Turkish Reform Under Mustafa “Ataturk” Kemal

Turkish Reform Under Mustafa Ataturk Kemal A Re estimate on the Six Arrows of Kemalism In the afterwardsmath of World War I, the in one case wide Otto firearm pudding stone was left in shambles. After having lost to the highest degree all(prenominal) of the empires territory to European mandates in 1918, what representativeicular they had left became occupied by Allied troops. In order to elapse the Turkish batch to their fountain glory, the Turkish War for Independence was fought, resulting in the creation of a refreshed administration in Ankara. By 1923, this g overnment rural area the end of the faggot conglomerate and proclaimed the name of the Turkish democracy.At the forefront of this raw(a) grounds birth was Mustafa Kemal, a man who would come to be known as Ataturk, or Father Turk for his contri andions to the creation and reforms of this young state. But what exactly did this Ataturk do for the Republic of washout? In order to understand how much an inf luence Kemalist ideology had on the first days of the Turkish Republic, one must define the six elementary commandments behind it, known as the Six Arrows, learn how they were implemented in the early republic, and analyze the motives behind Kemals specific reforms.After doing thusly, one leave refer that, had it non been for the influence of Kemalism, bomb would never reserve existed in its modern-day form. The first of the Six Arrows is Republicanism. Republicanism can be defined as a form of government in which the people rule indirectly. unalike the former Ottoman Empire, in which the primary ruler was the sultan who inherited his position through with(predicate) and through his genealogy, the Turkish Republic was conceived as a res publica through which bringatives from among the people would make closings (86-88). In order to see this stem of Republicanism come to fruition, the ample standing sultanate had to be dissolved.though Kemal intended for this to be a reality since the early days of the War for Independence, he kept this schedule a secret from the populace in order to keep esprit de corps and war support high. Had he announced the mind of Republicanism earlier, he takeice non drop been backed by the much traditionalist sectors of the republic. withal after securing victory in the war in 1922, Kemal met with some barrier in ending the sultanate. Firstly, since its historical foundation under Osman I, the Ottoman Empire had always been ruled by a sultan. This time-honored tradition do the bolishment even more difficult due to the fact that for the past quaternity centuries, the Ottoman sultan occupied the position of caliph of Sunni Islam. So long as the same figure was assigned to both roles, Kemal would have hassle ending either one. Therefore, in an assembly discussing the nature of the caliphate and sultanate, Kemal claimed that, aside from the tetrad Rightly Guided califs, the position had become politicized and drifted from its master copy purpose of completely guiding the Muslim populace on a spiritual level, unloved of any temporal authority.His address to the assembly resulted in the dissolution of these 2 office staffs and the end of the sultanate. While the last sultan, Mehmed VI, was expelled from the nation shortly afterward, his cousin, Abdulmecid Efendi, took the position of Sunni Caliph something which Mustafa Kemal would deal with in the years to come (Hanioglu 135-40). In September of 1923, Kemal declared the founding of what would in conclusion become the Republican Peoples Party, do up of representatives from all walks of life including coldthermers, scholars, merchants, and common workers which would be able to represent the people adequately (143).That October would see Kemals declaration of the nation of misfire as a republic through a unanimous decision from the National Assembly, who would then elect him as the first President of the Republic of Turkey (Vol kan 236-237). The next Kemalisms Six Arrows is Populism. In his review on Turkish register, Sina Aksin describes populism as an ideology which safeguards the people, promoting policies for the wel out-of-the-way(prenominal)e of all. While populism as a principle designed to bring somewhat what it deems best for the populace as a whole, it is also interested with enacting motley for the better of the minority and person, bring all groups within the Turkish nation to a common standing, so long as such change has a positive erect on the mainstream society (Aksin 231). One of the near radical ways that Kemal brought this principle to life was through the emancipation of womens rights. Being a severely traditional Muslim society, the Ottoman Empire allowed women very few drop by the waysidedoms.Mustafa Kemal, on the other hand, borrowing from the Swiss legal system, developed radical laws which gave Turkish women more rights. Previously, it had been acceptable for a man to marr y several women and decouple his wife at his own discretion, where as a woman was unable(p) to ever leave her husband on her own accord. Under the new laws, men were save allowed to have a single wife through a civil marriage, which could only be dissolved through a civil divorce process.Furthermore, until the new civil codes came into existence, traditional Muslim sharia law law only allowed a woman to inherit up to half the value of a mans inheritance, regardless of her familial position. Women were eventually given the ability to enter a mo of different lines of work, the nigh important of which were teaching positions (Mango 437-38). Perhaps an even greater societal change in the Turkish nation came with the end of the millet system. Though this was never an formally declared reform, it came indwellingly with the institution of national Populism.Under the Ottoman sultanate, members of minority groups existed in broken autonomous settlements within the empire called mill ets, usually classified gibe to their professed religion. However, since Kemalist ideology effectively sought equality among all citizen groups, this naturally broaden to those of different religious creeds. Under the new laws, which applied to everyone, the legal exceptions do for Christians and Jews in the millet system became obsolete, and eventually they ceased to exist altogether (Volkan 319).Though non originally in the constitution, the principle Arrow of Secularism came to be one of the most powerful psyches of the Turkish Republic (Reisman 7). The modern idea of Secularism is a complete separation of Church and State, in which neither institution is compound in influencing the other. Kemalist Secularism, on the other hand, is concerned primarily with placing the State above the Church. Kemal sought not only to keep the influence of Islam and the ulema out of Turkeys new governing body, but to give the ruling faction the power and authority to regulate and suppress I slamic ideologies.This is not to say that Kemal was anti-religion. Kemalism hardly attempted to confine religious fervor to the private sector. The earliest and most drastic implementation of this principle was seen in the dissolution of the Sunni Caliphate. While separating the political authority of the sultan and the spiritual rule of the Caliphate caused Kemal to be heralded as a champion of Islam, such cheers of heroism would be silenced once he revealed his plan to dissolve the Caliphate as well. He would justify this by again explaining that, after the reign of the FourRightly Guided Ones, the true Caliphate had ended, becoming a tool of the nation (Hanioglu 151). Though Kemal professed to impose this reform for the sake of Islam, it is far more likely that his motivations were anticlerical. Considering the heavy influence that the ulema had on the former Ottoman Empire, Kemals choice to dismantle the Caliphate came from a desire to adept power in the secular government wit hout question from a high religious authority (Davison 138). In addition to this, Kemal closed down the madrasas in 1924, replacing them with secular schools, and in 1925 banned all Sufi mystic lodges.While some claim that these efforts were attempts at making religion seem obsolete, it is far more likely that Kemal did this to keep loyalties in order. Since the idea of Turkish patriotism was politic fairly new, Kemal postulateed to suppress religious zeal so that the populace would be committed to the state first, and their faith second (Hanioglu 155). Added aboard Secularism, the next of the Six Arrows is Revolutionism, the motives for which can best be summed up in a quote from Kemal himself The aim of the revolutions which we re now accomplishing is to bring the people of the Turkish Republic into a state of society entirely modern in spirit and from. This is the central pillar of our Revolution (qtd. in Davison 87). disrespect its etymological implications, Revolutionism in the Kemalist sense is intended to be completely peaceful. nigh translate the term inkilapcilik, used in the Turkish constitution, as Reformism, in order to distance the concept from the violence associated with the historical idea of revolution. Revolutionism as a Kemalist ideology simply means the modernization, and, in the case of Turkey, the horse operaization of the sylvan (Parla 92-93).One of the most significant reforms in this area was the state en draw and quarterd drill of surnames. While this may not seem very promotionive to western cultures, the Ottoman Empire existed for centuries without the usage of family names. With the introduction of this practice, the government was able to grind away documents far more efficiently. Whereas before, governments had to include names of ones produce and mother as well as significant personal development to identify someone, the usage of a family surname made people far more distinguishable on paper. This reform was enforc ed however by the ban on usage of traditional titles such as pasha r Efendi, which gave a description of ones status. Instead, men were force to use Bay and women had to use Bayan, which were respective Turkish equivalents for Mister and Miss (Mango 498-99). Though seemingly less significant to western audiences, the Hat Law of 1925 brought about a change towards Revolutionism in a way that was not only profound, but visually noticeable. Under this new law, government officials were required to put one over western style hats, while traditional headgear, such as the tarboosh or turban, was banned. In the Ottoman Empire, one of the distinguishing features of class could be seen in the headgear that one donned.The turban was a hat which only the ulema, or religious scholars could wear. The fez, on the other hand, was worn by civil servants of the empire, eventually becoming a feature that westerners began to associate solely with the Oriental idea of the Ottoman Empire. Kemal used the Hat Law of 1925 to ban these two types of hats, not only because they inspired segregation between difference national classes, but because he felt a strong need to break all ties with the previous empire, intending Turkey to become a modern western nation in spirit (Aksin 202-04).Perhaps as important to Kemalist ideology as the idea of Secularism, if not more so, is the Arrow of patriotism. Unlike the western concept of Nationalism, which is concerned with the geo-political superiority of ones state, Kemalism sought to promote Turkish Nationalism through the countrys own merit as an individual nation. While the European Nationalist regimes of Napoleon or Hitler attempted to further their states through imperialistic conquest, Kemal saw no need to expand Turkeys borders, instead focusing on bolstering conceit in being a member of what he saw to be a noble race (Aksin 230).Kemal hoped to establish an identity for the Turkish people, who, until this point, had never had a true ho meland of their own. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire into French and British mandates cut off most of the empires Arab citizens, the remaining population was almost entirely Turkish, with the exception of a small Kurdish percentage (Hanioglu 133). In order to set up this new identity, Kemal set about commissioning a number of scholastic reforms of Turkish society. He began this by heading the idea known as the Turkish History dissertation. After founding the Society for the Examination of Turkish History n 1931, Kemal recruited ren owned archeologists and historians such as Eugene Pittard, and formed a surmisal proclaiming the Turks as the original civilized race. They claimed that since Trojans and Greeks were racially similar and Trojans came from Anatolia, the Trojans were descendants of the original Turks. Likewise, when ancient Turkish society, which these historians believed came from Central Asia, began to migrate, they founded the Sumerian and Hittite Empires an d began to help in the development of other primitive civilizations, such as the Chinese and Indians (164-170).Yet as extensive as Kemals attempts at forming the Turkish History Thesis were, they did not accomplish the practical advantages that his language reform did. This began in 1928 with the state enforced switch from the Arab-Persian script to a Latin ground alphabet, which Kemal believed more suitable to the Turkish language. He furthered this idea by commissioning scholars to discover what they deemed pure Turkish vocabulary, derived from speech and phrases used in Turkish patois but not in other languages.Soon after, these scholars developed the Sun-Language Theory, which, based off of similarities between Turkish and other human being languages, claimed that Turkish was the first intercommunicate language (Mango 494-95). Though this theory lacked legitimate evidence, it justified borrowing words for the new state approved form of Turkish, as through this view all word s developed from an original Turkish language. Soon after the language the development of the new standard Turkish, translations of many of the nations important documents, such as the constitution and Kemals Great savoir-faire were translated.It would take a number of years for the new form to be used fluently by the people, however these efforts were sped by state issued hammock Ottoman-Turkish dictionaries (Hanioglu 171-79). Finally, Kemalist ideology is also defined by the Arrow of Statism, or Etatism. This is the idea of modernizing in terms of economic and technological advances. A major part of Kemalist Statism is the governments active role in guiding the economy. That is not to say that Statism is completely anti-capitalist. On the contrary, Kemalism supports the idea of personal property and free enterprise when it benefits the people.However, for the most part, the ideal Kemalist government is one that is heavily involved in the regulation of such commerce (Parla 125). The first attempt at government managed economy was the nationalization of foreign commerce. This was done for a number of reasons. First, Kemal wanted to establish ties with foreign, mostly European nations in an attempt towards westernization and expansionism. Since Kemal based most of his models for his new nation off of preexisting European ones, he felt that relations with such nation would prove to be a useful tool.Ironically, Kemals other reason for nationalized foreign investment was to hold such expansionism in the other direction. With World War I slake only a short time behind them, most of the world had eyes on Turkey. Foreign powers could easily turn investment in the public sector of the Turkish people into a bridge for imperialism. Thus, to keep back such threats from coming to fruition, the Turkish government sponsored services including electricity, water distribution, docks, and liquid instillations, starting in the early 1920s.This not only helped Turkey prof fer for the necessities of its people, but gave them a strong economic foothold in the years of the Great Depression. Among these new government funded resources, there was a large idiom on the construction of railroads. Beginning in 1923, new railway lines spanning over 3,350 kilometers were constructed. This focus on railway expansion was due to the limited resources owned by the state. Trains ran on steam engines, force outed by coal, which was an abundant natural resource in Turkey.While many other nations focused on expanding motorways during this period, this would have caused a need to import petrol from foreign nations, making Turkey economically dependent on countries able to provide such fuel (Aksin 223-24). Mustafa Kemal continued to implement his idealistic reforms until his death in 1938. Despite never being able to establish Turkey as a nation that completely embodied his ideology, he left behind a legacy by which he is revered to this day. Street corners and govern ment organizations are still adorned with his image, in honor of his great achievements.It is safe to say that had it not been for his efforts at reform, Turkey would never have risen to its electric current place in the modern world. It is possible that it may never have even existed without him. In conclusion, one may realize that many of Ataturks reforms seem to fall under more than one of his Six Arrows. The establishment of a single party, made up of representatives from all classes fulfills the Republican requirements of the new government, while assuring that the Populist voice of the people will be heard.Ataturks language reforms were not only Revolutionary, completely reorganizing the old Ottoman linguistic structure, but helped establish a Nationalist identity through the Sun Language Theory. One can only understand what Kemal did for Turkey by understanding that the Six Arrows of Kemalism were guidelines by which Ataturk devised new laws for the new Turkish Republic gu idelines which compliment and fulfill each other guidelines devoted to the progress of the Republic of Turkey. Works Cited Aksin, Sina. Turkey From Empire to Revolutionary Republic. Washington Square, NY impudent York UP, 2007. Davison, Andrew.Secularism and Revivalism in Turkey A Hermeneutic Reconsideration. New Haven Yale UP, 1998. Hanioglu, M. Sukru. Ataturk An expert Biography. Princeton Princeton UP, 2011. Mango, Andrew. Ataturk. Woodstock, NY Overlook, 2002. Parla, Taha, and Andrew Davison. Corporatist Ideology in Kemalist Turkey Progress or Order? siege of Syracuse, NY Syracuse UP, 2004. Reisman, Arnold. Turkeys Modernization Refugees from Nazism and Ataturks Vision. Washington, DC New Academia Publ. , LLC, 2006. Volkan, Vamik D. , and Norman Itzkowitz. The god Ataturk A Psychobiography. Chicago University of Chicago, 1986.