The Republic lessons taught by Atatürk

We are celebrating the 100th anniversary of our Republic. Over the past 100 years, there are things we have achieved, things we have failed to achieve, and things in which we have been partially successful. We are not where we want to be in terms of economic development, per capita national income, realizing a welfare society, or distributing income fairly. We are also far from our goals when it comes to the rule of law, the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and the threshold of democracy. Our report card on education, science, technology, and health, even if better when compared to our neighbors and the Islamic world, is far behind what we desire as a nation. In short, despite all the progress we have made over the last 100 years, it is not possible to say that we have kept the promise we made to our great leader Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or that we have been worthy of the great savior.

When we take stock of what we have done and how we have done it, and what we have failed to do and why, we cannot claim that we have walked tirelessly on the path of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, that we have progressed incessantly in the direction of the goal he set, or that we have first caught up with and then surpassed the level of contemporary civilization. Whether you call it a legacy or a trust for our Republic, we cannot claim that we have realized a political, social, and class order in line with Atatürk's definition that “The Republic is, above all, the protector of the unprotected.”

Therefore, in the challenging geography we live in, there are very important lessons we must learn from history and from Atatürk in order to prepare strongly for the future and to keep our Republic alive forever.

First lesson: Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is a pure nationalist, an enlightenment figure, a revolutionary, a populist, and a proponent of full independence. He is anti-imperialist. He is a Jacobin Republican. From May 19, 1919, the date he launched the War of Independence, he sought legitimacy in the nation and the national will in every step he took. While preparing the nation, the parliament, and the army for war in sequence, and while mobilizing the nation for war and involving all segments of the nation in the war, he made the nation the owner of the homeland through the Erzurum and Sivas Congresses before the Grand National Assembly was opened.

Second lesson: Atatürk took the national will behind him in every step he took. As he told Yunus Nadi, “expecting everything from the Parliament,” saying “Parliament First” even in the most critical moments of the war, and his sensitivity regarding “National Sovereignty” are among the proofs of the Gazi's uncompromising and jealous stance on this issue. For Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the defense of the homeland; the defense of rights, law, and the people is above everything else. According to Atatürk; Defense of Rights means; it means Kuvayı Milliye (National Forces), it means National Sovereignty, it means National Will.

Third lesson: Atatürk's order of priority is as follows; first the nation, then the parliament, then the army. The Parliament emerged from within the nation; it is the nation's parliament. The army is the nation's army and is under the command of the parliament. This ideological and political stance in Mustafa Kemal Pasha, this order of priority, means “the handing over of the administration to the people from top to bottom.” Under the conditions of that period, it aims for the rule of the nation, which was entirely oppressed, against the rule of cliques and classes. That is why the War of Independence is a total war in which the entire nation participated on the front and behind the front, and where all resources were mobilized, as seen in the Tekâlif-i Milliye (National Obligations) orders. It is one of the most successful examples of the “total war” model in world war history.

Fourth lesson: The Republic of Turkey adopted the holistic development model as its development strategy. The Kemalist Revolution program, briefly defined and symbolized by the Six Arrows, is a whole. The principles complement each other. They are indispensable to one another.

Fifth lesson: Due to both the historical, cultural, and social structure of Anatolia and the ideological essence of Atatürkism, Kemalist nationalism is a homeland nationalism based on history, land, and culture. It is not of a fascist character. It does not have an ethnic dimension, nor does it belittle or exclude others. It is not expansionist, colonialist, imperialist, ambitious, vengeful, or aggressive. Implementing a scientific synthesis in method and a national one in content, Atatürk is the most distinguished leader of the National Democratic Revolution model both in theory and in practice.

Sixth lesson: Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's enlightenment is clear. He adopted reason and science as his only guide and left them as his only legacy.

Seventh lesson: Atatürk's care and uncompromising stance regarding full independence are integrated with national sovereignty, anti-imperialism, and populist-statist economic policy. The fact that the Gazi, remaining outside of liberal and socialist doctrines, transformed an agricultural society that had fallen into a semi-colonial state, which lacked sufficient capital accumulation and did not have a strong working class in terms of quantity and quality, by fighting, making revolutions, and presenting a third model, shows the success of a revolution and transformation program rarely seen in history.

Ultimately, the uniqueness of Atatürk's character and the model he introduced is also understood from his doing what had not been done until then and achieving what had not been achieved. In this context, Kemalism, as a third way, has created an important option and experience for third-world countries with similar/close political, economic, social, and class structures. The War of Independence, the Atatürk Revolution, and the Republic were proposed as a model for these countries and became a source of inspiration for oppressed nations.