Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
During the past several decades, deliberate attempts to move from a ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ form of society have been made in the Republic of Turkey, resulting in rapid change economically, socially, and even politicallyI. The effort to change from a predominantly agrarian economy, and the concomitant increases in urbanization and industrialization, have had a profound effect on several sections of the country and have, to a large extent, created a whole new structure of spatial organization and patterns. Nevertheless, most of Turkey has been only slightly affected by the modernization process, and remains unaltered by the progress of economic and social development. Although economic growth and capital expenditures for development have steadily increased, they have not been uniformly distributed throughout the Republic, resulting in distinct regional disparities and a socio-economic system with many dualisms in its structure2.