Economic independence…

Our Republic has entered its 101st year. 

May it be celebrated. 

With the enlightenment revolution, the great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who “fit a century into a year,” brought equality, freedom, law, democracy, secularism, scientific education, and independence to these lands. Of course, the road to the proclamation of the republic and to independence was never easy… Is it ever possible to make a revolution easily? Certainly not. On one hand, wars; on the other, negotiations at the table… A state trying to be established, a society trying to become a nation… First, it would gain the consciousness of citizenship, then it would stand up, produce, develop, and progress… Moreover, while trying to achieve all this, it was a people exhausted by wars, having consumed everything they had, with low literacy rates, and deprived of education… It is certainly not easy…

Look at the year leading up to the establishment of the Republic, in March, in an interview Atatürk gave to Daily Mail reporter Ward Price regarding the Lausanne Peace negotiations, he expressed that Western states were trying to treat Turkey as a lower-level state, stating that Turkey actually wanted no more independence than what European states wanted for themselves. And even on that day, he declared that if a consensus were reached, Turkey would strengthen its ties of friendship with other countries and would not approach them with prejudice.

As Atatürk continued his words, he emphasized that education must become widespread for Turkey's progress. Just at that moment, the foreign reporter asked, “For this, foreign debts will undoubtedly be necessary, right?”

Atatürk gave an answer to this question that would go down in history;

“The government of the old Ottoman Empire made the devastating mistake of constantly borrowing beyond its resources, and thus gave foreigners the opportunity to establish those financial dominations over Turkey that ruined the country so much. It led to the emergence of an institution that violated Turkey's financial independence so deeply; the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (Düyun-u Umumiye). We are determined to avoid such financial shackles in the future. If we are to need the help of foreign capital and if we are to welcome it, it must be under conditions where we fully maintain our sovereignty within our own will. We will do our best to balance our expenses with our revenues. We managed the last years of the war without foreign debt, and we must be capable of living without debt in times of peace.”*

There are so many lessons for today, aren't there… With his foresight that transcended the era, he identified even back then that the consequences of borrowing beyond one's resources are absolute dependency. In fact, while even the question asked contained the message “you are dependent on us, you will borrow,” the response given also shows the definitive stance of a leader who said that national independence is equivalent to national economic independence.

When we come to today, we have reached a state where the fertile lands, natural resources, agriculture, industry, and all these young human resources of a Republic that has surpassed a century are in search of foreign capital, where it is forced to import its wheat, meat, sunflower oil, and corn, where its debt far exceeds its resources, and where the citizen is bowed down in the face of inflation. The same mistakes the Ottoman Empire fell into are being made… At the root of every issue we face today and are forced to talk about lies the economic crisis Turkey is in.

Understanding the Republic is only possible by understanding Atatürk's philosophy. He is a great leader who adopted economic independence as a principle even during the most difficult days of war. The price of rejecting him, his ideas, and his profound philosophy is this bottleneck we are experiencing these days. 

We are also to blame… For 101 years, we could neither understand it correctly nor explain it correctly… Let this be a burden on us…

* Atatürk, K. (2016). Atatürk'ün bütün eserleri (The Complete Works of Atatürk). Volume No: 15. Kaynak Yayınları.