What is the Republic according to Atatürk?

Tomorrow we will celebrate our Republic Day. At a time when some still cannot stomach it, calling it a trauma, a wreck, a commercial break, or a parenthesis; when even some who engage in politics within the very party Atatürk founded turn up their noses at it; and when some mistake ethnicism for socialism, sectarianism for communism, and cronyism for Marxism, we will celebrate and embrace the Republic with great determination, consistency, and courage. 

How happy we are to be Republicans. We are Kuvayı Milliyecis (National Forces). We are Kemalists. We are nationalists. We are national leftists. We are anti-imperialist. We stand for full independence. We are proponents of national sovereignty. We stand with the oppressed nations. We are Third Worldists. 

Why, you ask?

Let us think about it together. 

Because Atatürk is a leader who is different in purpose, scope, and method. 

The purpose is to establish a modern Republic based on national sovereignty. 

The scope is to establish the state on the lands remaining from the Ottoman Empire, within the borders declared by the National Pact (Misak-ı Milli). 

The method is to be an armed struggle against imperialism, its proxy forces, and its local collaborators. It is the iron law of history: What is established by the sword is destroyed by the sword.

SITUATION ANALYSIS AND THE PRESCRIPTION FOR LIBERATION

The Ottoman Empire, which had fallen into a semi-colonial state for years, had most of its territory occupied following the Great War. The nation was tired, weary, and impoverished. It was hopeless. It was exhausted. Under these conditions, it is difficult to establish a state based on national sovereignty, jealous of full independence, and opposed to imperialism. Atatürk is the giant and revolutionary leader, the national liberation fighter, the national hero, the state founder, and the great commander who achieved this difficult—and to some, impossible—task. 

Gazi Pasha always had the Republic in his mind. In his own words, he "kept the Republic in his conscience like a national secret." Mustafa Kemal is the commander described as a "Republican" in his personnel file at the Ottoman Ministry of War. British intelligence was also aware of this. Indeed, after the Sivas Congress (September 4–11, 1919), they sent the following note from Anatolia to London: "The Turks are heading toward a Republic."

The British, who had written the book on diplomacy, intelligence, and imperialism in the world, were not mistaken. After the congresses, it was time to conduct the War of Independence under the will and administration of the parliament, the constituent assembly, the veteran assembly. That Parliament opened on April 23, 1920. For this reason, many historians state that the date the Republic was effectively established was April 23, 1920; in other words, the Republic that was established was given its official name on October 29, 1923. This is correct. The child born in 1920 was given its name in 1923: THE REPUBLIC. 

TWO KEYWORDS: WAR AND REVOLUTION

The Turkish Nation won its sovereignty through rebellion, objection, persistence, assertion, war, and revolution. After the military victory, it was time for economic breakthroughs, industrialization, and development. It was time for revolutions in political, social, cultural, and legal life. It was time to fill the content and solidify the foundation of the sovereignty revolution—a revolution won through war and revolution, whose definition, meaning, content, and essence were changed, brought down from the heavens to the earth, taken from individuals and dynasties and given to the nation, and secularized by being stripped of its religious character. 

The work of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the founding cadre was more exhausting and wearing than it was on the battlefields. In the words of our great thinker, the monumental name of Turkish nationalism, and the founder of sociology in Turkey, Ziya Gökalp, "Making a social revolution is more difficult than making a political revolution." 

Atatürk, however, was always determined, hopeful, and optimistic. He was organized and an organizer. He trusted himself and his nation. He was resolute. 

In Atatürk's mind, the Republic is synonymous with national will, national sovereignty, legitimacy, and democracy. It is synonymous with freedom, rights, law, separation of powers, and citizen participation. It is synonymous with the accountability of administrators. It is synonymous with populism, public-mindedness, national identity, civic consciousness, and the equality of citizens. It is synonymous with enlightenment, full independence, and contemporary civilization. 

Therefore, in the words of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, "The Republic is virtue."