veloped a new Turkish language from scratch
Another significant accomplishment of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk came in the form of a completely new Turkish language. In 1928, he replaced Arabic script with Latin alphabets. Overnight, educated people who could read and write all of a sudden became illiterates. Realizing how daunting the task was, Kemal worked very hard, offering incentives for people to learn the new language.
His efforts paid off eventually. After about a decade or so, Turkey could boast of having one of the highest literacy rates among former Ottoman era countries.
Kemal even took the habit of personally teaching people in the villages (Koy) everything about the new language, i.e. pronunciation of the letters, grammar, and vocabulary.
He passed the law that encouraged people to take western-style names
The law passed by the Turkish Parliament in 1934 called on all Turks to take up surnames. Many Turks were also encouraged to select western-style names and clothes. And as for Kemal Mustafa, his surname “Ataturk” was particularly chosen for him by the Turkish Parliament. The name translates into “Father of the Turks”. He is undoubtedly the greatest reformer Turkey has ever seen.
He moved Turks’ attention and loyalty from religion to the state
In a bid to reduce the extensive power religious leaders had on the people, Kemal closed a number of religious schools and courts. People’s loyalty started to move from religion to the state.
He also abolished the wearing of head covering at public institutions with his wife Latife Hanim leading the reforms for gender issues.
As it was expected, Kemal was met with some pockets of resistance from the religious community. Bear in mind, the country was an extremely homogenous group that now had to embrace secularism and statism. It was quite a hard pill to swallow for many traditionalist and religious leaders. Some of these leaders had their organizations banned in order to make way for the reforms.
President of the Republican People’s Party
To help him carry out his daunting task of reforming the entire country, Mustafa Kemal set up the Republican People’s Party on August 9, 1923, a party which he would serve as the president until his death in 1938.
His ideas of reforms were beautifully captured in the party’s tenets – “Six Arrows”, which were republicanism, nationalism, statism and industralization, populism, secularism, and revolution.
He was successful at creating a system that ensured that the country remained in perpetual revolution. He hoped this would enable Turkey remain an economic and political powerhouse in region for the foreseeable future.
Other memorable accomplishments of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- He helped draft the Turkish constitution in 1937
- He adopted a friendly stance towards European countries. For example, he signed treaties with Great Britain and Greece in 1926 and 1930 respectively.
- Atatürk worked hard to resolve all border and maritime disputes with neighboring countries. He also allowed minority Greek populations to move to Greece.
- Kemal Mustafa quashed any attempt to destabilize the country. This included the time when plotters wanted to assassinate Kemal. He also put down the Kurds’ revolt of 1925.
- He made primary education free and compulsory as well. Huge investments were made in the educational sector.
- Kemal allowed for the creation of an opposition party, which was led by his longtime friend Ali Fethi in 1930.
- He created a homogeneous Turkish identity and culture that still lives on to this day.
His images appear virtually everywhere in Turkey – in homes, schools, offices, factories, government buildings, etc. His image is plastered on every bank note and coin in Turkey. And his words are often committed to memory by school children across the country. Owing to his numerous accomplishments and dedication to his country, he remains an ever-present figure in the Turkey, even after close to a century since his death. He is an unquestioned national hero – truly one of the greatest leaders that graced the 20th century.
How did Mustafa Ke