The Republic of Turkey

This article is one in the Cultural History of Turkey series. For the description of any cultures or tribes please read that article.

Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire

Starting with the second half of the 16th century the Ottoman Empire entered into a stagnation period (1579-699). The stagnation was followed by decline and eventually fall at the end of the World War I. There were internal and external reasons for this development. Discovery of the new trade routes to the Far East by the Europeans, being ruled by lesser padişahs after Süleyman, the Magnificent, later padişahs’ narrow vision and failure in understanding the importance and scope of Renaissance in Europe, being left behind in science and technology, resistance of some sections of the civil society1 and military2 to changes are few to mention. In essence the Ottoman Empire could not adjust itself to the new order and developments in the world. So it was declared the “the sick man” of Europe.

The Balkan wars ended with heavy Ottoman losses. The Ottoman Empire, after many defeats and territorial losses, was weak and exhausted. In this period many organizations were established due to the vacuum created by the weakness of padişahs. One of them was İttihat ve Terakki3. This organization, with its adventurous leader Enver Paşa, brought disaster upon the Empire. Enver Paşa with strong desire to gain the lost territories and expand them further towards the Central Asia had the Ottoman Empire enter to the World War I at the German Side.

At the end of World War I, the victorious Allies wanted a very weak and small Ottoman State. The Armistice of Moudros was signed on October 30, 1918. İstanbul was invaded by the English forces on March 16, 1920 and later the French joined in the invasion. The parliament in İstanbul was occupied and dissolved by the English forces and some of its members were arrested. The treaty of Sevres was signed on August 20, 1920. These agreements contained many humiliating conditions that were threat to the very existence of the Ottoman Empire and the Turks. The Europeans were finally able to draw out the Turks from most of Europe.

According to the Sevres treaty the Ottomans were losing the Arabian lands. The whole Thrace and the western part of Anatolia, including İzmir were given to the Greeks. The Greeks were also taking the eight Turkish islands. The Dodecanese (Oniki Ada) had to be given to the Italians. An independent Armenia and autonomous Kurdistan had to be established. The rest of Anatolia would be the French and Italian districts. Only a small landlocked center, whose access to the seas controlled by the Allies, would be left to the Ottomans.

Establishment of a New Republic

İzmir was invaded by the Greeks on May 15, 1919 and a resistance movement started in Anatolia. The Turks who lost confidence in the İstanbul Government’s ability to protect and defend the country started gathering around a new leader, Mustafa Kemal. He was a general in the Ottoman army. Somehow, he managed to get an assignment in Anatolia. He was sent there as an inspector. His job was to assess the situation between the Turks and Greeks. However, he was able to get more authority then a simple inspector would get and was able to bring a large team of commanders. He left İstanbul and first landed in Samsun on May 19, 1919. This date is accepted by the historians as the beginning of the struggle for the liberation of the Turkish nation. From Samsun he went to Havza and then to Amasya4 and sent messages to all the local Anatolian authorities informing the Turkish nation the dire situation it is in and asking the people to take the matter in their hands and protest the invasion. He worked hard and made plans to unite the people of Anatolia and establish a new army. The Government in İstanbul recalled him. Instead of returning he resigned from military on July, 8-9, 1919. The İstanbul government sent a general, Kazım Karabekir Paşa, to arrest him but the general did not follow the order, instead joined Mustafa Kemal in this cause. Mustafa Kemal called for a congress to meet in Sivas5 Sept 4-11, 1919, the most secure region at that time. After Sivas he moved to Ankara6 and helped establish a new parliament. The representatives from all over the country met in Ankara including some who escaped from İstanbul after its invasion. This new parliament decided to form a new government on May 3, 1920 and Mustafa Kemal informed all the foreign countries of this development and notified them that Ankara would not recognize any agreement signed by the Ottoman Government in İstanbul.

In the next three years the people of Anatolia under the leadership of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Paşa fought a fierce independence war against all the invading armies, the French, English, Italian, and others. The invaders were actually weak being just out of the devastating World War I. They did not have resources to fight. So they left Anatolia easily, one by one, accepting the sovereignty of the new Turkish government. The Russians already withdrew from the war, signed a treaty with Ankara after the Russian, October, Revolution in 1917. And finally, on August 29, 1922, one hour before the down, the Turkish army mounted a major counter attack against the Greek army, with the order of Mustafa Kemal. The Greek army was defeated on August 30. The Turkish army entered into İzmir on September 8, 1922.

Invitation of the İstanbul government in addition to the government in Ankara by the Allied powers for a meeting angered the parliament in Ankara. Mustafa Kemal took an advantage of this opportunity and proposed in the parliament that the secular and religious authorities of padişah should be separated and padişah should be stripped off his secular authority. This was a smart move since he knew that there were many conservative members in the parliament who would oppose the removal of padişah’s religious authority. The Padişah Vahdettin left İstanbul and went to San Remo and then to Malta. In his place Abdulmecit was elected as the new Caliph. This was the end of the Ottoman Empire (December 1, 1922). Vahdettin (Mehmed VI), the last Padişah of the Ottoman Empire, died in San Remo on May 16, 1926. As a confirmation of the victory of Ankara the Lausanne Peace treaty was signed on July 24, 1923. With this treaty Mustafa Kemal was able to dictate to the western powers the new borders he demanded. And the sovereignty of Ankara over the whole Anatolia and east Thrace in Europe, including Edirne was accepted by the World War I Allies. And finally the Republic of Turkey was establish on October 29, 1923 by the Turkish parliament1.

As soon as the new republic was born a cultural revolution was started by Atatürk to bring the new nation to the same level of modernization that the western nations enjoyed then. A series of reforms were initiated. Some of these were abolishment of Caliph institution (March 3, 1924), abolishment of sheriat laws and adopting new civic code based on the Swiss laws on February 17, 1926, closing medreses, replacement of the existing Ottoman script with a new one based on Latin alphabet (November 3, 1928), replacing the words with the Arabic and Persian origin with the Turkish words, switching from the Lunar to the Gregorian calendar, moving the weekly rest day from Friday to Sunday, giving women the political rights, including voting the rights, and replacing the man head cover, fes, common until then, with a European style hat2 (November 25, 1925), dressing men and women with the Western style attire and adopting the use of a surname. Mustafa Kemal took Atatürk surname. Atatürk name was given to him by the people of Turkey with a special act passed by the Parliament.

Establishing a new state is a human endeavor. Humans are not perfect, so are their accomplishments. Changes and improvements are part of the life and there is always some room for improvement. This was especially true with a young and dynamic society. Its people and the world it was in were changing. So the new republic should also change. The republic had its constitution improved and adjusted many times based on the developments of the time. The first constitution was adopted in 1921, Later it was modified in 1924, 1961, 1982, and recently in 2010.

The republic had some growing pains and got into trouble a few times in establishing democracy. One was the time when the leadership started experimenting with transitioning from a single-party system to a multi-party democracy around 1946. Eventually the multi-party system was established after some turmoil. The other one started as student protests in France around 1968 but spread throughout Europe and morphed in Turkey to a full fledged fighting between various factions and groups. Students, workers, and other sections of the society got into this extremely dangerous and self destructive struggle. Even today this struggle is going on but the Turkish society and democracy are matured enough to resolve their differences at the ballot box.

After the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk the republic survived though many events and developments. One such major event was the start of the World War II in 1945. Luckily this time, the new leaders, who learned their lessons, stayed out of the war. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established on April 4, 1949 after the World War II and Turkey joined NATO on October 17, 1951. The new republic following its founding father’s principles adopted a peaceful foreign policy and kept peace with its neighbors. One non-peaceful event was the intervention in Cyprus in 1974 to protect the Turkish community; this intervention led to the overthrow of the military regime in Athens and of Sampson in Cyprus. The Republic since then focused on the economic development to improve the quality of life of its citizens. Originally when it was founded in 1923 the economy was in a shambles and it was mostly agricultural. The leaders of the new nation started big initiatives to make this country an industrial one, just like the Western countries. Initially since there was no private capital and trained work force to create an industrial society the government took the lead. With a centralized3 planning industrialization started. However, as the private sector became mature and more foreign capital started flowing into the country the government controlled industry was slowly transitioned to private sector and a market-oriented economy flourished. This process still continues. Now Turkey is a G20 member and has one of the fastest (also competitive) growing economies in the world, operating in the markets from Afghanistan in the east to Morocco in the west. With its cultural influence 4 and soft power in the region it is ready and willing to contribute to the regional peace and stability and help solve the potential conflicts.

The Presidents of the Republic of Turkey

The first president of Turkey, Atatürk was born in Salonika1, Greece in 1881. His birth name was Mustafa Kemal. In his early formative years he was introduced to the western culture. He was not only a great general and a statesman but also a visionary. He saw that in order for the Turks to survive and excel in the new world. They have to change. So the objective of Atatürk was to build a new society, modern and western in essence and appearance, and secular2 that can compete in every aspect of life with the rest of the world. Atatürk died on November 10, 1938. After his death İsmet İnönü became the president.

The Turks owe a great deal to their leader, Atatürk, who not only founded a republic, a free country, from the ashes of an imploded and collapsed empire but also with his instincts and wisdom provided an environment so that the Turks can flourish and excel in all kinds of human endeavor. The Turks, in return, show their respect to this great leader by keeping his gift to the nation intact and his principles and his reforms alive as the way he wanted. After so many years his soul and his beliefs live in the hearts of the members of this nation.

Below is the list of the Presidents of the Turkish Republic:

  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
  • İsmet İnönü
  • Celal Bayar
  • Cemal Gürsel
  • Cevdet Sunay
  • Fahri Korutürk
  • Kenan Evren
  • Turgut Özal
  • Süleyman Demirel
  • Ahmet Necdet Sezer
  • Abdullah Gül

Sources

  1. Öztürk, Oğuz Mete, “Geçmişten Günümüze Türk Devletleri,” Nokta Kitap, Kazancı Yokuşu, Muhtar Kamil Sokak, Basmacı Han, No:5/3 Taksim, İstanbul, ISBN:978-9944-174-08-4.
  2. Ö,zkök, Rüsnü, Özkök, Mustafa Barış, “Malazgirt’ten Dumlupınar’a,” Anadolu Türk Tarihinden Sayfalar, Doğan Kitap, Doğan Egmont Yayıncılık ve Yapımcılık Tic. A.Ş., 19 Mayıs Cad. Golden Plaza, No 1. Kat 10, 34360, Şişli, İstanbul, ISBN 978-605-111-252-7, 2009.
  3. Kinross, Lord, “Atatürk, Bir Milletin Yeniden Doğuşu,” Translated by Ayhan Tezel, Sander Yayınları, İstanbul, Halaskargazi Cad. 275-277, Osmanbey, İstiklal Cad. 178, Beyoğlu, Hilal Matbaacılık Kollektif Şirketi, İstanbul, Ocak 1972.
  4. Kinross, Lord, “Osmanlı, İmparatorluğun Yükselişi ve Çöküşü,” Translated by Meral Gaspıralı, Altın Kitaplar Yayınevi, Göztepe Mah. Kazım Karabekir Cad. No 32 Mahmutbey – Bağcılar/İstanbul, ISBN 978-975-21-0955-1. Original title of the book: “The Ottoman Centuries,” Akçalı Telif Hakları Ajansı Altın Kitaplar Yayınevi ve Ticaret A.Ş. Cover Design Gülhan Taşlı, Akdeniz Yayıncılık, Göztepe Mah. Kazım Karabekir Cad. No 32 Mahmutbey – Bağcılar/İstanbul.
  5. “Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Tarihi,” Ders Notları Umuttepe Yayınları, Second Edition, Komisyon: Şener Aksu, Sıdıka Cebeci, Emin Çaycı, Kazım Çelik, Bahadır Demircan, Birol Demirci, Öznur Feyizoğlu, Vasfi; Korkmaz, Hüseyin Munyar, Oğuz Polatel, Mehmet Ulusoy, Melih Yiğit, ve Ayla Yüksel, ISBN 978-605-5936-16-7, Umut Tepe Yayın No 16, Tarih Dizisi 1, Kocaeli 2010.

This article is one in the Cultural History of Turkey series. For the description of any cultures or tribes please read that article.