i dont remeber when was that?>!!?!?!?! btw heres a paper i wrote awhile ago
The Path To Prosperity: The Forced Modernization of Turkey
Max Heath
Modern World History, Period F
April 23, 2001
Between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, Turkey transformed from a traditional Islamic Middle Eastern society into a modern westernized society as a result of reforms caused by a military elite revolution from below which gradually changed to conservative modernization from above, establishing itself as a model of Arabian nationalism. Turkey’s liberation from European imperialism and establishment of its own independent nation-state by Turkish military elite took place in the Middle East during the early twentieth century. Turkey’s age of transition, elite revolution and transformation to a model of westernization as a result of conservative reforms will be analyzed in a chronological approach.
From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire declined from its world power status, creating Turkish nationalism; the foundation for the rising Turkish republic. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak under the rule of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent in the 1500’s. His numerous foreign campaigns such as his plundering of Spain and acquisition of Belgrade and Rhodes in the 1520’s strengthened the image of the Ottoman Empire and made it a fearsome world power in the sixteenth century. Suleyman’s extensive system of law gave the Ottoman Empire inner strength and was a foundation for future Turkish governments and an influence to foreign governments. Suleyman’s death in 1566 marked the end of the Ottoman empire’s zenith and signaled the start of its decline. Ottoman military decline was foreshadowed in the seventeenth century. Final Turkish acquisitions were accomplished at this time, and defeat was soon to come. The first major signs of Ottoman decline were apparent in the eighteenth century. During this period, the Ottoman empire was plagued by attacks from its various enemies, including Russia, Poland, Austria and Persia. The most significant of the Turkish wars at this time was the Russo-Ottoman War of 1768-74 (Goodwin, 79-89). The Ottoman Empire suffered a humiliating defeat to the Russians in this conflict and, in addition, was forced to sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kaynarja, which caused the removal of Ottoman troops in the Crimea, allowed Russian ships to sail freely in Ottoman waters and awarded Ottoman reparations to Russia. This defeat was one of many factors that sparked talk in Europe of “The Eastern Question,” which was the question of how Europe could best exploit the decline of the once-powerful Ottoman Empire without giving the upper hand to any European country, thereby upsetting European political balance (Metz, 23). Europe subsequently used wars during the nineteenth century such as the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) to ‘divide and conquer’ the Ottoman Empire. A series of wars with Egypt, Russia and much of Europe, combined with the Ottoman empire’s crippling financial crisis as a result of heavy borrowing from foreign countries (Metz, 26) hurt the Ottoman Empire and it became a divided possession of Europe by the twentieth century. The weak status of the Ottoman Empire resulted in Turkish nationalism, manifested in the creation of the Young Turks. This nationalist political group, also known as the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), founded by Mustafa Kemal (“Kemal”) among others in 1907, strove to reform the Turkish government to resemble the short-lived republican democracy of the Constitution of 1876, temporarily enforced by Sultan Abdül Hamid II as a ploy to gain power. As tensions for World War I escalated, the weak Ottoman Empire was swept into alliance with the Central Powers. The Ottoman Empire was defeated in 1918. Thus, a once mighty Empire declined and fell, and the resulting inner conflict set the stage for Kemal’s subsequent military elite revolution from below.
As the Ottoman Empire weakened and declined, progressive nationalist groups saw the need for the establishment of an independent, westernized Turkish state. The nationalist movement, begun by groups such as the Young Turks in the early 1900’s, had gained great momentum by the end of the first World War, and, with Turkey’s defeat, gained another reason for dissent in Turkish government. The Sultan had been captured by the Allies and there was an outcry for a new, bold leader who would bring about reform. It soon became clear that the leader of the progressive nationalist movement in Turkey would be the Macedonian soldier-statesman founder of the Young Turks, Mustafa Kemal “Kemal.” Having led several successful military endeavors during the War in spite of the Ottoman Empire’s defeat, Kemal’s record was clean and he had won the support of both his soldiers and the general Turkish public (Metz, 31.) Aware of his role, Kemal devoted himself to the cause of Turkish nationalism. He began by taking advantage of the new telegraph system in Turkey to spread the message of nationalism. Kemal sent messages to every authority involved in the nationalist movement, instructing them to organize protest rallies as well as to appeal to the Sublime Porte en masse to demand justice (Kinross, 192). Kemal also targeted the British presence in Turkey, sending a steady stream of telegrams to the War Ministry, complaining that the British, “had reinforced their troops in the area without notifying the Turkish authorities; they were planning to move more units into the interior, in defiance of the armistice terms; they were aiding and abetting the Greek partisans, who sought further Allied occupation and the creation of a Greek state of Pontus (Kinross, 192).” Kemal presided over a nationalist congress meeting in Erzurum in July 1919. At this meeting, the nationalist congress introduced its uncomprimisable guidelines for a nationalist movement, the National Pact. However, this request was denied by the Ottoman government, and further appeals by the nationalist congress failed (Metz, 34). Realizing that negotiations would not advance the nationalist cause, Kemal decided that an elite revolution was the only option. Switching his role from politician to general, he led his people into battle against the Greeks, who occupied much of Turkey. Kemal announced to those involved in the Turkish nationalist movement that, “...we must withdraw to the mountains, we must defend the country to the last rock. If it is the will of God that we be defeated, we must set fire to all our homes, to all our property; we must lay the country in ruins and leave it an empty desert (Kinross, 198).” Kemal, with the enthusiastic support of his numerous followers engaged the Greeks first in guerrilla warfare in the year of 1920 with success. In 1921, Kemal was able to devote more forces to the war for independence, as Italy and France, impressed by the strength of Kemal’s military efforts, withdrew their forces from Turkey. After obtaining several key victories in 1921, Turkish forces finished off the Greeks by October of 1922 (Metz, 34-35). The nationalist military campaign being successful, Kemal then turned his attention to the political aspects of the struggle. The Grand National Assembly convened in November of 1922. In this meeting, the Assembly abolished the position of sultan. The Assembly also declared that “the Ottoman regime had ceased to be the government of Turkey when the Allies seized the capital in 1920, in effect abolishing the Ottoman Empire (Metz, 35).” Turkey had gained its independence. Kemal, having accomplished his first objective, immediately immersed himself in his next one: to strengthen and modernize the newly independent Turkey from above. Kemal announced that Turkey was to be a republic; a highly controversial notion, as it went against all the values of the traditional Muslim state. Controversy ensued from all sides as a result of the threat of change (Kinross, 431). However, Kemal was able to calm the fears of the Turkish people. With the help of Ismet Pasha, the future prime minister of Turkey, Kemal drafted the constitution of Turkey, which outlined the basic aspects of the Republic: “Its President would be head of state and would be elected by the Grand National Assembly. He would appoint the Prime Minister, who would then appoint the other ministers, with the approval but no longer on the initiative of the Assembly (Kinross, 433).” Kemal made his intentions clear and, as a result of his persuasive public speeches, was unanimously elected President of the Turkish Republic by the Assembly on October 29, 1923, thereby founding the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi - CHP) to represent the nationalists in future elections (Metz, 38). Upon election, Kemal immediately began his program of rigorous radical reforms. The basis of these reforms was what he called the “Six Arrows of Kemalism:” “...republicanism, nationalism, populism, reformism, statism and secularism (Metz, 37).” Kemal realized that was West was powerful by no coincidence and so he based much of his reforms on the Western example. He urged the people of Turkey to act as Europeans. He encouraged the wearing of European-style garments as well as the adoption of surnames. Thus, Mustafa Kemal became known as Kemal Ataturk (Metz, 36). He made many sweeping reforms to secularize the Republic, seeing that modernism tended to emphasize nature over religion. The caliphate was abolished and traditional religious schools closed to be replaced by schools based on natural law. In 1928 the state was officially declared secular. Ataturk instituted many social and linguistic reforms as well. He saw that the use of a vernacularism strengthened the nation and gave way to higher productivity and unity. Kemal agreed with Ziya Gokalp, a Turkish thinker, who wrote, in the late 19th century, that, “...the substance of all aspects of social life – such as religion, morality, law, politics, economics, and fine arts – is language. Language is the basis of social life, the texture of morality, the substratum of culture and civilization (Gokalp, 82).” And so, under Kemal’s rule, the new Turkish alphabet was adopted and was to be used in all aspects of Turkish life, including the Islamic call to worship. Kemal also saw that diversity and equality between men and women would strengthen the nation. The veiling of women was discouraged. Divorce laws were reformed, outlawing polygamy and instating civil marriage and women were given suffrage and the right to hold office (Metz, 37). Ataturk strategically and successfully reformed Turkish foreign policy as well, negotiating and signing numerous friendship treaties with over fifteen foreign states. He also united Turkey with Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia, in the 1940s, giving the Republic much-needed military aid during the rise of fascist and Nazi powers. By Ataturk’s death in 1938, Turkey had been transformed from a traditional, weak, disintegrating empire to a flourishing modernizing Republic. With Ataturk’s passing, the question arose whether the nation would continue to progress as a strong nation under new leaders. Conservative modernization had succeeded, but was it destined to collapse as the conservative Ottoman Empire had? Was the governmental system stable enough to outlive its creator? The world anticipated the emergence of the modern Turkish Republic as the nation itself wondered if it could keep up with foreign powers in a rapidly progressing world.
As Turkey completed its age of transition to the modern world, the next step for the Republic was to evolve into a democratic, capitalistic nation-state as a member of an inter-connected global society. After Ataturk’s death, fears for the stability of the new Republic were quieted by the smooth transition of power to his successor, Ismet Inonu, elected by the Assembly in 1939. But the stability of Turkey was to be put to the test once again in the coming years during World War II. Inonu took immediate decisive action as tensions began to rise in Europe. Believing strongly that the Axis powers could not defeat the Allies, Inonu gave his support to the latter by signing a treaty of mutual assistance with France and Britain in 1939. Under Inonu’s competent leadership, Turkey remained strategically neutral until the last few months of the war in 1945, when it officially declared war on Germany, in order to participate in the Conference on International Organization (Metz, 40). In doing so, Turkey became one of the fifty-one members of the newly created United Nations (UN), thereby opening connections with the rest of the world. Turkey’s position as a member of the UN gave rise to calls for more democracy. Turkey’s political system was modernized with the formation of the Democrat Party (DP), headed by former Prime Minister Bayar and Adnan Menderes (Metz, 40). Turkey now could boast a multiparty political system, a sign of a modern, democratic society. The new party quickly gained support; members of the DP were elected to sixty-two seats out of the 465 in the assembly at the general elections in 1946. Support for the DP gained great momentum and, by 1950, the DP held 408 seats while the CHP held only sixty-nine. The heads of the DP, Bayer and Menderes, were elected president and prime minister, respectively. This marked the end of the CHP’s political dominance, which had lasted since the founding of the Turkish Republic (Metz, 42). But as the DP gained support, tensions escalated between the two rival parties in Turkey. The CHP harbored deep resentment as a result of their defeat. Thus, as the new DP members took their places in office, they immediately found themselves in the crossfire of attack from their opponents, causing them to pass laws to antagonize the CHP. Of these laws, the Press Laws had the most impact. In 1954, the DP declared that “the publication of false news or information or documents affecting the state’s political and financial prestige or causing the disturbance of the public order, (Eren, 34)” was a crime, regardless of whether the information contained any truth. This law echoed the censorship associated with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy in the 1940’s; a governmental tactic that has almost always led to public outrage and revolution throughout history. The DP took other measures to secure its dominance and strength against defamation. In the same year, the Party passed a law to give the government the power to retire judges and professors after twenty-five years of service. This meant that professors, who generally were a powerful force for political freedom, had lost their immunity from political pressure (Eren, 34-35). The DP’s rule began to resemble the European and Soviet dictatorships of the 1930s and 1940s even further when, in the same year, it passed an amendment prohibiting ballot with names from more than one party. This was one step short of a one party system (Eren, 35). One party systems are synonymous with the tyrannical regimes like those of Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, and symbolized a great step backwards in Turkey’s political development. The virtually unopposed DP felt no reason to stop there, passing many more such laws in subsequent years. Next, it passed a law to give the government the power to retire any civil servants for any reason. In 1956, the terms of the Press Law were amended, giving politicians immuni |
