Turkey's standard for secular government was put in place by Kemal Ataturk.
Turkey has been a secular state since it was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923 . Turkey . The Turkish War of Independence ( 1919 -- 1922 ) , initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues against the occupying Allies , resulted in the abolition of monarchy in 1922 and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 , with Atatürk as its first president . Atatürk enacted numerous reforms , many of which incorporated various aspects of Western thought , philosophy , and customs into the new form of Turkish government .