Kemal Ataturk

Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938)

Ataturk was a soldier, nationalist and statesman who created modern Turkey from the remains of old Ottoman Empire. He was born in Greece, the son of a minor official and went to military academies (1899-1905). He graduated as a captain but as he had sympathies with the young Turks( a group which wanted to reform the old crumbling Turkish Empire ) he was sent to the distant outpost of Syria. He fought against the Italians invading Libya, but his major military triumph was the defeat of the British , French and Australian forces at Gallipoli in World War 1 in 1915. The Western Allies thought they could land on the beaches of Gallipoli and strike at the heart of Germany’s ally, Turkey.

In 1919 Greece invaded the defeated Turkey. As the Turkish government signed away parts of their country. Ataturk set up a rival provisional government in the village of Ankara in the north. He then reorganized the army and attacked and defeated the invading Greeks. The old sultanate was crumbling and in 1922 Ataturk abolished it, setting up a republic. He was elected president in 1923 and now began enormous task of turning a backward country in many ways still in the Middle Ages, into a modern Western state.

He was faced by many people in power who looked back at the old comfortable ways but he realized that he must be ruthless in his efforts to modernize Turkey. He abolished the religious power of the sultanate , declaring Turkey a secular state00,making religious schools and courts illegal. He banned wearing of fez –the red brimless hat that was characteristic of the country-and encouraged wearing of western style dress for both men and women. Compulsory head covering for women was abolished and western calendar introduced to replace the complicated one already in use. He saw that education was the keystone of his reforms and made schooling compulsory. He went from village to village with a blackboard and chalk teaching the people.

He abolished Islamic law and substituted codes based on those in Europe: for civil law he used Swiss law; for criminal law he used an Italian model, and for commercial law he copied German code. Both marriage and divorce became civil law. He was particularly interested in the position of women which had been inferior under the sultanate and in 1934 women were allowed to vote.Although he ruled autocratically.