ATATÜRK, KEMAL
Kemal Atatürk (Library of Congress)
driving the sultan off, and became president of a provisional government. He next defeated or stalemated a variety of Allied columns invading Turkey, and in 1922 drove Greek forces out of Western Anatolia completely. So successful were Kemal’s activities that the Western powers finally abandoned their attempt to partition Turkey. With his borders now secured and peace at hand, Kemal convened the provisional government in Ankara on November 1, 1922, abolished the sultanate of Mehmed VI, and declare Turkey a republic. The following October the national legislature formally elected Kemal the nation’s first president. Having seized the reins of power, Kemal instituted sweeping, wide-ranging reforms aimed at bringing Turkey into the 20th century. He crystallized his governance into six different but interrelated principles known officially as the Six Arrows, but popularly dubbed “Kemalism”: republicanism, nationalism,
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populism, reformism, statism, and secularism. These touched upon virtually every aspect of Turkish political, social, and economic life, and finally divested the country of its medieval trappings. Foremost among them was the deliberate decoupling of Islam as a state religion. This paved the way for secular, scientific education, the enfranchisement and social liberation of women, and an end to religious interference in politics. Moreover, he formally substituted the elaborate and overly ornate Arabic alphabet for the simple, effective Latin alphabet. Western dress, science, and thinking—heretofore alien in this predominantly Muslim land—now became the official norm. Turkey was thus the first Islamic country to declare itself a republic and embrace democratic principles. In practice, Kemal was more of a dictator than a president. He frequently ruled by decree and consolidated his control by allowing only the Republican People’s Party to exist. Kemal held office for 15 years without interruption or legitimate opposition, by which time Turkey had irrevocably passed down the road toward modernization. In 1923 he also adopted the surname Atatürk, or “father of Turks,” and is still hailed as the father of his nation. Yet, for all the discipline and sense of purpose he imposed on Turkey, Atatürk’s private life was much given to wild parties and heavy drinking. He died of cirrhosis of the liver on November 10, 1938, and was widely mourned. But the state he engineered survived his passing and it fell upon Turkey’s second elected president, ISMET INÖNÜ, to finally allow multiparty politics. Despite the onset of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the Middle East, Turkey remains the most secular, stable, and westernized nation of the Muslim world. Further Reading Atabaki, Touraj, and Erik Jan Zurcher. Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization under Atatürk and Reza Shah. London: I. B. Tauris, 2002. Cooper, Malcolm. “The Legacy of Atatürk: Turkish Political Structures and Policy-making.” International Affairs 78, no. 1 (2002): 115–128. Kedourie, Sylvia, ed. Seventy-Five Years of the Turkish Republic. London: Frank Cass, 1999. Mango, Andrew. Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. New York: Overlook Press, 2000. Sheldon, Garret W. Jefferson and Atatürk: Political Philosophies. New York: P. Lang, 2000.