What role did Mustafa Kemal Atatürk play in Turkish history?

Answer 1

He is probably the most important person in the history of modern Turkey and revered by numerous Turks similarly to how George Washington is viewed in the United States.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was primarily a soldier in the Ottoman Army, serving with distinction in the Italo-Turkish War, Balkans Wars, World War I, and the Turkish War of Independence. He is particularly famous for his leadership of the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Gallipoli and successfully preventing the ANZAC forces (Allies) from establishing a foothold along the Bosporus.

After the First World War, he joined with the Young Turks, the Turkish revolutionary organization committed to overthrowing the Ottoman Sultanate and quickly rose in the ranks to become one of its leaders. Although the Young Turks were also responsible for the Armenian Genocide in 1915-1917, Atatürk served primarily in Eastern Thrace (Gallipoli and Edirne) and therefore had limited involvement in the genocide.

The Treaty of Versailles effectively dismembered the Ottoman Empire, leaving them with the territory now occupied by the modern state of Turkey. However, much of that state was in a French, British, or Italian sphere of influence, making the Ottoman Empire sit on the precipice of Western colonization. Atatürk led the remainder of the Ottoman Empire in a war against this quasi-colonization of Turkey. This war, called the Turkish War of Independence, resulted in Turkey preventing the development of these spheres of influence. He then turned the army on the Ottoman sultans and realized the Young Turk dream of establishing the modern Republic of Turkey.

He then became the First President of Turkey from 1923-1938 (when he died) and began to modernize the country in new and innovative ways, making the country more Westernized. Many Turks consider these improvements to have directly led to Turkish success as a country where most of the Islamic World is significantly poorer or sustained only by oil riches. Mustafa Kemal made the following reforms to modernize Turkey while he was a president:

• separated the laws of Islam from the laws of the nation
• replaced the old Muslim calender with the Gregorian calender
• abolished religious courts and created a new legal system based on European law as opposed to the previous system based on the Islamic law code
• granted women the right to vote and to hold public office
• launched government-funded programs to industrialize Turkey and to spur the economic growth
• attempted to modernize Turkey by banning the Fez which was of Greek origin
• marriage was considered civil and not religious and polygamy was abolished
• women were given the right to vote in all elections

Additionally, as president, he managed to resolve the majority of Greco-Turkish issues, which had previously erupted into no fewer than five wars in a century. He made an accord with Greek Statesman Eleftherios Venizelos to repatriate Turks in Greece if the Greeks would repatriate Greeks in Turkey. While tensions still remained high between Turkey and Greece, the two countries would not go to war again except in Cyprus.