Atatürk, the War of Independence, and the Revolution Laws

Shortly after the proclamation of the Republic, three revolution laws were adopted on March 3, 1924. These are: 1) The abolition of the Caliphate, 2) The abolition of the Ministry of Sharia and Foundations (Şeriye ve Evkaf Vekâleti) and the Ministry of War (Harbiye Vekâleti), 3) The Law on Unification of Education (Tevhidi Tedrisat Kanunu).

Two keywords lie behind these breakthroughs: War and Revolution.

In the War of Independence, war and revolution are intertwined. The revolution was not carried out after the war ended. War and revolution were realized simultaneously, at the same time. Turkey became the homeland of a people who became a nation while becoming a state, and became a state while becoming a nation. All these tasks were planned and designed by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who said, "I kept the republic as a national secret in my conscience," even before the War of Independence began. Atatürk also had revolutionary friends, comrades-in-arms, and cadres worthy of himself and his table. Such as Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, Tevfik Rüştü Aras, Mustafa Necati, Reşit Galip, Refik Saydam, and Vasıf Çınar... This is why it was said when Mahmut Esat Bozkurt died, "We are burying not a mortal, but a volcano."

The Turkish Revolution came to life as an Enlightenment Revolution and a Sovereignty Revolution. The root, source, definition, function, and meaning of sovereignty have changed. Sovereignty was taken from the heavens and brought down to earth. It was taken from the individual and given to the nation. It was stripped of being divine, godly, or spiritual, and made worldly and secular. And this was achieved along with this war. The people became a nation in the war, on the front lines, amidst blood and tears. That is why the Turkish Revolution has a unique and special position among national liberation movements, wars of independence, and revolutionary struggles in the world.

The teacher of teachers, Prof. Dr. Tarık Zafer Tunaya, defines the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, that is, the Second Constitutional Era, as a "political laboratory" before the National War of Independence and the Republic. In this laboratory, there is the hungry Anatolian person, the poor Anatolian people, the naked Anatolian peasant. There are those who were martyred in Tripoli. There are those who lost an arm in Yemen and a leg in Sarıkamış. There are those who were driven from the Balkans. There is the Anatolian person who was lost, migrated, torn away, fled, grew weary, and died in the First World War. This is why the great poet of our Turkish language, Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, said, "Çanakkale is the preface to the national struggle." This is why one of our enlightenment martyrs, Prof. Dr. Cavit Orhan Tütengil, said, "Oppressed nations are the middle name of the Third World." And the Turkish Nation, which wrote the preface with blood and wisdom in Çanakkale, had its final say in Lausanne after defeating the seven great powers and their collaborators in the War of Independence. It became an exemplary source of inspiration in the fight against imperialism.

THE REPUBLIC'S EDUCATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH

In the population of a people who became a nation while becoming a state, and a state while becoming a nation, the literacy rate barely reached 10 percent in even the most optimistic statistics. 90 percent lived in rural areas and villages. The society was thirsty for Atatürk's populist, enlightenment, revolutionary, secular, scientific, and egalitarian education. The People's Houses (Halkevleri), People's Rooms (Halkodaları), Nation Schools (Millet Mektepleri), and the Village Institutes (Köy Enstitüleri)—the pinnacle of Republican education, which went down in the corpus of educational sciences as "Turkish-invented educational institutions" and were shown as examples to all developing countries by UNESCO—enlightened our people. Writers and intellectuals such as Fakir Baykurt, Mahmut Makal, Talip Apaydın, and Ümit Kaftancıoğlu emerged from those schools. Established in 21 regions with the foresight of Hasan Ali Yücel and the labor of İsmail Hakkı Tonguç, taking into account the geographical and sociological realities of Turkey in an Anatolia with a population of 12–13 million, 90 percent of whom were illiterate, the Village Institutes went down in history not only as educational institutions but also as a Kuvayı Milliye (National Forces) movement. It must be emphasized first and foremost that the Unification of Education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat) offered equal opportunity to the Anatolian people through education and starting from educational institutions, and ended the distinction between the "school-educated" (mektepli) and the "madrasa-educated" (medreseli) in society.

While the people were being saved from servitude with the Revolution Laws, from ignorance with the educational breakthrough, and from leprosy, tuberculosis, and typhus thanks to figures like Tıbbiyeli Hikmet, our country was simultaneously being woven with iron nets. While Etibank and Sümerbank were being established, our people began to wear the textiles of Nazilli, the prints of Kayseri, and the shoes of Beykoz. They realized the taste and consciousness of producing their own cloth, salt, flour, sugar, and cigarettes.

ATATÜRK'S INTELLECTUAL PREPARATION

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk began to form and mature the intellectual infrastructure of the Republic and the Revolutions during his student years. As far as can be determined, Atatürk read 4 thousand books. These are the ones that can be found, reached, and are on record. If the ones he read on the fronts, on the roads, the lost ones, the unrecorded ones, and the unreachable ones are taken into account, it is understood that this number exceeds 4 thousand. Atatürk read the books he read by taking notes and making comments on the margins of the pages. The sections he underlined alone amount to 12 thousand pages. The Anıtkabir Association has published these in 24 volumes, each 500 pages long. While the War of Independence was still ongoing, Atatürk gathered the Teachers' Congress and addressed them there: "Only and only you teachers are the soldiers of a second army that explains to the first army, which is dying and killing, why it is dying and why it is killing."

ATATÜRK'S 3 FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES AND THREE NATIONAL PACTS

Mustafa Kemal has three National Pacts (Misak-ı Milli). All three are unique. One is the Land National Pact. The other is the Education National Pact, that is, the Unification of Education. The third is the Labor National Pact, that is, the pact of labor.

He is uncompromising regarding National Sovereignty (Hâkimiyeti Milliye), National Will (İrade-i Milliye), and National Forces (Kuvayı Milliye). These three concepts, these three principles, gave spirit to all of the Gazi's actions and discourses. The names of his newspapers are İrade-i Milliye and Hakimiyet-i Milliye. The name of his organization is the Society for the Defense of Rights (Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti). The name of the movement is Kuvayı Milliye. On the wall of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, it is written: "Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation."

Atatürk is jealous regarding full independence (İstiklal-i Tam). He is a revolutionary, he is anti-imperialist. Because if there is no national sovereignty and full independence, there is no anti-imperialism either. This aspect of Atatürk has been an example to all oppressed nations, downtrodden peoples, and 3rd World peoples. From India to Algeria, from Cuba to Tunisia, the War of Independence and the Turkish Revolution have left deep marks and have been held in great respect.

On the other hand, Atatürk evaluated those who did not participate in the War of Independence with him with a very mature attitude and commemorated them by saying, "Those who did not set out with me were as right as those who set out with me."

THE PURPOSE OF THE REVOLUTION LAWS

The purpose of the Revolution Laws is to raise respectful, competent, and productive citizens of a strong Republic. In that context, the goal is enlightenment, the citizen, and the sovereignty of reason and science. It is independence, freedom, and a dignified life. It is not to be divided through sub-identities, through remnants of the Middle Ages, or through remnants of feudalism. It is to realize the consciousness of being a citizen. Because the Republic addresses only and only the citizen. It makes its social contract only and only with the citizen. It is blind, deaf, and dumb to the citizen's sub-identities. It is insensitive, indifferent, and unconcerned.

In this context, the Republic is not a republic of race, lineage, blood, religion, or region. It is a republic of political consciousness, common destiny, grief, ideal, and goal. It is a social state. It is holistic development. It is an effort to reach a welfare society. It is treating the peasant as a human being. It is taking teachers, midwives, nurses, and schools to the village. It is investing in Anatolia. It is public-mindedness and planning. It is not making basic public services, especially education and health, a subject of the market. It is to save the people from the domination of feudal lords, landowners, sect sheikhs, community leaders, sayyids, and dervishes. It is to raise teachers, engineers, lawyers, scientists, artists, and commanders from poor village children.

In short: The Revolution Laws are identical to the goal, essence, and spirit of the Republic. The hollowing out of them has paved the way for the liquidation of the Republic.