ABSTRACT
The origins of state formation in Turkey go back to the nineteenth century. During the last century of the Ottoman Empire the emergence of the reformist state in Istanbul and its reforms in the military, political, legal and economic fields amount to the beginnings of modern state formation. A parallel process of Western political and economic penetration into the region affected the implementation of these reforms during that period. These two contradictory processes shaped the political and socio-economic landscape within which the Turkish Republic was founded.
