May 19: The Long March toward civilization

May 19, the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day… Happy 105th anniversary to us all. Most people know the chronological flow of May 19 and the events that followed. As we commemorate the 105th anniversary, let us try to delve into the essence of May 19 and the subsequent developments, and try to understand Atatürk. 

May 19 is a long, two-stage march.

The first stage is the phase of the “liberation” of the fragmented and occupied lands of an empire that had collapsed because it could not keep up with the requirements of the age, and the “establishment” of a new state.  If we limit May 19 to “the beginning of the War of Independence and the founding of a new Republic,” it remains incomplete. 

The second stage of the long march is the effort to reach and surpass the level of “Contemporary Civilizations.” The second stage is a phase that requires continuous revolution and an unceasing march. And unfortunately, in this second stage, the “Long March” has been interrupted from time to time since the 1945s due to the effect of counter-revolution.  Today, we are once again experiencing a long break. 

Within this “Long March” are the Enlightenment Revolutions that aimed to make the peasant the master of the nation, to industrialize, and to carry society into the 20th century. 

On the opposing side, there are the imperialist countries that, despite winning the First World War, could not digest the Turkish victory in the War of Independence and the Treaty of Sèvres, which was torn up and discarded at Lausanne, and their “Counter-Revolution” plan.

As for the players that imperialism fielded in its “Counter-Revolution” project, you can find whoever you look for. Landlords, merchants, clergymen, political Islamists, some commanders of the War of Independence, the founders of the Democrat Party, the parliamentary majority of the Republican People's Party of the period—defined as the two founding elements of the Republic—the Chief of General Staff of the period, and the Army, also defined as a founding element of the Republic… This counter-revolutionary cadre of the 1945s is on the stage today, using greater capital power and state resources.     

To better understand what is happening, let us now look at some of the concepts used by Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the events that took place:

Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation: The Sultanate and the Caliphate will not return. The state to be established in accordance with the requirements of the age must be a Republic based on national sovereignty. 

Nation and Nationalism: Nationalism was born in Europe not as the superiority of one race, but as a movement challenging dynasties. It became the “foundation” of nation-states and Republican regimes based on popular sovereignty. Its later transformation into racial superiority in Europe is a separate matter of perversion, and it is misleading to equate the concept of nationalism with this perversion. If we look at the concept of nationalism from different windows as “patriotism” and “racism,” we can explain it more clearly. In Atatürk’s understanding, “language and culture” carry importance, not “race and religion.”  The expression “The people of Turkey who founded the Republic of Turkey are called the Turkish nation” rejects the approach of race and religion.

The primary element of the nation is the peasants: In the newly founded Republic, the population remaining after the First World War was 13 million. It is a country of peasants. For centuries, they had been defined according to the principles of the ummah and subjects under Ottoman rule, had farmed on behalf of the state, and had gone to war. The agriculture practiced was primitive, like in the ancient periods thousands of years ago. The literacy rate in the total population was 7 percent, and at most 2 percent in rural areas.

The peasant is the master of the nation: For the citizens of the newly founded Republic to enter the 20th century, a transformation from ummah to nation, from servitude to free individuals, and to the principle of equality of citizens is necessary. For the peasant to be the master, a new land ownership structure and a new agricultural production model must be developed.  

To carry a backward, semi-colonial country of 13 million peasants into the Twentieth Century and to root the Republican Revolution, Enlightenment Revolutions (cultural revolution) are needed. 

For the peasant to be the “Master,” to emerge from servitude and become a “free individual,” an “equal citizen,” and a “producer-farmer,” education is necessary. At the same time, they must be saved from working as “sharecroppers” alongside landlords and be made landowners. For this, the Village Institutes Model is developed. This model works successfully until the mid-1940s. The Farmers' Land Settlement Law (land reform) is prepared.

As a result of the cooperation of the entire Counter-Revolution cadre we listed above, the Farmers' Land Settlement Law was stripped of its purpose in 1945, and a heavy blow was dealt to the Village Institutes in 1947, causing the Republic to suffer a severe blow. As a result of these counter-revolutionary moves…  

The dialectic between the rural areas, where 85 percent of the population lived, and the Republic was severed. (We can summarize the effect of this rupture to this day in a single sentence: Unplanned migration of the uneducated population to the city occurred, leading to distorted urbanization. A lumpen class, defined as the “Urban Poor,” who are mostly unskilled and poor, was born.)

Immediately after that, until 1947, we abandoned the principle of independence in the economy and the model of development and industrialization with our own resources. With the Marshall Plan in the economy, and NATO in foreign policy and defense, we became a satellite of imperialism of our own volition.

The collapse of social morality, degeneration, the rot in every field of the state, especially in the judiciary, army, education, and health, widespread misery, economic instability, whatever you can think of; the “root cause” of many of the problems we experience today is these two ruptures.   

Although this dialectic was re-established in the 1960s, it was never strong enough. Whenever it tried to strengthen, it was subjected to heavy attacks through the coups of (1971-1980), incompetence in domestic politics, economic crises created by international finance capital, and political engineering initiatives it designed.   

I am not writing all of this to “lament,” to get caught up in the “nostalgia” of the past, or to engage in “jingoism” over the great victories and genius of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. 

I am writing to seek “what we can do” to start the “Long March of 1919” and the Enlightenment Revolutions from where we left off.  

To win military and political independence, what kind of production and fair distribution model can we construct that first wins economic independence, aims for development with its own resources, and brings prosperity to the whole of society? 

How do we get rid of the rot in every field of the state from the judiciary to education, the cultural conflict deliberately created in society, and the massive refugee invasion, each of which has become a “survival” issue? 

The second stage of the “Long March” that began in 1919 was the effort to carry the subjects of the Ottoman State, which had remained in the Middle Ages, into the Twentieth Century. Turkey entered the Twentieth Century but could not complete it. Now the calendars show that the first quarter of the Twenty-First Century has ended, but Turkey has not been able to enter the Twenty-First Century. In fact, it is regressing toward the Middle Ages in many areas. 

Most of us are under the delusion that Middle Age regimes have been buried in the dustbin of history with the thought that “Time does not move backward.” Imperialism’s methods of occupation by arms and war have ended. Current wars are conducted in the form of proxy wars. They found a much lower-cost method of occupation than sending an army. The goal is to install “Middle Age Regimes” in the target country, destroy economic independence, and make instability dominant. 

We have two golden keys in our hands.

“Freedom and independence are my character.”

“The truest guide in life is science.” 

“May 19”s, for the Turkish Nation, I celebrate your holiday with the wish that it creates the excitement of “Standing Up” and starting the “Long March” again.