Trouble in Turkey

The work on a grand mausoleum for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk goes on in Ankara, amidst the daily upheavals of life in a poverty-stricken country which, in 1947, was the beneficiary of a hundred million dollars worth of American aid. This March of Time report was made to explain to a sceptical American audience why, in political and economic terms, it was necessary to offer such support.

Turkey’s position in 1947, from the fortified zone of Gallipoli and the crowded shipping lanes of the Bosphorus, to the perilous mountain borders, meant that in geopolitical terms, the nation was of great interest to both Russia and the United States. This report, with its evocative footage showing old and new ways of life, depicts a period of change and uncertainty in a country of contradictions. From university classes full of female students, to the tentative emergence of an opposition Democratic Party, and an increasingly bold press, the March of Time cameras capture the signs of emergent freedoms in a country which, under the he leadership of President İsmet İnönü, was still a de facto dictatorship.