MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK & MODERN REPUBLIC OF TURKEY - (Part 2) TURKISH WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (1919 - 1922) Mustafa Kemal Atatürks leadership of Turkish Independence War Fahri Yaver-i Hazret-i Şehriyari (Honorary Aide-de-camp to His Majesty Sultan) Mirliva Mustafa Kemal Pasha was assigned as the inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate to reorganize what remained of the Ottoman military units and to improve internal security on 30 April 1919. On 19 May 1919, he reached Samsun. His first goal was the establishment of an organized national movement against the occupying forces. In June 1919, he issued the Amasya Circular, declaring the independence of the country was in danger. He resigned from the Ottoman Army on 8 July and the Ottoman Turkish Government issued a warrant for his arrest. Later, he was condemned to death… The last election to the Ottoman parliament held in December 1919 gave a sweeping majority to candidates of the Association for Defense of Rights for Anatolia and Roumelia (Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti), headed by Mustafa Kemal, who himself remained in Ankara. The fourth (and last) term of the Parliament opened in Constantinople on 12 January 1920. It was dissolved by British forces on 18 March 1920, shortly after it adopted the Misak-ı Millî (National Pact). Mustafa Kemal called for a national election to establish a new Turkish Parliament seated in Ankara[48] – the Grand National Assembly (GNA). On 23 April 1920, the GNA opened with Mustafa Kemal as the speaker; this act effectively created the situation of diarchy in the country… On 10 August 1920, the Ottoman Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha signed the Treaty of Sèvres, finalizing plans for the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, including the regions that Turkish nationals viewed as their heartland. Mustafa Kemal insisted on the countrys complete independence and the safeguarding of interests of the Turkish majority on Turkish soil. He persuaded the GNA to gather a National Army. The GNA Army faced the Caliphate army propped up by the Allied occupation forces and had the immediate task of fighting the Armenian forces in the Eastern Front and the Greek forces advancing eastward from Smyrna (modern-day İzmir) that they had occupied in May 1919, on the Western Front. In January 1920, Mustafa Kemal advanced his troops into Marash where the Battle of Marash ensued against the French Armenian Legion. The battle resulted in a Turkish victory alongside the massacres of 5,000-12,000 Armenians spelling the end of the remaining Armenian population in the region… The GNA military successes against the Democratic Republic of Armenia in the autumn of 1920 and later against the Greeks were made possible[54] by a steady supply of gold and armaments to the kemalists from the Russian Bolshevik government from the autumn 1920 onwards… After a series of battles during the Greco-Turkish war, the Greek army advanced as far as the Sakarya River, just eighty kilometers west of the GNA. On 5 August 1921, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to Commander in chief of the forces by the GNA.[55] The ensuing Battle of Sakarya was fought from 23 August to 13 September 1921 and ended with the defeat of the Greeks. After this victory, on 19 September 1921, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was given by the Grand National Assembly the rank of Mareşal and the title of Gazi. The Allies, ignoring the extent of Kemals successes, hoped to impose a modified version of the Treaty of Sèvres as a peace settlement on Ankara, but the proposal was rejected. In August 1922, Kemal launched an all-out attack on the Greek lines at Afyonkarahisar in the Battle of Dumlupınar and Turkish forces regained control of Smyrna on 9 September 1922. On 10 September 1922, Mustafa Kemal sent a telegram to the League of Nations saying that the Turkish population was so worked up that the Ankara Government would not be responsible for massacres… Establishment of the Republic of Turkey - Treaty of Lausanne The Conference of Lausanne began on 21 November 1922. Turkey, represented by İsmet İnönü of the GNA, refused any proposal that would compromise Turkish sovereignty, such as the control of Turkish finances, the Capitulations, the Straits and other issues. On 24 July 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed by the Powers with the GNA, thus recognising the latter as the government of Turkey... On 29 October 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Since then Republic Day has been celebrated as a national holiday on this date… Presidency - Kemalist ideology and Atatürks Reforms With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, efforts to modernise the country started. The new government analyzed the institutions and constitutions of Western states such as France, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland and adapted them to the needs and characteristics of the Turkish nation. Highlighting the publics lack of knowledge regarding Kemals intentions, the public cheered: We are returning to the days of the first caliphs. Mustafa Kemal placed Fevzi Çakmak, Kâzım Özalp and İsmet İnönü in political positions where they could institute his reforms. Mustafa Kemal capitalized on his reputation as an efficient military leader and spent the following years, up until his death in 1938, instituting political, economic, and social reforms. In doing so, he transformed Turkish society from perceiving itself as a Muslim part of a vast Empire into a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state… Domestic Policies in Turkey Mustafa Kemals basic tenet was the complete independence of the country. He clarified his position: “ ... 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… ” He led wide-ranging reforms in social, cultural, and economical aspects, establishing the new Republics backbone of legislative, judicial, and economic structures. Though he was later idealized by some as an originator of sweeping reforms, many of his reformist ideas were already common in Ottoman intellectual circles at the turn of the 20th century, and were expressed more openly after the Young Turk Revolution… Mustafa Kemal created a banner to mark the changes between the old Ottoman and the new republican rule. Each change was symbolized as an arrow in this banner. This defining ideology of the Republic of Turkey is referred to as the Six Arrows, or Kemalist ideology. Kemalist ideology is based on Mustafa Kemals conception of realism and pragmatism.[63] The fundamentals of nationalism, populism and etatism were all defined under the Six Arrows. These fundamentals were not new in world politics or, indeed, among the elite of Turkey. What made them unique was that these interrelated fundamentals were formulated specifically for Turkeys needs. A good example is the definition and application of secularism; the Kemalist secular state significantly differed from predominantly Christian states… Emergence of the state, 1923 -1924 Mustafa Kemal Pasha in 1923, with members of the Mevlevi Order, before its institutional expression became illegal and their dervish lodge was changed into the Mevlana Museum. The Mevlevi Order managed to transform itself into a nonpolitical organization which still exists… A political satire from the single-party period depicting Mustafa Kemal, the leader of the RPP, choosing the partys candidates for prospective MPs, to be elected in the incoming parliamentary elections. During the single-party state, the candidates had only one partys (RPP) list to join… Mustafa Kemals private journal entries dated before the establishment of the republic in 1923 show that he believed in the importance of the sovereignty of the people. In forging the new republic, the Turkish revolutionaries turned their back on the perceived corruption and decadence of cosmopolitan Constantinople and its Ottoman heritage. For instance, they made Ankara the countrys new capital. A provincial town deep in Anatolia, it was turned into the center of the independence movement. Atatürk wanted a direct government by the Assembly and visualized a representative democracy, parliamentary sovereignty, where the National Parliament would be the ultimate source of power… In the following years, he altered his stance somewhat; the country needed an immense amount of reconstruction, and that direct government by the Assembly could not survive in such an environment. The revolutionaries faced challenges from the supporters of the old Ottoman regime, and also from the supporters of newer ideologies such as communism and fascism. Mustafa Kemal saw the consequences of fascist and communist doctrines in the 1920s and 1930s and rejected both. He prevented the spread into Turkey of the totalitarian party rule which held sway in the Soviet Union, Germany and Italy. Some perceived his opposition and silencing of these ideologies as a means of eliminating competition; others believed it was necessary to protect the young Turkish state from succumbing to the instability of new ideologies and competing factions… The heart of the new republic was the GNA, established during the Turkish War of Independence by Mustafa Kemal. The elections were free and used an egalitarian electoral system that was based on a general ballot. Deputies at the GNA served as the voice of Turkish society by expressing its political views and preferences. It had the right to select and control both the government and the Prime Minister. Initially, it also acted as a legislative power, controlling the executive branch and, if necessary, acted as an organ of scrutiny under the Turkish Constitution of 1921. 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. Mustafa Kemal, then the President, occupied a powerful position in this political system… 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, founded by Mustafa Kemal in the initial years of the independence war. On 9 September 1923 it was renamed the Republican Peoples Party (Turkish Cumhuriyeti Halk Partisı)… Civic independence and Abolition of Caliphate, 1924 -1925 Abolition of the Caliphate was an important dimension in Mustafa Kemals drive to reform the political system and to promote the national sovereignty. By the consensus of the Muslim majority in early centuries, the caliphate was the core political concept of Sunni Islam. Abolishing the sultanate was easier because the survival of the Caliphate at the time satisfied the partisans of the sultanate. This produced a split system with the new republic on one side and an Islamic form of government with the Caliph on the other side, and Mustafa Kemal and İnönü worried that it nourished the expectations that the sovereign would return under the guise of Caliph. Caliph Abdülmecid II was elected after the abolition of the sultanate (1922)... The caliph had his own personal treasury and also had a personal service that included military personnel; Mustafa Kemal said that there was no religious or political justification for this. He believed that Caliph Abdülmecid II was following in the steps of the sultans in domestic and foreign affairs: accepting of and responding to foreign representatives and reserve officers, and participating in official ceremonies and celebrations. He wanted to integrate the powers of the caliphate into the powers of the GNA. His initial activities began on 1 January 1924, when İnönü, Çakmak and Özalp consented to the abolition of the caliphate. The caliph made a statement to the effect that he would not interfere with political affairs. On 1 March 1924, at the Assembly, Mustafa Kemal said “ The religion of Islam will be elevated if it will cease to be a political instrument, as had been the case in the past… ” On 3 March 1924, the caliphate was officially abolished and its powers within Turkey were transferred to the GNA. Other Muslim nations debated the validity of Turkeys unilateral abolition of the caliphate as they decided whether they should confirm the Turkish action or appoint a new caliph. 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… Two other Islamic conferences were held in Mecca (1926) and Jerusalem (1931), but failed to reach a consensus. 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… On 8 April 1924, sharia courts were abolished with the law Mehakim-i Şeriyenin İlgasına ve Mehakim Teşkilatına Ait Ahkamı Muaddil Kanun… The removal of the caliphate was followed by an extensive effort to establish the separation of governmental and religious affairs. Education was the cornerstone in this effort. In 1923, there were three main educational groups of institutions. The most common institutions were medreses based on Arabic, the Quran and memorization. The second type of institution was idadî and sultanî, the reformist schools of the Tanzimat era. The last group included colleges and minority schools in foreign languages that used the latest teaching models in educating pupils. The old medrese education was modernized. Mustafa Kemal changed the classical Islamic education for a vigorously promoted reconstruction of educational institutions. Mustafa Kemal linked educational reform to the liberation of the nation from dogma, which he believed was 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. In the summer of 1924, Mustafa Kemal invited American educational reformer John Dewey to Ankara to advise him on how to reform Turkish education. His public education reforms aimed to prepare citizens for roles in public life through increasing the public literacy. He wanted to institute compulsory primary education for both girls and boys; since then this effort has been an ongoing task for the republic. He 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. The state schools established a common curriculum which became known as the unification of education. Unification of education was put into force on 3 March 1924 by the Law on Unification of Education (No. 430). With the new law, education became inclusive, organized on a model of the civil community. In this new design, all schools submitted their curriculum to the Ministry of National Education, a government agency modelled after other countries ministries of education. Concurrently, the republic abolished the two ministries and made clergy subordinate to the department of religious affairs, one of the foundations of secularism in Turkey. The unification of education under one curriculum ended clerics or clergy of the Ottoman Empire, but was not the end of religious schools in Turkey; they were moved to higher education until later governments restored them to their former position in secondary after Mustafa Kemals death... Beginning in the fall of 1925, Mustafa Kemal encouraged the Turks to wear modern European attire. He was determined to force the abandonment of the sartorial traditions of the Middle East and finalize a series of dress reforms, which were originally started by Mahmud II. The fez was established by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 as part of the Ottoman Empires modernization effort. The Hat Law of 1925 introduced the use of Western-style hats instead of the fez. Mustafa Kemal first made the hat compulsory for civil servants. The guidelines for the proper dressing of students and state employees were passed during his lifetime; many civil servants adopted the hat willingly. 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. The last part of reform on dress emphasized the need to wear modern Western suits with neckties as well as Fedora and Derby-style hats instead of antiquated religion-based clothing such as the veil and turban in the Law Relating to Prohibited Garments of 1934... Even though he personally promoted modern dress for women, Mustafa Kemal never made specific reference to womens clothing in the law, as he believed that women would adapt to the new clothing styles of their own free will. He was frequently photographed on public business with his wife Lâtife Uşaklıgil, who covered her head in accordance with Islamic tradition. He was also frequently photographed on public business with women wearing modern Western clothes. But it was Atatürks adopted daughters, 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. On 30 August 1925, Mustafa Kemals view on religious insignia used outside places of worship was introduced in his Kastamonu speech. This speech also had another position. He said: “ In the face of knowledge, science, and of the whole extent of radiant civilization, I cannot accept the presence in Turkeys civilized community of people primitive enough to seek material and spiritual benefits in the guidance of sheiks. The Turkish republic cannot be a country of sheiks, dervishes, and disciples. The best, the truest order is the order of civilization. To be a man it is enough to carry out the requirements of civilization. The leaders of dervish orders will understand the truth of my words, and will themselves close down their lodges [tekke] and admit that their disciplines have grown up.” On 2 September the government issued a decree closing down all Sufi orders and the tekkes. Mustafa Kemal ordered their dervish lodges to be converted to museums, such as Mevlana Museum in Konya. The institutional expression of Sufism became illegal in Turkey; a politically neutral form of Sufism, functioning as social associations, was permitted to exist… The abolition of the caliphate and other cultural reforms were met with fierce opposition. The conservative elements were not happy and they launched attacks on the Kemalist reformists… Opposition to Mustafa Kemal in 1924 -1927 In 1924, while the Issue of Mosul was on the table, Sheikh Said began to organize the Sheikh Said Rebellion. Sheikh Said was a wealthy Kurdish[citation needed] Tribal chief of a local Naqshbandi order. 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. Piran stirred up his followers against the policies of the government, which he considered anti-Islamic. In an effort to restore Islamic law, Pirans forces moved through the countryside, seized government offices and marched on the important cities of Elazığ and Diyarbakır. Members of the government saw the Sheikh Said Rebellion as an attempt at a counter-revolution. They urged immediate military action to prevent its spread. The Law for the Maintenance of Public Order was passed to deal with the rebellion on 4 March 1925. It gave the government exceptional powers and included the authority to shut down subversive groups, but was repealed on 4 March 1929… There were also parliamentarians in the GNA who were not happy with these changes. So many members were denounced as opposition sympathizers at a private meeting of the Republican Peoples Party (CHP) that Mustafa Kemal expressed his fear of being among the minority in his own party. He decided not to purge this group. After a censure motion gave the chance to have a breakaway group, Kazım Karabekir, along with his friends, established such a group on 17 October 1924. The censure became a confidence vote at the CHP for Mustafa Kemal. On 8 November, the motion was rejected by 148 votes to 18, and 41 votes were absent. CHP held all but one seat in the parliament. After the majority of the CHP chose him Mustafa Kemal said, the Turkish nation is firmly determined to advance fearlessly on the path of the republic, civilization and progress… On 17 November 1924, the breakaway group established the Progressive Republican Party (PRP) with 29 deputies and the first multi-party system began. The PRPs economic program suggested liberalism, in contrast to the state socialism of CHP, and its social program was based on conservatism in contrast to the modernism of CHP. Leaders of the party strongly supported the Kemalist revolution in principle, but had different opinions on the cultural revolution and the principle of secularism. The PRP was not against Mustafa Kemals main positions as declared in its program; they supported 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). These principles were set by the leaders at the onset. The only legal opposition became a home for all kinds of differing views... During 1926, a plot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal was uncovered in İzmir. It originated with a former deputy who had opposed the abolition of the Caliphate. Investigation shifted from an inquiry into the planners to an investigation ostensibly to uncover subversive activities but in truth used to undermine those disagreeing with Mustafa Kemals cultural revolution. The sweeping investigation brought a number of political activists before the tribunal, 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. The investigations found a link between the members of the PRP and 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 Atatürks presidency. Mustafa Kemals 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… Please feel free to share this post on your timelines, if you think its interesting...
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 02:42:36 +0000
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