Mustafa Kemal Atatrk - Research Paper Example

?Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) is one man who will go down into the pages of history among those who brought a revolution and a change of thinking among their people. Born initially in Thessaloniki (formerly Salonika) which at the time was not a part of Greece, but of the Ottoman Empire, His maiden name was Mustafa Kemal, with the title of Kemal(or perfection) given to him by his teachers for excellence in mathematics and the title of Ataturk, which stands for “the father of Turks”, was given by his people in 1934 for the reforms he introduced to create a modern Turkish country. He was from a middle class, devoutly Muslim background, with his mother following the Islamic custom of purdah, or covering of the hair. Speculation about his solitary nature and his high self-esteem along with a brazen attitude towards his teachers points at his lack of religious fervor and disagreement over his education with his parents (Armstrong). Mustafa’s parents wanted him to join a religious school, but he decided to choose a military education. Mustafa Kemal was a military officer during the Italo-Turkish War and fought the allies in a famous victory at Libya against the massive forces of the Italians. He later fought in the Balkan Wars and was promoted to colonel for his service to the Ottoman Empire. His second finest achievement on the battlefield was in World War I when he was commander of the 19th division and managed to hold off the British army. But for most Turks today, Mustafa Kemal’s finest moment on the field was his leadership role in the War of Independence (Shaw). On the 10th of August 1920, the Ottoman Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha signed the Treaty of Sevres, making the plans to partition the Ottoman Empire official. Unfortunately, this partition would result in the annexation of regions that nationalists considered to belong to them, Mustafa Kemal among them. He as part of his policy on state making pushed for nothing short of Turkey's complete independence and the protection of the interests of the Turks. Kemal convinced the Grand National Assembly or GNA, to form a National Army once it declared that the sovereignty of the state lay not with the Sultan, but with the nation itself. The purpose of this army was to fight of forces opposed to the changing hands of power in the empire. Due to this decision, Turkey, under leadership from Mustafa, fought with three different enemies- The French, Greek and Armenian forces. He was able to defeat the Armenian forces and the Greeks due to heavy influx of arms and gold from the Russian Bolshevik government. The Greeks were able to extend their occupation of Ottoman land by a considerable extent up until Mustafa Kemal pushed the forces back and eventually launched an all-out attack, made effective due to the complacency on the part of the Allies towards his growing hold over their captured territories. Unfortunately, the Armenian genocide is one blotch on Mustafa’s military record. Under the Treaty of Sevres, the Armenian population was given certain safeguards to lands claimed by them. However the Allies, knowing fully well that the Armenians would need support until they could rebuild and develop, left the people to their own devices. Kemal then breached the frontier, forced the Armenians to renounce their claims for Turkish-Armenia, break the treaty of Sevres and even cede Russian Armenian districts (Hovannisian). The atrocities conducting by Mustafa Kemal’s ruling party, through the trio of Enver, Cemal and Talat Pasha (Freedman) will forever stain his record. On the fateful day of the 29th of October 1923, the Republic of Turkey was presented to the world and with it, Mustafa Kemal Attaturk the first president of the newly born state. He then set about the task of modernizing the state of Turkey, with economic, social and political reforms that were loosely based on the successful Western states. The most noticeable, and first reform he issued, was that of the ideology of the state. Mustafa Kemal believed in the right of total independence and sovereignty. Thus he rejected the ideals of fascism and totalitarianism, and went forward with the removal of the interference by religion, on the state’s affairs- secularism. In fact theories propose that Turkey’s current standing among other Muslim Majority states is due to its split from the Sharia form of law (Kuran). Among his other political reforms, he was the one responsible for the abolishment of monarchy (Sultanate) in Turkey and Caliphate, as well as the declaration of the republic of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal’s political reforms are controversial; his social reforms have received no less productive debate in the corridors of power. As the first president he implemented the International numeric system, the metric system, and the Georgian calendar. His more prominently discussed social reforms include the abolishment of religious attire in public, the banning of religious sects’ activities, and the introduction of a secular law system. He was also known widely for his steps towards the liberation of the Turkish women, and they owe much of their current independence and equality to his groundwork. At the time of independence, an issue faced by Turkey was on the matter of which language to adopt as the official language of Turkey. There were numerous different languages spoken in the multicultural state, and further still there were languages that were the same orally, but not in writing. He thus adopted the Roman Alphabeth, and established institutions for educational reforms. These would then run his famous Unity in Education effort that commenced in 1924, while also working on the written history and language of Turkey. No discussion about a leader cum writer is complete without shedding light on his/ her revolutions. Mustafa Kemal is a national hero in his homeland for two such revolutions- The first being the one that rid Turkey of its old Ottoman geographical constraints and the latter being the one that rid it of its Ottoman ideology. As mentioned previously, Mustafa Kemal played a lead role in the Independence revolution in former Ottoman Empire. He was also the leading figure behind the ideology coined after him, called Kemalism. Kemalism follows the principles of realism and has six principles-republicanism, populism, secularism, reformism, nationalism and statism (Kili). In modern Turkey, these six arrows are considered sacrosanct and unchangeable. While Kemal Attaturk rose to become a war hero and leader for the young nation, he could not overcome his personal flaws. Divorced, and never to remarry, he adopted 13 children and succumbed to over consumption of alcohol which manifested itself in the form of cirrhosis in 1953. He left his belongings to his political party, and the funds generated from these possessions were to contribute to his sister and children as well as the two institutions he had formed (Kinross). To this day, Turks still credit much of their nation’s success to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s sound leadership and staunch ideals. He will go down in history among the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and the Committee of Five, as a man who helped liberate his people and provide them with an ideology by which to run their state of affairs. His achievements on the battlefield, and his social, political and cultural reforms will certainly not be forgotten soon; not in Turkey, and not around the world. Such was the man’s impression during his 57 years of life. He left his family, institutions he had founded, a memorial overlooking Ankara and stories of his life to the world. Bibliography Armstrong, H. C. Grey Wolf, Mustafa Kemal: An intimate study of a dictator. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1972. Freedman, Jeri. The Armenian Genocide. 1st. New York: Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 2009. Hovannisian, Richard G. The Armenian genocide in perspective. 10th Edition. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2007. Kili, Suna. Kemalsim. School of Business Admnistration and Economics, Robert College, 1969. Kinross, Patrick Balfour. Ataturk: A biography of Mustafa Kemal, father of modern Turkey. New York: Morrow, 1965. Kuran, Timur. The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East. Princeton University Press, 2010. Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 2, Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey 1808-1975. 1st Edition. Vol. Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, 1977. Read More