Atatürk

President of Turkey (1923-1938)

• Born: May 19, 1881
• Birthplace: Salonika, Ottoman Empire (now Thessaloniki, Greece)
• Died: November 10, 1938
• Place of death: Istanbul, Turkey

Through his skills as a politician, general, and statesman, Atatürk founded the modern state of Turkey in 1923 out of the ashes of the old Ottoman Empire.

Early Life

Atatürk (AT-a-turk), the founder of Turkey who selected the name Atatürk in 1934, was born in Salonika, a major port in what was then the Ottoman Empire’s province of Macedonia (now part of Greece). His parents, Ali Rīza and Zubeyde, had given him the name Mustafa in honor of an older brother who had died in infancy. As Mustafa, Atatürk’s early years were marked by his family’s declining fortunes. His father lost all his money in a salt venture. When his application for readmission to the civil service was rejected, he took to drinking heavily and died of tuberculosis, leaving behind nothing for Zubeyde and her family. She was forced to sell the house and move to her brother’s farm outside Salonika. During his years in the country, Mustafa developed into a strong and muscular young man. Later in life he would suffer from a variety of illnesses, some, in part, brought about by his own problems with alcohol.

By age twelve Mustafa had decided on his future career. Without telling his mother, he convinced a friend’s father who was a major in the army to allow him to sit for the entrance exam to the Military Secondary School in Salonika. Even when Mustafa passed the exam, he still needed his mother’s written consent, which he received after she had a dream in which she envisioned a brilliant military career for her son. Mustafa proved to be an excellent student. He was so good in mathematics that his instructor began to call him Kemal (“perfection”). During his student days, he realized the importance of understanding cultures other than his own. To that extent he read extensively in European political thought while simultaneously learning French. By the end of his time at the academy, he had started to learn German. Thus Atatürk’s intellectual foundation was laid at a time of growing change within the Ottoman Empire.

This intellectual growth also fostered a strong sense of nationalism and a belief that for his nation to survive, it needed to be modernized along European lines. In 1906 (he was now a captain in the army), while stationed in Damascus, Atatürk joined a secret society known as the Fatherland Movement. Two years later, this organization, of which Atatürk was a recognized leader, merged with another nationalistic group called the Young Turks . In 1908 a rebellion broke out against the sultan’s rule. The end result was the election of a parliamentary government and the establishment of a constitution. Shortly after the revolt, Atatürk broke with the leadership of the Young Turks, citing that a serving army officer should resign if he wished to participate in politics.

In 1912, Atatürk was sent to Libya during the war between the Ottoman Empire and Italy. The defeat of the Ottoman army, coupled with other military defeats in the Balkans during that same year, caused Atatürk to become highly critical of the government’s handling of the conflicts. Despite his comments, Atatürk’s growing popularity prevented any public rebuke. In 1913 he was transferred to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he began to see the increasing German influence within the Ottoman state something that Atatürk feared would draw the nation into a European conflict. In late 1914 this fear became a reality when the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of Germany.

Atatürk’s service in the war made him a hero. During the Gallipoli campaign, units under his command helped to repel an Allied attack that threatened to cut the Turkish army in two. From 1916 until the end of the war, he served in a variety of capacities, including commander of a Turkish army in Syria. With the end of the conflict in November, 1918, he returned to Constantinople in time to see the Allied navy arriving a sign that the fate of his country was now in enemy hands.

Life’s Work

The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 set the stage for Atatürk’s greatest achievement the creation of the modern Turkish state. While the sultan and his ministers acquiesced to the Allied demands laid out in the armistice, Atatürk remained defiant. As with his earlier attacks against the sultanate, Atatürk’s popularity with the people and influence within the army prevented the government from undertaking any retribution. In an attempt to reduce his growing influence, Atatürk was sent to Anatolia in May, 1919, to supervise the disbanding of the army in that region. Despite attempts to remove him from the center of events in Constantinople, Atatürk used his new assignment to position himself as the de facto leader of the Turkish National Movement emerging in that area. In July the organization met at Erzurum, where they drafted the National Pact. This document called for the right of self-determination for the Turkish people and a pledge to defend the nation’s natural boundaries at all costs.

In September a larger meeting was convened at Sivas. The sultan responded to the demands of the Nationalists by allowing a parliamentary election, in which they emerged victorious. Before the newly elected parliament could accomplish anything, however, British forces occupying Constantinople dissolved the body. Under Atatürk’s leadership, the Nationalists responded by convening their own Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara the embryonic capital of the new Turkish republic beginning in April, 1920.

The work of the assembly and the cause of Turkish nationalism were given a further boost by two events in June of 1920. The Treaty of Sevres, which formally ended the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies, became public knowledge. The document called for a drastic reduction in the size of the Turkish state, placed its finances under foreign control, and proposed that the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits be placed under international control. It was also in June that the Greeks, encouraged by their British allies, launched an invasion of Anatolia. For the next two years, the Turkish armies, under the leadership of Atatürk, fought to free Anatolia from Greek occupation. By August, 1922, the Greeks had been defeated. As Atatürk’s armies approached the Dardanelles, Great Britain called for an Allied effort to prevent their reoccupation by the Nationalists. When no other nation voiced its support, the British were forced to enter into negotiations with the victorious Nationalists.

In November the sultan fled, and the sultanate was abolished. In the same month, negotiations for a new peace treaty with the Allies began in Lausanne, Switzerland. In the final document, signed in July, 1923, the Nationalists now the only political party in Turkey achieved virtually all their demands as outlined in the National Pact. On October 29, 1923, the Turkish Republic was proclaimed and the capital officially moved to Ankara. Atatürk, now president and head of the nation’s only political party, was in the position to focus on his ultimate goal: modernizing Turkey along Western lines.

For Atatürk, Westernization could not occur without first secularizing many traditional Turkish institutions. In early 1924 the caliphate (the religious equivalent of the sultanate) was abolished. Theological schools and the religious courts were also closed. Two years later the Islamic legal system was replaced by a civil code. The traditional fez was outlawed and replaced by Western-style hats. The Gregorian calendar was adopted. In 1928 the Latin alphabet replaced Arabic characters. Six years later Atatürk announced one of his most significant reforms when he granted voting rights to women and allowed them to run for seats in parliament. It was also in 1934 that all Turks were compelled to adopt surnames. Atatürk himself had selected Atatürk (father of the Turks).

The modernization of Turkey extended beyond social and cultural institutions. Economic reforms were adopted. The government invested heavily in industrialization. In 1934 a five-year plan, modeled along Soviet lines, was implemented. Western farming methods and machinery were adopted to make crop production more efficient. The government even subsidized certain crops by guaranteeing their prices. In the international field, Atatürk negotiated a series of economic and defensive treaties with neighboring nations most notably, the Treaty of Angora with Great Britain and Iraq (signed in 1926) and the Balkan Defense Pact with Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia (signed in 1934) that assisted in promoting regional security and stability. In 1932 Turkey further committed itself to internationalism by joining the League of Nations.

Atatürk’s reforms did not go unopposed. Religious conservatives resisted without success attacks against the traditional influence of Islam in society. In 1925 a revolt began in Kurdistan. One year later, members of the Young Turk movement attempted to assassinate Atatürk. The Turkish president used many methods some quite ruthless to combat this opposition. To curb any public protests over his policies, Atatürk utilized the Republican People’s Party (RPP; founded in 1923) to foster nationalism and a sense of unity. As the only legally recognized party, the RPP also helped suppress all political opposition. The Kurdish revolt was brutally suppressed in April, 1925. The conspirators in the assassination attempt were publicly tried and executed.

The last months of Atatürk’s life were dominated by health problems. In March, 1938, a public announcement regarding his illness (cirrhosis of the liver) was made. On the same day that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met with the prime ministers of France and Great Britain to decide the fate of Czechoslovakia, Atatürk fell into a coma. He recovered for a short time, but on November 10, 1938, he died, ironically, in the sultan’s palace in Istanbul. A nation deeply mourned the man known to them as Father Turk.

Significance

Atatürk’s greatest achievement and lasting legacy is the modern Turkish state. His exploits, however, go beyond building a new nation. At a time when Turkey faced invasion and occupation, it was Atatürk who provided the iron-willed leadership to rally the Turkish people at what can arguably be considered their darkest hour. His policies, while challenged by some, not only stabilized the country but also enabled it to begin to compete with Western nations on a more even level. As a man, Atatürk was somewhat of a contradiction. His scandalous private behavior and his seeming disregard for the Islamic faith offended and alienated the conservative religious element. However, the vast majority of his people overlooked this side, choosing instead to focus on his achievements in the areas of social, economic, and political reform to define a man that to this very day serves as an inspiration for many in Turkey.

Bibliography

Kazancigil, Ali, and Ergun Ozbudun. Ataturk: Founder of a Modern State. 1981. Reprint. London: Hurst, 1997. A series of articles by scholars in the field that focus on Atatürk’s influence on Turkey’s cultural, political, and economic structure. Includes biographical notes on the various authors.

Kinross, Lord Patrick Balfour. Ataturk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey. New York: William Morrow, 1964. Provides a detailed discussion of Atatürk’s work before the end of World War I, his influence during the Turkish war of independence, and his work as the founder of modern Turkey. Includes maps, pictures, and bibliography.

Mango, Andrew. Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000. Exhaustively researched, balanced, and comprehensive biography, detailing Atatürk’s life before the establishment of the Turkish republic. Includes discussion of his efforts to modernize the country.

Palmer, Alan. Kemal Ataturk. London: Sphere Books, 1991. A concise and highly readable narrative designed to appeal to general readers. Includes a chronology, maps, and a brief bibliography.

Pettifer, James. The Turkish Labyrinth: Ataturk and the New Islam. London: Viking-Penguin, 1997. A detailed study of the influence of Atatürk’s reforms on the shaping of the modern Turkish state after his death. Also discusses how these reforms influenced Turkey’s relations with its immediate neighbors in Europe and Central Asia. Includes chronology and bibliography.

Sheldon, Garrett War. Jefferson and Ataturk: Political Philosophies. New York: P. Lang, 2000. Compares the political theories of the two leaders, pointing out similarities in their ideas and the political climates in which they came to power.

Volkan, Vamik D., and Norman Itzkowitz. The Immortal Ataturk: A Psychobiography. 1984. Reprint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Those skeptical of any work subtitled a “psychobiography” should not let that prevent them from reading this insightful and thought-provoking work. This book is unique in that Volkan and Itzkowitz utilize little-known material from the memoirs of many people who worked with and served under Atatürk.