ATATURK'S PRINCIPLES
AND REFORMS
 Republicanism

In a republican regime, honesty is of crucial importance for both
the rulers and the ruled, and the relations of both sides with each
other is very important. In this way, the republic will defend
itself against interior and exterior dangers with tight measures
limited with the principles of the republican regime. This frame
must not be overrun. Otherwise a gap between the republic and the
nation will occur. The biggest sufferer in this case will be the
Republic itself. For this reason a republican regime has to be smart
at all times. Freedom and its applications are limited with the
rules of democracy in the countries that adopt this system. Nobody
has unlimited rights in republics ruled by democracy. The regimes
ruled with non-limited rights and laws cannot be classified as
democracy or Republic. In democracy and democratic republican rights
of the public and individual freedoms are limited with laws and
their borders are marked with justice. Populism The Kemalist
revolution was also a social revolution in term of its content and
goals. This was a revolution led by an elite with an orientation
towards the people in general. The Kemalist reforms brought about a
revolutionary change in the status of women through the adoption of
Western codes of law inTurkey, in particular the Swiss Civil Code.
Moreover, women received the right to vote in 1934. Atatürk stated
on a number of occasions that the true rulers of Turkey were the
peasants. This was actually a goal rather than a reality in Turkey.
In fact, in the official explanation given to the principle of
populism it was stated that Kemalism was against class privileges
and class distinctions and it recognized no individual, no family,
no class and no organization as being above others. Kemalist
ideology was, in fact, based on supreme value of Turkish citizenship.
A sense of pride associated with this citizenship would give the
needed psychological spur to the people to make them work harder and
to achieve a senseofunityand national identity.

 Secularism

His ideas about religion were not too different from a noble and
sincere member of the religious organization. He was never an
opponent of religion. He believed that religion was necessary for
the public but he was against the replacement of law, logic,
mentality with religion. He was opposed to merchants of religion,
fundamentalists and those who wanted to rule the public with
superstitions. Religion was a holy concept to be kept in the one's
conscience. Setting off with these ideas, on January 31, 1923 he
said the following: "Our religion is a most natural and logical one
and it is for this reason that it is the last of religions. In order
for a religion to be natural it must co-exist with science,
knowledge and logic. Our religion completely complies with these
prerequisites. Above, we defined that secularity is the separation
of State and religious affairs but this does not mean that everybody
can do everything about religion without the interference of the
State. Moreover, State power may be used for any belief system. In
this case the freedom of conscience will be obliterated for
believers and non-believers." Atatürk was aware of the very big
problems to be eliminated in order to flee from being an undeveloped
society. For him, every contemporary attempt had to include the
principle of secularism. Sultanate, caliphate, sharia, religious
education and capitulations had to be obliterated. The ideas people
create relevant to themselves and their environment are partially in
the form of BELİEF and partially KNOWLEDGE.

 Reformism

One of the most important principles that Atatürk formulated was the
principle of reformism or revolutionism. This principle meant that
Turkey made reforms and that the country replaced traditional
institutions with modern institutions. It meant that traditional
concepts were eliminated and modern concepts were adopted. The
principle of reformism went beyond the recognition of the reforms
which were made.

 Nationalism

Turkish people were changed to a nation from being a religious
community by Atatürk. Atatürk's confidence in the Nation was
unlimited. He defended the idea that every revolution would be
achieved with the Nation but not despite the Nation. His belief was
that every novelty would exist eternally only if it adapted by the
Nation. He kept repeating that whoever identified himself as a "Turk"
within the boundaries of the country represented the "Turkish Nation"
and that the Nation would be called so. Sovereignity will
unconditionally belong to the nation No power, external or internal
strength would be able to confiscate this from the hands of the
Nation. The nation would be educated to sacrifice their lives when
necessary.

 Statism

Kemal Atatürk made clear in his statements and policies that
Turkey's complete modernization was very much dependent on economic
and technological development. The principle of statism was
interpreted to mean that the state was to regulate the country's
general economic activity and the state was to engage in areas where
private enterprise was not willing to do so, or where private
enterprise had proved to be inadequate, or if national interest
required it. In the application of the principle of statism, however,
the state emerged not only as the principle source of economic
activity but also as the owner of the major industries of the
country.

 ATATURK'S REFORMS

 The New Language

The most difficult change in any society is probably a language
reform. Most nations never attempt it; those who do, usually prefer
a gradual approach. Under Atatürk's Leadership, Turkey undertook the
modern world's swiftest and most extensive language reform. In 1928,
when he decided that the Arabic script, which had been used by the
Turks for a thousand years, should be replaced with the Latin
alphabet. He asked the experts: " How long would it take ? " Most of
them replied: " At least five years. " " We shall do it ," Atatürk
said," within five months "

 The Clothing Reform

With the clothing reform, women stopped wearing veils; they started
to wear modern women 's clothing. Men started to wear hats rather
than the fez.

 Secularist Reforms

In 1922 the new nationalist regime abolished the Ottoman sultanate ,
and in 1924 it abolished the caliphate , which the Ottoman sultanate
had held for centuries. Thus, for the first time in Islamic history,
no ruler claimed the spiritual leadership of Islam ; this was still
the case in the late 1980s. The withdrawal of Turkey , heir to the
Ottoman Empire , as the presumptive leader of the world Muslim
community was symbolic of the change in Turkey 's relation to Islam.
Secularism or laicism (Laiklik in Turkish) was one of the " Six
Arrows " of Atatürk 's blueprint for modern Turkey ; these founding
principles of the republic, usually referred to as Atatürkism or
Kemalism , were the basis for many of the early republican reforms.
As Islam had formed the identity of the Ottoman Empire and its
subjects, so secularism molded the new Turkish nation and its
citizens. Establishment of secularism in Turkey was a process of
distinguishing church from state or the religious from the
nonreligious spheres of life. In the Ottoman Empire , all spheres of
life were theoretically ruled by religious law, and religious
organizations did not exist apart from the state. The reforms
bearing directly on religion were numerous. They included the
abolition of the caliphate ; abolition of the office of seyhülislam
( Islamic ruler); abolition of the religious hierarchy; closing and
confiscation of the dervish lodges, meeting places, and monasteries
and outlawing of their rituals and meetings; establishment of
government control over the Evkaf, which had been inalienable under
Sheriat ( Islamic rules); replacement of Sheriat with adapted
European legal codes; closing of the religious schools ( Medresses
); changing from the Islamic to the Western calendar; outlawing the
fez for men and frowning on the veil for women , both garments
associated with religious tradition; and outlawing the traditional
garb of local religious leaders. The nationalist regime made
attempts to give religion a more modern and more national form. The
state also supported use of Turkish rather than Arabic at devotions
and the substitution of the Turkish word Tanri for the Arabic word
Allah . The opposition, however, was strong enough to ensure that
Arabic remained the language of prayer . In 1932, for example, the
government 's determination that Turkish be used in the call to
prayer from the minarets was not well accepted and in 1934 it
returned to the Arabic version of the call to prayer . Most notably,
the Hagia Sophia (church of the Holy Wisdom, the Byzantine Emperor
Justinian's sixth century basilica, which was converted into a
mosque by Mehmed II ) was made into a museum.

 Woman's Right

With abiding faith in the vital importance of women in society,
Atatürk launched many reforms to give Turkish women equal rights and
opportunities. The new Civil Code, adopted in 1926, abolished
polygamy and recognized the equal rights of women in divorce,
custody, and inheritance. The entire educational system from the
grade school to the university became coeducational. Atatürk greatly
admired the support that the national liberation struggle received
from women and praised their many contributions: " In Turkish
society, women have not lagged behind men in science, scholarship,
and culture. Perhaps they have even gone further ahead. " He gave
women the same opportunities as men, including full political rights.
In the mid-1930s, 18 women, among them a villager, were elected to
the national parliament. Later, Turkey had the world's first women
supreme court justice.

 Ataturk's Works on Turkish
History
Following the reform of the script
, which was meant to be a kind of nationalism in the cultural field,
Atatürk concentrated his attention on history. He established the
Turkish Historical Society in 1931. Here, Turkey 's history was
thoroughly examined and evaluated.