ATATÜRK'S LIFE
"There are two Mustafa Kemals. One is the flesh-and-bone Mustafa Kemal who now stands before you and who will pass away. The other is you, all of you here who will go to the far corners of our land to spread the ideals which must be defended with your lives if necessary. I stand for the nation's dreams, and my life's work is to make them come true."
Atatürk stands as one of the world's few historic figures who dedicated their lives totally to their nations.
He was born in 1881 (probably in the Spring) in Selanik, then an Ottoman city, now in Greece. His father, Ali Riza, a customs official turned timber merchant, died when Mustafa was still a boy. His mother, Zubeyde, a devout and strong-willed woman, raised him and his sister. First enrolled in a traditional religious school, he soon switched to a modern school. In 1893, he entered a military high school where his mathematics teacher gave him the second name Kemal (meaning "perfection") in recognition of young Mustafa's superior achievement. He was thereafter known as Mustafa Kemal.
In 1905, Mustafa Kemal graduated from the Military Academy in Istanbul with the rank of Staff Captain. Posted in Damascus, he started, with several colleagues, a clandestine society called "Homeland and Freedom" to fight against the Sultan's despotism. Mustafa Kemal's career flourished as he won fame and promotions because of his heroism in the farflung corners of the Ottoman Empire, including Albania and Tripoli. He also briefly served as a staff officer in Selanik and Istanbul and as a military attache in Sofia.
When the Dardanelles campaign was launched in 1915, Colonel Mustafa Kemal became a national hero by winning successive vistories and finally repelling the invaders. Promoted to general in 1916, at age 35, he liberated two major provinces in eastern Antalia that year. In the next two years, he served as commander of several Ottoman armies in Palestine and Aleppo, achieving anotherr major victory by stopping the enemy advance at Aleppo.
On May 19, 1919, Mustafa Kemal landed in the Black Sea port of Samsun to start the War of Independence. In defiance of the Sultan's government, he rallied a liberation army in Anatolia and convened the Congresses of Erzurum and Sivas which established the basis for the new national effort under his leadership. On April 23, 1920, the Grand National Assembly was inaugurated. Mustafa Kemal was elected to its Presidency.
Fighting on many fronts, he led his forces to victory against rebels and invading armies. Following the Turkish triumph at the two major battles at Inonu in Western Turkey, the Grand National Assembly conferred on Mustafa Kemal the title of Commander-in-Chief with the rank of Marshal. At the end of August 1922, the Turkish armies won their ultimate victory. Within a few weeks, the Turkish mainland was completely liberated, the armistice signed, and the rule of the Ottoman dynasty abolished.
In July 1923, the national government signed the Lausanne Treaty with Great Britain, France, Greece, Italy and others. In mid-October, Ankara became the capital of the new Turkish State. On October 29, the Republic was proclaimed and Mustafa Kemal Pasha was unanimously elected President of the Republic.
The account of Atatürk's fifteen-year presidency is a saga of dramatic modernization. With indefatigable determination, he created a new political and legal system, abolished the Caliphate and made both government and education secular, gave equal rights to women, changed the alphabet and advanced the arts, sciences, agriculture and industry.
In 1934, when the surname law was adopted, the national parliament gave him the name "Atatürk" (Father of Turks).
On November 10, 1938, following an illness of a few months, the national liberator and the Father of modern Turkey died. His legacy to his people and to the world endures.
· It was the 13th of November 1918. Istanbul was overcast with dark clouds reflecting the mood of the people who were down and out. The Ottomans had lost World War I and allied navy had anchored in the harbor. The city was unofficially occupied.
· Haydarpasa was the western terminus of the Istanbul-Baghdad railway. A young handsome general got off the train and took one of the little boats the Turks called "çatana", to cross the Bosphorus...
· We talked about Turkish history in the previous chapters. Among the various states the Turks had founded, the most important, the largest and the longest lasting was the Ottoman Empire which, between the 14th and the 19th centuries, established a "Pax Ottomana" on three continents ruling over many nations. The Ottomans who entered their period of decline in the 18th century took part in the First World War on the side of the Axis Powers. On October 30,1918 they signed the Mudros Armistice which had heavy terms that spelled, in brief, unconditional surrender. On the 13th of November, allied battleships and cruisers anchored in the Istanbul harbor.
· That same day, Mustafa Kemal, a full-general at the age of 37, the brilliant tactician of the Dardanelles and other fronts, disembarked from the train which brought him back home from the southern front. Passing between the warships of a mighty armada which had anchored in the harbor, his face was tired but his eyes shone as usual with their penetrating brilliance. Addressing his adjutant, he said: "Don't you worry young man. They shall go the way they came."
The
National War of Independence
· Emerging defeated from the First World War, the Ottomans were forced to sign an armistice embracing the most onerous conditions, whereby the Anatolian Peninsula, that had been the Turkish homeland for a thousand years, was divided up and subjected to imperialistic designs.
· The economy was a shambles, and from every standpoint the Ottoman society was in ruins and in collapse. Seemingly there was no hope. The views expressed at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 were that Turkey would be divided up. But one thing had been forgotten, and that was that the Turks had founded one of the world's most powerful states with Anatolia at its core. Another fact was that the Turks had an ancient and deeply rooted past.
· These facts, plus the fact that a people who had lived for centuries on this soil could not be dissolved, had to be made known to the world. To this end associations were founded in various parts of the country, and patriotic citizens did their best to organize. But meanwhile in the Aegean region the Greek Army was advancing swiftly, equipped by Great Britain with the most modern weapons of the day, the French were rapidly occupying in southeastern Anatolia and in the east the Army of the Armenian Republic was advancing. The Ottoman government, implementing the terms of the armistice, was against any form of resistance on the grounds that it would "anger" the enemies. What was to be done?
· Mustafa Kemal Pasha knew what had to be done. His thinking ran along these lines. "The Ottoman Empire, which lasted more than six hundred years, has come to the end of its natural lifespan. It is dead, and the dead cannot be revived. The Ottoman governments have no power or decisiveness. Therefore the Turkish nation must decide its own fate and map its own future. The only path to this goal is the founding of a new state based on the sovereignty of the nation. If the nation unbinds the knots that have held it for centuries, and establishes unity, it can save the homeland."
It soon became apparent just how correct this strategy was. On his return from the front to Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal Pasha realized the hopelessness of the situation, and that the time had come to put into action the plans he had nourished since his youth. He decided to go into Anatolia and pursue the struggle from there. In the early months of 1919 Anatolia was a hotbed of troubles, and Mustafa Kemal requested that the government assign him to go and deal with them. This request was
accepted, and he left Istanbul with this understanding. On May 19, 1919 he set foot in Samsun. Mustafa Kemal Pasha was now in Anatolia, to unite it and reconcile antagonistic factions.
His first step would be to bring about the congresses he had planned, one by one. An association known as the Legal Society for the Defense of Anatolia and Rumelia wanted the Ottoman Parliament to convene and establish peace conditions, but in this matter Mustafa Kemal was not hopeful. Nevertheless the Parliament, in the National Oath of January 28,1920, asked for an honorable peace in which all borders were removed that threatened the territorial integrity of Turkey. Only if this condition were met could peace talks be held.
The Entente Powers, who had thought the Eastern Question was resolved, were greatly disturbed by this action taken under the influence of the Anatolian National Movement, and in their anger occupied Istanbul on March 16,1920. Thus for the first time in 467 years the city no longer had the status of Ottoman capital.
Not long before this, on December 27, 1919, Ankara had been made the center of national resistance, and it was now time to found a National Parliament. On April 23,1920, a National Assembly deriving its authority from the nation held its opening session, and by an unanimous vote Mustafa Kemal was chosen to preside.
In order to carry out their project of dividing Anatolia, the Entente Powers wished to extinguish the movement, which in their view was not serious. They therefore dictated the final peace of the First World War, the Peace of Sevres (August 10,1920), which the Ottoman government was forced to sign. Under the terms of this peace, all of eastern Thrace, plus Izmir and the Aegean region, were ceded to Greece. The straits were to be managed jointly, without the participation of the Turks. In addition, a large part of the country's eastern territory was ceded to Armenia, which had been established in Russia. Southern Anatolia was to be settled by French, Italian and British populations, so that only a small Ottoman State was left in Anatolia.
This peace roused the patriotic fervor of the Turks even more, and the youthful army of the new state began to win its first victories. The Armenian army, which had occupied Eastern Anatolia at the end of World War I, was expelled from these territories and signed a peace at Gümrü on December 3, 1920, while the progress of the Greeks, who had set their sights on Ankara, was brought to a halt. The first diplomatic contacts with the new Turkish state now began to be made, as the Soviet Union, impressed by the victories we have cited, signed an aid agreement at Moscow on March 16,1921. Meanwhile the French advance in the southeast was put to a definitive halt by the brave Turkish militia.
These developments led Greece, at the instigation of Great Britain, to prepare a major new offensive, and they advanced as far as the Sakarya River near Ankara. Meanwhile the National Assembly was temporarily relieving Mustafa Kemal of his powers so that he could devote his attentions to the war as Commander in Chief. The Greeks renewed their offensive on August 23,1921, and were repulsed on September 13 after 22 days and nights of fighting in which no quarter was given. With this victory, a thousand years of the Turkish presence in Anatolia were confirmed.
After this victory won with the meagerest of means, the French signed a peace with Ankara on October 20,1921, while the Italians also evacuated from the territory they had occupied. This left the Greeks and British alone. The following year, in September, 1922, the Greeks were expelled from Anatolia as the result of a grand Turkish offensive.
The British were determined to remain in eastern Thrace and the straits at all costs, but thanks to the wise policies of the Turkish government they found themselves isolated. They were thus compelled to sign an armistice, at Mudanya on October 11,1922. There was all the difference in the world between this armistice and that of Mudros signed some four years previously.
After his victory at the Battle of the Sakarya, Mustafa Kemal was given the rank of Marshal by the National Assembly and in addition was awarded the title of Gazi. This title is reserved by the Islamic world for only its greatest heroes.
Mustafa Kemal Pasha wanted to sign a peace which would confirm the independence and freedom from conditions of the new Turkish state, while the Allies, preparing to meet in Lausanne, aimed for an agreement which would take the Treaty of Sevres as its model, even though the National Assembly did not recognize this treaty. In order to divide the Turks at the conference, the Entente Powers had also invited the Istanbul government. This was taken as an outrage by the National Assembly, which had no choice but to legally dissolve the Ottoman Sultanate. This they did on November 1, 1922. Thus the Ottoman Sultanate, which had already expired in fact, legally too became a thing of the past. Henceforward there was only one government in Turkey, that founded by the National Assembly.
The Turkish state was represented at Lausanne by a national hero, Ismet Pasha (Inönü). The Turkish delegation stood alone, for England, France and their allies had formed a common front in order to preserve their interests. There was no one to back Turkey's cause, so that Ismet Inönü and the rest of the delegation were compelled to wage a diplomatic battle like that of the Sakarya. The peace signed at Lausanne on July 24,1923, put an end to the centuries-old Eastern Question, and gave the new Turkish State complete independence. The forces of occupation in Istanbul, which had arrived on November 13, 1918, departed on October 2, 1923, saluting the Turkish flag as they left.
"....On the abolition of the Sultanate, the royalist-clerical party became alarmed and began to agitate; it was important to give the democratic regime its true name of "republic" as soon as possible, and thus quieten the coming tumult before an accomplished fact.
The Gazi gathered around his table in Çankaya Fethi, İsmet and some generals and Members of Parliament whom he knew well. In the course of that memorable dinner their host remarked : "Tomorrow we will proclaim a republic." Since all guests were supporters of the democratic regime, they applauded his decision. Each of them was initiated into the role he would have to play on that historic day. The decision had been taken at the right time, since suspiciouns of what might happen were already awakened; on the other hand, the absence of the four discontented generals, and also Rauf, Adnan and other leaders, would make the task easier.
On the morning of the 29th, there was a meeting of the parliamentary group of People's Party, under the Presidency of Ali Fethi, to discuss the list of candidates. No agreement could be reached, so that a motion was accepted asking that the Gazi, in his position as President of the party, should be given the task of resolving the problem. The Gazi came to the meeting, and asked for an hour in order to present the means of solution that he had found. During that time he interviewed those people whom it was necessary to inform of the events which were to follow immediately.
Returning to the party meeting, he mounted the platform, and declaring his conviction that the system in operation was the cause of the difficulties which occured every time it was
necessary to form a cabinet. He was submitting a plan for the party's approval to remedy this defect in the system. He came down from the platform and gave the motion to one of the secretaries for him to read aloud.
Those who were not in the secret heard not the names of the possible commissars, but a modification of the Constitutional Law. To its first article there was simply added the following : "The form of government of the Turkish state is the republic." In other articles, it was established that the President of the Republic should be elected by the Assembly from its own members, and that it was possible for him to be reelected; he would have the right of presiding over the Assembly and the Council of Ministers. From among the Assembly's members he would choose a Prime Minister who would form the cabinet.
Four and a half hours of discussion were needed to approve the modifications proposed. The session of the Assembly opened at 6 o'clock in the evening. Some unimportant matters were dealt with, while awating the report of the commission on the Constitutional Law, which was favourable; only one phrase was added : "The religion of the Turkish state is Islam." İsmet Paşa, who was acting as President of the Assembly, proposed the vote to amend the law, and this was carried.
Thus the Republic was born in Turkey on the 29th of October 1923. The official name of the state was to be : "The Republic of Turkey".
Immediately afterwards, the Assembly was asked to elect the President of the Republic; it could be no other than the man who had been exercising the chief magistracy of the state since its foundation. This transcendental event was announced to the people that night by a 101-gunsalute; İsmet formed the first republican cabinet."
From : "Atatürk" by
Jorge Blanco Villalta, translated from Spanish by William Campbell
With the signing of the Lausanne Peace Treaty, the need arose for a name to give to the new state. Throughout the war, nothing had been done to the sultan, who had viewed very coldly the struggle for independence. After the war the sultanate had been abolished, and on October 29, 1923, the name of the new state was officially declared by the National Assembly to be the Republic of Turkey. Thus was born the first republic on the continent of Asia or of Africa.
Although Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha was elected president, power was in the hands of the National Assembly. Nevertheless, Atatürk's influence on the state and the party was always strongly felt.
When the republic was declared, the state of the nation was at a very low ebb, exhausted from both the economic and social points of view. The population was barely thirteen million, and only ten percent of the people could read and write. Only 23 lycees and one university existed in the whole land, and there were almost no schools where one could learn a trade. There was no industry: What workshops and manufacturing did exist amounted to little more than handicrafts. Only 80 thousand workers lived in the entire country. Machinery and equipment, and all products of industry were imported, and agriculture was in total collapse. The productive populace had been decimated by years of war. Supposedly an agricultural nation, Turkey was on occasion forced to import grain. Certain crops which in our time are considered everyday (citrus fruit, tea, bananas) were at that time unknown to the populace.
Fiscal affairs were in a pitiful state. The Ottoman budget had shown a steady deficit, and 30% always had to be allocated for repayment of debts. The war had eaten up whatever fiscal resources were available. The government of the new republic assigned the greatest importance to these matters, and managed to maintain the value of the Turkish Lira right up to World War II, but nevertheless there was little in the way of funds. Angered that the capitulations had been ended, the wealthy nations refused to offer credit. The western regions of the country were savagely battle-scarred, and there was no infrastructure, and revenues from taxation were extremely meager.
Sultanat was abolished in 1922.
The aim of the reforms of Atatürk is for human beings to live with regard to ideals based on humanism and to do the best to live satisfactorily. These Reforms of Atatürk have become universally recognised and they provided encouragement to make progress.
The Reforms of Atatürk have put forward their own existence in order to assimilate the West. This contribution has made mankind aware of his own existence by means of rationalism and humanist virtues.
It has made Turkish society, in an eastern country, go into an evolution period of mankind, that's why it is an important and special contribution. This has also proved that a society which isn't Western could be as creative as the West.
Thanks to the Reforms of Atatürk, The Turkish Republic has broken the material and spiritual chains of the Scholastic thought, after years of theocratical structure it has become a democratic and secular country in a short time, all the dogmatic values have been wiped out and there has been a unique action with humanist and rationalism virtues.
Nations which aren't Western are in a worse stage compared to Turkey. They can gain their freedom by evaluating the Reforms of Atatürk with determination.
We can say that in a theocratical regime, where people can't be free due to religious pressures, they should appreciate most active / effective political method in Kemalizm getting universal. In the near future, Kemalizm, will be engraved in history which is the nightmare of theocratic regime.
You, the citizens of Atatürk's Turkey !
You can go up to the sky if you have the concept of contemporary civilisation, but why should you be in the sky? What use is that thought if it never comes down the sky ? It will wither among the clouds. The thought should meet the societies on earth. You, too, come down ! Meet the people, the society and go towards mankind. Mankind waits for the Universal Atatürk. Mankind waits for you, who has aimed at freedom, equality, love, human rights, happiness and progress. I see the Universal Atatürk in your eyes, I love you.