Abstract:

After the National Struggle, the 13 million people remaining from The Ottoman Empire was struggling against tuberculosis, syphilis and trachoma. The structure of the population had changed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Health problems were now considered as one of the leading ones in the newly-founding country and became to be assessed as the primary priority of the future population. In this context, topics such as fighting against epidemics, social assistance, medical care centers, training of health professionals, a central public hygiene institution, troubles of sheltering and sanitary propaganda came into agenda. This article explores the ways in which medicine took part in political debates of the Early Republican Turkey as well as determining population policies through public health education of the masses with a social understanding of health care. The article also discusses the merging of nation-building, modernist and sanitary projects of interwar Turkey into each other

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