The economic policies of Ittihad ve Terakki: Conceptual foundations and implementations

The Committee of Union and Progress, which opposed the rule of Sultan Abdülhamid II with discourses such as liberty, justice, equality and freedom, had a significant impact on the political history of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although it clearly manifested itself in the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, it is necessary to start the journey of the Committee to power after the Bab-ı Ali Raid of 1913. The Committee of Union and Progress, which came to power in 1913, found itself faced with many economic problems. The most important of these problems were lagging industrialization, inability to increase productivity in agriculture, foreign debts, capitulations, etc. When the general economic understanding of the Committee of Union and Progress is analyzed, it can be stated that liberal policies were adopted especially in the first period, and then the national economic understanding was gradually put into practice. It is possible to say that the separatist movements in the Balkan geography of the country and the World War I that followed had an impact on the strengthening of the national economic policy. Looking at the issue from the most general framework, it can be argued that the capitalist world system approach put forward by Immanuel Wallerstein is quite functional in analyzing the period. This is because this period corresponds to a process in which Western capitalism became a center and institutionalized on the one hand, and on the other hand, non-industrialized economies such as the Ottoman economy were transformed into peripheral economies by entering the interaction area of this center. In this study, the economic policies of the Committee of Union and Progress are analyzed through this theoretical framework and the effects of the policies implemented based on sectors are examined. In this context, the study first examines the historical and intellectual background of the establishment of the Committee of Union and Progress, and then analyses how the economic problems that the Committee sought to solve were formed within the framework of the relevant theory throughout the 19th century. Finally, the effectiveness of the economic policies implemented by the Committee of Union and Progress during its years in power is analyzed based on sectors.