Relative Autonomy
After the World War II, the economy of the entire world would be in crisis. Many countries would depend on the aids provided from major powers in the international arena. Turkey was one of the countries that would benefit from the aids provided by both Europe and the United States of America. Majority of the imports would consist of raw resources, capital goods and intermediate products. These imports while letting the Turkish Republic survive throughout the process made it possible for the United States or European countries to have a say when it came to make decisions in the foreign policy. Since the foreign debt and imports were rising as if they would not hit a ceiling, Turkey had to implement new policies in order to keep its autonomy. The workers who went to Europe decided to send their earnings back to Turkey which covered %154 of the foreign trade deficit helped Turkey to prevent full economic collapse at the time. This however did not last long. Due to the oil crisis Europe decided to follow a belt-tightening strategy to endure the process but this not only affected their economy but also made an immense impact on Turkey’s economy since the workers in Europe could not send enough money back to keep the flow going. The rate dropped down to %39, coverage of the foreign trade deficit. This showed that the strategy of remittance was not a viable course to follow. The Cyprus operation can be given as a perfect example when talking about the autonomy of Turkey at the time. Although the international arena would not accept such an act, the Turkish government insisted on carrying out the operation, which was a success, yet it brought upon other economic problems for Turkey. The United States of America placed an embargo on Turkey’s aids since Turkey ignore the warnings to prevent the operation.
Even when factoring in the external sources of the economical collapse for Turkey, we can not ignore the internal problems. The government did not follow an export at all costs policy. This led to Turkey being forced to use the imports to endure the process. The government's focus on private enterprises made it possible for the bourgeoisie to gain lots of money while the workers and the basic public continued to suffer. This chaotic environment made the public to be polarized to the point of anarchy. The leftist people and the rightist people of the state became enemies and started to act in a hostile way towards each other. While the leftist stood against any outsider pressure on the state, the rightist would draw attention to the possibilities that could arise if Turkey continued to align with the foreign support. In order to support their agenda, leftists began openly fighting the American ideology and the tools of said ideology, the right wing supporters began fighting the leftists at any given opportunity. This chaotic environment caused by the violence against the polar opposites did not help Turkey with its economic problems.
Seeing this, the foreign policy led by the Turkish government gains more importance. Establishing better relations between the non-alligned countries and facing sources other than the United States or European countries would be fruitful decisions made by the government. Turkey decided to establish an economic relation with the USSR ignoring the ideologies and following a ‘realpolitik’ strategy allowed the exports and imports from USSR to rise to %6 from %0. The low-interest and long-term aid from USSR helped Turkey to strengthen its economy and also the political ties it brought along would help Turkey in the international arena, especially on the Cyprus problem.
All the factors, strategies and events mentioned above shows that, even though not directly, the decisions made by the Turkish State made it possible to retain relative autonomy throughout 1960s-1970s. As the global environment started to become more stable when compared to the time when the war had just finished, it provided many countries including Turkey to establish better economies.