Isn't feudalism at the root of the Eastern question?(*)

The point reached by the externally dependent neo-liberal economy in Turkey and the companies that serve as its instruments has been exploitation and the deterioration of income distribution.

The externally dependent neo-liberal economy has also impoverished farmers in agriculture, left rural areas on the verge of emptying, caused a decline in unit agricultural product growth, and as a result, has led to an explosion in agricultural product imports.

Moreover, consumers have also become unable to access agricultural products. For this reason, the appearance of some taking a stance against the neo-liberal economy while proposing solutions through companies that are themselves instruments of the neo-liberal economy cannot prevent the collapse in agriculture.

In the context of the fundamental impasse of the Turkish economy and agriculture, feudalism, which continues to exist in Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia, also plays a part.

The role of feudalism in the fundamental impasse of the Turkish economy and agriculture

Feudalism triggers three issues across Turkey.

• It has created uncontrolled migration from Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia to our Western cities. This has brought about structural problems in the cities.

• The feudal structure has prevented the increase of national income. Because the feudalism existing in the region causes inefficiency in agricultural production.

• And it has created the economic, political, and sociological environment for the PKK movement, which is now known to be openly supported by imperial states.

Prof. Dr. Halil İnalcık expressed the imperial aspect of this as follows: “The EU and the US are supporting the Kurds today; the Armenians and the Kurds are now very hopeful for themselves from America’s new “divide-and-rule” policy in the Middle East… In my opinion, all of this is nothing more than a continuation of the “Eastern Question” policy of the 19th century in Europe,” he said.

Feudalism and Land Reform

There was a time when there were discussions in this country about “Land Reform” to liquidate feudalism. Some called it “Agricultural Reform,” and others called it “Land Revolution.”

What is the feudal order that continues to exist in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia?

The feudal structure, as is known, is a system that emerges on the basis of land ownership and personal loyalty in the social hierarchy. In this hierarchy, there are land-owning aghas, tribal leaders, religious sect sheikhs, and the ethnic and religious politicians and political approaches that feed off them on Turkey's agenda.

In short, in the region where the Kurdish separatist movement is dominant, land ownership is under the control of land aghas under tribal organization.

On the lands belonging to the aghas, the poor Kurdish peasant tries to maintain their existence half-hungry and half-full. In elections, votes are cast en masse, and the beys enter parliament. Members of parliament and mayors are usually either land aghas or their relatives...

The land aghas share political parties among themselves and continue to remain in power by any means necessary.

Industrialists and tradespeople are of a similar class structure.

Some Kurdish peasants engage in animal husbandry without being tied to the land, but a portion of them have had to give up animal husbandry for security reasons. Education and health services in the region are also far from meeting the demand.

The masses coming to the cities are unemployed because the industrial and service sectors have not developed sufficiently.

At the point we have reached, another change has also occurred. They have made the aghas and beys establish cooperatives in the region and put them in charge. Thus, a model of cooperativization has emerged that is not observed in any other region of the world. I named this new cooperativization “Aga-Koop.” Now, the poor peasants of the region are equal(!) partners on paper in the cooperative called Aga-Koop, but they continue to live hand-to-mouth just as they did in the past.

In the Southeast and the East, the aghas have continued to remain in power until today by sharing political parties among themselves by any means necessary.

Shall we express feudalism with numbers?

• In Diyarbakır, more than 41 percent of the land is under the control of 3 percent of the families.

• In Şanlıurfa, nearly 30 percent of the nearly 10 million decares of land belongs to 1.5 percent of the families.

• There is no official record of how many villages and how much agricultural land the family of Ahmet Türk, one of the leaders of the Kanco tribe in Mardin Derik and a member of the DEM Party, owns. There are allegations on social media that he has assets of more than 40 villages and 30 thousand dönüms of land.

According to news in the media, on November 16, 2024, IMM President Ekrem İmamoğlu went to Mardin to visit Ahmet Türk, who had a trustee appointed in his place.

He traveled to the 150-year-old Kasrı Kanco Mansion, which is Türk's home, with a vehicle convoy.

A meal for 600 people was served for İmamoğlu at Ahmet Türk's mansion, and 42 kids (young goats) were slaughtered. The meat was cooked in 5 cauldrons.

Isn't this the reality that should be questioned at the foundation?

What are the consequences of feudalism?

• It creates unemployment and poverty.

• Education and health services in the region are far from meeting the demand.

• It causes internal migration. The proportion of those who previously owned any land among those who migrated to the city is extremely low.

• Intense labor exploitation emerges with Seasonal Agricultural Labor.

Seasonal agricultural worker families leave home in March, April, and May, and mostly return home in September, October, and November.

The most important reason for migration is “economic difficulties,” in other words, landlessness or having very little land. The proportion of those who previously owned any land among those who migrated to the city is extremely low. Only 7 percent of the families have agricultural land in their villages, and the average size of these lands is less than 10 dönüms.

• Feudalism has created a feudal culture.

? Did this situation not emerge in the village where Narin was murdered? What does the silence of those living in the village and a former member of parliament signify? Is there any difference between this and the “Law of Silence” called “Omerta” in the mafia order?

? Feudalism produces tribes. Two examples reflected in the media.

According to media reports dated October 3, 2025, in Başaran Village of Beytüşşebap District of Şırnak, Hülya-Emrah Gökçe couple from the Jirki Tribe got married with a wedding that lasted 2 days and 2 nights. 3 million TL was pinned on the groom and 1.5 kilos of gold on the bride.

Recently, director Emin Alper won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival with his film “Burning Days” (Kurak Günler).

The director says that while developing the subject of the film, he was inspired by the massacre in 2009, when the PKK terrorist organization, a puppet of imperialism, was roaming the region, where a heavily armed tribe from a neighboring village guard village raided the Bilge village of Mardin during an engagement ceremony and massacred 44 people from another tribe, regardless of whether they were children or women.”

• It turns the masses into a cheap vote bank.

• And the separatist PKK movement feeds on the poverty that arises as a result of land distribution.

Shall we ask the economic-policy makers in Turkey?

Are there any findings and proposals in the election programs of the parties that mention land reform? What happened to the Land Reform that we once debated?

Or were the lists of members of parliament in the region formed again by aghas and beys?

Was the opinion of the Kurdish poor taken on the agenda of a Turkey without terrorism?

In the package aimed at solving the Kurdish question, were the opinions of the representatives of the Kurdish poor in labor mass organizations such as unions and cooperatives taken?

In the Turkey without terrorism package, landless peasants, sharecroppers, the unemployed piled up in cities, workers working for starvation wages, young people who could not find education opportunities, in short, the Kurdish poor, are nowhere to be seen.

Even worse, there are no economic regulations aimed at their economic needs, their liberation processes, in short, their living like human beings.

Those who speak on their behalf are the feudal beys who have entered parliament, the industrialists and tradespeople of the region who have not severed their ties with feudalism, in summary, the strata that feed on the Kurdish poor.

Let us mention it. Articles have been written and proposals have been made stating that the problems primarily stem from the unequal land distribution existing in the region, but both the ruling and opposition parties do not want to address this issue.

What is the solution to liquidate feudalism?

The first stage of Land Reform is, of course, providing landless or land-poor peasants with sufficient land. In fact, Article 44 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey makes this mandatory.

• Land Reform should not just include land distribution. At the same time, a “Regional Development Plan covering Land Reform” that will liquidate the feudal structure in the region should be put into effect.

• Along with Land Reform, industrialization should be accelerated in the region through public economic enterprises. In such an approach, the State should also be a guide and investor in the region.

If the subject is not handled in terms of integrity, the distributed land will pass back into the hands of the powerful.

To prevent this, it is essential that land reform be handled with the cooperative organization of agricultural enterprises.

Here, cooperatives should be taken as a basis, starting from the procurement of inputs to the marketing of outputs.

In this context, peasants should become industrialists through cooperatives.

I would like to end my article with a statement made by Atatürk regarding the Land Revolution.

• “In his opening speech to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on November 1, 1937, Atatürk said; “Once, there should be no landless farmers left in the country. What is more important than this is that the land that can support a farmer's family must be classified according to the population density and soil fertility degree of the region where the land is located, and the land width that large farmers and farm owners can operate must be limited in no way and for no reason.”

(*) For detailed information, see: Kaymakçı, M., 2025. Türkiye Tarımı (Emperyalist Saldırı ve Çözümler). Pankuş Yayınları, pp. 246-247, 403-417