From a modest family to a new republic
Long before he was renamed "Father of the Turks," Mustafa Kemal was born Ali Riza Oğlu Mustafa in 1881, in Salonika, the former capital of Ottoman-ruled Macedonia (now Thessaloniki, Greece). He comes from a modest family, his father works as a provincial civil servant. At the age of 12, the young Mustafa enrolled in the military preparatory school against parental advice. He then went on to the military college, the Istanbul war school and finally entered the general staff school. In 1905, when he graduated with the rank of lieutenant, his ambition and pugnacity are no longer to be demonstrated. His years of study had allowed him to acquire real knowledge, which he was soon to put to use.
During his schooling, he became aware of the Young Turks movement, a liberal patriotic opposition that challenged the absolutist drift of Sultan Abdülhamid. Although he rallied to this cause, whose ideological claims he shared, such as positivism, liberalism and patriotism, he participated only remotely in the Young Turk revolution in July 1908. In 1914, he disapproved of the division that pushed the empire towards rapprochement with the central powers.
During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire allied itself with the central powers formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary. Mustafa Kemal asserts himself as a leader of troops, during the Dardanelles offensive of 1915, in the Caucasus and in Palestine. Promoted to colonel and then brigadier general at only 35 years of age at the end of the war, he was faced with an ambivalent situation: he enjoyed the prestige of being a victorious officer in a defeated empire.
Indeed, the four years of conflict had taken their toll on the Ottoman Empire. Its territory was partly dismantled, and the Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian provinces were amputated. Istanbul and its precious straits were placed under inter-allied control. Anatolia was partly occupied and Smyrna (now Izmir) was in Greek hands by May 1919. Faced with all these losses, the morale of the Ottoman troops was at its lowest and, while the most despondent were calling for an American mandate over the country, Mustafa Kemal had a completely different plan. Beyond the end of the war, he saw a privileged opportunity to realize his patriotic plan.
In the spring of 1919, Mustafa Kemal was sent to Samsun by the Sultan. His mission was to inspect one of the armies stationed in eastern Anatolia, but this was without taking into account the ideal that Kemal had promised himself to achieve. The latter, rather than carrying out orders, rises against the dislocation of the empire and resigns from the army. Now free of his obligations, he leaves to fight his own battle. From the summer of 1919, Mustafa Kemal proclaimed loud and clear his fight: resistance based on full independence and the sovereignty of the nation.
The Ottoman parliament was dispersed in March 1920. And, while the Allies occupied Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal set up a National Assembly in Ankara. He was its first president. This was a key moment in the history of the constitution of the Turkish nation. From then on, Turkey was split into two distinct powers: on the banks of the Bosphorus, the historical and religious power of Sultan-Caliph Mehmet VI Vahdettin, who was submissive to the Allies; on the plains of Anatolia, the very young headquarters of Mustafa Kemal, who was determined to change the course of things. The battle that was waged was no longer between the Sultan's empire and external forces, but between it and an equally legitimate internal formation. It is a "war of independence" that begins and confronts the men of the Caliphate, on the one hand, to the Kemalists on the other.
On other fronts, however, a real war is taking place. Kemal's troops fought against the French, the Armenians and the Greeks. In August 1922, the latter were attacked at a time when their morale was at its lowest, and the Turks, victorious, recovered the city of Smyrna in September. This was the beginning of success for the Kemalists who, in 1923, on July 24 to be precise, obtained the Treaty of Lausanne from the Allies. This peace text was fundamental, because it specified the country's borders and established a free, sovereign and independent Turkish nation.
While the Allies were weakened and divided, Mustafa Kemal united his men around the notion of Turkish nationalism and positioned himself on all fronts. He gathered the different factions of the internal resistance, made alliances with all the tribal chiefs, the bureaucracy, the religious leaders and the notables of all domains, and surrounded himself with a small group of trusted men, all the while negotiating with Russia to obtain arms and munitions against the invaders.
In short, Mustafa Kemal planned everything, he was involved in all the plans and created the ground for his victory and his prestige.
A founding ideology: the "six arrows" of Kemalism
In 1923, after several diplomatic and military victories, the prestige of Mustafa Kemal was immense. He was the president of the newly proclaimed Republic. In March 1924, by decision of the Great National Assembly of Turkey, the caliphate was abolished. It was a page of history that was turned and a new order was established, putting an end to a dynastic and monarchical system in place since the 16th century. Mustafa Kemal became "Atatürk", the man who succeeded in building a new state on the ruins of an empire.
From then on, Atatürk embarked on a campaign of colossal reforms. He bases his action on an ideology creating the new Turkish Republic. The doctrine of Atatürkism, also called "the six arrows of Kemalism", is based on several key concepts: republicanism, populism, secularism, reformism (or revolutionism), nationalism and statism. This ideology has only one inspiration and one goal: to make Turkey a "civilized country". And for Atatürk, "civilization" rhymes with "secularism". So to make Turkey a secular state, he initiated an avalanche of reforms that swept away the remnants of the Ottoman system.
The caliphate was abolished, religious schools were closed, brotherhoods were banned and their property confiscated, and religious foundations were subjected to state control. The rules were quickly inspired by Western legislation (notably French) and civil, commercial and criminal law replaced the old religious law which had been the law of the land until then. The words "Islam is the religion of the state" were abolished from the constitution in 1928, and in 1937 secularism was introduced by an amendment. Atatürk's intention was to confine religion to the private sphere by establishing a policy of total control over institutions.
These fundamental institutional reforms were accompanied by a secularization of culture and society. The Civil Code prohibited polygamy, women enjoyed full equality in inheritance, they gained the right to vote in 1934 and were strongly encouraged to leave the veil. The wearing of the turban and the fez, symbols of an outdated Orient, was also prohibited. Religious education disappeared from the educational system under state control. Finally, an important and symbolic reform suppressed the Arabic characters in favor of the Latin alphabet which was adopted with some specificities of language. The Hegira calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar and the weekly rest day was changed from Friday to Sunday.
Atatürk had the intention of creating a national state even though there was not yet a Turkish nation. Following the forced departure of Greeks and Armenians in 1915, the country became overwhelmingly Muslim. For all that, the Turkish nation-state has yet to be invented. Indeed, the Turks of Anatolia have only known an imperial and religious framework and are not aware of any national belonging. Moreover, ethnic, linguistic or religious cleavages remain. To build this Turkish nation, Atatürk started a vast policy of unification. Everything was done: education, law, and therefore the language, which abandoned the Arabic signs for the Latin alphabet in 1928. A "secular" Islam was imposed, standardizing beliefs and practices for all Muslims, Sunni or Alevi, without taking into account particularities. The reforming madness of Atatürk imposes all azimuths. The space is also unified. Nearly 3,000 km of new railroads were built to serve all of Anatolia. People's houses" were set up to spread the new "civilization" in all the provinces from 1932 onwards. Finally, Atatürk did not forget to give his own reading of the history of the country. And, putting forward the great Anatolian historical myths and glorifying the ancient Turkish peoples, he established the notion of "Turkishness" of the territory and exalted national pride. In so doing, he justifies the new nation-state within its borders.
A plethora of reforms
To become a modern state, Turkey must develop. However, the destruction caused by the war was considerable and the country had to be rebuilt before it could be built. Atatürk organized an economic congress in the city of Smyrna in 1923. The objective was to determine a long-term development strategy. The orientation towards a liberal policy with state support for industry emerged and won. From then on, the country adopted a five-year plan during which the State took control of the country's economic and social life and laid the foundations of heavy industry, before being theoretically taken over by the private sector. Turkey emancipated itself and equipped itself.
The radical actions of the new president were not without resistance within society, even in its closest spheres. In 1924, when a Kurdish revolt broke out in the east of the country in reaction to the weakening of the role of the caliphate, the moderate Kemalists created an opposition party in Parliament. The harsh campaign of 1925 was to defeat this fragile formation. But Atatürk tightened the regime even more, liquidating forms of opposition, clamping down on the press, ordering the repression of religious circles and starting to sort out the former Young Turks. Nearly 7,500 people were arrested and 660 were executed. By the end of the 1920s, all opposition was muzzled.
Atatürk died in 1938 of cirrhosis of the liver. He left a controversial record. His legacy is no longer to be presented. The progress made in education, the economy and the emancipation of women is undeniable, but democracy remains absent. And the internal Kurdish question is far from being settled.
