Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
File:MustafaKemalAtaturk.jpg
1st President of Turkey
In office October 29, 1923 – November 10, 1938
Succeeded by	İsmet İnönü
1st Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 3 May 1920 – 24 January 1921
Succeeded by	Fevzi Çakmak
1st Speaker of the Parliament
In office 1920–1923
Succeeded by	Ali Fethi Okyar
1st Leader of the R.P.P.
In office 1921–1938
Succeeded by	Ali Fethi Okyar
Personal details
Born	(1881-05-19)May 19, 1881 Selânik (Thessaloniki)
Died	November 10, 1938(1938-11-10) (aged 57) Dolmabahçe Palace, İstanbul
Nationality	Turkish
Political party	Republican People's Party
Spouse	Lâtife Uşaklıgil (1923–25)
Signature

Template:Infobox Mustafa Kemal Ataturk extension Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, born Ali Rıza oğlu Mustafa (May 19 1881 (postulated) – November 10, 1938) was an army officer, revolutionary statesman, and founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first President.

Mustafa Kemal established himself as a successful and extremely capable military commander while serving as a division commander at the Battle of Gallipoli. He later fought with distinction on the eastern Anatolian and Palestinian fronts, making a name for himself during World War I. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the hands of the Allies, and the subsequent plans for its partition, Mustafa Kemal led the Turkish national movement in what would become the Turkish War of Independence. Having established a provisional government in Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Entente powers. His successful military campaigns led to the liberation of the country and to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal then embarked on a major programme of political, economic and cultural reforms according to the principles outlined by Kemalist ideology. The goal of Atatürk's reforms was to create a modern, democratic, secular nation-state, one guided by contemporary educational and scientific progress and based on the principles of positivist and rationalist enlightenment.

Personal life

Main article: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's personal life

Mustafa Kemal was born in the Greek city of Salonika (Turkish: Selânik; modern-day Thessaloniki, Greece) to Ali Rıza Efendi and Zübeyde Hanım. Mustafa Kemal’s precise birth date is unknown. The Ottoman Empire used two calendars: the Hijri calendar and the Rumî calendar. His birth date was recorded as 1296 without designating whether this is based on the Rumî or Hijri calendar. This date overlaps dates extending from 1880 to 1881 on the Gregorian calendar. Mustafa Kemal noted his mother said he was born in the spring, while his sister, Makbule Atadan, stated their mother said he was born on a stormy winter night. Ataturk accepted May 19, the date on which the Turkish War of Independence began, as his birth day and month in response to a gesture by historian Reşit Saffet Atabinen.

He attended military schools in Selânik and Manastır (present-day Bitola, Republic of Macedonia). In 1895, he enrolled in the Ottoman Army Academy at Manastır. Mustafa Kemal married Latife Uşaklıgil. They divorced after 3 years of marriage. Ataturk adopted seven daughters and a son. In his leisure time, he enjoyed reading, horseback riding, chess and swimming. He was also an avid dancer and enjoyed both the waltz and traditional Zeybek folk dances. Mustafa Kemal published many books and kept a personal journal; the Ottoman period was published as a single collection, and between 1923–1937 under multiple volumes. The "Nutuk" had recently had a new addition, which first one was published in 1927.

Extended information regarding his (1) publications, (2) education, (3) family, (4) habits and traits are under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's personal life.

Military career

Early period, 1905–1914

Mustafa Kemal on 20 June 1907 as a staff captain

Mustafa Kemal graduated as a lieutenant in 1905 and was assigned to the 5th Army based in Damascus. There he soon joined a small secret revolutionary society of reformist officers called Vatan ve Hürriyet (Motherland and Liberty) and became an active opponent of the Ottoman autocratic regime of Abdülhamid II. In 1907, he was promoted to the rank of captain and assigned to the 3rd Army in Manastır. During this period he joined the Committee of Union and Progress, commonly known as the Young Turks. In 1908, the Young Turks seized power from the then reigning Sultan Abdülhamid II and Mustafa Kemal became a senior military figure. As one of the first members of the CUP, he played a role in the revolution of 1908. However, in later years he became known for his opposition to, and frequent criticism of, policies pursued by the CUP leadership. Soon thereafter, Mustafa Kemal's relationship with Enver Pasha deteriorated. As a result, when Enver Pasha emerged as the foremost military leader after 1913, Mustafa Kemal was excluded from the center of power.

In 1910, Atatürk took part in the Picardie army maneuvers in France, and in 1911, served at the Ministry of War (Harbiye Nezareti) in Istanbul. Later in 1911, he was posted to the province of Trablusgarp (present-day Libya) to oppose the Italian invasion. Following the successful defense of Tobruk on December 22, 1911, he was appointed Commander of forces at Derne on March 6, 1912.

He returned to Istanbul following the outbreak of the Balkan Wars in October 1912. During the First Balkan War, Mustafa Kemal fought against the Bulgarian army at Gallipoli and Bolayır on the coast of Thrace. He also played a crucial role in the recapture of Edirne and Didymoteicho during the Second Balkan War. In 1913, he was appointed military attaché to Sofia, in part because Enver Pasha viewed him as a potential rival and sought to curtail his involvement in any political intrigue in Istanbul. By March 1914, whilst serving in Sofia, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

World War I

Further information: [[:Middle Eastern theatre of World War I]]

While in Sofia, Mustafa Kemal became a vocal critic of Turkey's entry into the war on Germany's side. On July 16, 1914, he sent an official dispatchment from Sofia to the Ministry of War in Istanbul, urging a policy of Turkish neutrality in the event of war, with a view to possible later intervention against the Central Powers. However, the Minister of War, Enver Pasha, favoured an alliance with Germany, leading to a secret alliance treaty being signed between the two governments. The Ottoman Empire eventually entered the First World War on Germany's side.

Battle of Gallipoli, 1915–1916

Mustafa Kemal commanded the 19^th division at the Battle of Gallipoli, with which he confronted nearly all of the Allied landings

The German Marshal Otto Liman von Sanders was assigned to defend the Dardanelles in command of the 5^th Army. Mustafa Kemal was given the task of organizing and commanding the 19^th Division attached to the 5th Army. On 8 January 1915, the British War Council launched an operation "to bombard and take the Gallipoli peninsula with Istanbul as its objective".

Mustafa Kemal in Gallipoli with his soldiers, 1915

The British naval attacks failed to break through the Dardanelles Strait and the British decided to support their fleet with a landing operation. The land campaign took place between April 25, 1915, and January 9, 1916. With his division stationed in Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal found himself at the centre of the Allies' attempts to force their way into the peninsula.

On 25 April 1915, the Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) forces were to move inland after landing their troops at Anzac Cove, but soon they met with a Turkish counter attack, commanded by Mustafa Kemal. Mustafa Kemal encountered the enemy forces on the hills, held them, and retook the high ground. Largely owing to him and his command, the ANZAC forces were contained, and the landing force failed to reach its objectives.

Before the encounter between the two forces, Mustafa Kemal told his troops:

"I don’t order you to fight, I order you to die. In the time it takes us to die, other troops and commanders can come and take our places."

By nightfall the Anzacs had suffered 2,000 casualties and were fighting to stay on the beach. For the following two weeks the Allies remained on the beaches, losing one third of their force. Mustafa Kemal, by holding off the Allied forces at Conkbayırı (Chunuk Bair), earned the rank of Colonel during the early stages of landings. The second stage of the Gallipoli campaign, which was opened on August 6, put Mustafa Kemal only three hundred meters (0.18 miles) away from the firing line. He was the Turkish commander at many major battles throughout the campaign, such as the Battle of Chunuk Bair, Battle of Scimitar Hill and the Battle of Sari Bair.

Words of Atatürk on the monument at Anzac Cove

The Gallipoli campaign ended up to be a disaster for the Allies as they had been pinned down by the Turks during ten months of fighting. The Allies finally decided to call off the offensive and troops were evacuated, with the evacuation being the greatest Allied success. On the Ottoman Empire's side, Otto Liman von Sanders (5^th Army) and several other Turkish commanders had significant achievements based on their role in the defense of the Turkish Straits. However, Mustafa Kemal became the outstanding front-line commander and gained much respect from his former enemies for his chivalry in victory. The Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Memorial has an honoured place on ANZAC Day parades in Canberra, Australia. Mustafa Kemal's commemorating speech on the loss of thousands of Turkish and Anzac soldiers in Gallipoli is today inscribed on a monument at Anzac Cove:

"Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."

Caucasus Campaign, 1916–1917

Kemal established his post at Diyarbakır and took the command of the XVI^th Corps of the Ottoman 2^nd Army

Following the Battle of Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal first served in Edirne until the January 14, 1916. He was assigned to the command of the XVI^th Corps of the 2^nd Army and sent to the Caucasus Campaign. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General on April 1. Most historians believe that Enver Pasha deliberately delayed his promotion.

Mustafa Kemal in the Caucasus Campaign

When Mustafa Kemal was assigned to his new post, the 2^nd Army was facing the Russian army under General Tovmas Nazarbekian, the detachment of Armenian volunteer units commanded by Andranik Toros Ozanian and the Armenian irregular units which were in constant advance. After the Van Resistance an Armenian provisional government under the leadership of Aram Manougian was formed with a progressive autonomous region. The Armenian administration had grown from its initial set-up around Lake Van. The initial stages of the Battle of Bitlis and the Battle of Muş were already developed. On arrival Kemal found chaotic conditions. The region was inhospitable at the best of times. Communication lines were under insurgency attacks. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of them Kurds, which had bitter relations with Armenian units, came flooding in front of the advancing Russian armies. Mustafa Kemal's initial task was to bring order to the frightened people so that his corps could function during this period of human suffering.

The massive Russian offensive reached the Anatolian key cities of Erzurum, Bitlis and Muş. On 7 August, Mustafa Kemal rallied his troops and mounted a counteroffensive. He had so strengthened the morale of his force, following its defeat, that within five days, two of his divisions captured not only Bitlis but the equally important town of Muş, greatly disturbing the calculations of the Russian Command. Emil Lengyel wrote: "He demonstrated anew that the Turk was a fine soldier if he was given the right leadership. Again the Turks took note of the uncommon competence of a general whose name was 'Perfection'".

However, Izzet Pasha, on the other parts of the front, failed to match these successes. In September, Mustafa Kemal retreated from Muş under the heavy advance of the Russian Army and Armenian volunteer units. However, Mustafa Kemal could claim the only Turkish victory in a round of defeats. He also concentrated on the strategic goal of confining the enemy within the mountainous region. That same year, as a recognition of his military achievements and his success in improving the stability of the region, he was given the medal Golden Sword of the Order of "Imtiyaz".

On March 7, 1917, Mustafa Kemal was appointed from the command of the XVI Corps to the overall command of the 2^nd Army. Meanwhile, Russian Revolution erupted and the Caucasus front of the Czar's armies disintegrated. Mustafa Kemal had already left the region being assigned to another fighting front.

Sinai and Palestine Campaign, 1917–1918

File:Palestine-WW1-3-Kemals HQ.png

The Sinai and Palestine Campaign in 1918, during which Mustafa Kemal commanded the Ottoman 7^th Army based in Nablus

His command of the 2^nd Army was cut short, as he was transferred to the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. He was assigned the command of the 7^th Army. After a short visit to the 7^th Army headquarters, he returned to Istanbul on October 7. He joined the crown prince Mehmed Vahdettin (later Sultan Mehmed VI) on a visit to Germany. During this trip he fell ill and stayed in Vienna for medical treatment.

He returned to Aleppo on August 28, 1918, and resumed the command of the 7^th Army. His headquarters were in Nablus, Palestine. Like in Gallipoli, he was under the command of General Liman von Sanders, whose group headquarters was based in Nazareth. Mustafa Kemal studied Syria thoroughly once again and visited the frontline. His conclusion was that Syria was in a pitiful state (the 1915–1917 period had left 500,000 Syrian casualties to famine). There was no Ottoman civil governor or commander. There was an abundance of British propaganda and British secret agents were everywhere. The local population hated the Ottoman government and looked forward to the arrival of the British troops as soon as possible. The enemy was stronger than his own forces in terms of men and equipment. To describe the desperate situation, he said "we are like a cotton thread drawn across their path".

Mustafa Kemal also had to deal with the Arab Revolt, organized by Great Britain which encouraged the local Arabs to revolt against the Turkish rule. Liman von Sanders lost the Battle of Megiddo, leaving 75,000 POW behind, on the first day alone. Now, nothing stood between General Allenby's forces and Mustafa Kemal's 7^th Army. Concluding that he didn't have enough men to encounter the British forces, Mustafa Kemal retreated towards Jordan for establishing a stronger defensive line. In a couple of days, the total number of the deserters reached 300,000. Mustafa Kemal's war was changed drastically from fighting against the Allies to fighting against the disintegration of his own forces. He sent a furious telegram to Sultan:

"The withdrawal … could have been carried out in some order, if a fool like Enver Paşa had not been the director-general of the operations, if we did not have an incompetent commander—Cevat Paşa—at the head of a military force of five to ten thousand men, who fled at the first sound of gunfire, abandoned his army, and wandered around like a bewildered chicken; and the commander of the 4^th army, Cemal Paşa, ever incapable of analyzing a military situation; and if, above all, we did not have a group headquarters (under Liman von Sanders) which lost all control from the first day of the battle. Now, there is nothing left to do but to make peace."

Mustafa Kemal was appointed to the command of Yıldırım Orduları ("Thunderbolt Army"), replacing Liman von Sanders. In the autumn of 1918 allied forces, having captured Jerusalem, prepared for their final lightening offensive under General Allenby on the Palestine front, in the words of an Arab historian to sweep Turks "like thistledown before the wind". Mustafa Kemal established his headquarters at Katma and succeeded in regaining control of the situation. He deployed his troops along a new defensive line at the south of Aleppo, and managed to resist at the mountains. He stopped the advancing British forces (last engagements of the campaign). Kinross wrote:

" Once again the Turkish hero of the campaign was Mustafa Kemal, who, after a masterly strategic retreat to the heights of Aleppo, found himself in command of the remnants of the Ottoman forces now defending the soil of Turkey itself, of which it was the natural frontier. They were still undefeated when news was received of the signature of an armistice between Britain and Turkey-leaving him, at the end of the struggle, the sole Turkish commander without a defeat to his name. Behind him were those Anatolian homelands of the Turkish race, where his future destiny and that of his people lay."

Mustafa Kemal's position became the base line for the peace agreement. His last active service to the Ottoman Army was organizing the return of the troops that were left behind, to the south of his line (Yemen, for instance, was still under Ottoman control when the Armistice of Mudros was signed).

Partitioning of the Empire, 1918

See also: Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire

On 30 October, 1918 the Ottomans capitulated to the Allies with the Armistice of Mudros. Beginning with the armistice, the creation of the modern Arab world and Turkey began. As a reaction to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, and to the Treaty of Sèvres which further reduced the amount of Turkish-controlled lands in Anatolia, the Turks waged a war of independence, which eventually led to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. The Arab uprising against the partitioning of the Middle East between the United Kingdom and France (in line with the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1917) developed later, and led to the establishment of independent Arab states such as Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, and Lebanon.

At the end of the war, Mustafa Kemal was 37 years old. In the final stages of WWI, he was assigned to command the largest remaining Ottoman Army division, the Yıldırım Orduları. After the armistice, however, the Yıldırım Orduları was dissolved, and Mustafa Kemal returned back to an occupied Istanbul on November 13, 1918. He was given an administrative position at the Ministry of War (Harbiye Nezareti).

The British, Italian, French and Greek forces began to occupy Anatolia with the intention of leaving only a part of Central Anatolia as Turkish territory. The occupation of Istanbul along with the occupation of İzmir mobilized the establishment of the Turkish national movement and the Turkish War of Independence.

Leadership during Independence War

Main article: Turkish War of Independence

Mustafa Kemal's active participation in the national resistance movement began with his assignment as a General Inspector to the 9^th Army by the Sultan Mehmed VI. His task was to oversee the demobilisation of remaining Ottoman military units and nationalist organizations. On May 19, 1919, he departed from Istanbul to Samsun on board the ferry Bandırma. May 19 is accepted as the beginning of Turkish War of Independence or more precisely onset of the initial organization of oppositions under his leadership.

Initial organization, May 1919 – March 1920

Mustafa Kemal at the Sivas Congress with his close friends and other representatives

The occupations had already generated disorganised local oppositions by numerous militant resistance groups. The establishment of an organised national resistance movement against the occupying forces was the first goal in Mustafa Kemal's mind. The General Inspector position created an ideal situation in organising the resistance. He contacted local leaders, provincial governors and military commanders calling them to resist the occupations instead of trying to disarm the military units. In June 1919, he and his close friends issued the Amasya Circular, which stated that the independence of the country was in danger, since the Ottoman government in Istanbul was subject to foreign control the nation had to save itself by its own will and sources.

The British were alarmed when they learned of Mustafa Kemal's activities and immediately contacted the Ottoman government. Ottoman government issued a warrant for the arrest of Mustafa Kemal, on the charge that he was disobeying the Sultan's order for dissolving the remaining Ottoman forces in Anatolia, later condemning him to death. As a response, Mustafa Kemal resigned from the Ottoman Army on July 8, while he was in Erzurum. Mustafa Kemal called for a national election to establish a new Turkish Parliament that would have its seat in Ankara. The call for an election became successful. On 12 February, 1920, the last Ottoman Parliament gathered in Istanbul and declared the Misak-ı Milli (National Pact). Parliament then was dissolved by the occupying British forces.

Jurisdictional conflict, March 1920 – March 1922

Mustafa Kemal used the dissolution of the Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul as an opportunity to establish a new National Assembly in Ankara. The first session of the "Grand National Assembly of Turkey" gathered on April 23, 1920, with Mustafa Kemal as its president. The assembly declared its goal as to "liberate the Sultan".

The Ottoman government signed the Treaty of Sèvres (August 10, 1920) which finalized the plans for the partitioning of Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal and his friends deemed Treaty of Sèvres was unacceptable, as it would spell the end of Turkish independence. Insisting on complete independence and the safeguarding of the interests of the Turkish majority on Turkish soil, Mustafa Kemal rejected the what was accepted by Damat Ferid Pasha, the proposal for a British protectorate in the rest of Anatolia, assignment of the territories gained by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the surrounding areas to Armenia, through principle of Wilsonian Armenia, and western Anatolia to Greece. The treaty and the following events weakened the legitimacy of the Sultan's government in Istanbul, and caused a shift of power in favour of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara.

File:General Mustafa Kemal.jpg

General Mustafa Kemal

Mustafa Kemal persuaded the assembly to recognize that sovereignty resided in the nation and in the Grand National Assembly as the representative of the nation. A popular sovereignty law was passed with the new constitution of 1921. This constitution gave Mustafa Kemal the tools to wage a War of Independence, as it publicly denounced the authority of the Istanbul government by assigning the right of sovereignty to the nation, not to the Ottoman Sultan. Kemal then persuaded the Grand National Assembly to gather a National Army and the executive power was delegated to a Cabinet under its president Mustafa Kemal.

The National Army faced the Allied occupation forces and fought on three fronts: in the Franco-Turkish, Greco-Turkish and Turkish-Armenian wars.

In the early autumn of 1920, the Turkish-Armenian War was waged between the Turkish revolutionaries and the Armenian military. In December 1920, Armenia appealed for peace and signed the Treaty of Alexandropol. After Armenia was incorporated into the Transcaucasian SFSR as a Soviet Socialist Republic, the Treaty of Kars gave the Turks control over most of the territories in northeastern Anatolia, where they constituted the ethnic majority.

After a series of initial battles during Greco-Turkish war, the Greek army advanced as far as to the Sakarya River, just eighty kilometers west of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara. Subsequently, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to be the Commander in chief of the forces. The Battle of Sakarya from August 23 to September 13, 1921 ended with the defeated of the Greeks. Mustafa Kemal returned in triumph to Ankara, where a grateful Grand National Assembly awarded him the rank of Field Marshal of the Army, as well as the title of Gazi.

Mustafa Kemal, Commander in chief of the Turkish forces, 1921

The final battle was fought at Great Offensive between August–September 1922. Mustafa Kemal chose to adopt the strategy of concentration and surprise, employed by General Allenby in Syria. He launched an all-out attack on the Greek lines at Afyon Karahisar, aimed at smashing a hole in the Greek defences, cutting the Greek supply lines and opening the road to Izmir and to the sea. After some hours of resistance, the major Greek defense positions were overrun on August 26. On August 30, the Greek army was defeated decisively at the Battle of Dumlupınar. On September 1, Mustafa Kemal issued his famous order to the Turkish army: "Armies, your first goal is the Mediterranean, Forward!" By 10 September, the remainder of the Greek forces had completely evacuated Anatolia, the Turkish mainland. Praising Mustafa Kemal's military capabilities, Noel Barber wrote:

"A man born out of due season, an anachronism, a throwback to the Tartars of the steppes, a fierce elemental force of a man. With his military genius and his ruthless determination, … in a different age he might well have been a Genghis Khan, conquering empires…"

While events were being set into motion, Enver Pasha returned from Moscow to meet with several Union of Islamic Revolutionary Societies leaders in Batum about the possibility of taking over the leadership of the country. A meeting in September in Batum under the banner of the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti), or CUP, towards that direction was rendered moot due to the course of the war. Due to the fact that Mustafa Kemal was achieving tremendous success, Enver Pasha left the region for good by the end of September, 1921.

Stage for peace, March 1922 – April 1923

File:Time Ataturk.JPG

TIME March 24, 1923. Atatürk, the title reads 'Where is a Turk his own master?'

The Treaty of Kars on October 23, 1921, had already settled the conflicts at the eastern border of Turkey and returned the sovereignty of the cities of Kars and Ardahan to the Turks, which were three decades earlier captured by the Russian Empire during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.

Kemal had long ago made up his mind to abolish the Sultanate when the moment was ripe. After facing opposition from some members of the assembly, using his influence as a war hero, he managed to prepare a draft law for the abolition of the Sultanate, which was then submitted to the National Assembly for voting. In that article, it was stated that the form of the government in Istanbul, resting on the sovereignty of an individual, had already ceased to exist when the British forces occupied the city after the World War I. Furthermore, it was argued that although the Caliphate had belonged to the Ottoman Empire, it rested on the Turkish state by its dissolution and Turkish National Assembly would have right to choose a member of the Ottoman family in the office of Caliph. On 1 November, The Turkish Grand Assembly voted for the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate. The last Sultan left Turkey on November 17 1922, in a British battleship on his way to Malta. Such was the last act in the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The Conference of Lausanne began on November 21 1922. İsmet İnönü was the leading Turkish negotiator. Ismet maintained the basic position of the Ankara government that it had to be treated as an independent and sovereign state, equal with all other states attending the conference. In accordance with the directives of Mustafa Kemal, while discussing matters regarding the control of Turkish finances and justice, the Capitulations, the Turkish Straits and the like, he refused any proposal that would compromise Turkish sovereignty. Finally, after long debates, on July 24 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, thus putting an end to long years of warfare which had consumed the country. Ten weeks after the signature the Allied forces evacuated Istanbul.Through the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey finally entered into a period of peace.

Presidency, 1923–1938

For conceptual analysis, see Kemalist ideology and Atatürk's Reforms

President Atatürk leaving the Turkish Parliament after a meeting

The Treaty of Lausanne ended the Turkish War of Independence and recognized the new nation's independence. However, the war to modernise the country had just started; institutions and constitutions of Western states such as France, Sweden, Italy, or Switzerland were yet to be analyzed and adopted according to the needs and characteristics of the Turkish nation. Mustafa Kemal was 42 years old when the Republic of Turkey was declared on October 29, 1923. At the declaration, the public cheered: "We are returning to the days of the first caliphs". Mustafa Kemal placed Fevzi Çakmak, Kazım Özalp and İsmet İnönü in the important positions, where they helped him to establish the reforms which were impossible to be foreseen back in 1923. Mustafa Kemal capitalized on his reputation as an efficient military leader and spent his following years, up until his death in 1938, instituting wide-ranging and progressive political, economic, and social reforms, transforming Turkish society from perceiving itself as Muslim subjects of a vast Empire into citizens of a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state.

A basic political principle for Kemal was the complete independence of the country, for him the total independence of the country was not negotiable,. However, he was well aware that the independence of a country could not be maintained solely by the military force. He once explained his view of independence, saying that:"…by complete independence, we mean of course complete economic, financial, juridical, military, cultural independence and freedom in all matters. Being deprived of independence in any of these is equivalent to the nation and country being deprived of all its independence." Thus, he led wide ranging reforms in the social, cultural, economical aspects of life in Turkey, intensified by the proclamation of the republic, as the initial backbone of legislative, judicial, and economic structures were put in place.

In the first years of the republic, it was not just the old regime that wanted to resurface, but new ideologies like communism were struggling for acceptance as well. Mustafa Kemal saw the consequences of fascist and communist doctrines in the 1920s and 1930s and rejected both. Mustafa Kemal prevented the spread of totalitarian party rule which held sway in the Soviet Union, Germany and Italy. The nature of the state built by Kemal, its organization and its functions are summarized in the Kemalist ideology, which was considered to be an ideology of modernisation based on realism and pragmatism. Mustafa Kemal and Turkish revolutionaries were representing the straightforward spirit of Anatolia as opposed to cosmopolitan Istanbul and its Ottoman heritage. This was performed by the silencing of other views and putting the state in the center of the society. Some perceived it as the silencing of opposition, some perceived it as preventing the rule of the extremes over the majority.

Mustafa Kemal's private journals show that, even before the establishment of the republic(1923), he believed in the importance of the sovereignty of people, as against to the sovereignty of the absolute monarch, which was the case in the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal wanted a "direct government by the Assembly" and he visualized a parliamentary sovereignty (a representative democracy), where the National Parliament would be the ultimate source of power. However, in the following years, Kemal took the position that the country needed an immense amount of reconstruction, and "direct government by the Assembly" could not survive in this environment.

At first, the only established political party was the Republican People's Party ("Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası" in Turkish) which was founded by Mustafa Kemal himself on September 9, 1923. Mustafa Kemal's cultural revolution faced opposition. In 1925, the establishment of another political party was seen as a way to ease the tensions. Mustafa Kemal asked Kazım Karabekir to establish the Progressive Republican Party as an opposition party in the Assembly, and the first two-party era began. The party's economic program suggested liberalism, in contrast to state socialism, and its social program was based on conservatism in contrast to modernism. Leaders of the party strongly supported the Kemalist revolution in principle, but had different opinions on the cultural revolution and the principle of secularism.

After some time, the new party was taken over by people Atatürk considered as Islamic fundamentalists. In 1925, partly in response to the rebellion of Sheikh Said Piran, the "Maintenance of Order Law" was passed, giving Atatürk the authority to shut down subversive groups. Soon after the Sheikh Said Rebellion, the Progressive Republican Party was disestablished under a new law, an act Mustafa Kemal claimed was necessary for preserving the Turkish state. The closure of the party was seen by some later biographers, such as Harold C. Armstrong, who was captured as a POW by Turks in WWI, as an act of dictatorship.

On August 11, 1930, Mustafa Kemal decided to try a democratic movement once again. He assigned Ali Fethi Okyar to establish a new party. In Mustafa Kemal's letter to Ali Fethi Okyar, laïcité was insisted on. At first, the brand-new Liberal Republican Party succeeded all around the country. But once again the opposition party became too strong in its opposition to Atatürk's reforms, particularly in regard to the role of religion in public life. Finally, seeing the rising fundamentalist threat and being a staunch supporter of Atatürk's reforms himself, Ali Fethi Okyar abolished his own party and Mustafa Kemal never succeeded in establishing a long lasting multi-party parliamentary system. He sometimes dealt sternly with the opposition in pursuing his main goal of democratizing and modernizing the country.

There has been criticisms of Mustafa Kemal, arguing that he did not promote democracy by dominating the country with his single party rule. In response to such criticisms, his biographer Andrew Mango wrote that: "between the two wars, democracy could not be sustained in many relatively richer and better-educated societies. Atatürk's enlightened authoritarianism left a reasonable space for free private lives. More could not have been expected in his lifetime." Even though, sometimes he might not be a democrat in his actions, he has always supported the idea of eventually building a democratic state. In one of his many speeches about the importance of the democracy, Mustafa Kemal said in the year 1933: "Republic means democratic administration of the state. We founded the Republic, reaching its tenth year it should enforce all the requirements of democracy as the time comes."

Foreign policies

The Kemal’s foreign policy was aligned with his motto “peace at home and peace in the world.” Kemal's perception of peace was not simply the absence of war but linked to his project of civilization and modernization. The base and the expected outcome(s) of the Kemal's policies depended on the power of the parliamentary sovereignty (justice, moral superiority, and social structure of the nation) that was established by the Republic. Turkish war of independence was the last time Kemal used his military might. The foreign issues were resolved by peaceful methods during his presidency.

Mosul and Kurds

The "Issue of Mosul" was over the control of the Mosul Province with Great Britain. Mosul was one of the first foreign controversy of the new Republic. Misak-ı Milli announced that Mosul Province was part of the historic heartland. Treaty of Lausanne accepted the League of Nations arbitration over Mosul in 1923. Mustafa Kemal tried to persuade the assembly that accepting the League of Nations arbitration did not mean giving up Mosul, but rather waiting for a time when Turkey might be stronger. The artificially drawn border had an unsettling effect. Later on it was claimed that the border was drawn by the British geophysicists based on the oil reserves. Kemal did not wanted this separation. The British were in an precarious situation with the Issue of Mosul, and were adopting almost equally desperate measures to protect their interests. Presumably from British perspective, if Mustafa Kemal succeeded in securing the stability, he will turn his attention to recovering Mosul and penetrate to Mesopotamia, where the native population would probably join him, thus an insurgent and hostile Moslem nation brought up to the very gates of India. England wanted oil. Mosul and Kurds were the key.

While three person League of Nations committee was sent to the region to oversight the situation in 1924, the Sheikh Said rebellion, beginning in 1924 and escalating until 1927, broke out to establish a new government. Sheikh Said Piran was the Kurdish, rich, hereditary chieftain of the local Naqshbandi order. Said Piran emphasized the issue of religion (during this period civil codes were adopted, abolished religious orders, forbade polygamy, and civil marriage was made compulsory). Said Piran stirred up his followers against the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate and the policies of the Kemalist government which he considered as against religion. Some members of the government saw the revolt as an attempt of a counter-revolution. They urged for an immediate military action to prevent the spread. In the name of the restoration of the Holy Law using the Islamic green banner, Said Piran's forces roamed through the country, seized government offices and marched on the important cities of Elazığ and Diyarbakır. The relationship between the rebellion and British support was questioned. The British assistance was sought realizing that they could not stand alone .

During 1925 League of Nations committee study the case while Sheikh Said rebellion was on the rise and recommended that the region to be connected to Iraq with the condition that the UK would hold the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. By the end of March 1925, the necessary troop movements were completed, and the whole area of the rebellion was encircled, with Said Piran blockaded within his own territory of revolt. Then the revolt was put down. Britain, Iraq and Kemal made a treaty on 5 June 1926, that mostly followed the decision of the League Council. In 1926 the Kemal faced with growing opposition to its reform policies, a continuing precarious economic situation and a defeat in the Mosul issue. Also a big section of Kurdish population along the Iraqi Turkmens were left behind the border.

Hatay

Telegram send by Kemal after the local legislative assembly accepted his proposal for the Hatay's flag.

In 1936 Kemal coined the name Hatay for the Sanjak of Alexandretta, and raised the "Issue of Hatay" (Turkish: Hatay meselesi) at the League of Nations. On behalf of the League of Nations, representatives of France, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey prepared a constitution for Hatay, which established it as an autonomous sanjak within Syria. Despite some inter-ethnic violence, in the midst of 1938 an election to the local legislative assembly was conducted and it was convoked. The cities of Antakya (Antioch) and İskenderun (Alexandretta) were regained by Turkey in 1939.

Legal reforms

Abolition of the Caliphate

An important dimension in Kemal's drive to reform the Turkish political system and to promote the national sovereignty was the abolition of the Caliphate. Mustafa Kemal wanted to integrate the powers of the Caliphate into the powers of the Assembly, and his initial activities began on January 1, 1924. Mustafa Kemal acquired the consent of İnönü, Çakmak and Özalp before the abolition of the Caliphate. On March 1, 1924, at the Assembly, Mustafa Kemal said "the religion of Islam will be elevated if it will cease to be a political instrument, as had been the case in the past." On March 3, 1924, the Caliphate was officially abolished and its powers within Turkey were transferred to the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

Civic independence

The leading legal reforms instituted by Mustafa Kemal included the complete separation of government and religious affairs and the adoption of a strong interpretation of the principle of laïcité in the constitution. This was coupled with the closure of Islamic courts and the replacement of Islamic canon law with a secular civil code modeled after the Swiss Civil Code and a penal code modelled after the Italian Penal Code. Kemal said on one occasion that: "We must liberate our concepts of justice, our laws and our legal institutions from the bonds which, even though they are incompatible with the needs of our century, still hold a tight grip on us"

Economic policies

For the conceptual analysis see Economic reforms

Mustafa Kemal instigated economic policies not just to develop small and large scale businesses, but also to create social strata (industrial bourgeoisie along the peasantry of Anatolia) that were virtually non-existent during the Ottoman Empire. The primary problem faced by the politics of his period was the lag in the development of political institutions and social classes which would steer such social and economic changes. The Mustafa Kemal's vision regarding early Turkish economic policy was apparent during the İzmir Economic Congress of 1923 which was established before the signing of the Lausanne Treaty.

State intervention, 1923–1929

The initial choices of Mustafa Kemal's economic policies were a reflection of the realities of his period. After World War One, due to the lack of any real potential investors to open private sector factories and develop industrial production, Kemal's activities regarding the economy included the establishment of many state-owned factories for agriculture, machinery, and textile industries. Mustafa Kemal and İsmet İnönü had a national vision in their pursue of the state controlled economical polices. Kemal and İsmet wanted to knit the country together, eliminate the foreign control of the economy, and improve communications. Istanbul, a trading port with international foreign enterprises, was deliberately abandoned and resources were channeled to other, relatively less developed cities, in order to establish a more balanced development throughout the country.

For Mustafa Kemal, as for his supporters, tobacco remained wedded to his policy in the pursuit of the economic independence. Turkish tobacco was an important industrial crop, where its cultivation and manufacture were French monopolies under capitulations of the Ottoman Empire. The tobacco and cigarette trade was controlled by two French companies the "Regie Compagnie interessee des tabacs de l'empire Ottoman", and "Narquileh tobacco." Ottoman Empire gave the tobacco monopoly to the Ottoman Bank as a limited company under "Council of the Public Debt". Reigie, as part of Council of the Public Debt, had the control over production, storing, distribution (including export) with an unchallenged price control and Turkish farmers were depended on the company for their livelihood. In 1925, this company was taken over by the state and named as "Tekel." The second biggest industrial crop was cotton. Cotton planting during this period was promoted to furnish raw material for the new factory settlements in Turkey. One of these factory settlements was in Nazilli. Nazilli beginning with the establishment of Cotton mills and then followed by the first Turkish cotton print factory "Nazilli Calico print factory (1935)" become a major center. The control of tobacco was the biggest achievement of the Kemalist political machinery's "nationalization" of the economy for a country that did not produce oil. They accompanied this achievement with the development of cotton related industry.

Mustafa Kemal ordered the establishment of a Turkish State Railways that would connect the country from one side to another. 3,208 km was constructed during Kemal's lifetime, which was named as "Railway period"

Atatürk considered the development of a national rail network as another important step for industrialization, and this was addressed by the foundation of the Turkish State Railways in 1927, setting up an extensive railway network in a very short time. The road network was 13,885 km ruined surface roads, and 4.450 km stabilized roads, and 94 bridges. This stayed the same until 1935. In 1927 Kemal ordered the integration of road construction goals into development plans. In 1935 a new entity was established under the government named "Sose ve Kopruler Reisligi" which will be the driving force of the new roads after the World War II. However in 1937 total roads inside the boarders were 22,000 km which were mainly a system to aid the railways.

There was a growing and deeply rooted sentiment signaling the need for a truly national establishment and the birth of a banking system that was capable of the financing means to back up economic activities, managing funds accumulated as a result of policies providing savings incentives and where necessary extending resources which could trigger industrial impetus, as a result with the initiative of Kemal the first Turkish bank İş Bankası established in 1924. Kemal was the first member of İş Bankası. The Ottoman Bank's role during the initial years as a central bank remained, however it was extended on a temporary basis due to the Kemals's intention to establish Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, which was realized in 1931. Along the İş Bankası, banks like Sümerbank (specialized in industrial agriculture products) and Etibank (specialized in mineral and related industries) were also founded during this period.

The national group who had Kemal as the leader developed many projects within the first decade of the republic, but the Anatolian economy was based on agriculture, with primitive tools and methods; roads and transportation facilities were far from sufficient; and the management of the economy was inefficient. The Great Depression brought many changes to this picture.

The Great Depression, 1929–1931

Mustafa Kemal supported large scale government subsidized industrial complexes, such as Sümerbank, increasingly after the Great Depression

The young republic like the rest of the world, found itself in a deep economic crisis during the Great Depression: the country could not finance essential imports; its currency was shunned; and zealous revenue officials seized the meager possessions of peasants who could not pay their taxes. Mustafa Kemal had to face the same problems which all the countries faced: political upheaval.

The establishment of a new party with a different economic perspective was needed and Mustafa Kemal asked Ali Fethi Okyar to fulfill this need. The Liberal Republican Party came out with a liberal program and proposed that state monopolies should be ended, foreign capital should be attracted, and that state investment should be curtailed. Mustafa Kemal supported İnönü's point of view that "it is impossible to attract foreign capital for essential development." However, the effect of free republicans was felt strongly and state intervention was replaced with moderate state intervention, which was not close to capitalism; but a form of state capitalism. One of Mustafa Kemal's radical left-wing supporters, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (from the Kadro (The Cadre) movement), claimed that Mustafa Kemal found a third way between capitalism and socialism in his Marxist journal.

Liberalization and planned growth, 1931–1939

The first two of "five year economic plans" were performed under the supervision of Mustafa Kemal. However, with the death of Kemal and the rise of World War II changed the use of economic plans drastically. Governments from then on [death of Kemal] began to take measures which harmed the economic productivity in various ways.

Mustafa Kemal had to deal with the turbulent economic issues with a "high debt" which was known as Ottoman public debt. Turkish private business can not acquire-exchange credits and it was impossible to integrate Turkish economy without a solution. Atatürk pursued a treaty signed in 1929 with the Ottoman Debt Council. While paying the Ottoman debt, Kemal's economic policies got recognition by the very first foreign borrowing credited from a private USA company amounting to 10 million dollars in 1930. This slowly followed with the replacement of previously isolated-economic policies to the integrated economic policies. At Atatürk's request, Celal Bayar became Minister of Economy and served from 1932 to 1937. Celal Bayar was a liberal economist who was raised from small a business practice who became a major industrialized player of his time. During this period of mixed economy with private initiative, textile, sugar, paper and steel factories as well as many industrial establishments, power plants, banks [such as the Halk Bank], and insurance companies were established. On October 25, 1937 Mustafa Kemal appointed Celal Bayar as the prime minister of the 9th government. Integrated economic policies reached its peak with the signing of the 1939 Treaty with Britain and France which signaled another turning point in the Turkish history. It was the first step towards an alliance with the "West". Celal Bayar continued to serve as prime minister when Atatürk died and İnönü became president in 1938. The differences of opinion with Inönü [state control] without the protection of Mustafa Kemal led Celal Bayar [liberal] to lay down his office on January 25, 1939.

Kemal at the Etimesgut Airport in Ankara, built by the Turkish Aircraft Association. His famous quote, "the future lies in the skies", is embossed today on the airport's facade

The success of the 1930s due to early implementation of the economic system was an achievement credited to the national policies of the Mustafa Kemal and his team. Atatürk supported the development of automobile industry that did not existed before. He did not just want to initiate an industry but an industry that would be a center to its region. The motto of the Turkish automobile association, as supplied by Atatürk, is, "The Turkish driver is a man of the most exquisite sensitivities." Atatürk realized the important role of aviation, summing it up in the words, "the future lies in the skies". Turkish Aeronautical Association was founded by the directive of Mustafa Kemal, in 1925. Mustafa Kemal also ordered the establishment of Turkish Aircraft Association Lottery to found the projects. Instead of the traditional raffle prizes, this new lottery paid money prizes but the major part of its income transferred to establishment of a new factory. Kemal watched the first national aircraft (MMV-1) in 1932. Mustafa Kemal did not see the flight of the first Turkish military aircraft build at the factory but soon after his death before the onset of World War Two, American Curtiss Hawk fighters were operational.

During 1935, Turkey was coming up as an industrial society on the Western European model with the guides set out by Atatürk. In his death, most regions of Turkey had viable micro-economic stability and macro economic stability was in a viable state. The sign of sound economic policies were marked by the first-ever emergence of the local banks. However, the gap between Mustafa Kemal’s goals in his speeches and the achievements of the socio-political structure of the country was not aligned.

Educational reforms

For the conceptual analysis see Educational reforms

Atatürk at the library of Çankaya Presidential Residence in Ankara

Kemal linked the educational reform to the liberation of the nation from the dogma, which he believed was even more important than the Turkish war of independence.

Today, our most important and most productive task is the national education [unification and modernization] affairs. We have to be successful in national education affairs and we shall be. The liberation of a nation is only achieved through this way."

Modernization

Atatürk visits the Istanbul University

In the summer of 1924, Mustafa Kemal invited American educational John Dewey to advise him on ideas for reforms and recommendations aimed at modernizing the Turkish educational system. Mustafa Kemal initiated his public education reforms to enhance public literacy and thus better prepare citizens for roles to public life. He wanted to institute compulsory primary education for both girls and boys; since then this effort has been an ongoing task for the Republic. Literate citizens, who was comprised as little as 10% of the population, used the Ottoman Language written in Arabic script with Arabic and Persian loan vocabulary. Dewey notes that roughly three years with rather strenuous methods were necessary to learn to read and write in Arabic script on the elementary level. The creation of the new Turkish alphabet as a variant of the Latin alphabet was undertaken by the Language Commission (Dil Encümeni) at the initiative of Kemal. The Turkish alphabet was decreed on 24 May 1928. The first Turkish newspaper was published with the use of the new alphabet on 15 December 1928. The fast adoption of the new alphabet was the result of the combined effect of opening the People's Houses (tr: Halk Evleri) throughout the country and the active encouragement of people by Kemal himself. Kemal made many trips to the countryside in order to teach the new alphabet. The literacy reform was also supported by strengthening the private publishing sector with a new Law on Copyrights and congresses for discussing the issues of copyright, public education and scientific publishing.

Kemal also promoted the modern teaching methods in primary education in which Dewey took a place of honor. Dewey's "Report and Recommendation" for the Turkish educational system was a paradigmatic recommendation for an educational policy of developing societies moving towards modernity at the time.

Besides general education, Kemal was interested in forming a skill base in the country through adult education. His adult education ideas found its way in People's Houses. Turkish women were taught not only child care, dress-making and household management, but also the tools which they could use to become part of general economy. He summarized the adult education as "to equip the new generations at all education levels with knowledge that shall make them efficient and successful in practical and especially economic life."

Unification

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Cover of the French L'Illustration magazine (issue of October 13, 1928), showing Mustafa Kemal introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Sivas

Mustafa Kemal pointed out that one of the main targets of "Education in Turkey" had to be raising a generation nourished with what he called the public culture. Public culture aimed that state schools (public education) have a common curriculum. Common curriculum became known as the "unification of education." Unification of education was put into force on 3 March 1924 by the law of "National Education No: 430". Unification of education in its treatment of students was inclusive, organized and operated to be a deliberate model of the civil community. The schools submitted their curriculum to what was named as "Ministry of National Education" which was a government agency modeled after other Ministry of Educations of its time. Ministry of National Education draw a contemporary route to the traditional social structure; by causing or gaining contemporary citizen consciousness. Kemal said "Our schools [curriculum] should aim to provide opportunities for all pupils to learn and to achieve" and he personally engaged to the development of two textbooks. The first one published in 1930 was "Vatandaş İçin Medeni Bilgiler" (Turkish Civics). The "Vatandaş İçin Medeni Bilgiler" introduced the science of comparative government and explained about means of administering public trust by explaining the rules of governance as applied to state institutions. Kemal's vision of education of the public while developing the functions and responsibilities of these institutions was an extraordinary vision and a brave move for his time and special context. The institutions in question were only a couple years old. Kemal's new "unified" educational system designated a responsible citizen as well as a useful and appreciated member of the society. The second textbook he wrote was "Geometry" and published in 1937. Turkish education become a state supervised system which was designed to create a skill base for the "social" (integrative force to establish access to education, alleviation of poverty and using female education program to enforce gender equality) and general "economic progress" of the country.

The law of "National Education No: 430" passed on the same day as the abolishment of Caliphate and, concurrently, the Republic abolished the two miniseries and subordinated the clergy to the department of religious affairs. The change was one of the foundations of secularism in Turkey. The unification of education under one curriculum was the end of "clerics or clergy of the Ottoman Empire" even if it was not the end of religious schools as they were moved to higher education until consequent governments pulled back to secondary education after Mustafa Kemal's death.

Unlike any other "Public school" systems of today, there were three main horizontal institutions closed to each other in 1923. The first and most common one was local schools and medreses based on Arabic, Koran and memorizing. The second was reformist schools of Tanzimat called as idadî and sultanî and the third was schools educating in foreign language like colleges and minority schools. Under the Kemal the old medrese education was modernized. Mustafa Kemal changed the classical Islamic education with a vigorously promoted reconstruction of educational institutions along the line of an enlightened pragmatism.

Establishing quality

During the initial years Mustafa Kemal constantly tried to generate mediums to propagate his ideas of modern education. Kemal instigated official education meetings named "Science Boards" and "Education Summits." At "Science Boards" and "Education Summits" the quality of education, training issues and certain basic educational principles were discussed.

Another important part of Mustafa Kemal's emphasis was on the Turkish language and history, leading to the establishment of the Turkish Language Association (Türk Dil Kurumu) and the Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu) between 1931 and 1932, for conducting research works on Turkish language and history. Many teachers were employed in Turkish History and Language Institutions.

In 1933, Mustafa Kemal ordered the reorganization of the Istanbul University into a modern institution and later established the Ankara University in the capital city to make sure that the principles that are the expressions of a modern society, such as science and enlightenment, are held dear and protected.

Kemal personally engaged with the translation of scientific terminology. Kemal wanted the Turkish language reform based on a methodological base. The Turkish language has an integral structure and without modelling this structure any attempt to 'clean' the Turkish language from foreign influence was inherently wrong for him. Mustafa Kemal personally engaged with the Sun Language Theory (Turkish: Güneş Dil Teorisi), which was a linguistic theory proposing that all human languages are descendants of one Central Asian primal language. Kemal's interest started with the works by the French scientist Hilaire de Baranton entitled "L'Origine des Langues, des Religions et des Peuples", that all languages originated from hieroglyphs and cuneiform used by Sumerians and the paper of Austrian linguist Dr. Hermann F. Kvergić of Vienna entitled "La psychologie de quelques elements des langues Turques" ["the psychology of some elements of the Turkic Languages"]. Kemal introduced the Sun Language Theory into Turkish political and educational circles in 1935, at the high point of attempts to 'cleanse' the Turkish language of foreign influences. After 1936, Kemal saw the extremist aspects of the purification campaign and corrected them .

Social policies

It is evident from his personal journal that Mustafa Kemal began to develop the concepts of his social revolution very early. Mustafa Kemal constantly discussed with his staff on issues like abolishing the veiling of women and integration of females to social life, and developed conclusions. In November 1915, Mustafa Kemal wrote in his journal that "the social change can come by (1) educating capable mothers who are knowledgeable about life; (2) giving freedom to women; (3) a man can change his morals, thoughts, and feelings by leading a common life with a woman; as there is an inborn tendency towards the attraction of mutual affection."

Women's rights

For the conceptual analysis see Women’s rights

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Atatürk with his adopted daughter Sabiha Gökçen, the world's first female combat pilot, from the archive of Turkish Air Force

One of Atatürk’s goals was to improve the status of Turkish women and integrate them thoroughly into the society. He saw secularism as an instrument to achieve this goal. Mustafa Kemal did not consider the gender as a factor in social organization. According to his view, society marched towards its goal with all its women and men together. It was scientifically impossible for him to achieve progress and to become civilized if the gender separation continued as in the Ottoman times. During a meeting in the early days of the newly proclaimed republic, addressing to the women, he declaimed: "Win for us the battle of education and you will do yet more for your country than we have been able to do. It is to you that I appeal." To the men he said: "If henceforward the women do not share in the social life of the nation, we shall never attain to our full development. We shall remain irremediably backward, incapable of treating on equal terms with the civilizations of the West."

Eighteen female MPs joined the Turkish Parliament with the 1935 general elections

The place of women in Mustafa Kemal's cultural reforms was best expressed in the civic book that was prepared under his supervision. Mustafa Kemal said that

There is no logical explanation for the political disenfranchisement of women. Any hesitation and negative mentality on this subject is nothing more than a fading social phenomenon of the past. ...Women must have the right to vote and to be elected; because democracy dictates that, because there are interests that women must defend, and because there are social duties that women must perform."

Turkish legislators had accepted the Swiss civil code which defined the rights of women in a marriage as equal to those of men. The reforms instituted legal equality between the sexes and the granting of full political rights to women on December 5, 1934, well before several other European nations. However, the change was not easy. In the last election which Atatürk had the chance to observe (the 1935 elections), there were only 18 female MPs out of a total of 395 representatives.

Culture

Opening the State Art and Sculpture Museum in Ankara

Mustafa Kemal believed in the supreme importance of culture; which he expressed with the phrase "culture is the foundation of the Turkish Republic." His view of culture included both his own nation's creative legacy and what he saw as the admirable values of global civilization, putting an emphasis on humanism above all. He once described modern Turkey's ideological thrust as "a creation of patriotism blended with a lofty humanist ideal."

In 1934, upon Mustafa Kemal's order, Semiha Berksoy played the leading role in "Özsoy" (composed by Adnan Saygun), the first ever Turkish opera work, staged at the People's House in Ankara.

To assist in the creation of such a synthesis, Atatürk stressed the need to utilize the elements of the national heritage of the Turks and of Anatolia, including its ancient indigenous cultures as well as the arts and techniques of other world civilizations, both past and present. He emphasized the study of earlier civilizations, foremost of which being the Sumerians, after whom he established "Sümerbank", and the Hittites, after whom he established "Etibank", as well as other Anatolian civilizations such as the Phrygians and Lydians. The pre-Islamic culture of the Turks became the subject of extensive research, and particular emphasis was laid upon the fact that, long before the Seljuk and Ottoman civilizations, the Turks have had a rich culture. Atatürk also stressed the folk arts of the countryside as a wellspring of Turkish creativity.

The visual and the plastic arts, whose developers had, on occasion, been arrested by some Ottoman officials claiming that the depiction of the human form was idolatry, were now highly encouraged and supported by Atatürk, and these flourished in the new Turkish Republic. Many museums were opened, architecture began to follow modern trends, and classical Western music, opera, and ballet, as well as the theatre, also took greater hold. Several hundred "People's Houses" (Halk Evi) and "People's Rooms" (Halk Odası) across the country allowed greater access to a wide variety of artistic activities, sports, and other cultural events. Book and magazine publications increased as well, and the film industry began to grow.

Decree on dress

For the conceptual analysis see Dress code

Mustafa Kemal with his Panama hat

The Decree on dress targeted the religious insignia used outside times of worship. Kemal passed a series of laws beginning from 1923, especially the Hat Law of 1925 which introduced the use of Western style hats instead of the fez, and the Law Relating to Prohibited Garments of 1934, which emphasized the need to wear modern suits instead of antiquated religion-based clothing such as the veil and turban. The guidelines for the proper dressing of students and state employees (public space controlled by state) was passed during his lifetime. Mustafa Kemal regarded the fez (in Turkish "fes", which Sultan Mahmud II had originally introduced to the Ottoman Empire's dress code in 1826) as a symbol of oriental backwardness and banned it. He encouraged the Turks to wear modern European attire. He was determined to force the abandonment of the sartorial traditions of the Middle East and finalize a series of dress reforms, which were originally started by Mahmud II. Mustafa Kemal first made the hat compulsory to the civil servants. After most of the relatively better educated civil servants adopted the hat with their own free will, in 1925 Mustafa Kemal wore his "Panama hat" during a public appearance in Kastamonu, one of the most conservative towns in Anatolia, to explain that the hat was the headgear of civilized nations.

Even though he personally promoted modern dress on women, he never made specific reference to women’s clothing in the law. In the social conditions of the 1920s and 1930s, he believed that women would adapt to the new way with their own will. He was frequently photographed on public business with his wife Lâtife Uşaklıgil, who covered her head. He was also frequently photographed on public business with women wearing modern clothes. But it was Atatürk's adopted daughters like Sabiha Gökçen and Afet İnan who provided the real role model for the Turkish women of the future. He wrote: "The religious covering of women will not cause difficulty … This simple style [of headcovering] is not in conflict with the morals and manners of our society."

Religious freedoms

Atatürk effectively abolished the centuries-old traditions by means of reforms to which much of the population was unaccustomed but nevertheless willing to adopt. In some cases, these reforms were seen as benefiting the urban elites rather than the generally illiterate inhabitants of the rural countryside, where religious sentiments and customary norms tended to be stronger. In particular, Atatürk's strict religious reforms met with some opposition, and they continue to generate a considerable degree of social and political tension to this day. In the future, political leaders would draw upon dormant forces of religion in order to secure positions of power, only to be blocked by the interventions of the powerful military (as in 1960 when Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was overthrown by the military).

In Mustafa Kemal's world there was no dualism. He enforced his ideas to full extent. According to Mustafa Kemal, a progressive nation also was progressive in understanding its belief system. Mustafa Kemal commissioned the translation of the Quran into Turkish and he had it read in front of the public in 1932.

Notwithstanding the Islamic prohibition against the consumption of alcoholic beverages, he encouraged domestic production of alcohol and established a state-owned spirits industry. He was known to have an appreciation for the national beverage, rakı, and enjoyed it in vast quantities. Also, tobacco production, a good which was banned twice during the Ottoman era, was monitored and encouraged by the state and the sector became one of the important suppliers of the USA cigarette industry.

Last days, 1937–1938

During 1937, indications of Atatürk's worsening health started to appear. In the early 1938, while he was on a trip to Yalova, he suffered from a serious illness. After a short period of treatment in Yalova, an apparent improvement in his health was observed, but his condition again worsened following his journeys first to Ankara, and then to Mersin and Adana. Upon his return to Ankara in May, he was recommended to go to İstanbul for treatment, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.

During his stay in İstanbul, he made an effort to keep up with his regular lifestyle for a while, heading the Council of Ministers meeting, working on the Hatay issue, and hosting King Carol II of Romania during his visit in June. He stayed onboard his newly arrived yacht, Savarona, until the end of July, after which his health again worsened and then he moved to a room arranged for him at the Dolmabahçe Palace. In his will written on September 5, 1938, he donated all of his possessions to the Republican People's Party, bound to the condition that, through the yearly interest of his funds, his sister Makbule and his adopted children will be looked after, the higher education of the children of İsmet İnönü will be funded, and the Turkish Language Association and Turkish Historical Society will be given the rest.

Funeral

Mustafa Kemal's funeral arriving at the Ethnographic Museum, 1938

Atatürk died at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, on November 10, 1938, at the age of 57. It is thought that he died of cirrhosis of the liver. Atatürk's funeral called forth both sorrow and pride in Turkey, and seventeen countries sent special representatives, while nine contributed with armed detachments to the cortège.

On November 1953, Mustafa Kemal's remains were taken from the Ethnographic Museum of Ankara by 138 young reserve officers in a procession that stretched for two miles (3 km) including the President, the Premier, every Cabinet minister, every parliamentary deputy, every provincial governor and every foreign diplomat, while at the same time 21 million Turks stood motionless all over the country. One admiral guarded a velvet cushion which bore the Medal of Independence; the only decoration, among many others held, that Atatürk preferred to wear. The Father of the Turks finally came to rest at his mausoleum, the Anıtkabir. An official noted: "I was on active duty during his funeral, when I shed bitter tears at the finality of death. Today I am not sad, for 15 years have taught me that Atatürk will never die."

His lifestyle had always been strenuous. Alcohol consumption during dinner discussions, smoking, long hours of hard work, very little sleep, and working on his projects and dreams had been his way of life. As the historian Will Durant had said, "men devoted to war, politics, and public life wear out fast, and all three had been the passion of Atatürk."

Kurdish revolts

During the years of the War of Independence, Atatürk recognized the multiethnic character of the Muslim population in Turkey. On December 8, 1925, the Turkish Ministry of Education issued an order banning the use of ethnic terms such as Kurd, Circassian, Laz, Kurdistan and Lazistan.

Two other revolts occurred one in Ağrı and other in Dersim in 1930 and 1937 respectively. Turkish Air Force used aerial bombardments effectively against Kurdish uprisings. Sabiha Gökçen, the first female combat pilot of the world and the adopted daughter of Atatürk, took part in the bombing raids against the Dersim Kurds.

Atatürk explained his new policy in the manual of civics which he dedicated to his adopted daughter Afet İnan in 1930:

"Within the political and social unity of today's Turkish nation, there are citizens and co-nationals who have been incited to think of themselves as Kurds, Circassians, Laz or Bosnians. But these erroneous terms have brought nothing but sorrow to individual members of the nation, with the exception of a few brainless reactionaries, who became the enemy's instruments."

Legacy

Peace at home, peace in the world

Atatürk hosting a reception at the USSR Embassy in Ankara, on November 7, 1927

Mustafa Kemal said; "what particularly interests foreign policy is the internal organization of the state. It is necessary that foreign policy should agree with the internal organization." He eternalized this view with his famous motto "peace at home, peace in the world." He worked to establish his vision, which was evident in his funeral. This was not a random choice as Mustafa Kemal's foreign policy, but was an extension of the domestic needs of the newly established state; as the internal organization and stability of the young Turkish Republic depended on the application of this foreign policy. In achieving this goal, Mustafa Kemal hosted visits by many foreign monarchs and heads of state to Ankara and Istanbul including, in chronological order, King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan (May 1928), Prime Minister of Hungary Count István Bethlen (October 1930), King Faisal I of Iraq (June 1932), Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos of Greece (October 1932), King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (October 1933), Shah Reza Pahlavi of Persia (June 1934), King Gustav V Adolf of Sweden (October 1934), King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (September 1936), King Abdullah I of Jordan (June 1937), and King Carol II of Romania (June 1938). Many of the visits meaningfully coincided with the Republic Day, October 29, the anniversary of the declaration of the new Turkish Republic by the Turkish Grand National Assembly, in 1923.

Mustafa Kemal participated in forging close ties with the former enemy, Greece, culminating in a visit to Ankara by the Greek premier Eleftherios Venizelos, in 1932. Venizelos even forwarded Atatürk's name for the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize, highlighting the mutual respect between the two leaders. Atatürk was visited in 1931 by General Douglas MacArthur of the United States, during which the two exchanged their views on the state of affairs in Europe which would eventually lead to the outbreak of World War II. MacArthur expressed his admiration of Atatürk on many occasions and stated that he "takes great pride in being one of Atatürk's loyal friends."

Turkey

One of the numerous Atatürk statues in Turkey

His successor, İsmet İnönü, fostered a posthumous Atatürk personality cult which has survived to this day, even after Atatürk's own Republican People's Party lost power following democratic elections in 1950. Atatürk's face and name are seen and heard everywhere in Turkey: his portrait can be seen in all public buildings, in schools, in all kinds of school books, on all Turkish banknotes, and in the homes of many Turkish families. Even after so many years, on November 10, at 09:05 a.m. (the exact time of his death), almost all vehicles and people in the country's streets will pause for one minute in remembrance of Atatürk's memory.

He is commemorated by many memorials throughout Turkey, like the Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul, Atatürk Bridge over the Golden Horn (Haliç), Atatürk Dam, Atatürk Stadium, and Anıtkabir, the mausoleum where he is now buried. Giant Atatürk statues loom over Istanbul and other Turkish cities, and practically any larger settlement has its own memorial to him. In 1981, the Turkish Parliament issued a law (5816) outlawing insults to his legacy or attacks to objects representing him.

See also: List of places named after people

Worldwide

In 1981, the centennial of Atatürk's birth, the memory of Atatürk was honored by the United Nations and UNESCO, which declared it The Atatürk Year in the World and adopted the Resolution on the Atatürk Centennial.

There are several memorials to Atatürk internationally. The Atatürk Memorial in Wellington, New Zealand (which also serves as a memorial to the ANZAC troops who died at Gallipoli); the Atatürk Memorial in the place of honour on ANZAC drive in Canberra, Australia; the Atatürk Forest in Israel; and the Atatürk Square in Rome, Italy, are only a few examples. He has roads named after him in several countries, like Kemal Atatürk Avenue in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the Atatürk Avenue in the heart of Islamabad in Pakistan, and Mustafá Kemal Ataturk street in the central and upscale Naco district of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. His statues have been erected in numerous parks, streets and squares of many different countries in the world. The famous Madame Tussauds Museum in London has a wax statue of Atatürk.

Cultural references

• Atatürk played by Haluk Bilginer was featured in an İş Bank commercial which first aired on 10 November 2007 during the 69^th commemorations of his death.

Media

• (The sound file of the message by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1963)
• File:JFKennedy1963 text.pdf (The Text of the message by President John F. Kennedy on Atatürk)
• File:IsmetInonu1963.ogg (The sound file of the message by President İsmet İnönü on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, November 10, 1963)
• (The Text of the message by President İsmet İnönü on Atatürk)
• (The sound file of the message by President Cemal Gürsel on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, November 10, 1963)
• File:CemalGursel1963 text.pdf (The Text of the message by President Cemal Gürsel on Atatürk)

See also

• Kemalist ideology.
• Atatürk's Reforms.
• Timeline of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
• History of the Republic of Turkey.
• Politics of Turkey.

References

Printed

• Ahmad, Feroz (1993). The Making of Modern Turkey. London ; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415078351.

• Atillasoy, Yüksel (2002). Atatürk: First President and Founder of the Turkish Republic. Woodside, NY: Woodside House. ISBN 978-0971235342.

• Armstrong, Harold Courtenay (1972). Grey Wolf, Mustafa Kemal: An Intimate Study of a Dictator. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press. ISBN 978-0836969627.

• Barber, Noel (1988). Lords of the Golden Horn: From Suleiman the Magnificent to Kemal Ataturk. London: Arrow. ISBN 978-0099539506.

• Barlas, Dilek (1998). Statism and Diplomacy in Turkey: Economic and Foreign Policy Strategies in an Uncertain World, 1929–1939. New York: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-9004108554.

• Cleveland, William L (2004). A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0813340487.

• Doğan, Çağatay Emre (2003). Formation of Factory Settlements Within Turkish Industrialization and Modernization in 1930s: Nazilli Printing Factory (in Turkish). Ankara: Middle East Technical University. OCLC 54431696.

• Eastham, J. K. (1964). "The Turkish Development Plan: The First Five Years". The Economic Journal. 74 (298). New York: Macmillan: 132–136. ISSN 0013-0133. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• Emrence, Cem (2003). "Turkey in Economic Crisis (1927–1930): A Panaromic Vision". Middle Eastern Studies. 39 (4). London: F. Cass.: 67–80. ISSN 0026-3206.

• Huntington, Samuel P. (2006). Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300116205.

• İğdemir, Uluğ (1963). Atatürk. Ankara: Turkish National Commission for UNESCO. pp. 165–170. OCLC 75604149. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• İnan, Ayşe Afet (2007). Atatürk Hakkında Hatıralar ve Belgeler (in Turkish). Istanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları. ISBN 9944881401. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)

• İnan, Ayşe Afet (1998). Medeni bilgiler ve M. Kemal Atatürk'ün el Yazıları (in Turkish). Ankara: AKDTYK Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi. ISBN 978-9751612762. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Kinross, Patrick (2003). Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1842125991. OCLC 55516821.

• Kinross, Patrick (1979). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: Morrow. ISBN 978-0688080938.

• Landau, Jacob M (1983). Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0865319868.

• Lengyel, Emil (1962). They Called Him Atatürk. New York: The John Day Co. OCLC 1337444.

• Mango, Andrew (2002) [1999]. Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey (Paperback ed.). Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc. ISBN 1-58567-334-x. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

• Mango, Andrew (2004). Atatürk. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0719565922.

• Ömür, Aslı (2002). "Modernity and Islam: Experiences of Turkish Women". Turkish Times. 13 (312). ISSN 1043-0164. Retrieved 2007-10-10. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• Özelli, M. Tunç (1974). "The Evolution of the Formal Educational System and its Relation to Economic Growth Policies in the First Turkish Republic". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 5 (1). London: Cambridge University Press: 77–92. ISSN 0020-7438. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• Saikal, Amin (2003). Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges. Tokyo: United Nations University Press. ISBN 978-9280810851. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Shaw, Stanford Jay (1976–1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521212809. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Spangnolo, John (1992). The Modern Middle East in Historical Perspective: Essays in Honour of Albert Hourani. Oxford: Middle East Centre, St. Antony's College. ISBN 978-0863721649. OCLC 80503960.

• Stone, Norman (2000). "Talking Turkey". The National Interest. 61. New York: National Affairs, Inc: 66. ISSN 0884-9382.

• Tunçay, Mete (1972). Mesaî : Halk Şûrâlar Fırkası Programı, 1920 (in Turkish). Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi. OCLC 1926301.

• Tüfekçi, Gürbüz D (1981). Universality of Atatürk's Philosophy. Ankara: Pan Matbaacılık. OCLC 54074541.

• Yapp, Malcolm (1987). The Making of the Modern Near East, 1792–1923. London ; New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0582493803.

• Webster, Donald Everett (1973). The Turkey of Atatürk; Social Process in the Turkish Reformation. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 978-0404563332.

• Volkan, Vamik D. (1981). "Immortal Atatürk—Narcissism and Creativity in a Revolutionary Leader". Psychoanalytic Study of Society. 9. New York: Psychohistory Press: 221–255. ISSN 0079-7294. OCLC 60448681.

• Wolf-Gazo, Ernest (1996). "John Dewey in Turkey: An Educational Mission". Journal of American Studies of Turkey. 3. Ankara, Turkey: American Studies Association of Turkey: 15–42. ISSN 1300-6606.

• Zürcher, Erik Jan (2004). Turkey: A Modern History. London; New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1850433996.

External links

• Video with Turkish sound of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, accompanied by Charles H. Sherrill, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (1932–1933), expressing vision for a Turkish-American partnership for democracy, peace and prosperity to all mankind
• Atatürk documentary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, and Part 9.
• THE WORDS OF THE ATATURK