Turkey's Rushed Liberalization: Wartime Neutrality and the Devaluation of 1946

Abstract

This article reinterprets the Recep Peker cabinet's 1946 decisions to devalue the lira and deregulate foreign trade, which are often described as US-encouraged and liberalizing. The authors argue that alignment with the US did not dictate policy. They begin with World War II and show that, by 1944, Turkey had already been drawn into an Anglo-American international order. The authors then suggest that devaluation should be understood as a response: as a Europe-oriented policy with specific, short-term goals. They conclude that 1946 was less a radical liberalizing pivot than an attempt to address the difficult legacy of wartime neutrality.