The Turkish Bourgeoisie at the Foundation of the Republic of Turkey: The Case of the Ship Owners

Abstract

In this article, I examine the Turkish bourgeoisie of the 1920s, focusing on the ship-owning families as a part of the Turkish bourgeoisie that clearly benefited from the formation of the nation-state and the "national economy" policies of the Ankara government. Focusing on the relationship between the economic development of this class and the formation of a Turkish nation-state, I try to show how this class, which has its roots in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire, enriched and empowered itself by taking advantage of this nation-state formation process and the prevailing ideology of Turkish nationalism.