Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

M.Kemal Ataturk

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Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

2008-07-04T03:06:00.003-07:00

Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
1881 - 1938
Turkish soldier and nationalist leader; founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, 1923 - 1938.
Born in Salonika, the eldest of the two surviving children of a lower-middle-class family, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was given the name Mustafa at his birth. His father, Ali Riza Efendi, had been a minor officer in the Ottoman customs before trying his luck in trade. Although he died when his son was only seven, Ali Riza Efendi had a great influence on him through his adherence to secular values and his decision to send Mustafa to a secular elementary school. Like all Ottoman women in her situation, the mother, Zübeyde Hamm, had to be supported by relatives after her husband's death. It is during the years of refuge in the extended family that Mustafa seems to have developed the lifelong characteristics of both the ambitious, captivating loner and the resolute, charismatic leader.
It was his decision to pursue a military career. He was an outstanding student from the time he entered military middle school in Salonika (1893), where he was given his second name, Kemal, until the staff college from which he was graduated (1904) with the rank of captain. He also developed a strong interest in politics as well as literary and rhetorical pursuits during his school years. The command of late Ottoman Turkish with touches of pedantry that his writings disclose are the result of Mustafa Kemal's extensive readings in history and literature. Throughout his military and political career, his speeches and improvised harangues were marked by the eloquence and persuasiveness that he cultivated as early as his high-school years. His interest in politics developed somewhat later, when he attended the War Academy, and at a time when the negative aspects of Sultan Abdülhamit II's absolutism had become more offensive.
Mustafa Kemal served with the Fifth Army in Damascus (1905 - 1907), where he joined the revolutionary secret society Fatherland and Freedom. This society was soon subsumed in yet another secret society based in Salonika, the Ottoman Freedom Society, which subsequently took the name Committee for Union and Progress (CUP) after its merger with the Young Turk group that was active in Paris (1907). When Mustafa Kemal was transferred to the Third Army in his native city (late 1907), he joined the CUP, and for a long time thereafter he remained a frustrated member with minor influence in that society.
During the period between the Young Turk Revolution (23 July 1908) and the end of World War I, Mustafa Kemal emerged as an outstanding soldier with remarkable organizational skills, tenacious ambition, and a quarrelsome demeanor toward superiors with whom he disagreed. He distinguished himself in Libya, where he fought the Italians in the regions of Derna and Tobruk (1911 - 1912), but his political career was obstructed by the CUP leaders, who disliked his vocal criticism. After an unsuccessful bid for election to the Chamber of Deputies (1912), he was sent off as a military attaché to Sofia (1913 - 1914). He became a hero during World War I, thanks to his successes against the armies of the Triple Entente countries (France, Great Britain, Russia), which he checked twice in the Gallipoli Peninsula (1915). Promoted to brigadier general at the age of thirty-five, he was transferred to the eastern front, where he retook Bitlis and Muş from the Russians (1916). As the commander of the Seventh Army in Syria, he was in charge of the front north of Aleppo when the Mudros Armistice was signed (30 October 1918).
At the end of World War I, Mustafa Kemal organized a movement in Anatolia that consisted of both a constitutionalist rebellion against the sultan and resistance against the designs by Triple Entente countries to partition the Ottoman Empire. Mainly because of the support of local military authorities and of the notables whose provinces were threatened by partition, he managed to convene the Sivas Congress (4 - 11 September 1919), which forced the sultan to return to the parliamentarian rule the latter had suspended in November 1918. When the new Chamber of Deputies adopted the document known as the National Pact (28 January 1920), rejecting the dismemberment of the lands under Ottoman sovereignty at the conclusion of the armistice, the Triple Entente powers occupied Istanbul (16 March 1920). Subsequently, Mustafa Kemal called for the meeting of an extraordinary parliament in Ankara, thereby marking the beginning of the Turkish Revolution.
As the president of the Grand National Assembly (GNA), which opened on 23 April 1920, Mustafa Kemal successfully conducted a diplomatic and military campaign to defeat the stipulations of the Treaty of Sèvres imposed on the Ottoman government by the Triple Entente (10 August 1920). After he had succeeded in checking the Greek advance on Ankara in the battle of the Sakarya (August - September 1921), he was promoted to the rank of marshal and given the title ghazi (victorious) by the GNA. Under his command, the Turkish national forces launched an offensive (August 1922) that completed the liberation of practically all the territory considered Turkish homeland by the National Pact and forced the Allies to call for a new peace conference. The question of Turkish representation at the Lausanne Conference was given a radical solution by the GNA, which dissolved the Ottoman state after Mustafa Kemal's proposal to abolish the sultanate took effect on 1 November 1922.
The Treaty of Lausanne recognized an independent and fully sovereign Turkey (24 July 1923). Having gained complete control of the GNA through his newly founded People's Party, Mustafa Kemal embarked on a series of revolutionary changes. First he proclaimed the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. The following year he instituted measures that set the republic on a secular path, including abolishing the caliphate and the ministry of shariʿa and waqf, unifying education under state authority (3 March 1924), and abolishing the religious courts (8 April 1924). These developments prompted the growth of political opposition, which came out into the open with the founding of the Progressive Republican Party (November 1924). Seizing as a pretext the rebellion by Shaykh Saʿid (February 1925), Mustafa Kemal's republican regime quickly put an end to all political opposition in the country by passing the Law on the Maintenance of Public Order (4 March 1925). In 1926, a plot to assassinate its leader gave the regime the opportunity to suppress the remnants of the CUP, whose leaders had posed a threat to Mustafa Kemal's power since the period of national resistance in Anatolia. By the time Mustafa Kemal read his famous speech in the GNA (October 1927), in which he gave his personal account of the recent history of Turkey, the country had entered the period of a de facto single-party regime, which, with the exception of the brief free party period (August - November 1930), lasted until after World War II.
In this political setting, Mustafa Kemal realized his far-reaching social-engineering program. Secularization was completed by the adoption of the Civil Code (4 April 1926) and the amendment of Article 2 and Article 26 of the Turkish constitution (10 April 1928), which, respectively, referred to Islam as the official religion and entrusted the GNA with enforcing the shariʿa. Latin characters were adopted in 1928, thus putting an end to a long debate on the reform of the Turkish alphabet. Citizenship rights were extended to women in 1934 with a constitutional amendment that introduced universal suffrage. A new law, passed the same year, required all citizens to have a patronym in Turkish. The revolution also employed such symbolic measures as replacing the fez with Western-style hats (1925), obliging religious authorities to wear their particular garments only when officiating (1934), and banning the use of such honorific titles as pasha, bey, and effendi (1934).
In accord with the law on Turkish patronyms, Mustafa Kemal was named Atatürk (Father Turk) by the GNA (1934). Suggestive of the Roman pater patriae, the name reflected Mustafa Kemal's achievement and political status, but to its bearer, the connotations of "mentor" or "guide" that it had in old Turkish were probably more meaningful. The role of mentor, which his numerous remarks indicate he had assigned himself, was evidently accepted by Turks, as attested by the huge crowds that paid homage to his memory after his death in Istanbul (1938).
Mustafa Kemal's regard for modern science was conspicuous in many of his speeches but was only to a limited extent responsible for his comprehensive secularization campaign. Rather than being motivated by positivistic determinism, his policy grew out of his personal reading of the history of Islam and the vision of an astute politician. Two days before abolishing the caliphate, he told the GNA what amounted in fact to a secular rewording of the pious contention that the politics of humans tarnished Islam: "We see that the emancipation of Islam from the status of political tool that it has been constantly reduced to for centuries, and its exaltation, are really necessary" (Parliamentary Minutes, 2nd Session, vol. 7, pp. 3 - 6). Convinced of the autonomy and primacy of politics in the history of Islam in general, and of the Ottoman Empire in particular, Mustafa Kemal, in a way that was ahead of his time, was able to see that far from creating a dual society by introducing Western institutions into an Islamic polity, successive generations of Ottoman statesmen - from Sultan Selim III (1789 - 1807) to the Young Turks - had Westernized an age-old, secular state tradition. The perceived dualism was only an exacerbation of the secularity of the state. Under these circumstances, if what was sought was an organic relation between state and society (that is, democracy) the society must be synchronized with the state by strictly confining religion to the sphere of the individual. Hence, it would be more accurate to attribute Mustafa Kemal's secularizing measures to the radical anticlericalism of a standard-bearer of raison d'état than to interpret them as a reform of Islam or as the manifestations of anti-Islamic prejudice.
Although a nation builder, Mustafa Kemal was more of a patriot than a nationalist. His interest in the cultural and ideological aspects of nation building (as manifested by the founding of the Turkish Historical Society in 1931 and the Turkish Language Society in 1932) surfaced rather late in his life, and only after the economic and political upheavals of the Great Depression had revealed an ideological vacuum in the country. His first years as president of the republic were necessarily devoted to the strengthening of the new regime against an opposition that predated its founding. Even after establishing his de facto single-party system, however, he did not proceed in a nationalistic direction. His humorous references to the excesses associated with the "Turkish historical thesis" and the "Sun-language theory" - developed, under his guidance, by the historical and language societies - also indicate his lighthearted approach to nationalist ideology and his view of such theories as a transient pedagogic device in the training of the common citizen.
Mustafa Kemal's aversion to ideological speculation is apparent in his reactions to the attempts to define his regime during his lifetime. Influenced by the proliferation of single-party dictatorships in Europe throughout the interwar period, zealous admirers tended to formulate a doctrine they called Kemalism to describe his government. Mustafa Kemal courteously discouraged such definitions, because he did not want anything to arrest the dynamism of the regime. For the same reason, he published his book Civic Notions for the Citizens (in Turkish; Istanbul, 1930) as the work of his adoptive daughter, Afet. This reluctance to associate his name with the actual politics of his time can best be explained by his view of his regime as being transitory and his ultimate vision of Turkey in the future as a liberal democracy.
Although his was a personal rule in which he went so far as to select individually all the candidates for the GNA, ample evidence shows he very much disliked such dictators as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and was genuinely offended by Western commentators and journalists who placed him in the same category as them. He rationalized that his role was exactly the opposite of theirs, in that he was trying to establish a democratic tradition in Turkey; that is why he took care to do everything through the legislature and did not envisage suspending the constitution of 1924 or altering its liberal spirit. He also refused life presidency; he preferred to be reelected by the GNA at the beginning of each term. Mustafa Kemal's dictatorial rule was in effect an apprenticeship in democracy in the paradoxical tradition of Jacobinism, and he was aware of the tragic role he was playing in Turkish history. Very early on, he told a group of journalists how objective conditions prevail over ideas: "An individual would think in a particular manner in Ankara, in a different manner in Istanbul or Izmir, and in yet another different manner in Paris" (in Turkish, 1923; edited by Ari Inan, Ankara, 1982, p. 51).
Mustafa Kemal knew that the establishment of democracy was accompanied by legal, economic, social, and ideological prerequisites, and his regime was designed to prepare the country in these areas.
Bibliography
Ahmad, Feroz. The Making of Modern Turkey. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
Kinross, Patrick Balfour, Baron. Atatürk: The Rebirth of aNation. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964.
Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 3d edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
A Speech Delivered by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1927). Istanbul: Ministry of Education, 1963.
Volkan, Vamik D., and Itzkowitz, Norman. The Immortal Atatürk: A Psychobiography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Zürcher, Erik Jan. The Unionist Factor: The Role of the Committee of Union and Progress in the Turkish National Movement, 1905 - 1926. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1984.

Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Atatürk, Kemal

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

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(born 1881, Salonika, Greece, Ottoman Empire — died Nov. 10, 1938, Istanbul, Tur.) Founder of modern Turkey. Dedicated by his father to military service, he graduated near the top of his class in military school. As a young officer, he was critical of the government of the Ottoman Empire and became involved with the Turkish nationalist Committee of Union and Progress. He nevertheless fought for the government during World War I (1914 – 18), achieving great success against Allied forces during the Dardanelles Campaign. The eventual Allied victory brought British, French, and Italian troops to Anatolia; appointed to restore order there, he used the opportunity to incite the people against the Allied occupation. Greece and Armenia, territorial beneficiaries of the Ottoman defeat, opposed the Turkish nationalists, but Mustafa Kemal overcame all opposition, and the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923. He was given the name Atatürk ("Father of the Turks") in 1934. He pursued a policy of Westernization and secularization, in which Western styles of dress and appellation were made mandatory, seclusion of women was abolished, and the legal and educational system was overhauled. See also Enver Pasha; Young Turks.

Kemal's Reforms

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Turkish Republic

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It had been Kemal's image as a national military hero which had assured the Nationalists a following in 1919. It was Kemal's determined leadership which assured the victory of 1923. It was to be Kemal's dictatorial guidance which subsequently defined the new Turkey.
Throughout the 1920s reform followed reform as the Turks undertook a shift from an Eastern to a Western orientation. President Kemal and his colleagues were Western-educated; the constitution of April 20, 1924, established in the republic a democratic state with elected representatives and all the typical popular guarantees. Yet Turkey remained a dictatorship throughout Kemal's time; he was a paternalistic ruler, convinced that he knew the nation's needs and how to satisfy them. Although democratic institutions were in existence, it was not the legislature which dominated but the Peoples' (in 1923 Republican Peoples') party, an outgrowth of the 1919 national group founded at Erzerum-Sivas. Kemal was party president. Policy was made in party caucus and then enacted as legislation by the Assembly. The party also selected and placed candidates, and there was no opposition slate. Kemal was reelected president of Turkey in 1927, 1931, and 1935 by the Assembly.

Reunification of Turkey

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Peace was restored by the Mudros armistice of Oct. 30, 1918. The following May, 4 days after the Greeks landed troops in Turkey, Kemal was appointed inspector general of the 3d Army in Anatolia. From here he launched an antiforeign movement that was to unify the Turkish elements in the empire against partition. At two conferences, at Erzerum on July 23 and at Sivas on September 11, he organized the Committee for the Defense of Eastern Asia Minor.
The Ferid Pasha government fell under this pressure, and new elections returned a Nationalist parliament. Its program, however, was sufficiently independent to prompt British occupation of the capital ostensibly to protect the Sultan. On March 20, 1920, the Ottoman parliament was dissolved. Some deputies fled to Ankara, where Kemal's committee convoked the first session of a new Grand National Assembly on April 23. It undertook both legislative and executive functions, with Kemal as president. Two governments were now functioning: the Sultan's in occupied Istanbul and Kemal's in Anatolia. This anomalous condition continued until the Allies forced the Sultan's assent to the Treaty of S'res on August 10, which established foreign control over large parts of the Turkish Empire. Thereupon the last vestige of the Sultan's power disappeared in Anatolia.
Opposition to foreign occupation was the keystone of Turkish nationalism, but dissension among the Allies was to be of major benefit to the Kemalists. Kemal's first success was peace with Russia in December. This border settlement was followed by a friendship treaty in March 1921. The Italians and the French, apparently anticipating an eventual Nationalist victory, were enticed into exchanging territorial claims for economic concessions. The result was that by mid-1921 only the Greeks and British occupied Turkish territory.
Greek troops moved through Anatolia in 1921 with considerable success to enforce the rule of the Sultan. As generalissimo of Turkish forces, Kemal had unlimited power during this campaign, and he was supplied by Russia, Italy, and France. The Greeks were stopped at Sakarya in September 1921 and driven out in a big campaign the following year. The Nationalists made Kemal a marshal and designated him Ghazi (victorious). The British concluded an armistice with the Turks at Mundanya on Oct. 11, 1922.
An international gathering at Lausanne in November 1920 set about revising the Treaty of S'res. The concurrent invitations issued the Nationalists and the Sultan's government precipitated the Grand National Assembly's dissolution of the sultanate of Mehmed VI on Nov. 1, 1922. On Oct. 29, 1923, Mustapha Kemal was elected president of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic.
The interim period had been filled with the difficult task of negotiating the new treaty. The final document, signed July 24, 1923, established the compact, homogeneous entity known today as Turkey, freed of the onerous capitulations the Allies had expected to reimpose.

Biography: Ghazi Mustapha Kemal Atatürk

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In 1905, on the day Kemal was commissioned a lieutenant at the General Staff Academy in Istanbul, he was arrested for political agitation. Banishment to Syria failed to dampen his revolutionary ardor. He organized some officers of the 5th Army Corps in Damascus into a secret society, Vatan (fatherland). Kemal established branches during a secret visit to Salonika, where the organization became Fatherland and Liberty, then the Ottoman Society of Liberty, and subsequently part of the Committee of Union and Progress. Despite this political activity and narrow escape from a second arrest, Kemal was not active in the 1908 coup or in the Young Turk movement which toppled Abdul Hamid.
In 1911 Kemal secretly went to Libya to organize Senussi resistance against the invading Italians. A major in the Second Balkan War, he served as chief of staff to the army on Gallipoli. When World War I broke out, Col. Mustapha Kemal was serving in Bulgaria as the Ottoman military attaché. During the war he commanded armies on everyone of the several Ottoman fronts. He gained national recognition during the defense of Gallipoli. Promoted to pasha and given command of the 2d Army Corps, he led his troops and 3d Army forces in the Caucasus campaigns of 1916 and then was sent to the Hejaz. Correctly predicting the reverses to be expected in the Iraq campaign, he resigned but returned to service in 1918. Kemal was in command of the 7th Army withstanding the assault on Aleppo at war's end.

Biography: Ghazi Mustapha Kemal Atatürk

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Ghazi Mustapha Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was a Turkish nationalist and political leader who was instrumental in the fall of the Ottoman sultanate and in the creation of modern Turkey.
Mustapha Kemal devoted his life to freeing Turkey from foreign domination. Under his benevolent dictatorship as president of the republic, he instituted lasting reforms that earned him the name Atatürk (the father of the Turks).
Mustapha was born in Salonika (now Greece, but then part of Turkish Macedonia), the son of a lower-middle-class Turkish customs official. He received a military education, and a teacher dubbed him Kemal (perfection) because of the youth's demand for quality performance. Kemal graduated from the military academy in Monastir in 1899 and then attended the war and staff colleges in Istanbul.

Military History Companion: Gen Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

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Atatürk, Gen Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), revered father of modern Turkey. He began his career as an Ottoman army cadet, entering the Harbiye military college in Istanbul in 1899 and graduating in 1905. Already disenchanted with the repression of Abd al-Hamid II, he was posted to Damascus as a captain in a cavalry regiment, and became a member of the reformist Vatan ‘Fatherland’ secret society. He served in Tripolitania during the Italo-Turkish war and in the two Balkan wars, by now on the fringes at least of the Committee of Union and Progress which had ended the Hamidian despotism and brought about the ‘Young Turk’ revolution, though Kemal himself was a firm believer in the separation of the military from politics.Initially opposed to Turkey's entry into WW I, once Turkey was committed Kemal threw himself into the war wholeheartedly, with a chance to display the talents for leadership and military planning for which he was already notable. He distinguished himself in the defence of Gallipoli and then was sent as a corps commander to the eastern Anatolian front. Here he first came into contact with Ismet (later Inönü), who was to become his right-hand man and eventually his successor as president of the Republic. When the Russian army of the Caucasus crumbled at the onset of the Russian Revolution, Kemal and Ismet were both transferred to Palestine. With the loss of Baghdad to the British, Kemal became increasingly fearful that the war was lost for Turkey and was grieved that his soldiers had such inadequate weapons and supplies; he also resented the transfer of the supreme command in the east from Turkish generals to the Germans Falkenhayn and then Liman von Sanders.Personally undefeated as a field commander, Kemal ended the war at Aleppo, with Turkey now bereft of its Arab provinces as well as virtually all of the Balkans. He felt a personal mission to fight for the integrity of the Turkish heartland, Anatolia. The Mudros armistice terms seemed to herald the imminent partition of Asiatic Turkey by the western Allies and Greece. Posted in 1919 as inspector general of the Turkish army in northern Anatolia, he speedily began to act independently and to arouse nationalist feeling there, not difficult when a Greek army had landed at Smyrna (now Izmir) in May 1919. The first Great National Assembly at Ankara in central Anatolia, now a rival body to the sultan's government in the capital Istanbul, assembled in spring 1920 and later elected him president in 1921. Kemal, now sentenced to death in absentia by the sultan's government, embarked on the most testing and decisive phase of his military career, the war for the integrity of the Turkish homeland, at a time when foreign powers had troops in the south and west of Anatolia, the sultan's government was hostile, and the Armenians had set up a state of their own in eastern Anatolia.In 1921 the Greek army advanced eastwards from Izmir but was held on the Sakarya river before Ankara, Kemal having by now been made C-in-C, and in 1922 the Greeks were disastrously defeated and had to evacuate western Anatolia. The peace settlement of Lausanne (July 1923) gave Kemal a Turkey in Asia free of foreign troops and with essential control of the Straits, and provided for exchanges of populations. Exasperation at the feeble and defeatist role of the sultan in Istanbul led Kemal to work for the abolition of the sultanate in 1922, the proclamation of a republic in 1923, and the abolition of the caliphate in 1924; thus the rule of the Ottoman Turks ended for ever. Kemal's later career as ‘Gazi’ (Warrior Hero), a title awarded to him by a grateful Assembly in 1921, and as ‘Atatürk’ (Father of the Turkish Nation), assumed by him in 1934, was a pacific one, concerned with establishing for Turkey a dirigiste economy, a neutralist foreign policy, and westernizing social and educational measures, involving a reduction of Islamic influence in daily life, to which Atatürk attributed much of the backwardness of his country.

Political Biography: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

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(b. Salonica, 12 Mar. 1880; d. 10 Nov. 1938) Turkish; President 1923 – 38 The son of a minor Ottoman official, Atatürk attended the War College at Instanbul, from which he graduated in 1905. He helped to found the Fatherland and Freedom Society in 1906 which merged with the Committee of Union and Progress in the following year and spawned the Young Turks Revolution of 1908. Mustafa Kemal gradually became disenchanted with their policies. He conducted a brilliant defence of Gallipoli during the Great War and fought the Allies on various other fronts.Allied intentions to dismember the Ottoman Empire and divide up its Turkish core, formalized in the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920, had been opposed from 1919 onwards by Mustafa Kemal and his Turkish nationalist associates in Anatolia. At Erzurum and Sivas the basic Kemalist programme as formulated and issued from Ankara as the National Pact. The pact renounced the empire, but demanded complete independence for all Turkish-speaking territories. It was endorsed by the legal Ottoman parliament and then by the new National Assembly meeting at Ankara, in 1920. The Assembly also deposed the Sultan, promulgated a republican constitution, and proclaimed Mustafa Kemal President. These objectives were secured by the Turkish war of independence against Greece, France, Italy, and Soviet Russia, 1920 – 22.Atatürk ("Father Turk" — the name he adopted in 1935) now embarked on an ambitious and radical programme to turn Turkey from a Muslim polity into a modern state. The Republic was proclaimed in 1923, with Ankara as its capital, Kemal as executive President, and a single political party. An elected Parliament was added by the 1924 constitution. The dominance of Islam in public life was ended when the Caliphate was abolished in 1924; religious orders were disbanded; religious property was seized; religious instruction was curtailed and a secular educational system established; the Islamic legal system was replaced by a European one; and, in 1928, Islam itself was disestablished. The fez and the veil were forbidden, the Latin alphabet was substituted for the Arabic, and, in 1934, women were enfranchised. Ataturk revitalized the economy, created mixed state-private banks, protected domestic industry and, on étatiste Kemalist principles, responsibility for investment and preventing foreign capital entering Turkey was assumed by the state. Atatürk's reforms provoked Kurdish revolts which were ruthlessly suppressed. The Kurdish language was proscribed and Kurdish ethnic identity denied; in the new dispensation, Kurds became "mountain Turks".

His life

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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the military and political leader who transformed what was left of the Ottoman Empire into modern Turkey. Born with the given name Mustafa (Mustapha), he was as a young student given the name Kemal (meaning "perfection") for his excellence in mathematics. He became a soldier and excelled at that discipline as well. In the Turkish defense of the Dardanelles in 1915 his military acumen and heroics made him a national icon. He was promoted to general at the age of 35 and given command of the army near the Black Sea port of Samsun. He defied the Sultan's orders to quash opposition and instead built an army of his own to fight for independence from European control. The Sultan ordered his arrest, but to no avail. Between 1919 and 1923 Kemal successfully fought off foreign armies as well as opposition forces from Turkey. On 29 October 1923 the national parliament declared the existence of the Republic of Turkey with Kemal as president. His fifteen years in office were turbulent -- he attempted political and social reforms and emulated the liberal democracies of the West, but as the party leader in a one-party state, he has also been called a dictator. Nonetheless, he is considered to have almost single-handedly saved and modernized Turkey, and in 1934 he was officially dubbed Atatürk, "father of the Turks."

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

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Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha

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Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

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Early lifeMain article: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's personal lifeMustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in the Ottoman city of Salonika (Turkish: Selânik; modern-day Thessaloniki in Greece) in the spring of 1881 to Ali Rıza Efendi, his father, and Zübeyde Hanım, his mother. Born as Mustafa, his second name Kemal (meaning Perfection or Maturity) was given to him by his mathematics teacher in recognition of his academic excellence.[3] In his early years, his mother encouraged Mustafa to attend a religious school (the Şemsi Efendi Mektebi), though a reluctant Mustafa completed only a brief stay there. Then he had a fight with one of his teachers and left home, to enroll into a military junior high school in Selânik (the Selânik Askerî Rüştiyesi) in 1893. In 1896 he enrolled into a military high school (the Manastır Askerî İdadisi) in the Ottoman city of Manastır (today's Bitola, in the Republic of Macedonia.) In 1899 he enrolled into the War College (the Mekteb-i Harbiye-i Şahane) in Istanbul and graduated in 1902. He later graduated from the War Academy (the Erkân-ı Harbiye Mektebi) on January 11, 1905.
Military careerMain article: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's military careerAfter his graduation in 1905, he was assigned to Damascus as a lieutenant. He joined a small secret revolutionary society of reformist officers called "Motherland and Liberty." In 1907, he was promoted to the rank of captain and assigned to Manastır. He joined the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). However, in later years he became known for his opposition to, and frequent criticism of, policies pursued by the CUP leadership. In 1908, the Young Turk Revolution seized power from Abdülhamid II. He played a role in this revolution. In 1910, he took part in the Picardie army maneuvers in France. In 1911, served at the Ministry of War for a short time. Later in 1911, he was posted to the Ottoman province of Trablusgarp (present-day Libya) to oppose the Italian invasion. He returned to capital in October 1912 following the outbreak of the Balkan Wars. During the First Balkan War, he fought against the Bulgarian army at Gallipoli and Bolayır on the coast of Thrace. In 1913, he was appointed military attaché to Sofia and promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1914.
Mustafa Kemal in Gallipoli with his soldiers, 1915Ottoman Empire entered World War I and engaged with the Allies in the Middle Eastern theatre. Mustafa Kemal was given the task of organizing and commanding the 19th Division attached to the 5th Army during the Battle of Gallipoli. The Gallipoli campaign became a disastrous defeat for the Allies. Mustafa Kemal became the outstanding front-line commander and gained much respect from his former enemies for his chivalry in victory. Following the Battle of Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal served in Edirne until the January 14, 1916.
He was assigned to the command of the XVIth Corps of the 2nd Army and sent to the Caucasus Campaign. The massive Russian offensive had reached the Anatolian key cities. On 7 August, Mustafa Kemal rallied his troops and mounted a counteroffensive.[4] Two of his divisions captured not only Bitlis but the equally important town of Muş, greatly upsetting the calculations of the Russian Command.[5] On March 7, 1917, Mustafa Kemal was appointed from the command of the XVI Corps to the overall command of the 2nd Army. The Russian Revolution erupted and the Caucasus front of the Czar's armies disintegrated.[4] Mustafa Kemal had already left the region as was assigned to the command of the 7th Army at the Sinai and Palestine Campaign.
He returned to Aleppo on August 28, 1918, and resumed his command. Liman von Sanders had lost the Battle of Megiddo. Nothing stood between General Allenby's forces and Mustafa Kemal. Concluding that he didn't have enough men to engage the British forces, Mustafa Kemal retreated towards Jordan to establish a stronger defensive line. He was appointed to the command of Thunder Groups Command (Turkish:Yıldırım Orduları Gurubu), replacing Liman von Sanders. Mustafa Kemal's position became the base line for the Armistice of Mudros.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

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Leadership during the War of IndependenceMain article: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's leadership of the independence war TIME March 24, 1923. Atatürk, the title reads 'Where is a Turk his own master?'Mustafa Kemal's active participation in the national resistance movement began with his assignment as a General Inspector to oversee the demobilisation of remaining Ottoman military units and nationalist organizations. On May 19, 1919, he departed from Istanbul to Samsun. The first goal in his mind was the establishment of an organised national resistance movement against the occupying forces. In June 1919, he and his close friends issued the Amasya Circular, which stated that the independence of the country was in danger. The Ottoman government issued a warrant for his arrest, later condemning him to death. He resigned from the Ottoman Army on July 8.
Mustafa Kemal called for a national election to establish a new Turkish Parliament that would have its seat in Ankara.[7] On 12 February 1920, the last Ottoman Parliament gathered in Istanbul. This parliament was dissolved by British forces after the declaration of the National Pact (Turkish: Misak-ı Milli). Mustafa Kemal used this opportunity to establish the "Grand National Assembly of Turkey" (GNA) gathered on April 23, 1920, with Mustafa Kemal as the speaker of the parliament. On August 10, 1920 Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha signed the Treaty of Sèvres, which finalized the plans for the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire including what Turkish nationals accepted as their heartland. Kemal Insisted on complete independence and the safeguarding of the interests of the Turkish majority on Turkish soil. He persuaded the GNA to gather a National Army. The National Army faced the Allied occupation forces and fought on three fronts: in the Franco-Turkish, Greco-Turkish and Turkish-Armenian wars. After a series of initial battles during Greco-Turkish war, the Greek army advanced as far as the Sakarya River, just eighty kilometers west of the GNA. On August 5, 1921, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to Commander in chief of the forces.[8] The Battle of Sakarya from August 23 to September 13, 1921 ended with the defeat of the Greeks. The Allies, ignoring the extent of Ankara's successes, hoped to impose a modified version of the Serves treaty as a peace settlement on Ankara. Kemal rejected their proposal. The final battle, the Battle of Dumlupınar, was fought during August and September of 1922. He launched an all-out attack on the Greek lines at Afyonkarahisar.
The Conference of Lausanne began on November 21, 1922. In accordance with the directives of Mustafa Kemal, İsmet İnönü refused any proposal that would compromise Turkish sovereignty while discussing matters regarding the control of Turkish finances and justice, the Capitulations, the Turkish Straits and the like.[9] On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. Ten weeks after agreement was reached the Allied forces left Istanbul.[10] The final outcome of the independence war was the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923.
Presidency, 1923–1938For conceptual analysis, see Kemalist ideology and Atatürk's Reforms President Atatürk leaving the Turkish Parliament after a meetingThe Treaty of Lausanne ended the Turkish War of Independence and recognized the new nation's independence. However, efforts 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 formed. Highlighting the public's lack of knowledge regarding Kemal's intentions, the public cheered: "We are returning to the days of the first caliphs".[11] In order to establish reforms Mustafa Kemal placed Fevzi Çakmak, Kazım Özalp and İsmet İnönü in the important positions. Mustafa Kemal capitalized on his reputation as an efficient military leader and spent the 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.[12] However, he was well aware that independence could not be maintained solely by the military force. His view of independence was expressed in a statement, 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."[13] Thus, as the backbone of the legislative, judicial, and economic structures were put in place, Atatürk led wide ranging reforms in the social, cultural, economical aspects of life in Turkey.
Domestic policies
Mustafa Kemal during one of his Anatolian toursIn forging the new republic, the Turkish revolutionaries turned their back on the perceived corruption and decadence of cosmopolitan Istanbul and its Ottoman heritage.[14] For instance, Ankara, then some provincial town deep in Anatolia which was turned into the center of the independence movement, became the country's new capital. The revolutionaries regularly faced challenges from the supporters of the old Ottoman regime, and also from the supporters of relatively new ideologies such as communism and fascism. Mustafa Kemal saw the consequences of fascist and communist doctrines in the 1920s and 1930s and rejected both,[15] preventing the spread of totalitarian party rule which held sway in the Soviet Union, Germany and Italy.[16] Some perceived his opposition and silencing of these ideologies as a means of eliminating competition, others believed it was a necessary means to protect the young Turkish state from succumbing into the instability of new ideologies and competing factions.
The backbone structures of the state, such as nationalism, populism and etatism were defined in the early period under the name of "Six Arrows". The Six Arrows became a guide and banner to mark the changes between the old Ottoman and the new Republican rule. The fundamentals set by Kemal were not new, neither in the world politics nor among the elites of Turkey. What made the Six Arrows unique was that these fundamentals, which are interrelated to each other, were formulated specifically for Turkey's needs. A good example is the definition and application of secularism. The Kemalist secular state significantly differed from the application of secularism in other states that were predominantly Christian. The Kemalist ideology ("Six Arrows"), based on Atatürk's conception of realism and pragmatism, has been the defining ideology of the Republic of Turkey.[17]

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

2008-07-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Single-party state A political satire of the single-party period depicting Mustafa Kemal, the leader of RPP, choosing the party candidates for the MPs. In the single-party state, the candidates had only one party's (RPP) list to joinMustafa Kemal's private journals show that, even before the establishment of the republic in 1923, he believed in the importance of the sovereignty of the people, as opposed to the sovereignty of the absolute monarch, which was the case in the Ottoman Empire. He wanted a "direct government by the Assembly"[18] and visualized a parliamentary sovereignty (a representative democracy), where the National Parliament would be the ultimate source of power.[19] 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.
The GNA was established during the Turkish War of Independence upon the call of Mustafa Kemal, the lower house of the last Ottoman Parliament (Heyet-i Mebusan), which had previously been assembled in Istanbul, convened on April 23, 1920, in Ankara.[20] During this period, the role of deputies at the GNA were to be the voice of the Turkish society by expressing its political views and preferences. The elections were free, and the system was an egalitarian electoral system, based on general ballot.[20] The GNA had the right to select and control both the government and the Prime Minister. The GNA acted as a legislative power, controlled the executive and, if necessary, acted as an organ of scrutiny.[20] The Turkish Constitution of 1924 set a loose separation of powers between the legislative and the executive organs of the state, whereas the separation of these two within the judiciary system was a strict one. The President, then Mustafa Kemal, occupied a powerful position in this political system. In the explained political design, the single-party regime was established de facto in 1925 after the adoption of the 1924 constitution. The only political party of the GNA was the "Peoples Party" that was founded by Mustafa Kemal at the initial years of the independence war. Later it was renamed as the Republican People's Party (Turkish "Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası") on September 9, 1923.
Civic independence and the CaliphateAn important dimension in Mustafa Kemal's drive to reform the political system and to promote the national sovereignty was the abolition of the Caliphate. The Caliphate is the core political concept of Sunni Islam, by the consensus of the Muslim majority in the early centuries.[21] Abolishing the sultanate was easier, as the survival of the Caliphate at the time satisfied the partisans of the sultanate. This produced a two-headed system: The new republic on one side and an Islamic form of government with the Caliph on the other side. Atatürk and İnönü worried that "it nourished the expectations that the sovereign would return under the guise of Caliph...[22] " The Caliph Abdülmecid II, who was seated after the abolishment of the sultanate (1922), had his own personal treasury which was not bound to the republican treasury. His personal service included guards (military personnel). Mustafa Kemal said that there was no "religious" or "political" justification for this, as Caliph Abdülmecid II appeared to be following in the steps of the sultans in domestic and foreign affairs: accepting and responding to foreign representatives and reserve officers, and participating in official ceremonies and celebrations.[23] Mustafa Kemal wanted to integrate the powers of the Caliphate into the powers of the GNA, and his initial activities began on January 1, 1924.[24] 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."[25] The Caliph made a statement to the effect that he would not interfere with political affairs.[26]
On March 3, 1924, the Caliphate was officially abolished and its powers within Turkey were transferred to the GNA. The debate as to the validity of Turkey's unilateral abolition of the Caliphate was taken up by other Muslim nations in order to decide whether they should confirm the Turkish action or appoint a new Caliph.[26] A "Caliphate Conference" was held in Cairo in May 1926 and a resolution was passed declaring the Caliphate "a necessity in Islam", but failed to implement this decision.[26] Two other Islamic conferences were held in Mecca (1926) and Jerusalem (1931), but failed to reach a consensus.[26] Turkey did not accept the re-establishment of the Caliphate and perceived it as an attack to its basic existence; while Mustafa Kemal and the reformists continued their own way.[27]
The removal of the Caliphate was followed by the complete separation of the governmental and religious affairs. The education reform was one corner stone. 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."[28]
—Mustafa Kemal Cover of the French L'Illustration magazine (issue of October 13, 1928), showing Mustafa Kemal as he introduces the new Turkish alphabet to the people of SinopUnlike 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 Kemal the old medrese education was modernized.[29] Mustafa Kemal changed the classical Islamic education with a vigorously promoted reconstruction of educational institutions along the line of an enlightened pragmatism.[29] In the summer of 1924, Mustafa Kemal invited American educational reformer John Dewey to advise him on ideas for reforms and recommendations aimed at modernizing the Turkish educational system.[29] 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. 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.
The law of "National Education No: 430" passed on the same day as the abolishment of Caliphate and, concurrently, the Republic abolished the two ministries 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.
During this period, the conservative elements were not satisfied and launched attacks on the Kemalist reformists.[26]
Opposition, 1924-1927Cultural revolution, and especially the abolition of the Caliphate, faced fierce opposition. In 1924, while the "Issue of Mosul" was on the table, Sheikh Said Piran began to organize the Sheikh Said Rebellion. Sheikh Said Piran was the rich, Kurdish hereditary chieftain of the local Naqshbandi order. Said Piran emphasized the issue of religion; he not only opposed the abolition of the Caliphate, but also the adoption of civil codes based on Western models, the closure of religious orders, the ban on polygamy, and the new obligatory civil marriage. Said Piran stirred up his followers against the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate and the policies of the Kemalist government, which he considered to be against Islam. Some members of the government saw the revolt as an attempt at a counter-revolution. They urged immediate military action to prevent its spread. In the name of the restoration of the Holy Law using the Islamic green banner, Said Piran's forces moved through the countryside, seized government offices and marched on the important cities of Elazığ and Diyarbakır.[30]
There were also members of the GNA who were not happy with the changes. At a private meeting of the CHP there were so many members who were denounced as opposition sympathizers that Mustafa Kemal expressed his fear that he would be among the minority in his own party.[31] Mustafa Kemal decided not to purge this group.[31] A censure motion gave the chance to have a breakaway group. On October 17, 1924 Kazım Karabekir, along with his friends, established the break-away group and the first multi-party system began. The censure became a confidence vote at the CHP for Mustafa Kemal. On November 8 the motion was rejected by 148 votes to 18, and 41 votes were absent.[31] Whatever the arguments, the majority of the CHP, which held all but one seat, chose him against his critics.[31] On November 1, 1924 Mustafa Kemal said "the Turkish nation is firmly determined to advance fearlessly on the path of the republic, civilization and progress."[31]
The breakaway group officially established the Progressive Republican Party (PRP) on November 17, 1924, with 29 deputies. The PRP'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.[32] The RPR was not against Mustafa Kemal's main positions as declared in its program. The program supported the main mechanisms for establishing secularism in the country and the civic law, or as stated, "the needs of the age" (article 3) and the uniform system of education (article 49).[31] The principles were set by the leaders at the onset, but the only legal opposition became a home for all kinds of differing views.
On March 4, 1925, to deal with the Sheikh Said Rebellion, the "Maintenance of Public Order Law" was passed, which gave the government exceptional powers. The law, which was repealed on March 4, 1929, included all the tools and authority to shut down subversive groups. During 1926 a plot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal was uncovered in İzmir. It was found to originate with a former deputy who had opposed the abolition of the Caliphate and had a personal grudge. Quickly the trail turned from inquiry of planners of this attempt to an investigation carried out ostensibly to uncover subversive activities and actually used to undermine those with differing views regarding the cultural revolution. The sweeping investigation brought before the tribunal a large number of political opponents, including Karabekir, the leader of PRP. A number of surviving leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress, who were at best second-rank in the Turkish movement, including Cavid, Ahmed Şükrü, and Ismail Canbulat were found guilty of treason and hanged.[33] During these investigations there was a link, a support, that was uncovered among the members of the PRP to the Sheikh Said Rebellion. The PRP was dissolved following the outcomes of the trial. The pattern of organized opposition, however, was broken. This action was the only broad political purge during Atatürk's presidency. Mustafa Kemal's saying "my mortal body will turn into dust, but the Republic of Turkey will last forever" was regarded as a will after the assassination attempt.[34]
Modernization efforts Atatürk visits the Istanbul UniversityIslamic courts were closed and Islamic canon law was replaced 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."[35] Mustafa Kemal recognized the need of time to establish the structures of civic law. New judges had to be trained, new institutions had to be established. Under these conditions, the inclusion of the principle of laïcité in the constitution had to wait until February 5, 1937, just more than a year before his death.
Kemal wanted to solve the literacy problem. Literate citizens, who comprised as little as 10% of the population, used the Ottoman Language written in Arabic script with Arabic and Persian loan vocabulary.[29] 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.[29] The creation of the new Turkish alphabet as a variant of the Latin alphabet was undertaken by the Language Commission (Turkish: Dil Encümeni) at the initiative of Kemal.[29] 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 (Turkish: Halk Evleri) beginning in 1932 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 promoted the modern teaching methods in primary education in which Dewey took a place of honour.[29] 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.[29] 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."
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. 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 "Turkish: 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.[29] 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.[36]
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with Ali Fethi Okyar and Okyar's daughter in Yalova, on August 13, 1930On August 11, 1930, Mustafa Kemal decided to try a multi-party system once again. He assigned Ali Fethi Okyar to establish a new party. In his 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 the center for those who were against Atatürk's reforms, particularly regarding the role of religion in public life. Finally, seeing the threat of rising Islamic fundamentalism and being a staunch supporter of Atatürk's reforms himself, Ali Fethi Okyar decided to close the party and Mustafa Kemal never succeeded in establishing a long lasting multi-party parliamentary system.
Another important part of Mustafa Kemal's emphasis was on establishing institutions to advance Turkish language and history. The establishment of the Turkish Language Association (Turkish: Türk Dil Kurumu) was archived in 1931 for conducting research works on Turkish language. The establishment of the Turkish Historical Society (Turkish: Türk Tarih Kurumu) was archived in 1932 for conducting research works on history. Many teachers were employed in Turkish History and Language Institutions. Mustafa Kemal declared that the advancement of education called for the endeavors of the private sector and he summoned society to take part in the effort.[37] Kemal established the Turkish Education Association on January 1, 1928.[37] Association become active in the field of education, supporting intelligent and hard-working children in financial need as well as making material and scientific contributions to the educational life.
Atatürk at the library of Çankaya Presidential Residence in AnkaraIn 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.[38]
Kemal personally engaged with the translation of scientific terminology.[39] 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[40] 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"].[41] 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.[39]
There have 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."[42] Even though, at times, he did not appear to be a democrat in his actions, Atatürk always supported the idea of eventually building a democratic state. In one of his many speeches about the importance of democracy, Mustafa Kemal said in the year 1933: "Republic means the 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."[43]
Foreign policiesKemal'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.[44] The base and the expected outcome(s) of 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.[45] The Turkish War of Independence was the last time Kemal used his military might in dealing with other countries. The foreign issues were resolved by peaceful methods during his presidency.
Issue of MosulThe "Issue of Mosul" was a dispute over the control of the Mosul Province with Great Britain. Mosul was one of the first foreign affairs related controversies of the new Republic. Some three days after the Armistice of Mudros, General Marshall, following the instruction "every effort was to be made to score as heavily as possible on the Tigris before the whistle blew" from the British War Office, captured Mosul.[46] In 1920, the Misak-ı Milli, which consolidated the perceived "Turkish lands" based on a common past, history, concept of morals and laws, declared that the Mosul Province was a part of the historic Turkish heartland. In 1923, with the Treaty of Lausanne, the arbitration of the League of Nations over the Mosul issue was accepted. Mustafa Kemal tried to persuade the GNA 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 on the population. Later on it was claimed that Turkey began where the oil ends as the border was drawn by the British geophysicists based on the oil reserves. Kemal did not want this separation.[47] The British were in a precarious situation with the Issue of Mosul, and were adopting almost equally desperate measures to protect their interests. The Iraqi revolt against the British was put down by the RAF Iraq Command during the summer of 1920. Presumably, from a British perspective, if Mustafa Kemal succeeded in securing the stability in his side, he would have turned his attention to recovering Mosul and penetrate into Mesopotamia, where the native population would probably join him, thus an insurgent and hostile Muslim nation would be brought up to the very gates of India. The British Foreign Secretary attempted to disclaim any existence of oil in the Mosul area. On January 23, 1923, Lord Curzon argued that the existence of oil was no more than hypothetical.[46] However, according to Armstrong, "England wanted oil. Mosul and Kurds were the key."[48]
While three inspectors from the League of Nations Committee was sent to the region to oversee the situation in 1924, the Sheikh Said rebellion, beginning in 1924 and escalating until 1927, broke out to establish a new government positioned to cut Turkey's link to Mesopotamia. The relationship between the rebellion and British support was questioned. The British assistance was sought realizing that the rebellion, or its expected outcome, could not stand by itself.[49]
In 1925, the League of Nations formed a three-member committee to study the case while the Sheikh Said Rebellion was on the rise. Partly because of the continuing uncertainties along the Northern frontier [North of Iraq], the committee recommended that the region should 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.[50] The revolt was put down. Britain, Iraq and Kemal made a treaty on June 5, 1926, that mostly followed the decisions of the League Council. In 1926, Kemal faced growing opposition to his reform policies, a continuing precarious economic situation, and a defeat in the Mosul issue. A big section of the Kurdish population along with the Iraqi Turkmens were left at the other side of the border. The Sheikh Said Rebellion hastened both the imposition of the Republican Party and the speed of Atatürk's reforms. In 1925, the population was largely illiterate and disparate, Turkey was in ruins, reconstruction was difficult, poverty was everywhere and people were in pain, which easily fed separatist violence.[51] Mustafa Kemal attributed the rebellion to certain notables rather than a section of the population, who had been found guilty by the courts (kanunen mucrim olan bazi muteneffizan) and who used the mask of religion to conceal the interests of landlords, feudal tribal leaders and other 'reactionaries' on March 7, 1925.[52]
Treaty of SaadabadOne of the main goals of the Mustafa Kemal was to establish security and peace on the eastern border of the new republic. The states at the eastern border had high stakes in preserving their common frontiers, and consulting together in all matters of common interest rather than keeping the channels closed. Treaty of Saadabad became the highest point in this goal.
Mustafa Kemal, who was implementing Atatürk's reforms, found a cooperative Afghanistan. Afghanistan was in reformation period with the reforms of Amanullah Khan and civil war as part of European influence in Afghanistan. However, during late 1920s Anglo-Afghan relations soured over British fear of an Afghan-Soviet friendship. Afghan Foreign Minister Mahmud Tarzi, using Kemal Atatürk's domestic policy, encouraged the Amanullah Khan's interest in social and political reform but urged that it be gradually built upon the basis of a strong government. The Anglo-Afghan politics gained a positive perspective on May 20, 1928, Amanullah Khan and the Queen was accepted by Mustafa Kemal in Istanbul. This meeting was followed by Turkey-Afghanistan Friendship and Cooperation pact on May 22, 1928. Mahmud Tarzi received Mustafa Kemal's personal support until died on November 22, 1933 in Istanbul. Mustafa Kemal supported Afghanistan's integration to international organizations. Afghanistan joined the League of Nations in 1934 and its relations with the international community gained a huge boost.[53] In 1937, King Zahir Shah become the signature to the Treaty of Saadabad.
Mustafa Kemal and Reza Shah had a common approach to international politics, especially regarding British imperialism and its influence in the region. This climate created a slow but continuous rapprochement between Ankara and Tehran. During the Turkish war of independence, both governments sent diplomatic missions and messages of friendship to each other.[54] The policy of the Ankara government in this period was to give moral support in order to assure Iranian independence and territorial integrity.[55] Mustafa Kemal feared the occupation and dismemberment of Iran as a multi-ethnic society by Russia or Great Britain.[55] The relations were strained when the Caliphate was abolished, as the Shi'a clergy in Iran, did not accept Kemal's position. The Iranian religious power centers perceived the real motive behind Atatürk's reforms was to undermine the power of the clergy.[55]
An admirer of Mustafa Kemal and close student of his reforms, Reza Shah followed same type of modernization efforts. By the mid-1930s, Reza Shah's efforts had caused intense dissatisfaction to the clergy throughout Iran, thus widening the gap between religion and government.[56] Reza Shah wanted to secure Iran's borders, so Kemal. Reza Shah visited Mustafa Kemal in 1934. In 1935 the draft of what will be known as Saadabad Pact was paragraphed in Geneva but the signing of it was delayed because of border dispute between Iran and Iraq.
On July 8, 1937 Saadabad Pact was signed at Teheran by delegation of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. The signatories undertook to preserve their common frontiers, to consult together in all matters of common interest and to commit no aggression against one another’s territory. Treaty united common points between the Afghan King’s call for greater Oriental-Middle Eastern Cooperation, Reza Shah's goal in securing the relations with the Turkey (a third force) that would help Iran free herself from Soviet and British influence, and Mustafa Kemal's foreign policy based on common interest to secure the stability in the region. The immediate outcome, for Mustafa Kemal, was to deter Mussolini from adventures in the region.[57] The pact did not survive too long after Kemal and only four years after his death the pact died too.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

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Issue of Hatay Telegram sent by Atatürk after the local legislative assembly accepted his proposal for the Hatay State's flagIn 1936 Atatürk raised the "Issue of Hatay" at the League of Nations. Hatay was based on the old administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire named the Sanjak of Alexandretta. On behalf of the League of Nations, the representatives of France, the 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 was conducted by the local legislative assembly and it was convoked. The cities of Antakya (Antioch) and İskenderun (Alexandretta) joined Turkey in 1939. Economic policiesFor 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.[58] 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, 1923–1929The 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.[59]
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."[60] 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.[61] 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.[63][64] 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 the Turkish State Railways, which would connect the country from one side to the other. 3,208 km of rail lines were constructed during Kemal's lifetime, which was named as the "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 which 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 Turkish 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 DepressionThe 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.[59] 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.[65]
Liberalization and planned growth, 1931–1939 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 facadeThe 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.[66]
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.[67] 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.[66] It was the first step towards an alliance with the "West".[66] 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.
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.[68] Atatürk supported the development of automobile industry that had 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."[69] Atatürk realized the important role of aviation, summing it up in the words, "the future lies in the skies".[70] Turkish Aeronautical Association was founded by the directive of Mustafa Kemal, in 1925.[71] 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.[72] 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.[72] Social policiesIt 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."[73]
Women's rightsFor the conceptual analysis see Women’s rights Atatürk with his adopted daughter Sabiha Gökçen, the world's first female combat pilot, from the archive of the Turkish Air ForceOne 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.[74] During a meeting in the early days of the newly proclaimed republic, addressing to the women, he declaimed:
To the women: 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: 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.[75]
—Mustafa Kemal Eighteen female MPs joined the Turkish Parliament with the 1935 general electionsThe place of women in Mustafa Kemal's cultural reforms was best expressed in the civic book which was prepared under his supervision.[76] 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."[77]
—Mustafa KemalTurkish legislators had accepted the Swiss civil code which defined the rights of women in a marriage as equal to those of men.[78] 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 1935 elections, which was the last election Atatürk had the chance to observe, there were only 18 female MPs out of a total of 395 representatives.
Culture Opening the State Art and Sculpture Museum in AnkaraMustafa Kemal believed in the supreme importance of culture; which he expressed with the phrase "culture is the foundation of the Turkish Republic."[79] 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 the first ever Turkish opera work "Özsoy" composed by Adnan Saygun and leaded by Semiha Berksoy staged at the People's House in Ankara.[80]
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 dressFor the conceptual analysis see Dress code Mustafa Kemal with his Panama hatThe 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.[81] 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.[81] Mustafa Kemal first made the hat compulsory to the civil servants.[81] 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."[82]
Atatürk thought that Islam was an obstacle to progress and went a long way to ridding Turkey of its legacy. So, Atatürk banned beards, turbans and the hijab, ordered everyone to wear European dress. He replaced Ottoman history based on ossified notions such as 'religious community' with a more rational understanding of national history. "There is only one civilisation", he declared, the European civilisation. And a secularist society must "imitate it in all respects".

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Religious freedomsAtatürk 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,[83] 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).[84]
In Mustafa Kemal's world there was no dualism. He enforced his ideas to the 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.[85]
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.[86]
Personal lifeMain article: Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's personal lifeMustafa Kemal married Latife Uşaklıgil. They divorced after 3 years of marriage. Atatürk 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. Atatürk published many books and kept a personal journal. The "Nutuk," a thirty-six hour speech written and given by Mustafa Kemal to the Grand National Assembly over the course of six days that describes events leading to the formation of the Republic of Turkey, was first published in 1927 and then has been re-published several times.
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. He was recommended to go to İstanbul for treatment, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.[87] During his stay in İstanbul, he made an effort to keep up with his regular lifestyle for a while. He died on November 10, 1938, at the age of 57. 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.[88] On November 1953, Mustafa Kemal's remains were taken from the Ethnography Museum of Ankara.[89] Atatürk finally came to rest at his mausoleum, the Anıtkabir. In his will, 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.
LegacyPeace at home, peace in the world Atatürk hosting a reception at the USSR Embassy in Ankara, on November 7, 1927Mustafa 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.[88] 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,[90] 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."[91]
Turkey Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, in Ankara, TurkeyHis 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, such as 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 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk by HM Queen Elizabeth IIIn 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 Atatürk 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.

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1st President of Turkey In officeOctober 29, 1923 – November 10, 1938 Succeeded by İsmet İnönü
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1st Prime Minister of Turkey In office3 May 1920 – 24 January 1921 Succeeded by Fevzi Çakmak
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1st Speaker of the Parliament In officeApril 24, 1920 – October 29, 1923 Succeeded by Ali Fethi Okyar
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1st Leader of the R.P.P. In office1919 – 1938 Succeeded by İsmet İnönü
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Born May 19, 1881(1881-05-19)Selânik (Thessaloniki) Died November 10, 1938 (aged 57)Dolmabahçe Palace, İstanbul Nationality Turkish Political party Republican People's Party Spouse Lâtife Uşaklıgil (1923–25) Religion Islam[1] Signature Military Service Ottoman Empire(1893 - 8 July 1919)Turkey(9 July 1919 - 30 June 1927) Branch Army Rank Ottoman Empire: GeneralRepublic of Turkey: Mareşal Unit Commands 19th Division - XVI corps - 2nd Army - 7th Army - Thunder Groups Command Battles/wars Tobruk - Anzac Cove - Chunuk Bair - Scimitar Hill - Sari Bair - Bitlis - Sakarya - Dumlupınar - Awards List (24 medals) Graphical TimelineDetailed Chronology Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (series) Personal life Birth date · Name · Early life (Education) · Family · Character · Religious beliefs · Will · Publications Military career Early period · Gallipoli · Caucasus · Sinai and Palestine Independence War Establishment · Conflicts · Peace Atatürk's Reforms & Kemalist ideology Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (May 19, 1881 – 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 an intelligent 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.[2] 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.
As the first President of Turkey, Atatürk embarked upon a major programme of political, economic and cultural reforms. An admirer of the Enlightenment, Atatürk sought to transform the ruins of the Ottoman Empire into a modern, democratic, secular, nation-state. The principles of Atatürk's reforms are often referred to as Kemalism and continue to form the political foundation of the modern Turkish state.
Contents [hide]1 Early life 2 Military career 3 Leadership during the War of Independence 4 Presidency, 1923–1938 4.1 Domestic policies 4.1.1 Single-party state 4.1.2 Civic independence and the Caliphate 4.1.3 Opposition, 1924-1927 4.1.4 Modernization efforts 4.2 Foreign policies 4.2.1 Issue of Mosul 4.2.2 Treaty of Saadabad 4.2.3 Issue of Hatay 4.3 Economic policies 4.3.1 State intervention, 1923–1929 4.3.2 The Great Depression, 1929–1931 4.3.3 Liberalization and planned growth, 1931–1939 4.4 Social policies 4.4.1 Women's rights 4.4.2 Culture 4.4.3 Decree on dress 4.4.4 Religious freedoms 5 Personal life 6 Legacy 6.1 Peace at home, peace in the world 6.2 Turkey 6.3 Worldwide 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References

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Mustafa Kemal was born in the Ottoman 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.[2] 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.

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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, born Ali Rıza oğlu Mustafa (May 19, 1881 (adopted) – November 10, 1938) was an army officer, revolutionary statesman, the founder of the Republic of Turkey and its first President.
Mustafa Kemal established himself as a successful and extremely capable military commander while serving as a division commander in 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.[1] 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 "Atatürk's Reforms" which was a major reform movement in the political, economic and cultural aspects of life in Turkey, with the perspectives defined in the Kemalist ideology that sought to create a modern, democratic and secular nation-state, guided by educational and scientific progress based on the principles of positivist and rationalist enlightenment.

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In 1896 he is accepted into the military high school at Monastir (now Bitola in the present-day Macedonia). In 1899, after completing his training at Monastir, Atatürk enters the military college in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
1902 - Atatürk's graduates from the Istanbul military college with the rank of captain. He then enters the Istanbul military academy.
1905 - Atatürk graduates from the military academy with the rank of major on 11 January. He will be assigned to a succession of staff positions, starting in 1905 with a post in the 5th Army at Damascus, the capital of Syria. In 1907 he is promoted to senior major and posted to the 3rd Army in Salonika.
While serving in these positions he becomes involved in the growing Turkish nationalist movement, organising a secret society called 'Vatan ve Hürriyet' (Fatherland and Freedom) among fellow officers.
1907 - Atatürk's group merges with others opposed to Abdül Hamid's reign to form the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), popularly known as the 'Young Turks'.
1908 - Abdül Hamid is forced to yield when army units in Macedonia rebel. The 1876 constitution and parliamentary rule are reinstated on 24 July. At elections held in November, the CUP wins all but one of the Turkish seats, confirming its hold on government.
Political instability in the Ottoman Empire following the Young Turk revolution gives foreign powers the opportunity to seize occupied territory. Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bulgaria proclaims its complete independence. Italy invades Libya in 1911, taking the capital Tripoli and other port towns. In 1912 the empire loses all its European territory except part of eastern Thrace bordering Greece and Bulgaria.
1911 - After serving briefly on the general staff in Istanbul, Atatürk travels to Libya to organise irregular forces in the war with Italy. He successfully defends Tobruk and on 6 March 1912 is made the commander of the region around the Libyan city of Darnah.
1912 - The CUP wins an overwhelming majority in fresh elections held in April, but military losses to Italy see its support quickly dwindle. In July it is forced to yield office to a political coalition called the Liberal Union.
Atatürk holds field commands in the two Balkan wars (1912-13). During the Second Balkan War in 1913 he is made the chief-of-staff of the army in the Gallipoli Peninsula. On 27 October 1913 he is assigned as a military attaché to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. While in this post he is promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
1913 - The Liberal Union government is overthrown on 23 January in a coup d'état engineered by CUP leaders Ahmet Cemal Pasha and Ismail Enver Pasha. The CUP takes control of the empire, introducing a military dictatorship headed by the so-called 'Three Pashas' - Cemal, Enver and Mehmet Talat Pasha.
1914 - The countdown to the First World War begins on 28 June. The Ottomans quickly side with the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) against the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia), with Enver signing a defensive alliance with Germany against the Russians on 2 August. Germany declares war on France the following day. Britain in turn declares war on Germany on 14 August. The First World War has begun.
The Ottomans formally enter the war on 28 October but suffer a disastrous defeat almost immediately. Most of the Third Army is lost in eastern Anatolia in December during an abortive offensive led by Enver against Russia, where Ottoman Armanians took arms against their own goverment and joined forces with Russians. (More information about Armenian issue can be found at this link.)
1915 - The Triple Entente launches an operation to seize Istanbul and open a route to Russia by forcing a fleet through the Dardanelles Strait (Çanakkale Boiazi), the entry to the Sea of Marmara and a gateway to Istanbul, which lies on the sea's northeastern shore. But the naval attack fails and is quickly called off.
On 25 April the Triple Entente begins a new assault to secure the Dardanelles. Troops are landed on the beach at Gallipoli and ordered to move forward.
On the hills above the infantry troops of the 19th Division, the main reserve of the Turkish 5th Army, are commanded by Atatürk. He rallies the Turkish soldiers and is able to hold the Triple Entente forces at bay. "I am not giving you an order to attack," Atatürk tells his troops, "I am ordering you to die!"
The ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, which includes troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (the ANZACs), results in the deaths of over 200,000 Triple Entente soldiers for no effective gain. It is abandoned by the Triple Entente in the autumn.
The Turkish victory has come at the cost of about 253,000 lives.
Referring to the campaign, Atatürk later says, "Indeed, it was not easy to shoulder such responsibility, but as I had decided not to live to see my country's destruction, I accepted it proudly."
In tribute to the enemy troops killed at Gallipoli he writes, "Those heroes that 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 now here in this country of ours. ... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway 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."
Atatürk is now promoted to the rank of full colonel and given the honorific title 'Pasha' - the highest official title of honour in the Ottoman Empire.
1916 - In the south, the 'Arab Revolt', directed by British Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), spells the end of Ottoman influence in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Atatürk is promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general on 1 April. He takes command of the Eastern Front, checking the advance of the Russian forces. When Russia leaves the war following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 the Ottoman Empire regains its eastern provinces.
1917 - British forces drive the Ottomans out of Mesopotamia and take Palestine and Syria. Late in the campaign Atatürk takes command of Ottoman forces in Syria and withdraws many units intact into Anatolia. He also heads the 7th Army in Palestine during the final offensive that defeats the Ottoman forces there in 1918.
1918 - The First World War is drawing to a close. The empire capitulates and signs an armistice on 30 October. The CUP Cabinet resigns en mass on 1-2 November. Cemal, Enver and Talat flee into exile in Germany on 1 November.
The First World War ends on 11 November with the signing of a general armistice. Atatürk returns to Istanbul on 13 November and is assigned to a post in the Ministry of Defence. The capital is occupied on 13 November.
1919 - British, French, Italian, and Greek forces occupy other regions of the empire, and Sultan Mehmet VI is taken into custody to ensure the cooperation of what remains of the Ottoman government.
Cemal, Enver and Talat are tried in absentia by a Turkish military tribunal (which was pressured from victorious Allied states), found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death (On April 4, 1919, Lewis Heck, the U.S. high commissioner in Istanbul, reported that "it is popularly believed that many of [the trials] are made from motives of personal vengeance or at the instigation of the Entente authorities, especially the British."). The charges included subversion of the constitution, wartime profiteering, and the massacres of both Greeks and Armenians.
Meanwhile, as the occupational forces start to press for the carve-up of the Ottoman Empire, based on agreements made between them during the war, a new nationalist Turkish movement begins to coalesce around Atatürk.
After expressing opposition to the presence of the occupation forces on Turkish territory, Atatürk is assigned as Inspector to the 9th Army in Erzurum in eastern Anatolia.
On 15 May the Greek Army lands at the Turkish port of Izmir (Smyrna), on the Anatolian coast. Atatürk leaves Istanbul for Anatolia the next day. On 19 May he arrives at Black Sea port of Samsun, 300 km northeast of Ankara. The date marks the unofficial beginning of the 'Turkish War of Independence'.
Working with others committed to Turkish independence, Atatürk begins to recruit a nationalist army to drive the occupational forces from Anatolia and ensure that all Ottoman territory inhabited by a Turkish Muslim majority is held together in an independent Turkish state.
On 22 June Atatürk issues the 'Amasya Declaration' calling for national resistance against the invasion of foreign powers. "The freedom of the nation shall be restored with the resolve and determination of the nation itself," the declaration states.
The next day the Ottoman Government strips him of all his official functions.
Atatürk resigns from the army on 8 July and declares himself "a private individual". On 30 July the Ottoman Government orders his arrest.
At congresses held in Erzurum from 23 July to 7 August and at Sivas from 4-11 September the nationalists formulate and agree to a 'National Pact' setting out their objectives.
"The national movement’s real and definitive reason is the events that occurred in Izmir, and the threat of Armenian invasion," Atatürk tells United States representatives in Istanbul on 3 August.
1920 - Atatürk begins the year by calling for a national protest against the Greek attempt to annex Izmir, and against atrocities allegedly carried out by the French and Armenians in Turkey's southern provinces.
When the Ottoman parliament agrees to the National Pact on 28 January the occupation forces crack down, arresting and deporting many nationalists and dismissing the parliament. Istanbul is reoccupied on 16 March.
On 23 April the nationalist's governing council, the Grand National Assembly, meets in Ankara and elects Atatürk as its leader and the head of its provisional government. The War of Independence now begins in earnest, centring on Anatolia, where Greek troops have moved inland from Izmir.
At the same time, the Atatürk nationalists and the Russian Bolshevik government target the newly proclaimed Armenian republic on Turkey's eastern border. By the middle of 1921 the Armenian resistance has been broken and the Kars region occupied by the Turks. What remains of Armenia is absorbed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
Meanwhile, on 11 April the Ottoman Parliament is abolished and Atatürk is condemned to death by a religious decree. On 11 May the Ottoman Military Court also sentences Atatürk to death.
On 10 August the Ottoman Government ratifies the Sevres Treaty partitioning Turkey between the occupying powers. The treaty is rejected by the Grand National Assembly on 1 March 1921.
1921 - By the middle of the year the Greek advance into Anatolia has been stopped. By October, French and Italian troops have been withdraw from Anatolia.
On 5 August Atatürk is appointed by the Grand National Assembly as commander-in-chief of the entire Turkish forces.
On 23 August the Turks launch a counterattack against the Greeks at Sakarya, 80 km southwest of Ankara. Atatürk takes personal command of the Turkish forces. At the end of the 22-day battle the Greeks have been defeated and forced to retreat to Izmir.
In recognition of his military achievements, Atatürk is given the rank of marshal and title Ghazi (victorious) by the Grand National Assembly on 19 September.
1922 - The most controversial campaign of the War of Independence occurs in early September when the nationalists move into Izmir during their final push against the Greeks.
Much of the city, which is home to the last intact Armenian community in Anatolia, is burnt to the ground in fires variously reported to have been lit by either the retreating Greeks or Armenians. Thousands of Greeks and Armenians die and thousands more flee into permanent exile.
The theatre of the war against the Greeks now moves to eastern Thrace, however fighting is avoided when Atatürk accepts a British-proposed truce. On 11 October the occupying forces sign an armistice with the Turkish military.
On 1 November, the Grand National Assembly effectively abolishes the Ottoman Empire, opening the way for the final negotiations on the shape of the new Turkish state.
1923 - On 30 January Greece and Turkey sign an agreement for the exchange of the remaining ethnic populations within their respective territories. Under the agreement over one million Greek Turks will be forced to leave regions they have occupied for generations and return to their homeland.
The negotiations on the shape of Turkey conclude on 24 July with the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne and the recognition of Turkey's present-day borders. Signatories to the treaty include Turkey, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania and Serbo-Croat-Slovenian Union.
The occupying forces leave Istanbul on 2 October.
On 29 October the Grand National Assembly proclaims the Republic of Turkey. Atatürk is named president and Ankara the capital. Atatürk now moves to implement a series of far-ranging reforms designed to transform Turkey into a modern, secular state.
"Following the military triumph we accomplished by bayonets, weapons and blood, we shall strive to win victories in such fields as culture, scholarship, science, and economics," he states. "The enduring benefits of victories depend only on the existence of an army of education."
Islamic Sharia law is abolished (1924) and a European-style legal system introduced (1926). Women are granted equal status (1934). Polygamy and divorce by renunciation are ended and civil marriage allowed (1926).
A new Turkish alphabet based on Latin replaces Arabic script (1928). Arabic and Persian words are dropped from the vocabulary and replaced with Turkish equivalents. The Western calendar is adopted (1925). The Western numeric system is introduced (1928), followed by the metric system (1931). Turks are encouraged to abandon traditional clothing for Western styles (1925), and to adopt surnames (1934).
Turkey is declared a secular state without an official religion (1928). Islam is suppressed, religious schools are closed (1924), public education is secularised and made coeducational, and the day of rest is changed from Friday to Sunday (1935). The Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul is converted into a museum.
Education to primary level is made compulsory. Atatürk himself leads some classes. In 1923 the level of literacy had been less than 9%. By 1938 the level has risen to more than 33%.
As well as political reforms, Atatürk also encourages reforms to the economic system, stating, "National sovereignty should be supported by financial independence. The only power that will propel us to this goal is the economy. No matter how mighty they are, political and military victories cannot endure unless they are crowned by economic triumphs."
The ideology behind the reforms comes to be know as Kemalism (later known as Atatürkism). Its basic principals - republicanism, nationalism, populism, reformism, etatism (statism), and secularism - are know as the 'Six Arrows'.
Together with the basic principals of Kemalism are the complimentary principles - national sovereignty, national independence, national unity and togetherness, peace at home peace abroad, modernisation, scientificism and rationalism, and humanitarianism.
The Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi - CHP) founded by Atatürk in August provides a political foundation for the ongoing Kemalist reforms. It will be Turkey's sole political party for over 20 years.
Meanwhile, Atatürk's mother dies on 14 January 1923.
On 29 January Atatürk marries Latife Hanim, the daughter of a prosperous merchant from Izmir. A well-educated and outspoken woman, she is 20 years his junior. The marriage ends in divorce in on 5 August 1925.
Atatürk also adopts eight children - seven girls and a boy.
1924 - The Grand National Assembly introduces a new constitution establishing it as a unicameral parliament elected to four-year terms by a universal vote. The president, who is to be elected to a four-year term by the assembly, will appoint the prime minister.
On 1 March, Atatürk tells the assembly, "There is a need to separate Islam from its traditional place in politics and to elevate it in its appropriate place. This is necessary for both the nation's worldly and spiritual happiness. We have to urgently and definitively relieve our sacred and holy beliefs and values from the dark and uncertain stage of political greed and of politics. This is the only way to elevate the Muslim religion."
Two days later, the Sharia legal system is abolished, along with the religious education system.
1925 - On 25 February the Grand National Assembly prohibits all religious activities in politics.
In March, after an uprising against the "godless" government in Ankara breaks out in the Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey, Atatürk hastily organises the passage of the Maintenance of Order Law.
The law, which gives the government emergency powers for the next four years and allows it to outlaw organisations it deems to be subversive, will be used to suppress opponents of Atatürk's reforms.
1926 - Atatürk oversees the dissolution of the CUP after some its remaining members are accused of plotting his assassination. Following an investigation into the plot, 15 of Atatürk's political opponents are hanged. Others are sent into exile.
1927 - Atatürk is reelected as president. He will remain in the position right up to his death, with his term being extended in 1931 and 1935.
1928 - Turkey is declared a secular state on 10 April. Islam is dropped as the state's official religion.
1931 - Atatürk establishes the Turkish Historical Society.
1932 - Turkey joins the League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations (UN), on 18 July.
1934 - Women are given the vote and the right to hold office.
Speaking at a meeting of the International Women's Congress in Istanbul on 22 April 1935, Atatürk says, "I am convinced that the exercise of social and political rights by women is necessary for mankind's happiness and pride. You can rest assured that Turkish women together with world’s women will work towards world peace and security."
On 24 November 1934 Atatürk is given his new surname (meaning 'Father of the Turks' or 'Father Turk') by the Grand National Assembly in recognition of his contribution to the formation of the modern Turkish state. He is now known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Kemal Atatürk.
1935 - The role of the state in managing economy is written into the constitution.
1938 - Atatürk dies from cirrhosis of the liver at 9.05 am on 10 November at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul. The entire country mourns his passing. On 21 November his body is transported to Ankara and placed in a temporary tomb at the Ethnography Museum. On 10 November 1953 Atatürk's remains are interred in a newly completed mausoleum on a hill overlooking Ankara.
The day after Atatürk's death, the Grand National Assembly elects his chief lieutenant, Ismet Inönü, as the second president of Turkey.
Postscript
1945 - Turkey becomes one of the 51 original members of the UN.
1946 - The Democrat Party (DP) is officially recognised. Turkey is now a multiparty state.
1950 - The DP wins elections held in May, ending the dominance of Atatürk's CHP.
1954 - The DP increases it's majority at the elections but subsequently comes under attack from the CHP for restricting the freedom of the press.
1960 - The DP Government imposes martial law.
On 27 May, army units under the direction of the chief of general staff, General Cemal Gürsel, stage a coup. The president and prime minister are arrested, along with most of the DP representatives in the Grand National Assembly. They are charged with abrogating the constitution and instituting a dictatorship. The government is replaced by the Committee of National Unity (CNU), composed of the 38 officers who had organised the coup.
1961 - A new constitution is introduced, setting the ground-rules for Turkey's so-called Second Republic. Elections for the country's new bicameral parliament are held in October.
1980 - Political instability presses the military to again take over the government on 12 September. The constitution is redrafted in 1982. Civilian rule returns at the end of 1983.
Comment: Atatürk knew there is no place for religious fundamentalists in the governance of a tolerant, modern state. Religious fanatics from all nations and faiths would do well to heed of his observations. For example this:
"It is claimed that religious unity is also a factor in the formation of nations. Whereas, we see the contrary in the Turkish nation. Turks were a great nation even before they adopted Islam. This religion did not help the Arabs, Iranians, Egyptians and others to unite with Turks to form a nation. Conversely, it weakened the Turks' national relations; it numbed Turkish national feelings and enthusiasm. This was natural, because Mohammedanism was based on Arab nationalism above all nationalities."
And this:
"I am not leaving a spiritual legacy of dogmas, unchangeable petrified directives. My spiritual legacy is science and reason. ... What I wanted to do and what I tried to achieve for the Turkish nation is quite evident. If those people who wish to follow me after I am gone take the reason and science as their guides they will be my true spiritual heirs."
And this:
"You know there is an unforgiving enmity between the societies of the Muslim world and the masses of the Christian world. Muslims became eternal enemies of Christians, and Christians those of Muslims. They viewed each other as nonbelievers, fanatics. The two worlds coexisted with this fanaticism and enmity. As a result of this enmity, the Muslim world was distanced from the Western progress that took a new form and colour every century. Because, Muslims viewed progress with disdain and disgust. At the same time, the Muslim world had to hold on to its arms as a result of this enmity that lasted for centuries between the two groups. This continuous occupation

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Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK

FOUNDER AND THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE TURKISH REPUBLIC
Atatürk was born in 1881 at the Kocakasım ward of Salonika, in a three story pink house located on Islahhane Street. His father is Ali Rıza Efendi and his mother Zübeyde Hanım. His paternal grandfather, Hafız Ahmed Efendi belonged to the Kocacık nomads who were settled in Macedonia during the XIV - XV th centuries. His mother Zübeyde Hanım was the daughter of an Old Turkish family who had settled in the town of Langasa near Salonika. Ali Rıza Efendi, who worked as militia officer, title deed clerck and lumber trader, married Zübeyde Hanım in 1871. Four of the 5 siblings of Atatürk died at early ages and only one sister, Makbule (Atadan) survived, and lived until 1956.
Upon reaching school age, little Mustafa started school at the neighborhood classes of Hafız Mehmet Efendi and later, with his father's choice, was transferred to Şemsi Efendi School. He lost his father in 1888 where upon he stayed at the farm of his maternal uncle for a while and returned to Salonika to complete his studies. He registered at the Salonika Mülkiye Rüştiye (secondary school) and soon transferred to the military Rüştiye. While at this school, his math teacher, also named Mustafa, added "Kemal" to his name. He attended the Manastır Military School between 1896 - 1899 and later the Military School in İstanbul from which he graduated in 1902 with the rank of lieutenant. He later entered the Military Academy and graduated on January 11, 1905 with the rank of major. Between 1905 - 1907 he was stationed in Damascus with the 5th. Army. In 1907 he was promoted to the rank of "Kolağası" (senior major) and was posted with the III rd Army , which was stationed in Manastır. He was the Staff Officer of the "Special Troops" (Hareket Ordusu) which entered İstanbul on April 19, 1909. He was sent to Paris in 1910 where he attended the Picardie manuevers. In 1911 he started to work at the General Staff Office in İstanbul.
Mustafa Kemal was stationed at Tobruk and Derne regions with a group of his friends during the war which started with the Italian attack on Tripoli. He won the Tobruk battle in 22 December 1911 against the Italians. On March 6, 1912 he was made the Commander of Derne.
When the Balkan War started in October 1912, Mustafa Kemal joined the battle with units from Gallipoli and Bolayır. His contributions to the recapturing of Dimetoka and Edirne were considerable. In 1913 he was assigned to Sofia as a military attache. In 1914, while still at this post, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. His term as an attache ended in January 1915. By that time the First World War had started and the ottomon Empire was inevitably involved. Mustafa Kemal was posted to Tekirdağ with the assignment of forming the 19th Division.
Mustafa Kemal put his signature under a legend of heroism at Çanakkale during the First World War, which had started in 1914, and had the Allied Powers admit to the fact that "Çanakkale is unpassable!" On March 18, 1915 when the English and French navies in an attempt to force their way up the Çanakkale Strait gave heavy loses, they decided to put units on land at Gallipoli Peninsula. The enemy forces which landed at Arıburnu on 25 April 1915 were stopped by 19th Divison under Mustafa Kemal's command at Conkbayırı. Mustafa Kemal was promoted to the rank of colonel after this victory. English forces attacked at Arıburnu once more on 6-7 August 1915. Mustafa Kemal, as the Commander of the Anafartalar Forces won the Anafartalar Victory on 6-7 August 1915. This victory was followed by the victories of Kireçtepe on August 17, and the Second Anafartalar Victory on August 21. Turkish nation who lost about 253.000 men at battle, had managed to emerge in honour against the Allied forces. Actually the fate at trenches changed when Mustafa Kemal addressed his soldiers with the words "I am not giving you an order to attack, I am ordering you to die!"
Mustafa Kemal was stationed at Edirne and Diyarbakır after the Çanakkale wars and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general on 1 April 1916. He fought against the Russian forces and recaptured Muş and Bitlis. Following short assignments at Damascus and Khallepo, he came to İstanbul in 1917. He traveled to Germany with Vahdettin Efendi, the heir to the throne. He became sick after this trip and went to Vienna and Karisbad for treatment. He returned to Khalleppo on 15 August 1918 as the Commander of the 7th army. At this front, he fought successful defence wars. He was appointed as the Commandar of Yıldırım Armies one day after the signing of the armistice at Mondros. When this army was disbanded, he came to İstanbul on November 13, 1918 and started to work at the Ministry of Defence.
When, following the Mondros Armistice, the Allied forces started to take over the Ottoman armies, Mustafa Kemal went to Samsun on May 19, 1919 as 9th Army Inspector. With the circular he published on 22 June 1919 at Amasya, he declared that " The freedom of the nation shall be restored with the resolve and determination of the nation itself" and called the meeting of the Sivas Congress. He convened Erzurum Congress during 23 July - 7 August 1919 and Sivas Congress during 4 - 11 September 1919, thus defining the path to be followed towards the freedom of the motherland. He was met with great enthusiasm in Ankara on 27 December 1919. With the initiation of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 23 April 1920, a significant step was taken on the way to establishing the Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal was elected as the head of the national assembly as well as the head of the government. The Grand National Assembly started to put into effect the necessary legislative measures so as to enable the Independence War to come to a successful conclusion.
Turkish War of Independence started with the first bullet shot at enemy on 15 May 1919 during the Gerek occupation of İzmir. The fight against the victors of the First World War who had divided up the Ottoman Empire with the Treaty of Sevres signed on 10 August 1920, initially started with the militia forces called Kuva-yi Milliye. Turkish Assembly later initiated a regular army and achieving integration between the army and the militia, was able to conclude the war in victory.
The significant stages of the Turkish War of Independence under the Command of Mustafa Kemal are
Recapturing Sarıkamış, Kars and Gümrü
Çukurova, Gazi Antep, Kahramanmaraş, Şanlı Urfa defenses (1919 - 1921)
Ist İnönü Victory
IInd İnönü Victory
Sakarya Victory
Great Attack, Battle of the Chief Commander and the Great Victory
After the Sakarya Victory, National Assembly bestowed the rank of marashal on Mustafa Kemal and the Gazi (veteran) title. War of Independences came to end with the Lozanne Agreement, which was signed on 24 July 1923. Hence, there were no longer any obstacles to create a new nation on Turkish soil which Treaty of Sevre had torn to pieces leaving Turks an area the size of 5-6 provinces.
The National Assembly which first convened on 23 April 1920 in Ankara was the first clue to the Turkish Republic. The successful management of the War of Independence by this assembly accelerated the founding of the new Turkish State. On 1 November 1922, the offices of the Sultan and caliph were severed from one other and the former was abolished. There was no longer any administrative ties with the Ottoman Empire. On 29 October 1923, Turkish Republic was formally proclaimed and Atatürk was unanimously elected as its first President. On 30 October 1923, the first government of the Republic was formed by İsmet İnönü. Turkish Republic started to grow on the foundations of the twin principles "Sovereignty, unconditionally belongs to the nation" and "peace at home, peace in the world,"
Atatürk undertook a series of reforms to "raise Turkey to the level of modern civilization" which can be grouped under five titles
1. Political Reforms
Abolishment of the office of the Sultan (November 1922)
Proclamation of the Republic (29 October 1923)
Abolishment of the caliph (3 March 1924)
2. Social Reforms
Recognition of equal rights to men and women (1926 - 1934)
Reform of Headgear and Dress (25 November 1925)
Closure of mausoleums and dervish lodges (30 November 1925)
Law on family names (21 June 1934)
Abolishment of titles and by-names (26 November 1934)
Adoption of international calendar, hours and measurements (1925 - 1931)
3. Legal Reforms
Abolishment of the Canon Law (1924 - 1937)
Transfer to a secular law structure by adoption of Turkish Civil Code and other laws (1924 - 1937)
4. Reforms in the fields of education and culture
Unification of education (3 March 1924)
Adoption of new Turkish alphabet (1 November 1928)
Establishment of Turkish Language and History Institutions (1931 - 1932)
Regulation of the university education (31 May 1933)
Innovations in fine arts
5. Economic Reforms
Abolution of tithe
Encouragement of the farmers
Establishment of model farms
Establishment of industrial facilities, and putting into effect a law for Incentives for the Industry
Putting into effect Ist and IInd Development Plans (1933-1937), to develop transportation networks
Acccording to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish Grand Assembly gave "Atatürk" (Father of Turks) as last name to Mustafa Kemal on 24 November 1934.
Atatürk was elected as the Speaker of the Grand Assembly on 24 April 1920 and again on 13 August 1923. This was a position equal to that of the president as well as the prime minister. Republic was proclaimed on 29 October 1923 and Atatürk was elected as the first President. Elections for President were renewed every four years according to the Constitution. In 1927, 1931 and 1935 Turkish Grand Assembly again elected Atatürk as the president.
Atatürk took frequent trips around the country and inspected locally the works undertaken by the state, giving directives were problems were faced. As president he was host to visiting foreign presidents, prime ministers and ministers.
He read his Great Speech, which covers the War of Independence and the founding of the Republic on 15 - 20 October 1927, and his 10th Year Speech on 29 October 1933.
Atatürk led a very simple private life. He married Latife Hanım on 29 January 1923. They took many trips to different parts of the country together. This marriage lasted until 5 August 1925. A great lover of children he adopted girls named Afet (İnan), Sabiha (Gökçen), Fikriye, Ülkü, Nebile, Rukiye and Zehra and a shepperd boy named Mustafa. He also took two boys called Abdurrahim and İhsan under his protection. He provided for the futures of these children who survived.
He donated his farms to the Treasury in 1937 and some of his real estate to municipalities of Ankara and Bursa. He divided his inheritance among his sister, his adopted children and to the Turkish History and Language Institutions. He enjoyed books and music as well as dancing, horse riding and swimming. He was extremely interested in Zeybek dances, wrestling and the Rumelia folk songs. Games of billards and backgammon gave him great pleasure. He valued his horse Sakarya and his dog Fox . He had a rich library. He used to invite statesman, scholars and artists to dinners where the problems of the country were discussed. He was particular about his appearence and enjoyed dressing well. He was also a lover of nature. He used to frequent the Atatürk Forest Farm and join in the work.
He knew French and German. Atatürk died on 10 November 1938 at 9.05 A.M at Dolmabahçe Palace, defeated by the liver ailment he was suffering from. He was taken to his temporary place of rest at the Ethnograpy Museum in Ankara on 21 November 1938. When the mausoleum was completed, he was taken to his permanent rest place with a grand ceremony on 10 November 1953.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

M.Kemal Ataturk

Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Columbia Encyclopedia: Atatürk, Kemal

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Further Reading

Kemal's Reforms

Turkish Republic

Reunification of Turkey

Biography: Ghazi Mustapha Kemal Atatürk

Biography: Ghazi Mustapha Kemal Atatürk

Military History Companion: Gen Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Political Biography: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

His life

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha

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