Turkey: At the Crossroads of Civilization.

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May 9, 2003

European History

Turkey: At the Crossroads of Civilization

The 13th century saw the rise of a powerful state, a multinational empire that at its peak would control vast stretches of northern Africa, southeastern Europe, and western Asia, this dynastic state would become known as the Ottoman Empire. A grand empire that was passive, inward looking and parochially conservative, ingrained through long centuries of habit and tradition, and from the defeatism engendered by the decline of its power. Due to out of date social and technological developments, by the early 1900s, the empire only controlled Asia Minor, part of the Balkans, and the Middle East. With it's involvement in World War I, the Ottomans lost even more land, and allied troops moved in to occupy the empire until 1922, when nationalist forces under the leadership of a young revolutionary -- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk -- impelled several ethnic groups to seek independence and consequently lead to the empire's fragmentation. On July 24, 1923, with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, the independence of Turkey was recognized by all states, this new republic under the rule of Ataturk was focused on westernizing the empire's hindered Turkish core - Anatolia and a part of Thrace. Turkey has risen out of the ashes to become a modern and strategically important part of world politics, as a result of Ataturk's political, social, and economic reforms.

When ex-Turkish commander Mustafa Kemal landed in the Black Sea port of Samsun on May 19, 1919 to start the "War of Independence" against the occupying allied powers, he boasted a military record of all victories and no defeats. A soldier for the Ottoman Empire, Ataturk became the charismatic leader of the Turkish national liberation struggle in 1919, and was a foremost peacekeeper, who upheld principles of humanism and a united humanity. Ataturk blazed across the world scene in the early 1920s as a strong commander, and following a series of impressive victories; he led his nation to full independence. By rallying the remnants of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, Ataturk defeated the invading Greeks, and threw out the treaty of Sevres, at the same time winning national recognition. Ataturk aimed to replace the image of Turkey as the 'sick man of Europe', with that of a dynamic and self-renewing non-imperialistic country that was capable of winning the respect of Europe, and for 15 years following Turkey's independence in 1923, Ataturk reinvented Turkey on the model of European nation-state, a creation that would not only survive, but thrive as well. This new Republic with Ankara as it's capital, was as Ataturk put it, "the state of the people (Mustafa...Creator, 4)," a country truly representing the people's will.

Ataturk began a series of political, social, and economic reforms in his crusade to create a modern and secular nation, one that would rise out of the ashes of the 600-eyear old Ottoman Empire and become of great international importance. His reform program which would become known as Kemalism, would later become concrete in Article 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, its main points ("The Six Arrows") were: Republicanism, nationalism, populism, reformism, statism and secularism. For the most part, Kemalism believed that it is only the republic regime, which can best represent the wishes of the people. With the help of his reform program, Ataturk was able to establish a populist and egalitarian system from the antiquated Ottoman Empire.
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Republicanism was contained in the constitutional declaration that "sovereignty is vested in the nation" and not in a single ruler. Republicanism represented a change from the Multinational Ottoman Empire to the nation state of Turkey. Along with the help of nationalism, which consisted of reinventing the Turkish language from Arabic to Latin and recasting Turkish history in a nationalist mold, republicanism helped preserve the independence of Turkey, an indivisible whole comprising of its territory and people. As with nationalism and republicanism, populism was equally focused on the equality and nationality of all Turks. Populism encompassed not only the ...

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