Atatürk's reforms ( or ), also referred to as the Turkish Revolution (), were a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes, designed to transform the new Republic of Turkey into a secular, modern nation-state, implemented under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in accordance with the Kemalist framework. The principal political entity, the Republican People's Party (CHP), ruled Turkey as a one-party state from 1923 to 1945, with several exceptions of attempts for a multi-party democracy.Following Atatürk's death in 1938, his successor İsmet İnönü took over the leadership and integrated further Kemalist reforms. İnönü's work was, however, stranded by World War II. The CHP eventually lost the elections to the Democratic Party in 1950, putting an end to the Turkish Revolution.
Central to the reforms was the belief that Turkish society had to modernize, which meant implementing widespread reform affecting not only politics, but the economic, social, educational, and legal spheres of Turkish society.S. N. Eisenstadt, "The Kemalist Regime and Modernization: Some Comparative and Analytical Remarks," in J. Landau, ed., Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1984, 3–16. The reforms involved a number of fundamental institutional changes that brought an end to many traditions, and followed a carefully planned program to unravel the complex system that had developed over previous centuries.Jacob M. Landau "Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey", page 57.
The reforms began with the modernization of the constitution, including enacting the new Constitution of 1924 to replace the Constitution of 1921, and the adaptation of European laws and jurisprudence to the needs of the new republic. This was followed by a thorough secularization and modernization of the administration, with a particular focus on the education system. The literacy rate within the Republic of Turkey, rose from 9% to 33% in only 10 years.
The elements of the political system envisioned by Atatürk's Reforms developed in stages, but by 1928, when the last part of Atatürk's Reforms removed the reference to Islam in the Constitution, Turkey became a secular (2.1) and democratic (2.1), republic (1.1) that derives its sovereignty (6.1) from the people. Turkish sovereignty rests with the Turkish Nation, which delegates its will to an elected unicameral parliament (position in 1935), the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The preamble also invokes the principles of nationalism, defined as the "material and spiritual well-being of the Republic" (position in 1935). The basic nature of the Republic is laïcité (2), social equality (2), equality before law (10), and the indivisibility of the Republic and of the Turkish Nation (3.1)." Thus, it set out to found a unitary nation-state (position in 1935) with separation of powers based on the principles of secular democracy.
Historically, Atatürk's reforms follow the Tanzimât ("reorganization") period of the Ottoman Empire, that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876,Cleveland, William L & Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East: 4th Edition, Westview Press: 2009, p. 82. Abdul Hamid II's authoritarian regime from 1878 to 1908 that introduced large reforms in education and the bureaucracy, as well as the Ottoman Empire's experience in prolonged political pluralism and rule of law by the Young Turks during the Second Constitutional Era from 1908 to 1913, and various efforts made to secularize and modernize the empire in the Committee of Union and Progress's one party state from 1913 to 1918.
Goals
National unity The goal of Atatürk's reforms was to maintain the independence of Turkey from the direct rule of external forces (Allies of World War I). The process was not utopian (in the sense that it is not one leader's idea of how a perfect society should be, but it is a unifying force of a nation), in that Atatürk united the Turkish Muslim majority from 1919 to 1922 in the Turkish War of Independence, and expelled foreign forces occupying what the Turkish National Movement considered to be the Turkish homeland. That fighting spirit became the unifying force which established the identity of a new state, and in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, ending the Ottoman Empire and internationally recognizing the newly founded Republic of Turkey. From 1923 to 1938, a series of radical political and social reforms were instituted. They transformed Turkey and ushered in a new era of modernization, including civil and political equality for sectarian minorities and women.
Reformation of Islam The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state in which the head of the state, the Sultan, also held the position of Caliph. The social system was organized around the millet structure. The millet structure allowed a great degree of religious, cultural, and ethnic continuity across the society, but at the same time permitted the religious ideology to be incorporated into the administrative, economic, and political system. - Cited: p. 72
There were two sections of the elite group at the helm of the discussions for the future. These were the "Islamist reformists" and the "Westernists". Many basic goals were common to both groups. Some secular intellectuals, and even certain reform-minded Muslim thinkers, accepted the view that social progress in Europe had followed the Protestant Reformation, as expressed in François Guizot's Histoire de la civilisation en Europe (1828). The reform-minded Muslim thinkers concluded from the Lutheran experience that the reform of Islam was imperative. Abdullah Cevdet, İsmail Fenni Ertuğrul, and Kılıçzâde İsmail Hakkı (İsmail Hakkı Kılıçoğlu), who were Westernist thinkers, took their inspiration rather from the subsequent marginalization of religion in European societies. To them, a reformed religion had only a temporary role to play as an instrument for the modernization of society, after which it would be cast aside from public life and limited to personal life.
Modernization
The Young Turks and other Ottoman intellectuals asked the question of the position of the empire regarding the West (primarily taken to mean Christian Europe). The West represented intellectual and scientific ascendancy, and provided the blueprint for the ideal society of the future.
Political reforms
Republicanism
Until the proclamation of the republic, the Ottoman Empire was still in existence, with its heritage of religious and dynastic authority. The Ottoman monarchy was abolished by the Ankara Government, but its traditions and cultural symbols remained active among the people (though less so among the elite).
On 1 November 1922, the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly and Sultan Mehmed VI departed the country. This allowed the Turkish nationalist government in Ankara to become the sole governing entity in the nation. The most fundamental reforms allowed the Turkish nation to exercise popular sovereignty through representative democracy. The Republic of Turkey ("Türkiye Cumhuriyeti") was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
The Turkish Constitution of 1921 was the fundamental law of Turkey for a brief period. It was ratified by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in the middle of the Turkish War of Independence. It was a simple document consisting of only 23 short articles. The major driving force behind the preparation of the 1921 Constitution was that its sovereignty derived from the nation and not from the Sultan, the absolute monarch of the Ottoman Empire. The 1921 Constitution also served as the legal basis for the Turkish War of Independence during 1919–1923, since it refuted the principles of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1918 signed by the Ottoman Empire, by which a great majority of the Empire's territory would have to be ceded to the Entente powers that had won the First World War. In October 1923 the constitution was amended to declare Turkey to be a republic.
In April 1924, the constitution was replaced by an entirely new document, the Turkish Constitution of 1924.
Civic independence (popular sovereignty) The establishment of popular sovereignty involved confronting centuries-old traditions. The reform process was characterized by a struggle between progressives and conservatives. The changes were both conceptually radical and culturally significant. In the Ottoman Empire, the people of each millet had traditionally enjoyed a degree of autonomy, with their own leadership, collecting their own taxes and living according to their own system of religious/cultural law. The Ottoman Muslims had a strict hierarchy of ulama, with the Sheikh ul-Islam holding the highest rank. A Sheikh ul-Islam was chosen by a royal warrant among the qadis of important cities. The Sheikh ul-Islam issued fatwas, which were written interpretations of the Quran that had authority over the community. The Sheikh ul-Islam represented the law of shariah. This office was in the Evkaf Ministry. Sultan Mehmed VI's cousin Abdulmecid II continued on as Ottoman Caliph.
Besides the political structure; as a part of civic independence, religious education system was replaced by a national education system on 3 March 1924, and The Islamic courts and Islamic canon law gave way to a secular law structure based on the Swiss Civil Code, which is detailed under their headings.
Abolition of Caliphate (1924) and Millet System
Reformers followed the European model (French model) of secularization. In the European model of secularizing; states typically involves granting individual religious freedoms, disestablishing state religions, stopping public funds to be used for a religion, freeing the legal system from religious control, freeing up the education system, tolerating citizens who change religion or abstain from religion, and allowing political leadership to come to power regardless of religious beliefs.Jean Baubérot The secular principle In establishing a secular state, the Ottoman Caliphate, held by the Ottomans since 1517, was abolished and to mediate the power of religion in the public sphere (including recognized minority religions in the Treaty of Lausanne) left to the Directorate for Religious Affairs. Under the reforms official recognition of the Ottoman millets withdrawn. Shar’iyya wa Awqaf Ministry followed the Office of Caliphate. This office was replaced by the Presidency of Religious Affairs.
The abolishing of the position of Caliphate and Sheikh ul-Islam was followed by a common, secular authority. Many of the religious communities failed to adjust to the new regime. This was exacerbated by emigration or impoverishment, due to deteriorating economic conditions. Families that hitherto had financially supported religious community institutions such as hospitals and schools stop doing so.
Directorate for Religious Affairs Atatürk's reforms define laïcité (as of 1935) as permeating both the government and the religious sphere. Minority religions, like the Armenian or Greek Orthodoxy are guaranteed protection by the constitution as individual faiths (personal sphere), but this guarantee does not give any rights to any religious communities (social sphere). (This differentiation applies to Islam and Muslims as well. Atatürk's reforms, as of 1935, assume the social sphere is secular.) The Treaty of Lausanne, the internationally binding agreement of the establishment of the Republic, does not specify any nationality or ethnicity. Treaty of Lausanne simply identifies non-Muslims in general and provides the legal framework which gives certain explicit religious rights to Jews, Greeks, and Armenians without naming them.