Social and culturel life in Ağrı (1950-1980)

Ağrı, which is one of the border provinces of the Eastern Anatolia Region, was administered as a sanjak until the proclamation of the Republic. After the proclamation of the Republic, Bayazıt became a new province with the abolition of the sanjak administrations. The first center of Bayazıt was today's Doğubayazıt district. Later, with the administrative arrangement made in 1927, the provincial center was transferred to Karaköse and the name of the province was changed to Ağrı. In this respect, the province of Ağrı became one of the first provinces to attain the status of a province with the proclamation of the Republic. With the modernization process initiated in the early years of the Republic, innovations were made in many fields throughout the country and Turkey's development was ensured. In this process, there has been remarkable progress in many areas in Ağrı, which is our field of work, as well as throughout the country. As in the early periods of the Republic, some innovations were made in Ağrı, especially in social and cultural areas, with the investments made during the Democrat Party (DP) governments. As in the first periods of the Republic, some innovations were made in social and cultural areas in Ağrı, thanks to the studies carried out during the Democrat Party (DP) governments. Likewise, the development moves continued during the Justice Party (AP) governments, which was called the planned period after the DP period. It is possible to see this effect especially in social and cultural areas in Ağrı. There were serious advances in education, health, transportation, communication, social and cultural fields between 1950 and 1980 in Turkey. As in the rest of the country, important steps were taken in this field in Ağrı. During the mentioned period, the population of the province increased significantly, and due to this increase, the construction of educational and medical institutions was accelerated by focusing on health services with the municipality. This naturally prepared the environment for the emergence of a liveliness in the social and cultural field in Ağrı. In this study, the developments and changes in the social and cultural field in Ağrı during the Republican period were examined in detail. In this context, the state policies in the social and cultural field from 1950 to 1980 and the social changes observed in the health, education, social and cultural field in Ağrı within the framework of these policies were aimed to be revealed. In order to reveal these data, the documents of the census, statistics of education, health, culture, sports, enformation and communication data were examined. In addition, provincial annuals, books and articles about Ağrı, local newspapers in Ağrı, archive documents of the Presidency State Archive and relevant speech texts in the minutes of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) were used. Finally, this study is a qualitative study; The data in the research were obtained by using the document analysis technique. Keywords: Ağrı, Justice Party, Democrat Party, Social, Cultural, Population, Education, Health.