Renewed statism and renewed development

To separate the founding philosophy and ideology of the Republic of Turkey from the founding philosophy and ideology of the CHP would be to eliminate the very reason for the existence and foundation of our state and the party. The six arrows of the CHP are also the six arrows of our state. Opening the principles of the CHP to debate is to open the founding principles and philosophy of the Republic of Turkey to debate. These principles are a whole and cannot be separated from one another; if one is missing, the other principles do not exist. The six arrows of the CHP are to the party what the crescent and star on the flag of the Republic of Turkey are to the state.

Atatürk said the following in 1931: “While the program followed by our party is a completely democratic and populist program in one direction, it is statist from an economic perspective.”

If a society is governed by a democratic and populist program, all the rights and freedoms of the individual are recognized in that society. If this program is statist in economic terms, it shows that major tasks beyond the power of individual members of society are carried out by the state for the benefit of society, and that an economy with an individualist-collectivist character is planned and regulated by the state.

One of the important goals of our economic policy is to nationalize institutions that directly concern the public, to the extent permitted by our economic power.

Atatürk said in 1923, “I am thinking of a party formation that has a program ensuring the welfare and happiness of all classes of the nation.” This is the fundamental mission of the CHP.

In his speech at the CHP’s İzmir Congress on January 28, 1931, Atatürk stated that the party was statist.

The principle of statism, which forms the basis of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s social welfare and development economy, was applied for the first time in the world by Atatürk and included in the party program. European economists only realized this understanding of a social welfare economy in the 1950s. Atatürk’s policy of statism means full independence, a self-sufficient country, agriculture, industrialization, contemporary civilization, and science. Today, our country longs for all of these.

Between 1933 and 1938, planned development in accordance with the social welfare state concept was implemented in our country under the leadership of Atatürk. With the first five-year industrial plan, state management began in terms of economic activities.

The implementation of state-led industrialization in underdeveloped and developing countries took place for the first time in Atatürk’s Turkey.

With this planning, the primary goal in Turkey was to produce essential industrial goods through public enterprises, and when the plan was prepared, it was carried out using domestic resources without anticipating external funding.

With the principle of statism that is now being debated, Atatürk developed our country in the shortest possible time, did not allow for printing money without backing or inflationary policies through a balanced budget policy, and made the Republic of Turkey the 11th largest economy in the world through his policy of statism.

There is a greater need than ever to say renewed statism, renewed public ownership, and a renewed state of the people, and it is time to be courageous.