Kemalism
Kemalism or Atatürkism is a political ideology based on the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Türkiye. Its symbol is the Six Arrows.
Atatürk's Turkey was defined by sweeping political, social, cultural, and religious reforms designed to separate the Republican state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Western lifestyle, including the establishment of secularism/laicism, state support of the sciences, gender equality, economic statism and more. Most of those policies were first introduced to and implemented in Turkey during Atatürk's presidency through his reforms.
Origins
Various reforms to avoid the imminent collapse of the Empire, began chiefly in the 19th-century Tanzimat reforms. The mid-century Young Ottomans attempted to create the ideology of Ottoman nationalism, or Ottomanism, to quell the rising ethnic nationalism in the Empire and introduce limited democracy for the first time while maintaining Islamist influences. With their demise under Sultan Abdul Hamid II's absolutist reign, in the early 20th century the Young Turks picked up their legacy. Atatürk's formative years were spent in Hamidian Salonica. During his time in the army, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress, which was agitating for constitutionalism against Hamidian absolutism, and abandoned Ottoman nationalism in favor of Turkish nationalism, while adopting a secular political outlook.Atatürk was not in a position to play a major role in the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, which reinstated the constitution, though he was a key player in the deposition of Abdul Hamid during the 31 March Incident. During the Second Constitutional Era personal rivalries with İsmail Enver and Ahmed Cemal meant that he was kept at arms-length from power: the Central Committee of the CUP. It also didn't help that Atatürk mostly disagreed with the policies of the radical Unionists. However this allowed him to observe the CUP's successes and shortcomings in implementing their programs. During World War I, his military career took off with his defense of Gallipoli, and by the war's end he was a Pasha in charge of three army commands on the Syrian Front.
Following the Ottoman Empire's defeat -and the CUP's self-liquidation- by the war's end, Atatürk lead a military campaign against the Allies' planned partition of Anatolia and Eastern Thrace known as the Turkish War of Independence. This conflict being simultaneously a revolution, by 1923 his counter government based in Ankara abolished the Ottoman monarchy and proclaimed a Republic. In Atatürk's 15 years as president, many sweeping reforms were introduced that advanced a secular, republican, and unitary agenda for the Republic of Turkey. His doctrine was implanted into the Constitution as state ideology in 1937.
Principles
Atatürk refrained from being dogmatic and described his ideology to be based on science and reason.There are six principles of the ideology: Republicanism, Populism, Nationalism, Laicism, Statism, and Reformism. Together, they represent a kind of Jacobinism, defined by Atatürk himself as a method of employing political despotism to break down the social despotism prevalent among the traditionally-minded Turkish-Muslim population, caused by, he believed, the bigotry of the ulema.
Republicanism
in the Kemalist framework replaced the monarchy of the Ottoman dynasty with the rule of law, popular sovereignty and civic virtue, including an emphasis on liberty practiced by citizens. Kemalist republicanism defines a type of constitutional republic, in which representatives of the people are elected, and must govern in accordance with existing constitutional law limiting governmental power over citizens. The head of state and other officials are chosen by election rather than inheriting their positions, and their decisions are subject to judicial review. In defending the change from the Ottoman State, Kemalism asserts that all laws of the Republic of Turkey should be inspired by actual needs here on Earth as a basic tenet of national life. Kemalism advocates a republican system as the best representative of the wishes of the people.Among the many types of republic, the Kemalist republic consist of a parliament chosen in general elections, a president as head of state elected by parliament and serving for a limited term, a prime minister appointed by the president, and other ministers appointed by parliament. The president does not have direct executive powers, but has limited veto powers, and the right to contest with referendum. The day-to-day operation of government is the responsibility of the Council of Ministers formed by the prime minister and the other ministers. There is a separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, in which no one branch of government has authority over another—although parliament is charged with the supervision of the Council of Ministers, which can be compelled to resign by a vote of no-confidence.
The Kemalist republic is a unitary state in which three organs of state govern the nation as a single unit, with one constitutionally created legislature. On some issues, the political power of government is transferred to lower levels, to local elected assemblies represented by mayors, but the central government retains the principal governing role.
Populism
is defined as a social revolution aimed to transfer the political power to citizenship. Kemalist populism intends not only to establish popular sovereignty but also the transfer of the social-economic transformation to realize a true populist state. However, Kemalists reject class conflict and collectivism. Kemalist populism believes national identity is above all else. Kemalist populism envisions a sociality that emphasizes class collaboration and national unity like solidarism. Populism in Turkey is to create a unifying force that brings a sense of the Turkish state and the power of the people to bring in that new unity.Kemalist populism is an extension of the Kemalist modernization movement, aiming to make Islam compatible with the modern nation-state. This included state supervision of religious schools and organizations. Mustafa Kemal himself said "everyone needs a place to learn religion and faith; that place is a mektep, not a madrasa." This was intended to combat the "corruption" of Islam by the ulema. Kemal believed that during the Ottoman period, the ulema had come to exploit the power of their office and manipulate religious practices to their own benefit. It was also feared that, were education not brought under state control, unsupervised madrasas could exacerbate the rising problem of tarikat insularity that threatened to undermine the unity of the Turkish state.
Sovereignty
Kemalist social theory does not accept any adjectives placed before the definition of a nation Sovereignty must belong solely to people without any term, condition, etc.:Motto
Populism was used against the political domination of sheikhs, tribal leaders, and the Islamic political system of the Ottoman Empire.Atatürk's nationalism aimed to shift the political legitimacy from royal autocracy, theocracy, and feudalism to the active participation of its citizenry, the Turks. Kemalist social theory wanted to establish the value of Turkish citizenship. A sense of pride associated with this citizenship would give the needed psychological spur for people to work harder and achieve a sense of unity and national identity. Active participation, or the "will of the people", was established with the republican regime and Turkishness replacing the other forms of affiliations that had been promoted in the Ottoman Empire. The motto "Ne mutlu Türküm diyene" was promoted against such mottoes as "long live the Sultan," "long live the Sheikh", or "long live the Caliph."
Laicism
in Kemalist ideology aims to banish religious interference in government affairs, and vice versa. It differs from the passive Anglo-American concept of secularism, but is similar to the concept of laïcité in France.The roots of Kemalist secularism lie in the reform efforts in the late Ottoman Empire, especially the Tanzimat period and the later Second Constitutional Era. The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state in which the head of the Ottoman state held the position of the Caliph. The social system was organized according to various systems, including the religiously organized Millet system and Shari'ah law, allowing religious ideology to be incorporated into the Ottoman administrative, economic, and political system. In the Second Constitutional Era, the Ottoman Parliament pursued largely secular policies, although techniques of religious populism and attacks on other candidates' piety still occurred between Ottoman political parties during elections. These policies were stated as the reason for the 31 March Incident by Islamists and absolute monarchists. The secular policies of the Ottoman parliament also factored in the Arab Revolt during World War I.
When secularism was implemented in the fledgling Turkish state, it was initiated by the abolition of the centuries-old caliphate in March 1924. The office of Shaykh al-Islām was replaced with the Presidency of Religious Affairs. In 1926, the mejelle and shari'ah law codes were abandoned in favor of an adapted Swiss Civil Code and a penal code modeled on the German and Italian codes. Other religious practices were done away with, resulting in the dissolution of Sufi orders and the penalization of wearing a fez, which was viewed by Atatürk as a tie to the Ottoman past.
State and religion (laïcité)
Atatürk was profoundly influenced by the triumph of laïcité in France. Atatürk perceived the French model as the authentic form of secularism. Kemalism strove to control religion and transform it into a private affair rather than an institution interfering with politics, as well as scientific and social progress. It is more than merely creating a separation between state and religion. Atatürk has been described as working as if he were Leo the Isaurian, Martin Luther, the Baron d'Holbach, Ludwig Büchner, Émile Combes, and Jules Ferry rolled into one in creating Kemalist secularism. Kemalist secularism does not imply nor advocate agnosticism or nihilism; it means freedom of thought and independence of the institutions of the state from the dominance of religious thought and religious institutions. The Kemalist principle of laicism is not against moderate and apolitical religion, but against religious forces opposed to and fighting modernization and democracy.According to the Kemalist perception, the Turkish state is to stand at an equal distance from every religion, neither promoting nor condemning any set of religious beliefs. Kemalists, however, have called for not only separation of church and state but also a call for the state control of the Turkish Muslim religious establishment. For some Kemalists, this means that the state must be at the helm of religious affairs, and all religious activities are under the supervision of the state. This, in turn, drew criticism from the religious conservatives. Religious conservatives were vocal in rejecting this idea, saying that to have a secular state, the state can't control the activities of religious institutions. Despite their protest, this policy was officially adopted by the 1961 constitution.
Kemalist policies aimed to stamp out the religious element within society. After the end of the Turkish War of Independence, all education was under the control of the state in both secular and religious schools. It centralized the education system, with one curriculum in both religious and secular public schools, in the hope this would eliminate or lessen the appeal of religious schools. The laws were meant to abolish the Sufi religious schools or orders ' and their lodges '. Titles like sheikh and dervish were abolished, and their activities were banned by the government. The day of rest was changed by the government from Friday to Sunday. But the restrictions on personal choice extended to both religious duty and naming. Turks had to adopt a surname and were not allowed to perform the hajj.