Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Written by admin on July 7, 2008 – 9:17 pm -

The Turks are a very proud and nationalistic people, something which one cannot help but notice when traveling through the country. Flags and banners are ubiquitous, especially on national holidays like Republic Day, where one can see the Turkish flag flying proudly wherever they look. Just as popular as the flag itself, if not more so, are banners that commemorate Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.

Mustafa Kemal, the man who would later become known as Ataturk, or Father of the Turks, was born in 1881. Enrolling in the military at a young age, Mustafa Kemal had a distinguished career, coming to prominence during the First World War.

Despite his own remarkable efforts during the war, including a decisive role in The Battle of Gallipoli resulting in bitter defeat for the Allies, the Ottoman Empire was, none the less, defeated. In the aftermath of the war the Allies now began the process of carving up and occupying the shattered remnants of a once-mighty Empire. The Turks were far from defeated, however, and from these shattered pieces, Mustafa Kemal helped the scattered military units to regroup and form a coherent resistance movement. Mustafa’s ultimate goal was no less than complete and total independence for Turkey, a dream which came to fruition in 1923.

Though Ataturk created a secular republic, the Turks’ veneration of Ataturk is practically cult-like. In a sense, Ataturk was more than a political leader, he was also a spiritual one, even if his doctrine was deliberately non-religious. Ataturk was adamant that the new Turkish Republic be a secular, democratic and modern one, and no sooner had he pronounced the new nation, than he commenced his policies of modernisation, revolutionising every aspect of Turkish life from education and language to the nation’s economy to the very notion of nationhood itself. In “Kemalist” doctrine religion and state were irrevocably detached from one another and in its place Ataturk promoted a modern, pragmatic philosophy favouring nationalism and national unity over any form of religious devotion. By doing this, Ataturk not only fought for, created and re-invented a new secular, modern and democratic Turkish Republic, but also helped to create the very ideological glue that has, for decades, helped to bond the nation and its people together.

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