Atatürk, national will, and legitimacy

Every state, every revolution, and every war seeks to ground its legitimacy on a strong foundation, just as it seeks historical, political, philosophical, ideological, social, and class roots and supports. When we look at the Turkish Revolution, the Kemalist Revolution, and the Republican Revolution, we see this in two fundamental concepts.

The message that the Erzurum Congress proclaimed to the entire country and the world is the essence and spirit of both Atatürkism and the Republic: “To make the National Forces (Kuvayı Milliye) effective and the national will (irade-i milliye) dominant.”

This statement is essentially a summary of the anti-imperialist, nationalist, and populist orientation of Kemalism and the Kemalist Republic, which is based on national sovereignty and full independence, and which prioritizes enlightenment and equality. Therefore, if Atatürkism were to be described in two words, those two concepts would be: Full independence and national sovereignty. That is, istiklal-i tam and hakimiyet-i milliye. Reason, science, and anti-imperialism are the complements and integrators of these two fundamental concepts.

For this reason, these concepts are present in all of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s discourse and actions, and in all the organizations he led. Kuvayı milliye (National Forces), irade-i milliye (national will), hakimiyet-i milliye (national sovereignty), müdafaa-i hukuk (defense of rights)…

That is why Atatürk is the revolutionary who first comes to mind worldwide when anti-imperialism is mentioned, and who serves as an example and inspiration to oppressed nations.

Atatürk opposed the order imposed upon the Turkish nation by the heavy defeat of World War I, the humiliating Armistice of Mudros, and the Treaty of Sèvres. In the darkest period of Turkish history, he mobilized the nation and founded the Republic of Turkey.

He offered the Turkish nation a new, honorable, hopeful, bright, and respectable future. At the opening of the 1st Turkey Economic Congress, he addressed the importance of economic independence, production, investment, industry, agriculture, labor, and trade.

He wanted to see women, who had a very low level of education and social status in the Ottoman Empire, as equal, first-class individuals of society in every field of life, and he took very bold and revolutionary steps for this purpose. He saw that thinking otherwise would both hinder the modernization and progress of society and result in the loss of the labor, talent, service, knowledge, and experience of half of the population.

Therefore, he identified Turkish women as the most important element of his modernization projects. He placed special importance on women’s education and health, and worked to ensure they attained their rightful place in social life, politics, bureaucracy, academia, sports, arts, and working life.

Atatürk wanted to create a secular national culture. Considering the cosmopolitan structure of the Ottoman Empire—where Islamic, Western, and Turkish cultures coexisted—and the disconnect between the palace and the people, especially regarding language, it is clear that Atatürk achieved the difficult.

Knowing that the first necessary step to eliminate the deep chasm between the palace and the people, intellectuals and the people, and the elite and the people—and to bring Turkishness, Turkish culture, and the Turkish language to the forefront—was a change in the alphabet, Atatürk achieved this great breakthrough in a very short time.

In short, the following words of Atatürk are also a summary of the goal of the National War of Independence:

“Gentlemen, in order to preserve this right of ours and to keep our independence secure, we are people who, as a whole, as a national body, follow a path that deems it permissible to struggle as a national body against the imperialism that wants to destroy us and against the capitalism that wants to swallow us.”