100-year-old Turkish Republic: a girl raising her finger in the class

Turkish Republic is 100 years old on October 29, 2023celebrated its 100^th birthday. A hundred years ago Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the Turkish War of Independence against Western occupying powers and their native collaborators declared the regime of the new Türkiye a republic, also marking the end of the six-century-long Ottoman rule.

Türkiye has been ruled by the elected (first as prime minister and now as the) President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with his conservative-Islamist background for the last 21 years, a term longer than 15 years of the Presidency of Atatürk, with staunch secular and Western-oriented ideology.

Perhaps one of the most important developments in Türkiye under Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule is the rediscovery of Atatürk and the republican factory settings by the masses in a grassroots civilian wave. And the recognition by the same masses of people of the importance and meaning of the secular, democratic, and social state of law enshrined in the Second Article of the Constitution.

Rediscovery of Atatürk

It is hard to say that this is something that the Erdoğan administration intended; in fact, it has largely developed as a reaction to the Erdoğan administration. From another perspective, the perception of Atatürk as a leader of independence has become more widely accepted by the masses of people; in a sense, the influence of Atatürk has gone beyond its traditional base under Erdoğan.

Would you like an example? Until a few years ago, people only celebrated each other’s religious holidays, religious days such as holy days and New Year’s Eve. In the last few years, people who rediscovered Atatürk, the principles of the Republic such as equality between men and women and the value of a “secular, democratic, social, and democratic state of law” have started to celebrate each other’s Republic Day, the Victory Day on August 30 and the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day on April 23. People, who are reluctant to do so to protest government implementations have started taking to the streets with their children and the Crescent and Star flag on every national holiday.

This is a stance that emerged spontaneously in the current political environment, not in the shadow of the hypocritical imposition of military coup regimes that tried to force people to love Atatürk and the Republic.

Celebrating 100 years properly

Another example? After it became clear that Erdoğan was not going to celebrate the 100th anniversary as the Republic deserved, the same people started to hang their flags on their balconies, windows, and buildings days in advance. Days later, Erdoğan joined the bandwagon by calling people to hang their flags for the Republic. It was right after his İstanbul rally in support of Palestine against Israeli aggression, which has been criticized because of its timing; a day before the 100^th anniversary of the Republic.

When Erdoğan was elected President on May 28th, he invited world leaders and held an international celebration at Beştepe Presidential Palace within two or three days for the 100th anniversary of our Republic. The Presidency explained that the persecution of the Palestinian people in Gaza by the Israeli government was not the reason for canceling the invitation. This was true because there was no planning before the Hamas attack on Israel anyway.

Almost all countries that are friendly or hostile towards Turkey, but take Turkey seriously, had already decided which state representatives they would send if such an invitation was extended. Countries announce their programs for celebrating such important anniversaries well in advance and spread them out over the whole year. Still, the embassies in Ankara waited until the last day.

To set a record, the preparations for the 75^th anniversary of the Republic, then under Süleyman Demirel, started 1.5 years before and resulted in high-level attendance from 75 countries, 15 of them being presidents.

A girl who raises her finger

The people started taking streets and squares in many cities of Türkiye and Atatürk’s Mausoleum in Ankara from days before because the Republic does not only mean that people are governed by their elected representatives.

It also means pluralist democracy and the rule of law, and yes, it also means secularism, the separation of religion and state. Neither the Republic nor democracy can flourish without secularism, especially in a Muslim society; it is like celebrating the Republic without Atatürk; another criticism directed to Erdoğan.

The Republic is also, as that young secondary school social studies teacher, Mustafa Öznay put it during a speech he delivered to celebrate the 100^th anniversary, “a girl raising her finger to have her say” in the classroom. It is not for nothing that women embrace the Republic values and Atatürk more than men.

The republic is the gratitude and appreciation of the mothers who include his name in their prayers with the awareness that “my father would not have sent me to school if Atatürk had not made it obligatory”.

Erdoğan, the son of a worker who grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Kasımpaşa of İstanbul could never have dreamed of running the country in the regime of the sultanate and caliphate, which some still bless it with a sick nostalgia. Erdoğan is in the Presidential seat thanks to the popular vote but before that, the Republic was proclaimed by Atatürk, the first owner of that seat.

The salute at the Vahdettin Mansion

The War of Independence crowned with the Republic was also a revolution. A revolution that set an example for the oppressed peoples of the World. It was a revolution that triggered the end of the colonial era.

Among the sentences that summarize the spirit of the War of Independence are the words of Mustafa Kemal, about the British and other occupying warships in the Bosphorus right after the Armistice of Mudros in 1918. Kemal was among the commanders of the 1915 Gallipoli Resistance which did not let the British and French forces to pass through the Dardanelles Strait towards İstanbul. When asked about the occupation “They will leave” he said, “As they came”. While the national resistance movement was rising in Anatolia, it was the last Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin, who would leave Turkey on a British warship at the end of the War of Independence, who, in collaboration with the occupiers, portrayed the War of Independence as a terrorist uprising and declared war.

The Vahdettin Mansion overlooking the Bosphorus on the Çengelköy ridges, which Vahdettin donated to a concubine named Zehra when he left Türkiye, has been renovated and used as Presidential Office in İstanbul since 2014, when Erdogan was elected President for the first time.

Erdoğan decided to salute a Turkish navy pass through the Bosphorus consisting of 100 warships for the 100th anniversary, not from Dolmabahçe Palace, as he did from time to time, but from Vahdettin Mansion. On the Centenary of the Republic, the Turkish Navy saluted the President at Vahdettin Mansion.

Glass half full: at least half of the people

It is possible to discuss at length what Erdoğan wants to do and where he wants to go with such moves, but it is unnecessary at this point. It also seems that the part of the public that has come to realize Atatürk and the Republic again, is gradually abandoning their expectations from Erdoğan in this respect.

“Despite those who don’t celebrate the Republic as it should be,” said Mansur Yavaş, the Metropolitan Mayor of Ankara, “We will celebrate it more”. It is the pressure from the grassroots that is forcing opposition municipalities to organize lively celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Republic as well.

The purpose of presenting this scene is not to foment despair about the future of the Turkish Republic and the secular, democratic, social state of law and the respect and love for Atatürk. On the contrary, it is to emphasize that hope is alive. On the 100th anniversary of the Republic, at least half of a society that 100 years ago was backward, poor, ignorant, and far away from being a nation, from being aware of its rights and freedoms, and which was considered a servant of the Ottoman Palace, is today in favor of progress with preferences rising from the grassroots, not from the top down.

This should be considered the greatest achievement of the Republic. The glass half full is that in 100 years, at least half of the people have consciously chosen to stand in favor of the Republic, Atatürk, and the secular, democratic, and social state of law.

The balance sheet of the Republic is positive

It was thanks to Atatürk, the Republic, and the democratic regime that complimented it that Türkiye, devastated by wars, impoverished, and deprived of energy resources 100 years ago, mobilized its extremely limited human resources through educational reform and became prominent among Muslim countries and became a regional economic power despite the current financial crisis.

Just as the Turkish Republic was a resistance and revolution against the Western occupying powers and their local collaborators who wanted to erase Turks from history and geography, it has also achieved its development intending to integrate with the legal and economic standards and political system of the West.

The balance sheet of the Republic of Turkey is positive. There should be no room for despair.

Happy Republic Day.