Turkey's Path of Development

Abstract

This interpretation of the economic and political development of modern Turkey is asserted to be an answer to a "letter to the editor" from one Comrade V. I. Smoliakov, who wrote: "It is a well-known fact that after having rid herself from the rule of imperialists in the 1920's, Turkey followed an independent foreign policy and became a champion of peace and anti-colonialism. Why has Turkey recently become the bulwark of imperialism in the Near East?" Two unusual interpretive elements are present: the positive evaluation of Kemal Ataturk's role, and, more striking, a view of present-day Turkey as retrogressive.