Suna Altan, PhD – Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Iğdır University (Şehit Bülent Yurtseven Campus), Turkey

Series: Politics and Economics of the Middle East
BISAC: HIS055000; POL011000; HIS037070
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/TZAC2446

This book presents the first long-term, integrative history of poppy cultivation and opium production in Türkiye, tracing the transformation of a centuries-old agricultural practice into a central arena of international diplomacy, state regulation, and rural restructuring. Covering the period from 1909 to 1990, it situates Türkiye within evolving global networks of the opium trade and international drug control regimes, from the late Ottoman Empire to the consolidation of a state-regulated cultivation system. Drawing on extensive archival research, oral history interviews with producer peasants, and detailed policy analysis, the book examines how international pressures – from the League of Nations to the United Nations and direct U.S.A. intervention – reshaped state sovereignty, domestic legislation, and rural livelihoods. It analyzes the social and economic consequences of the 1971 cultivation ban, including income loss, migration, and the erosion of local agricultural knowledge, and explores the subsequent re-legalization process and the institutionalization of Türkiye’s licensed production model within the global regulatory framework.

By integrating agricultural, economic, diplomatic, and social history, this volume illuminates the complex interplay between global governance and local realities. It offers a nuanced and historically grounded perspective on drug policy, rural transformation, and the negotiation between sovereignty and international compliance. The book will be of significant interest to scholars of modern Turkish history, global governance, drug regulation, and the socio-economic dimensions of agricultural policy.

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