Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal was the founder and the first president of the Turkish Republic. With his modern perspectives, he transformed Turkey into a whole new nation. According to a source, Mustafa Kemal "brought the Turks out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire". It was an Empire that "was seen as the sick man of Europe at the turn of the century." Mustafa was known as a strong charismatic military leader amongst the Turks and many nations at large. Although he was a well known military leader, he was more known for leading Turkey through their national liberation struggles. He did this by first putting an end to the Ottoman dynasty, that was around for about six centuries and created what is now known as the Turkish Republic, hence creating a new government and a new way of living for the Turkish community. Since he was now the new leader of the Turkish society, he had to enforce some new ways of life. He believed that "the traditional way of running Muslim countries had outlived itself, and that Turkey's chances of surviving the future as well as gaining new strength would only be achieved through adopting principles from the European countries........". He did these reforms by imposing a new form of clothing, he made it that men stop wearing a fev on their head, and start to wear what is known as a hat instead. He also wanted them to wear ties and trousers just like the European society. He also introduced a new form of Latin alphabet for Turkish. He promoted equality of all citizens regardless of their religion and helped to fight for the rights of women and the education of the lower classes. One major change he made was introducing a political system that was the exact replica of the Western systems. The different was that he only allowed his own Republican People's party, he didn't believe in pluralism. His reforms within the Turkish Republic, helped to make Turkey a more secular place, meaning a more worldly place. His achievements in modernizing Turkey, lead to have the honorable title as "Ataturk", meaning "Father of the Turks", which was bestowed upon him by the National Assembly. On November 10,1938, Mustafa Kemal died at the age 57. Even though he died at a young age he will still be remembered as the one who brought Turkey through their struggles and shape them into the society they are today.