Initiative to Create Ideal Citizens in Rural Areas of Turkey: Assembly of Village Institutes

The subject of the present study is the criticism meetings held regularly in the Village Institutes that were implemented to modernize rural areas of Turkey (1940-1946). Those meetings are entitled as the Assembly of Village Institutes in the present study. The purposes of the criticism meetings were to transform the Institute's students and villagers into modern individuals, eliminate the anti-reform and traditional mentality and spread the idea of a republic in rural areas. This study aims to address the success of those meetings. In the study, first of all, the situation in the villages, the life of the villagers and their mentality before the initiative were explained. Afterwards, Village Institutes initiative as well as, the impressions of the students on the first day they came to the Institute were examined. The criticism meetings held in the Institutes were elaborately assessed, and some events that took place in those meetings were stated in accordance with their sources. Finally, the achievements and success of those criticism meetings were discussed. The present study revealed that the Village Institutes that emerged as a result of the village realities were designed according to the needs of the village. The criticism meetings enabled the transformation of village children, who were docile, submissive, insecure and unaware, into self-confident individuals who knew and sought their rights, and who struggled against injustice. Although this initiative was halted by the change of government in 1946, it enabled to raise about 20 thousand people in a very short time and created a new social status group in the villages.