law No. 3083 the Agricultural Reform Law on Land Arrangement in Irrigation Regions inured in 1984, several articles of the Law No. 1757 remained in force. Law No. 1757 was implemented in a very restricted way; nevertheless, it had drastic effects in Urfa. This law was a very flexible law that it may create a transformative effect in the region of implementation depending on the interpretation of certain articles related to expropriation and types of enterprises. On the other hand, it contained certain articles that allowed large land owners to compensate their loss or even avoid the expropriation process. In this respect, the success of the implementation very much depended on the government. The main questions of the thesis are that what kinds of effects the implementation of land reform had both on landless peasants and land owners and what their reactions were to being included in the process. The land reform had to be perceived as an implementation that might facilitate egalitarian social structure in a geography where not much industrial employment opportunities were provided and where serious inequalities were observed in land dispersion.