Mustafa Kemal history. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - Founder of the Turkish Republic

"Ataturk" in Turkish means "father of the people", and this is not an exaggeration in this case. The man who bore this surname is deservedly called the father of modern Turkey.

One of the modern architectural monuments of Ankara is the mausoleum of Ataturk, built of yellowish limestone. The mausoleum stands on a hill in the center of the city. Extensive and: "harshly simple" it gives the impression of a majestic structure. Mustafa Kemal is everywhere in Turkey. His portraits hang in government offices and coffee houses in small towns. His statues stand in city squares and squares. You will meet his sayings in stadiums, in parks, in concert halls, on boulevards, along roads and in forests. People listen to his praises on radio and television. The surviving newsreels of his time are regularly shown. Mustafa Kemal's speeches are quoted by politicians, the military, professors, trade union and student leaders.

It is unlikely that in modern Turkey you can find anything like the cult of Ataturk. This is an official cult. Ataturk is alone, and no one can be connected with him. His biography reads like the lives of saints. More than half a century after the president's death, his admirers speak with bated breath about the penetrating gaze of his blue eyes, about his tireless energy, iron determination and unyielding will.

Mustafa Kemal was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in Macedonia. At that time, this territory was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. His father was a middle-ranking customs official, his mother was a peasant woman. After a difficult childhood, spent in poverty due to the early death of his father, the boy entered the state military school, then the higher military school, and in 1889, finally, the Ottoman military academy in Istanbul. There, in addition to military disciplines, Kemal independently studied the works of Rousseau, Voltaire, Hobbes, and other philosophers and thinkers. At the age of 20, he was sent to the Higher Military School of the General Staff. During the training, Kemal and his comrades founded the secret society "Vatan". "Vatan" is a Turkish word of Arabic origin, which can be translated as "homeland", "place of birth" or "place of residence". Society was characterized by a revolutionary orientation.

Kemal, unable to reach an understanding with other members of society, left Vatan and joined the Committee of Union and Progress, which collaborated with the Young Turks movement (a Turkish bourgeois revolutionary movement that set itself the task of replacing the sultan's autocracy with a constitutional system). Kemal was personally acquainted with many key figures in the Young Turk movement, but did not participate in the 1908 coup.

When the First World War broke out, Kemal, who despised the Germans, was shocked that the Sultan had made the Ottoman Empire their ally. However, contrary to personal views, he skillfully led the troops entrusted to him on each of the fronts where he had to fight. So, at Gallipoli, from the beginning of April 1915, he held back the British forces for more than a crescent, earning the nickname "Savior of Istanbul", this was one of the rare victories of the Turks in the First World War. It was there that he told his subordinates:

"I'm not ordering you to attack, I'm ordering you to die!" It is important that this order was not only given, but also carried out.

In 1916, Kemal commanded the 2nd and 3rd armies, stopping the advance of Russian troops in the south of the Caucasus. In 1918, at the end of the war, he commanded the 7th Army near Aleppo, fighting the last battles with the British. The victorious allies fell upon the Ottoman Empire like hungry predators. It seemed that the Ottoman Empire, which had long been known as the "Big Power of Europe" - for years of autocracy had led it to internal decay - the war dealt a mortal blow. It seemed that each of the European countries wanted to grab a piece of it. The terms of the armistice were very harsh, and the allies entered into a secret agreement on the division of the territory of the Ottoman Empire. Great Britain, moreover, did not waste time and deployed its navy in the harbor of Istanbul. At the beginning of the First World War, Winston Churchill asked: "What will happen in this earthquake to the scandalous, crumbling, decrepit Turkey, which has not even a penny in its pocket?" However, the Turkish people were able to revive their state from the ashes when Mustafa Kemal became the head of the national liberation movement. The Kemalists turned a military defeat into a victory, restoring the independence of a demoralized, dismembered, devastated country.

The Allies expected to keep the Sultanate, and many in Turkey believed that the Sultanate would survive under a foreign regency. Kemal, on the other hand, wanted to create an independent state and put an end to imperial remnants. Sent in 1919 to Anatolia to put down the unrest that broke out there, he instead organized opposition and started a movement against numerous "foreign interests". He formed a Provisional Government in Anatolia, of which he was elected president, and organized a united resistance to the invading foreigners. The Sultan declared a "holy war" against the nationalists, especially insisting on the execution of Kemal.

When the Sultan signed the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 and gave the Ottoman Empire to the allies in exchange for maintaining his power over what was left, almost the entire people went over to Kemal's side. When Kemal's army moved towards Istanbul, the allies turned to Greece for help. After 18 months of heavy fighting, the Greeks were defeated in August 1922.

Mustafa Kemal and his associates were well aware of the true place of the country in the world and its true weight. Therefore, at the height of his military triumph, Mustafa Kemal refused to continue the war and limited himself to holding what he believed was Turkish national territory.

On November 1, 1922, the Grand National Assembly dissolved the Sultanate of Mehmed VI, and on October 29, 1923, Mustafa Kemal was elected president of the new Republic of Turkey. Proclaimed president, Kemal, in fact, did not hesitate to become a real dictator, outlawing all rival political parties and faking his re-election until his death. Kemal used his absolute power for reforms, hoping to turn the country into a civilized state.

Unlike many other reformers, the Turkish president was convinced that it was pointless to simply modernize the façade. For Turkey to be able to stand in the post-war world, it was necessary to make fundamental changes in the entire structure of society and culture. One can argue how successful this task was for the Kemalists, but it was set and carried out under Atatürk with determination and energy.

The word "civilization" is endlessly repeated in his speeches and sounds like a spell: "We will follow the path of civilization and come to it ... Those who linger will be drowned by the roaring stream of civilization ... Civilization is such a strong fire that one whoever ignores it will be burned and destroyed... We will be civilized, and we will be proud of it...". There is no doubt that for the Kemalists "civilization" meant the unconditional and uncompromising introduction of the bourgeois social system, way of life and culture of Western Europe.

The new Turkish state adopted in 1923 a new form of government with a president, parliament, constitution. The one-party system of Kemal's dictatorship lasted more than 20 years, and only after the death of Ataturk was replaced by a multi-party one.

Mustafa Kemal saw in the caliphate a connection with the past and Islam. Therefore, following the liquidation of the Sultanate, he also destroyed the Caliphate. The Kemalists openly opposed Islamic orthodoxy, clearing the way for the transformation of the country into a secular state. The ground for the reforms of the Kemalists was prepared both by the spread of the philosophical and social ideas of Europe, advanced for Turkey, and by the ever-wider violation of religious rites and prohibitions. Young Turk officers considered it a matter of honor to drink cognac and eat ham, which looked like a terrible sin in the eyes of Muslim zealots;

Even the first Ottoman reforms limited the power of the ulema and took away from them part of their influence in the field of law and education. But the theologians retained enormous power and authority. After the destruction of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, they remained the only institution of the old regime that resisted the Kemalists.

Kemal, by the power of the President of the Republic, abolished the ancient position of Sheikh-ul-Islam - the first Ulema in the state, the Sharia Ministry, closed individual religious schools and colleges, and later banned Sharia courts. The new order was enshrined in the republican constitution.

All religious institutions became part of the state apparatus. The Department of Religious Institutions dealt with mosques, monasteries, appointing and dismissing imams, muezzins, preachers, and supervising muftis. Religion was made, as it were, a department of the bureaucratic machine, and ulema - civil servants. The Quran was translated into Turkish. The call to prayer began to sound in Turkish, although the attempt to abandon Arabic in prayers failed, because in the Koran, in the end, it was important not only the content, but also the mystical sound of incomprehensible Arabic words. The Kemalists declared Sunday, not Friday, a day off, the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul turned into a museum. In the rapidly growing capital of Ankara, religious buildings were practically not built. Across the country, authorities looked askance at the emergence of new mosques and welcomed the closing of old ones.

The Turkish Ministry of Education took control of all religious schools. The madrasah that existed at the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul, which trained the ulema of the highest rank, was transferred to the theological faculty of Istanbul University. In 1933, the Institute of Islamic Studies was opened on the basis of this faculty.

However, resistance to laicism - secular reforms - turned out to be stronger than expected. When the Kurdish uprising began in 1925, it was led by one of the dervish sheikhs, who called for the overthrow of the "godless republic" and the restoration of the caliphate.

In Turkey, Islam existed on two levels - formal, dogmatic - the religion of the state, school and hierarchy, and folk, adapted to everyday life, rituals, beliefs, traditions of the masses, which found its expression in dervishism. From the inside, the Muslim mosque is simple and even ascetic. It does not have an altar and a sanctuary, since Islam does not recognize the sacrament of communion and initiation into a spiritual dignity. Common prayers are a disciplining act of the community to express obedience to the one, immaterial and distant Allah. Since ancient times, orthodox faith, severe in its worship, abstract in doctrine, conformist in politics, has failed to satisfy the emotional and social needs of a large part of the population. It appealed to the cult of saints and to the dervishes who remained close to the people to replace or add to the formal religious ritual. Dervish monasteries held ecstatic gatherings with music, song and dance.

In the Middle Ages, dervishes often acted as leaders and inspirers of religious and social uprisings. At other times, they penetrated the apparatus of the government and exerted a huge, albeit hidden, influence on the actions of ministers and sultans. Among the dervishes there was a fierce competition for influence on the masses and on the state apparatus. Due to their close connection with local variants of guilds and workshops, dervishes could influence artisans and merchants. When the reforms began in Turkey, it became clear that it was not the ulema theologians, but precisely the dervishes, who offered the greatest resistance to laicism.

The struggle sometimes took violent forms. In 1930, Muslim fanatics killed a young army officer, Kubilay. They surrounded him, threw him to the ground and slowly sawed off his head with a rusty saw, shouting: "Allah is great!", While the crowd supported their deed with cheers. Since then, Kubilay has been regarded as a "saint" of Kemalism.

The Kemalists dealt with their opponents without pity. Mustafa Kemal attacked the dervishes, closed their monasteries, dissolved orders, banned meetings, ceremonies and special clothes. The criminal code banned political associations based on religion. It was a blow to the very depths, although it did not fully reach the goal: many dervish orders were at that time deeply conspiratorial.

Mustafa Kemal changed the capital of the state. It was Ankara. Even during the struggle for independence, Kemal chose this city for his headquarters, since it was connected by rail with Istanbul and at the same time lay beyond the reach of enemies. The first session of the national assembly took place in Ankara, and Kemal proclaimed it the capital. He did not trust Istanbul, where everything was reminiscent of the humiliations of the past and too many people were associated with the old regime.

In 1923, Ankara was a small trading center with a population of about 30,000 souls. Its position as the center of the country was subsequently strengthened by the construction of railways in radial directions.

The Times newspaper in December 1923 wrote with mockery: "Even the most chauvinistic Turks recognize the inconvenience of living in the capital, where half a dozen flickering electric lights represent public lighting, where there is almost no running water in the houses, where a donkey or a horse tied to the bars of a small house that serves as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where open gutters run in the middle of the street where the modern fine arts are limited to the consumption of bad raki - aniseed brandy and the playing of a brass band, where parliament sits in a house no larger than a playing room in cricket."

At that time, Ankara could not offer suitable accommodation for diplomatic representatives, their excellencies preferred to rent sleeping cars at the station, shortening their stay in the capital in order to leave for Istanbul as soon as possible.

Despite the poverty in the country, Kemal stubbornly pulled Turkey by the ears into civilization. To this end, the Kemalists decided to introduce European clothing into everyday life. In one of the speeches, Mustafa Kemal explained his intentions in this way: "It was necessary to ban the fez that sat on the heads of our people as a symbol of ignorance, negligence, fanaticism, hatred of progress and civilization, and replace it with a hat - a headdress used by the entire civilized world.Thus, we demonstrate that the Turkish nation in its thinking, as well as in other aspects, does not deviate in any way from the civilized public life". Or in another speech: "Friends! Civilized international dress is worthy and appropriate for our nation and we will all wear it. Boots or shoes, trousers, shirts and ties, jackets. Of course, everything ends with what we wear on our heads. This headgear is called a "hat".

A decree was issued that required officials to wear a costume "common to all civilized nations of the world." At first, ordinary citizens were allowed to dress however they wanted, but then fez was outlawed.

For a modern European, the forced change of one headgear by another may seem comical and annoying. For a Muslim, this was a matter of great importance. With the help of clothing, the Muslim Turk separated himself from the giaurs. The fez at that time was a common headdress for a Muslim city dweller. All other clothing could be European, but the symbol of Ottoman Islam, the fez, remained on the head.

The reaction to the actions of the Kemalists was curious. The rector of Al-Azhar University and the chief mufti of Egypt wrote at the time: “It is clear that a Muslim who wants to resemble a non-Muslim by accepting his clothes will end up accepting his beliefs and actions. religion, of another, and out of contempt for one's own, is unfaithful.... Isn't it madness to give up one's national dress in order to take on the dress of other peoples?" Statements of this nature have not been published in Turkey, but shared by many.

The change of national dress showed in history the desire of the weak to resemble the strong, the backward - to the developed. Medieval Egyptian chronicles tell that after the great Mongol conquests of the 12th century, even the Muslim sultans and emirs of Egypt, who repelled the Mongol invasion, began to wear long hair, like Asian nomads.

When the Ottoman sultans began to carry out transformations in the first half of the 19th century, they first of all dressed the soldiers in European uniforms, that is, in the costumes of the victors. Then, instead of a turban, a headdress called the fez was introduced. He took root so much that a century later he became the emblem of Muslim orthodoxy.

A humorous newspaper was once published at the Faculty of Law of Ankara University. To the editors' question "Who is a Turkish citizen?" the students answered: "A Turkish citizen is a person who marries according to Swiss civil law, is convicted according to the Italian penal code, is judged according to the German procedural code, this person is governed on the basis of French administrative law and buried according to the canons of Islam."

Even many decades after the introduction of new legal norms by the Kemalists, a certain artificiality is felt in their application to Turkish society.

Swiss civil law, revised to suit the needs of Turkey, was adopted in 1926. Some legal reforms were carried out earlier, under the Tanzimat (transformations of the mid-nineteenth century) and the Young Turks. However, in 1926, the secular authorities for the first time dared to invade the reserve of the Ulema - family and religious life. Instead of the "will of Allah", the decisions of the National Assembly were proclaimed the source of law.

The adoption of the Swiss civil code has changed a lot in family relations. By banning polygamy, the law granted women the right to divorce, introduced the divorce process, and abolished the legal inequality between a man and a woman. Of course, the new code had quite certain specific features. Take at least the fact that he gave a woman the right to demand a divorce from her husband if he hid that he was unemployed. However, the conditions of society, traditions established for centuries, restrained the application of new marriage and family norms in practice. For a girl who wants to get married, virginity was considered (and is considered) an indispensable condition. If the husband discovered that his wife was not a virgin, he sent her back to her parents, and for the rest of her life, she bore shame, like her whole family. Sometimes she was killed without pity by her father or brother.

Mustafa Kemal strongly supported the emancipation of women. Women were admitted to commercial faculties as early as during the First World War, and in the 1920s they also appeared in the classrooms of the Faculty of Humanities at Istanbul University. They were allowed to be on the decks of ferries that crossed the Bosporus, although they had not been allowed out of their cabins before, they were allowed to ride in the same sections of trams and railway cars as men.

In one of his speeches, Mustafa Kemal collapsed on the veil. "She causes great suffering to a woman during the heat," he said. "Men! This is due to our selfishness. Let's not forget that women have the same moral concepts as we do." The President demanded that the "mothers and sisters of a civilized people" behave properly. "The custom of covering the face of women makes our nation a laughingstock," he believed. Mustafa Kemal decided to introduce the emancipation of women within the same limits as in Western Europe. Women gained the right to vote and be elected to municipalities and parliament

In addition to civil, the country received new codes for all sectors of life. The criminal code was influenced by the laws of fascist Italy. Articles 141-142 were used to crack down on communists and all leftists. Kemal did not like communists. The great Nazim Hikmet spent many years in prison for his adherence to communist ideas.

Did not like Kemal and the Islamists. The Kemalists removed the article "The religion of the Turkish state is Islam" from the constitution. The republic became a secular state both by constitution and laws.

Mustafa Kemal, knocking the fez off the head of a Turk and introducing European codes, tried to instill in his compatriots a taste for exquisite entertainment. On the very first anniversary of the Republic, he gave a ball. Most of the assembled men were officers. But the president noticed that they did not dare to invite the ladies to the dance. Women refused them, were shy. The President stopped the orchestra and exclaimed: “Friends, I can’t imagine that there is even one woman in the whole world who is capable of refusing to dance with a Turkish officer! Now go ahead, invite the ladies!” And he set an example. In this episode, Kemal plays the role of the Turkish Peter I, who also forcibly introduced European customs.

The transformations also affected the Arabic alphabet, which is really convenient for Arabic, but not suitable for Turkish. The temporary introduction of the Latin alphabet for the Turkic languages ​​in the Soviet Union prompted Mustafa Kemal to do the same. The new alphabet was prepared in a few weeks. The President of the Republic appeared in a new role - a teacher. During one of the holidays, he addressed the audience: "My friends! Our rich harmonious language will be able to express itself with new Turkish letters. We must free ourselves from incomprehensible signs that have kept our minds in an iron grip for centuries. We must quickly learn new Turkish letters "We must teach it to our compatriots, women and men, porters and boatmen. This should be considered a patriotic duty. Do not forget that it is shameful for a nation to be ten to twenty percent literate and eighty to ninety percent illiterate."

The National Assembly passed a law introducing a new Turkish alphabet and forbidding the use of "Arabic" from January 1, 1929.

The introduction of the Latin alphabet not only facilitated the education of the population. It marked a new stage of break with the past, a blow to Muslim beliefs.

In accordance with the mystical teachings brought to Turkey from Iran in the Middle Ages and adopted by the Bektashi dervish order, the image of Allah is the face of a person, the sign of a person is his language, which is expressed by 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. "They contain all the secrets of Allah, man and eternity." For an orthodox Muslim, the text of the Qur'an, including the language in which it is composed and the script in which it is printed, is considered eternal and indestructible.

The Turkish language in Ottoman times became heavy and artificial, borrowing not only words, but entire expressions, even grammar rules from Persian and Arabic. Over the years, he became more and more pompous and inelastic. During the reign of the Young Turks, the press began to use a somewhat simplified Turkish language. This was required by political, military, propaganda goals.

After the introduction of the Latin alphabet, opportunities opened up for a deeper language reform. Mustafa Kemal founded the Linguistic Society. It set itself the task of reducing and gradually eliminating Arabic and grammatical borrowings, many of which have become entrenched in the Turkish cultural language.

This was followed by a bolder attack on the Persian and Arabic words themselves, accompanied by overlaps. Arabic and Persian were the classical languages ​​of the Turks and brought the same elements to Turkish as Greek and Latin to the European languages. Radicals from the linguistic society were opposed to Arabic and Persian words as such, even if they were a significant part of the language that the Turks spoke every day. The Society prepared and published a list of foreign words sentenced to eviction. In the meantime, researchers have been collecting "purely Turkish" words from dialects, other Turkic languages, and ancient texts to find replacements. When nothing suitable was found, new words were invented. Terms of European origin, equally alien to Turkish, were not persecuted, and were even imported to fill the void created by the abandonment of Arabic and Persian words.

Reform was needed, but by no means everyone agreed with extreme measures. An attempt to separate from the thousand-year-old cultural heritage caused impoverishment rather than purification of the language. In 1935, a new directive stopped for some time the expulsion of familiar words, and restored some of the Arabic and Persian borrowings.

Be that as it may, the Turkish language has changed significantly in less than two generations. For the modern Turk, documents and books of sixty years ago with numerous Persian and Arabic constructions bear the stamp of archaism and the Middle Ages. Turkish youth is separated from the relatively recent past by a high wall. The results of the reform are beneficial. In the new Turkey, the language of newspapers, books, government documents is approximately the same as the spoken language of cities.

In 1934, it was decided to abolish all the titles of the old regime and replace them with the titles "Mr" and "Madam". At the same time, on January 1, 1935, surnames were introduced. Mustafa Kemal received the surname Atatürk (father of the Turks) from the Grand National Assembly, and his closest associate, the future president and leader of the People's Republican Party Ismet Pasha - Inenu - in the place where he won a major victory over the Greek invaders.

Although surnames in Turkey are a recent thing, and everyone could choose something worthy for themselves, the meaning of surnames is as varied and unexpected as in other languages. Most Turks have come up with quite suitable surnames for themselves. Ahmet the Grocer became Ahmet the Grocer. Ismail the postman remained the Postman, the basket maker - the Basket maker. Some chose such surnames as Polite, Smart, Handsome, Honest, Kind. Others picked up Deaf, Fat, Son of a man without five fingers. There is, for example, the One with a hundred horses, or the Admiral, or the Admiral's Son. Surnames like Crazy or Naked could come from a quarrel with a government official. Someone used the official list of recommended surnames, and this is how the Real Turk, the Big Turk, the Severe Turk appeared.

The last names indirectly pursued another goal. Mustafa Kemal was looking for historical arguments to restore to the Turks a sense of national pride, undermined in the previous two centuries by almost continuous defeat and internal collapse. First of all, the intelligentsia spoke about national dignity. Its instinctive nationalism was defensive in relation to Europe. One can imagine the feelings of a Turkish patriot of those days who read European literature and almost always found the word "Turk" used with a touch of disdain. True, the educated Turks forgot how they themselves or their ancestors despised their neighbors from the comforting position of the "highest" Muslim civilization and imperial power.

When Mustafa Kemal uttered the famous words: "What a blessing to be a Turk!" - they fell on fertile soil. His sayings sounded like a challenge to the rest of the world; They also show that any statements must be matched with specific historical conditions. This saying of Ataturk is now repeated an infinite number of times in every way, both with and without reason.

During the time of Ataturk, the "solar language theory" was put forward, which stated that all the languages ​​of the world originated from Turkish (Turkic). The Sumerians, Hittites, Etruscans, even the Irish and Basques were declared Turks. One of the "historical" books from the time of Atatürk reported the following: "There was once a sea in Central Asia. It dried up and became a desert, forcing the Turks to begin nomadism ... The eastern group of Turks founded the Chinese civilization ..."

Another group of Turks allegedly conquered India. The third group migrated south to Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and along the North African coast to Spain. The Turks who settled in the area of ​​the Aegean and the Mediterranean, according to the same theory, founded the famous Cretan civilization. Ancient Greek civilization came from the Hittites, who, of course, were Turks. The Turks also penetrated deep into Europe and, having crossed the sea, settled the British Isles. "These migrants surpassed the peoples of Europe in arts and knowledge, saved the Europeans from cave life and put them on the path of mental development."

Such a stunning history of the world was studied in Turkish schools in the 50s. Its political meaning was defensive nationalism, but the chauvinistic overtones were visible to the naked eye.

In the 1920s, the Kemal government did a lot to support private initiative. But socio-economic reality has shown that this method in its pure form does not work in Turkey. The bourgeoisie rushed into trade, house-building, speculation, and was engaged in skimming foam, thinking of national interests and the development of industry as a last resort. The regime of officers and officials, which retained a certain contempt for the merchants, then watched with increasing displeasure as private entrepreneurs ignored calls to invest in the industry.

The global economic crisis broke out, hitting Turkey hard. Mustafa Kemal turned to the policy of state regulation of the economy. This practice is called etatism. The government extended state ownership to significant sectors of industry and transport, and on the other hand opened markets to foreign investors. Many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America will then repeat this policy in dozens of variants. In the 1930s, Turkey ranked third in the world in terms of industrial development.

However, the reforms of the Kemalists extended mainly to the cities. Only at the very edge did they touch the village, where almost half of the Turks still live, and during the reign of Atatürk, the majority lived.

Several thousand "people's rooms" and several hundred "people's houses" designed to propagate the ideas of Ataturk did not convey them to the thick of the population.

The cult of Ataturk in Turkey is official and widespread, but it can hardly be considered unconditional. Even the Kemalists who swear allegiance to his ideas actually go their own way. The assertion of the Kemalists that every Turk loves Ataturk is just a myth. Mustafa Kemal's reforms had many enemies - open and secret, and attempts to abandon some of his transformations do not stop in our time.

Left politicians constantly recall the repressions that their predecessors were subjected to under Ataturk and consider Mustafa Kemal simply a strong bourgeois leader.

The stern and brilliant soldier and great statesman Mustafa Kemal had both virtues and human weaknesses. He had a sense of humor, loved women and fun, but retained the sober mind of a politician. He was respected in society, although his personal life was scandalous and promiscuous. Kemal is often compared to Peter I. Like the Russian emperor, Ataturk had a weakness for alcohol. He died on November 10, 1938 from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 57. His early death was a tragedy for Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk; Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha(tur. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk; - November 10) - Ottoman and Turkish reformer, politician, statesman and military leader; founder and first leader of the Republican People's Party of Turkey; first President of the Republic of Turkey. Included in the list of 100 most studied personalities in history.

On March 13, 1899, he entered the Ottoman Military College ( Mekteb-i Harbiye-i Shahane listen)) in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Unlike the former places of study, where revolutionary and reformist sentiments dominated, the college in Constantinople was under the strict control of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II.

February 10, 1902 entered the Ottoman Academy of the General Staff ( Erkan-ı Harbiye Mektebi) in Istanbul, which he graduated on January 11, 1905. Immediately after graduating from the academy, he was arrested on charges of unlawful criticism of the Abdulkhamid regime and after several months in custody was exiled to Damascus, where in 1905 he created a revolutionary organization Watan("Motherland").

Service start. Young Turks

Picardy teachings. 1910

Already while studying in Thessaloniki, Kemal participated in revolutionary societies; after graduating from the Academy, he joined the Young Turks, participated in the preparation and conduct of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908; subsequently, due to disagreements with the leaders of the Young Turk movement, he temporarily withdrew from political activity.

On August 6-15, 1915, a group of troops under the command of the German officer Otto Sanders and Kemal managed to prevent the success of the British forces during the landing in Suvla Bay. This was followed by a victory at Kirechtepe (August 17) and a second victory at Anafartalar (August 21).

After the battles for the Dardanelles, Mustafa Kemal commanded troops in Edirne and Diyarbakır. On April 1, 1916, he was promoted to divisional general (lieutenant general) and appointed commander of the 2nd Army. Under his command, the 2nd Army in early August 1916 managed to briefly occupy Mush and Bitlis, but was soon driven out by the Russians.

After a short service in Damascus and Aleppo, Mustafa Kemal returned to Istanbul. From here, together with Crown Prince Vakhidettin Efendi, he went to Germany to the front line for an inspection. Upon returning from this trip, he became seriously ill and was sent for treatment to Vienna and Baden-Baden.

After the occupation of Istanbul by the Entente troops and the dissolution of the Ottoman parliament (March 16, 1920), Kemal convened his own parliament in Angora - (VNST), the first meeting of which opened on April 23, 1920. Kemal himself was elected chairman of the parliament and head of the government of the Grand National Assembly, which was then not recognized by any of the powers. The main immediate task of the Kemalists was to fight the Armenians in the northeast, the Greeks in the west, as well as the occupation of the "Turkish" lands by the Entente and the de facto regime of capitulations that remained.

On June 7, 1920, the Angora government declared invalid all previous treaties of the Ottoman Empire; in addition, the government of the VNST rejected and, in the end, through military action, disrupted the ratification of the Treaty of Sevres signed on August 10, 1920 between the Sultan's government and the Entente countries, which they considered unfair to the Turkish population of the empire.

Turkish-Armenian war. Relations with the RSFSR

Of decisive importance in the military successes of the Kemalists against the Armenians, and later the Greeks, was the significant financial and military assistance provided by the Bolshevik government of the RSFSR from the autumn of 1920 until 1922. Already in 1920, in response to a letter from Kemal to Lenin dated April 26, 1920, containing a request for help, the government of the RSFSR sent 6,000 rifles, over 5 million rifle cartridges, 17,600 shells and 200.6 kg of gold bullion to the Kemalists.

At the conclusion of an agreement on "friendship and brotherhood" in Moscow on March 16, 1921, an agreement was also reached on providing the Angora government with gratuitous financial assistance, as well as assistance with weapons, according to which the Russian government sent 10 million rubles to the Kemalists during 1921. gold, more than 33 thousand rifles, about 58 million cartridges, 327 machine guns, 54 artillery pieces, more than 129 thousand shells, one and a half thousand sabers, 20 thousand gas masks, 2 naval fighters and "a large number of other military equipment." The Russian Bolshevik government in 1922 came up with a proposal to invite representatives of the Kemal government to the Genoa Conference, which meant de facto international recognition for the VNST.

Kemal's letter to Lenin dated April 26, 1920 read, among other things: “First. We undertake to link all our work and all our military operations with the Russian Bolsheviks, whose aim is to fight the imperialist governments and free all the oppressed from their rule.<…>» In the second half of 1920, Kemal planned to create a Turkish Communist Party under his control - to receive funding from the Comintern; but on January 28, 1921, the entire leadership of the Turkish communists was liquidated with his sanction.

Greco-Turkish War

According to Turkish tradition, it is believed that the "National Liberation War of the Turkish people" began on May 15, 1919 with the first shots fired in Izmir at the Greeks who landed in the city. The occupation of Izmir by Greek troops was carried out in accordance with Article 7 of the Mudros Truce.

The main stages of the war:

• Defense of the region of Chukurova, Gaziantep, Kahramanmarash and Sanliurfa (1919-20);
• Inönü's first victory (January 6-10, 1921);
• İnönü's second victory (March 23 - April 1, 1921);
• Defeat at Eskisehir (Battle of Afyonkarahisar-Eskisehir), retreat to Sakarya (July 17, 1921);
• Victory in the battle of Sakarya (August 23-September 13, 1921);
• General offensive and victory over the Greeks at Domlupinar (now il Kutahya, Turkey; August 26-September 9, 1922).

On September 9, Kemal, being at the head of the Turkish army, entered Izmir; the Greek and Armenian parts of the city were completely destroyed by fire; the entire Greek population fled or was destroyed. Kemal himself accused the Greeks and Armenians of burning the city, as well as personally the Metropolitan of Smyrna Chrysostomos, on the very first day of the entry of the Kemalists, who died a martyr's death (commander Nureddin Pasha betrayed him to the Turkish crowd, who killed him after cruel tortures. Now canonized).

On September 17, 1922, Kemal sent a telegram to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, which offered the following version: the city was set on fire by the Greeks and Armenians, who were encouraged to do so by Metropolitan Chrysostomos, who claimed that burning the city was a religious duty of Christians; the Turks did everything to save him. Kemal said the same to the French admiral Dumesnil: “We know there was a conspiracy. We even found everything necessary for arson in the Armenian women… Before our arrival in the city, in the temples they called for a sacred duty - to set fire to the city”. The French journalist Berta Georges-Goly, who covered the war in the Turkish camp and arrived in Izmir after the events, wrote: “ It seems certain that when the Turkish soldiers became convinced of their own helplessness and saw how the flames consumed one house after another, they were seized with a mad fury and they defeated the Armenian quarter, from where, according to them, the first arsonists appeared.».

Kemal is credited with the words allegedly spoken by him after the massacre in Izmir]: “We have before us a sign that Turkey has been cleansed of Christian traitors and foreigners. From now on, Turkey belongs to the Turks.”

Under pressure from British and French representatives, Kemal finally allowed the evacuation of Christians, but not men between 15 and 50 years old: they were deported to the interior for forced labor and most died.

On November 19, 1922, Kemal informed Abdülmecid by telegram of his election by the Grand National Assembly to the throne of the Caliphate: accepted the enemy's proposals, insulting and detrimental to Islam, to sow discord among Muslims and even cause bloody slaughter among them.<…>»

On October 29, 1923, a republic was proclaimed with Kemal as its president. On April 20, 1924, the 2nd constitution of the Turkish Republic was adopted, which was in force until 1961.

reforms

Main article: Atatürk's reforms

According to the Russian Turkologist V. G. Kireev, the military victory over the interventionists allowed the Kemalists, whom he considers “national, patriotic forces of the young republic,” to secure the country the right to further transform and modernize Turkish society and the state. The more the Kemalists strengthened their positions, the more often they declared the need for Europeanization and secularization. The first condition for modernization was the creation of a secular state. On February 29, the last traditional ceremony of the Friday visit of the last caliph of Turkey to the mosque in Istanbul took place. The next day, opening the next meeting of the GRTU, Mustafa Kemal made an accusatory speech about the centuries-old use of the Islamic religion as a political tool, demanded that it be returned to its “true purpose”, to urgently and most decisively save “sacred religious values” from all sorts of “dark goals”. and desires." On March 3, at a meeting of the Supreme National Assembly chaired by M. Kemal, among others, laws were adopted on the abolition of Sharia legal proceedings in Turkey, the transfer of waqf property to the disposal of the general administration of waqfs created.

It also provided for the transfer of all scientific and educational institutions at the disposal of the Ministry of Education, the creation of a unified secular system of national education. These orders also applied to foreign educational institutions and schools of national minorities.

In 1926, a new Civil Code was adopted, which established liberal secular principles of civil law, defined the concepts of property, ownership of real estate - private, joint, etc. The Code was rewritten from the text of the Swiss civil code, then the most advanced in Europe. Thus, the Medzhelle, a set of Ottoman laws, as well as the Land Code of 1858, has gone into the past.

One of the main transformations of Kemal at the initial stage of the formation of the new state was the economic policy, which was determined by the underdevelopment of its socio-economic structure. Of the 14 million people, about 77% lived in villages, 81.6% were employed in agriculture, 5.6% in industry, 4.8% in trade and 7% in the service sector. The share of agriculture in the national income was 67%, industry - 10%. Most of the railways remained in the hands of foreigners. Banking, insurance companies, municipal enterprises, and mining enterprises were also dominated by foreign capital. The functions of the Central Bank were performed by the Ottoman Bank, controlled by English and French capital. Local industry, with a few exceptions, was represented by handicrafts and small handicrafts.

In 1924, with the support of Kemal and a number of deputies of the Mejlis, the Business Bank was established. Already in the first years of his activity, he became the owner of a 40% stake in the Turk Telsiz Phone TASH company, built the then largest Ankara Palace hotel in Ankara, bought and reorganized a woolen fabric factory, and provided loans to several Ankara merchants who exported tiftik and wool .

The Law on Encouragement of Industry, which came into force on July 1, 1927, was of paramount importance. From now on, an industrialist who intended to build an enterprise could receive a land plot of up to 10 hectares free of charge. It was exempted from taxes on covered premises, on land, on profits, etc. Materials imported for the construction and production activities of the enterprise were not subject to customs duties and taxes. In the first year of the production activity of each enterprise, a premium of 10% of the cost was established on the cost of its products.

By the end of the 1920s, an almost boom situation arose in the country. During the 1920s-1930s, 201 joint-stock companies were established with a total capital of 112.3 million liras, including 66 companies with foreign capital (42.9 million liras).

In agrarian policy, the state distributed among the landless and land-poor peasants nationalized waqf property, state property and the lands of abandoned or deceased Christians. After the Kurdish uprising of Sheikh Said, laws were passed to abolish the ashar tax in kind and liquidate the foreign tobacco company Rezhi (). The state encouraged the creation of agricultural cooperatives.

To maintain the exchange rate of the Turkish lira and trade in currency, a temporary consortium was established in March, which included all the largest national and foreign banks operating in Istanbul, as well as the Turkish Ministry of Finance. Six months after the creation of the consortium was granted the right to issue. A further step in streamlining the monetary system and regulating the exchange rate of the Turkish lira was the establishment in July 1930 of the Central Bank, which began its activities in October of the following year. With the beginning of the activities of the new bank, the consortium was liquidated, and the right to issue was transferred to the Central Bank. Thus, the Ottoman Bank ceased to play a dominant role in the Turkish financial system.

1. Political transformations:

• Abolition of the Sultanate (November 1, 1922).
• Creation of the People's Party and the establishment of a one-party political system (September 9, 1923).
• Proclamation of the Republic (October 29, 1923).
• Abolition of the Caliphate (March 3, 1924).

2. Transformations in public life:

• Granting women equal rights with men (1926-34).
• Headgear and clothing reform (November 25, 1925).
• Ban on the activities of religious monasteries and orders (November 30, 1925).
• Law on Surnames (June 21, 1934).
• Cancellation of prefixes to names in the form of nicknames and titles (November 26, 1934).
• Introduction of the international system of time, calendar and measures of measurement (1925-31).

3. Transformations in the legal sphere:

• Abolition of the Majelleh (code of laws based on Sharia) (1924-1937).
• The adoption of a new Civil Code and other laws, as a result of which the transition to a secular system of state government became possible.

4. Transformations in the field of education:

• Unification of all educational bodies under a single leadership (March 3, 1924).
• Adoption of the new Turkish alphabet (November 1, 1928).
• Establishment of the Turkish Linguistic and Turkish Historical Societies.
• The streamlining of university education (May 31, 1933).
• Innovations in the field of fine arts.

Ataturk and the third President of Turkey, Celal Bayar

5. Transformations in the sphere of economy:

• Abolition of the ashar system (obsolete taxation of agriculture).
• Encouragement of private entrepreneurship in agriculture.
• Creation of exemplary agricultural enterprises.
• Publication of the Law on Industry and the establishment of industrial enterprises.
• Adoption of the 1st and 2nd industrial development plans (1933-37), construction of roads throughout the country.

In accordance with the Law on Surnames, on November 24, 1934, the VNST assigned the surname Atatürk to Mustafa Kemal.

Atatürk was elected twice, on April 24, 1920 and August 13, 1923, to the post of speaker of the VNST. This post combined the posts of heads of state and government. On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, and Atatürk was elected its first president. In accordance with the constitution, presidential elections were held every four years, and the Turkish Grand National Assembly elected Atatürk to this post in 1927, 1931 and 1935. On November 24, 1934, the Turkish parliament gave him the surname "Ataturk" ("father of the Turks" or "great Turk", the Turks themselves prefer the second version of the translation).

Kemalism

The ideology put forward by Kemal and called Kemalism is still considered the official ideology of the Turkish Republic. It included 6 points, subsequently enshrined in the constitution of 1937:

Nationalism was given a place of honor, it was considered as the basis of the regime. The principle of “nationality” was associated with nationalism, proclaiming the unity of Turkish society and interclass solidarity within it, as well as the sovereignty (supreme power) of the people and the VNST as their representative.

Nationalism and the policy of Turkization of minorities

According to Atatürk, the elements that strengthen Turkish nationalism and the unity of the nation are:
1. Pact of National Accord.
2. National education.
3. National culture.
4. Unity of language, history and culture.
5. Turkish identity.
6. Spiritual values.

Within these concepts, citizenship was legally identified with ethnicity, and all the inhabitants of the country, including Kurds, who made up more than 20 percent of the population, were declared Turks. All languages ​​except Turkish were banned. The entire education system was based on the upbringing of the spirit of Turkish national unity. These postulates were proclaimed in the 1924 constitution, especially in its articles 68, 69, 70, 80. Thus, Atatürk's nationalism opposed itself not to neighbors, but to the national minorities of Turkey, who tried to preserve their culture and traditions: Atatürk consistently built a mono-ethnic state, forcing Turkish identity by force and discriminating against those who tried to defend their identity

Ataturk's phrase became the slogan of Turkish nationalism: How happy is the one who says: “I am a Turk!”(tur. Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!), symbolizing the change in self-identification of the nation that previously called itself the Ottomans. This statement is still written on walls, monuments, billboards and even on mountains.

The situation was more complicated with religious minorities (Armenians, Greeks and Jews), to whom the Treaty of Lausanne guaranteed the opportunity to create their own organizations and educational institutions, as well as to use the national language. However, Atatürk did not intend to fulfill these points in good faith. A campaign was launched to introduce the Turkish language into the life of national minorities under the slogan: "Citizen, speak Turkish!" Jews, for example, were insistently demanded that they abandon their native language Judesmo (Ladino) and switch to Turkish, which was seen as evidence of loyalty to the state. At the same time, the press called on religious minorities to "become real Turks" and, in confirmation of this, voluntarily renounce the rights guaranteed to them in Lausanne. With regard to the Jews, this was achieved by the fact that in February 1926 the newspapers published the corresponding telegram, allegedly sent by 300 Turkish Jews to Spain (while neither the authors nor the addressees of the telegram were ever named). Although the telegram was blatantly false, the Jews did not dare to refute it. As a result, the autonomy of the Jewish community in Turkey was liquidated; its Jewish organizations and institutions had to stop or largely curtail their activities. They were also strictly forbidden to maintain contact with Jewish communities in other countries or participate in the work of international Jewish associations. The Jewish national-religious education was actually liquidated: the lessons of Jewish tradition and history were canceled, and the study of Hebrew was reduced to the minimum necessary for reading prayers. Jews were not accepted for service in state institutions, and those who worked in them earlier were fired under Atatürk; in the army they did not accept officers and did not even trust them with weapons - they served military service in labor battalions.

Repression against the Kurds

After the extermination and expulsion of the Christian population of Anatolia, the Kurds remained the only large non-Turkish ethnic group on the territory of the Turkish Republic. During the War of Independence, Atatürk made promises of national rights and autonomy to the Kurds, which won their support. However, immediately after the victory, these promises were forgotten. Formed in the early 20's. Kurdish public organizations (such as, in particular, the Azadi Society of Kurdish Officers, the Kurdish Radical Party, the Kurdish Party) were defeated and outlawed

In February 1925, a mass national uprising of the Kurds began, led by the sheikh of the Nakshbandi Sufi order, Said Pirani. In mid-April, the rebels were decisively defeated in the Gench Valley, the leaders of the uprising, led by Sheikh Said, were captured and hanged in Diyarbakir.

Atatürk responded to the uprising with terror. On March 4, courts-martial ("courts of independence") were established, headed by Ismet İnönü. The courts punished the slightest display of sympathy for the Kurds: Colonel Ali-Rukhi received seven years in prison for expressing sympathy for the Kurds in a cafe, journalist Ujuzu was sentenced to many years in prison for sympathizing with Ali-Rukhi. The suppression of the uprising was accompanied by massacres and deportations of civilians; about 206 Kurdish villages with 8758 houses were destroyed, and over 15 thousand inhabitants were killed. The state of siege in the Kurdish territories was extended for many years in a row. It was forbidden to use the Kurdish language in public places, wearing national clothes. Books in Kurdish were confiscated and burned. The words "Kurd" and "Kurdistan" were removed from textbooks, and the Kurds themselves were declared "mountain Turks" who, for some reason unknown to science, had forgotten their Turkish identity. In 1934, the "Law on Resettlement" (No. 2510) was adopted, according to which the Minister of the Interior received the right to change the place of residence of various nationalities of the country, depending on how much they "adapted to Turkish culture." As a result, thousands of Kurds were resettled in the west of Turkey; Bosnians, Albanians, etc. settled in their place.

Opening a meeting of the Mejlis in 1936, Atatürk stated that of all the problems facing the country, the Kurdish one was perhaps the most important, and called for "putting an end to it once and for all."

However, the repressions did not stop the rebel movement: the Ararat uprising of 1927-1930 followed. led by Colonel Ihsan Nuri Pasha, who proclaimed a Kurdish republic in the Ararat mountains. A new uprising began in 1936 in the Dersim region, inhabited by Zaza Kurds (Alawites), and until that time enjoyed considerable independence. At Atatürk's suggestion, the issue of "appeasement" of Dersim was included in the agenda of the VNST, which resulted in the decision to transform it into a vilayet with a special regime and rename it Tunceli. General Alpdogan was appointed head of the special zone. The leader of the Dersim Kurds, Seyid Reza, sent him a letter demanding the abolition of the new law; in response, the gendarmerie, troops and 10 aircraft were sent against the Dersimites, which began bombing the area. Kurdish women and children hiding in the caves were walled up there tightly or suffocated with smoke. Those chosen were stabbed with bayonets. In total, according to anthropologist Martin Van Bruynissen, up to 10% of the population of Dersim died. However, the Dersim people continued the uprising for two years. In September 1937, Seyid Reza was lured to Erzinjan, allegedly for negotiations, captured and hanged; but only a year later the resistance of the Dersim people was finally broken.

Personal life

Latife Ushakizade

On January 29, 1923, he married Latifa Ushaklygil (Latifa Ushakizade). The marriage of Atatürk and Latife-khanim, who, together with the founder of the Turkish Republic, went on many trips around the country, ended on August 5, 1925. The reasons for the divorce are unknown. He had no native children, but he took 7 adopted daughters (Afet, Sabiha, Fikrie, Yulku, Nebie, Rukiye, Zehra) and 1 son (Mustafa), and also took care of two orphaned boys (Abdurrahman and Iskhan). Ataturk provided a good future for all adopted children. One of the adopted daughters of Ataturk became a historian, the other became the first Turkish woman pilot. The career of Atatürk's daughters served as a widely promoted example for the emancipation of the Turkish woman.

Hobby Ataturk

Ataturk and Citizen

Ataturk loved reading, music, dancing, horseback riding and swimming, had an extreme interest in zeybek dances, wrestling and folk songs of Rumelia, and enjoyed playing backgammon and billiards. He was very attached to his pets - the horse Sakarya and the dog named Fox. Being an enlightened and educated person (he spoke French and German), Atatürk collected a rich library. He discussed the problems of his native country in a simple, friendly atmosphere, often inviting scientists, artists, and statesmen to dinner. He was very fond of nature, often visited the forestry, named after him, and personally took part in the work carried out here.

Participation in the activities of Turkish Freemasonry

The activities of the "Grand Lodge of Turkey" culminated during the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923-1938. Ataturk - a reformer, soldier, defender of women's rights and founder of the Republic of Turkey, was initiated in 1907 into the Masonic lodge "Veritas" in Thessaloniki, which was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of France. When he moved to Samsun on May 19, 1919, before the start of the struggle for independence, six of his seven high-ranking staff officers were Freemasons. During his reign, there were always several members of his cabinet who were also Freemasons. From 1923 to 1938, about sixty members of Parliament were members of Masonic lodges.

End of life

Ataturk passport

In 1937, Atatürk donated his lands to the Treasury, and part of his real estate to the mayors of Ankara and Bursa. He gave part of the inheritance to his sister, adopted children, the Turkish Societies of Linguistics and History. In 1937, the first signs of deterioration in health appeared, in May 1938, doctors diagnosed cirrhosis of the liver, caused by chronic alcoholism. Despite this, Atatürk continued to perform his duties until the end of July, until he became completely ill. Ataturk died on November 10, at 09:50, 1938, at the age of 57, in the Dolmabahce Palace, the former residence of the Turkish sultans in Istanbul.

Ataturk was buried on November 21, 1938 on the territory of the Museum of Ethnography in Ankara. On November 10, 1953, the remains were reburied in the Anitkabir mausoleum specially built for Ataturk.

Mausoleum of Ataturk (Anitkabir)

Under Ataturk's successors, his posthumous cult of personality developed, reminiscent of the cult of Lenin in the USSR and the founders of many independent states of the 20th century. In every city there is a monument to Ataturk, his portraits are present in all state institutions, on banknotes and coins of all denominations, etc. After the loss of power by his party in 1950, the veneration of Kemal was preserved. A law was adopted, according to which the desecration of images of Ataturk, criticism of his activities and denigration of the facts of his biography was recognized as a special kind of crime. In addition, the surname Atatürk is prohibited. The publication of Kemal's correspondence with his wife is still prohibited, as it gives the image of the father of the nation too "simple" and "human" appearance.

Opinions and ratings

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia of the second edition (1953) gave the following assessment of the political activities of Kemal Atatürk: “As a president and leader of the bourgeois-landlord party, he kept an anti-people course in domestic politics. By his order, the Communist Party of Turkey and other working class organizations were banned. Declaring his desire to maintain friendly relations with the USSR, Kemal Ataturk actually pursued a policy aimed at rapprochement with the imperialist powers.<…>»

Gallery

see also

Notes

1. "Kemal Ataturk" is the new name and surname of Mustafa Kemal since 1934, adopted in connection with the abolition of titles in Turkey and the introduction of surnames. (see TSB, M., 1936, stb. 163.)
2. The exact actual date is unknown. His official date of birth in Turkey is May 19: the day is known in Turkey as 19 Mayıs Atatürk "ü Anma, Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı.
3. The "sovereignty of the nation" in Kemal's political terminology was opposed to the sovereignty of the Ottoman dynasty (see Kemal's speech on November 1, 1922 when the law on the abolition of the sultanate was adopted: Mustafa Kemal. The path of the new Turkey. M., 1934, Vol. 4, pp. 270-282.)
4. Time. October 12, 1953.
5. The Great Russian Encyclopedia (M., 2005, Vol. 2, p. 438.) gives March 12, 1881 as his date of birth.
6. Turkey: The land a dictator turned into a democracy". "Time". October 12, 1953.
7. Mango, Andrew. Ataturk: ​​The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey, (Overlook TP, 2002), p. 27.
8. Kemal's British biographer Patrick Kinross referred to Kemal as a "Macedonian" (perhaps referring to Thessaloniki being the center of the Macedonia region); about his mother, he writes: “Zübeyde was as fair as any Slav from beyond the Bulgarian frontier, with a fine white skin and eyes of a deep but clear light blue.<…>She liked to think that she had in her veins some of the pure fair blood of the Yuruks , those nomadic descendants of the original Turkish tribes who still survive in isolation among the Taurus Mountains ." (John P. Kinross. . New York, 1965, pp. 8-9.)
9. Gershom Scholem. Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 5, "Doenmeh": Coh-Doz, Macmillan Reference USA, Thomson Gale, 2007, ISBN 0-02-865933-3, p. 732.
10. Mustafa Kemal. The path of a new Turkey. Litizdat N. K. I. D., T. I, 1929, p. XVI. ("Biography according to the state calendar of the Republic of Turkey.")
11. John P. Kinross. Atatürk: a biography of Mustafa Kemal, father of modern Turkey. New York, 1965, p. 90: “I don't order you to attack, I order you to die. In the time it takes us to die, other troops and commanders can come and take our places."

Mustafa Kemal was born in Greece in Thessaloniki in 1881. His exact date of birth is not known. Some sources indicate March 12, others - May 19. The first date is considered official, and he chose the second himself after the start of the struggle for Turkish independence. The real name of the great Turkish reformer Mustafa Riz. He added the nickname Kemal to his name while studying at a military school for his knowledge of mathematics. The title of Ataturk - the father of the Turks - Mustafa received after being recognized as the national leader of the state.

Mustafa's family are customs officials. By the time of Mustafa's birth, Thessaloniki was under the rule of the Turks and suffered from the strong oppression of the new government. Mustafa's father and mother were Turks by blood, but there may be ancestors of Greeks, Slavs or Tatars in the family. In addition to Mustafa, the family had three more children. Two brothers died in infancy, and a sister lived to adulthood.

The boy received his primary education in a Muslim school, then at the age of 12 he transferred to a military school. The character of the young man was quite difficult. He was known as a rude, quick-tempered and straightforward person. Mustafa was an active and independent child. Practically not communicating with peers and sister, Mustafa preferred to remain alone. He did not listen to the opinions of others and did not compromise. In the future, this greatly affected his career and life. Mustafa Kemal made many enemies.

Political activities of Mustafa Kemal

While studying at the Ottoman Academy of the General Staff, Mustafa was fond of reading the books of Voltaire, Rousseau. Studied biographies of prominent historical figures. It was then that patriotism and nationalism began to emerge in it. As a cadet, Mustafa showed interest in the Young Turks, who advocated the independence of Turkey from the Ottoman sultans.

After graduation, Mustafa Kemal organized several secret societies that were engaged in the fight against corruption in the Turkish government. For his activities, he was arrested and exiled to Damascus, where he founded the Vatan party. This party is currently one of the most influential organizations in Turkey.

In 1908, Mustafa took part in the Young Turk Revolution. The Constitution of 1876 was restored, but there were no major changes in the country. Kemal switched to military activities.

Military career of Mustafa Kemal

As a talented commander and military leader, Mustafa Kemal showed himself during the First World War. For the battle with the Anglo - French landing in the Dardanelles, he received the title of pasha. In the military career of Kemal, the victories of 1915 in the battles of Kirechtepe and Anafartalar stand out. Also noteworthy is his work in the Ministry of Defense.

After the end of the First World War, the state began to disintegrate into separate territories. Mustafa made a call to preserve the unity of the country, and in 1920 created a new parliament - the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. At the first meeting, Mustafa Kemal was elected head of government and chairman of parliament. In October 1923, Mustafa became president of the Turkish Republic.

As president of Turkey, Kemal carried out many reforms to make the state more modern. He advocated a change in the education system, improved the social structure, restored the economic independence of Turkey.

Personal life

The official wife of Mustafa Kemal was Latifa Ushaklygil. However, the marriage lasted only two years. According to Ataturk's supporters, the woman interfered in her husband's affairs, which was the reason for the divorce. Mustafa had no children of his own. He adopted foster children - 8 daughters and 2 sons. The daughters of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk became an example of the freedom and independence of a Turkish woman. One of the daughters became a historian, the other - the first woman in Turkey - a pilot.

1881–1938) Leader of the national liberation revolution in Turkey (1918–1923). First President (1923–1938) of the Republic of Turkey. He advocated strengthening the national independence and sovereignty of the country. Mustafa was born in 1296 Hijri (1881, the exact date of birth has not been established) in a patriarchal family of a petty customs officer, then a timber and salt merchant, Ali Riz Efendi and Zubeyde Khanym. His hometown is the Greek Thessaloniki. A literate and pious mother assigned her 6-year-old son to a religious school. But after the death of his father, Mustafa entered a military school and went through all the stages of officer training. For his success in teaching, he was called by his middle name - Kemal (valuable, impeccable). By the beginning of the 20th century, an economic, political and military crisis had begun in the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Abdul-Hamid II suppressed the uprisings with monstrous cruelty. Under these conditions, the bourgeois-revolutionary movement of the Young Turks "Unity and Progress" developed. Having received a secondary military education in the schools of Thessaloniki and Monastir (Bitola), Mustafa continued his studies at the Academy of the General Staff in Istanbul. Here Kemal became a member of the executive committee of the secret society "Vatan" ("Motherland"). Soon it was revealed, Mustafa was arrested in December 1904, but the leadership of the academy managed to mitigate the guilt of the young officer in a report to the Sultan, and he was actually exiled in January 1905 to serve in Damascus. There, the staff captain of the Turkish army first encountered army everyday life and punitive operations against the local Arab population of the Druze. In 1906, he organized the secret society "Vatan ve Hurriyet" ("Homeland and Freedom"), the action of which was supposed to be extended to the army units of Beirut, Jaffa and Jerusalem. In the summer of 1908, officers Ahmed Niyaz Bey and Enver (the future Enver Pasha), leading the rebel detachments, moved to Istanbul. On July 23, 1908, the Sultan capitulated and announced the restoration of the constitution he had canceled. By the beginning of World War I, a triumvirate dictatorship was established in Turkey - Enver, Taalat and Cemal. The Sultan and Parliament were practically deprived of power. The triumvirate was headed by the Minister of War, son-in-law of the Sultan Enver Pasha. An admirer of German military doctrine, he contributed, in particular, to the subordination of the Turkish army to German officers. Kemal repeatedly entered into open conflict with Enver Minister of the Interior Talaat Pasha and Chairman of the Central Committee of Unity and Progress, Governor of Istanbul Jemal Pasha, were not much different from Enver. Kemal's independent stance and his growing popularity in the army worried the leaders of the Young Turks. In an effort to somehow alienate him from the government and at the same time reward him for his help in restoring the Young Turk government, the authorities sent him to France in the summer of 1909. France made a huge impression on the young officer. Upon returning home and being assigned to the 3rd Army Corps with headquarters in Thessaloniki, he tried to make changes in the training of the troops, which was coldly received by the Minister of War M. Shevket, who ordered Kemal to return to the General Staff. During the war between Turkey and Italy, Kemal served at the headquarters of the units stationed on the outskirts of the Dardanelles. Then, during the Second Balkan War in the summer of 1913, Turkey retook Adrianople (Edirne) with the district and again became a European country. Kemal actively participated in military operations and, having shown military skill and perseverance, received the rank of lieutenant colonel. On the eve of 1914, the collapse of the Young Turks was finally determined. The Triumvirate saw the only way out of the situation in an alliance with Germany, which established complete control over the Turkish army, navy, economy and politics. In November 1914, Kemal was appointed commander of the division of the 1st Army, which defended the capital and the straits. The Entente was preparing a serious operation there. In April 1915, her troops occupied the fortifications of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Kemal energetically set about organizing the defense, personally led the combatants and repulsed almost all further attacks by the British and French. In 1916 he became a general and received the title of pasha. In 1918, Turkey suffered a crushing defeat from the Entente. According to the Truce of Mudros, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus turned out to be open straits and were subsequently subject to occupation along with Istanbul. The country was losing its independence. The members of the triumvirate fled, the Germans evacuated from the country Kemal was summoned to the capital, and there he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the sultan, the parliament and the grand vizier to confront the Anglo-Franco-Italian forces. Turkey was occupied by the troops of Atlanta. In response to the occupation, a patriotic "Society for the Protection of Rights" arose in Anatolia to fight the invaders. A front for a nationwide liberation movement was outlined, headed by the commercial bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia and officers. In May 1919, Kemal achieved his appointment as an inspector of the 3rd Army in Samsun, occupied by the British. Resistance to the invaders in Anatolia has already taken on a large scale. Kemal later said: "While in Istanbul, I did not imagine that misfortunes could awaken our people so and in such a short time." Kemal held congresses of the Society for the Protection of Rights. The first congress of Western organizations was held in June 1919 in Balikesir. After that, Kemal, renouncing the title of pasha, organized in July - August the Erzurum Congress of representatives of these societies, and in September - the All-Turkish Sivas Congress. There was elected a Representative Committee of 16 people headed by Kemal. The Committee acquired powers based on the protection of the independence and indivisibility of the country within the boundaries of the Mudros truce, demanding the resignation of the government of Ferid Pasha. But the sultan was still regarded as the head of the nation and the caliphate. These events went down in history as the beginning of the Kemalist revolution. Mehmed VI and his entourage became alarmed. A decree was issued demanding the restoration of peace, tranquility and order. Kemal, showing efficiency and determination, sent the officials who carried out this decree to jail and very quickly improved the situation in Anatolia. On July 8, 1919, having decided to finally break with the Sultan, Kemal sent a letter of resignation to the government. Now he could lead the uprising as a civilian. On January 12, 1920, the Majlis of the IV convocation began work in Istanbul. Of its 173 deputies, 116 turned out to be supporters of the liberation movement. The activities of the Majlis worried the British command. On the night of March 16, 1920, Istanbul was occupied by the British Marines. The Chamber of Deputies was dispersed, martial law was declared, mass arrests of revolutionary political figures were carried out. On April 23, a new Mejlis began to work in Ankara under the leadership of Kemal. The deputies declared that another government should be formed and only the Majlis, called the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GRNAT), expressing the will of the people, has the highest legislative right; Turkey should become a republic, its president is elected by the GRST. These were Kemal's old ideas. On May 17, the VNST issued an appeal to the people, urging them to rally around the Kemalists. The unfolding civil war took on a fierce character. Kemal managed to convert most of the partisan detachments into regular military units, removed or eliminated many former commanders and replaced them with career officers. Partisan formations that did not submit to the VNST were defeated. In September, the VNST passed a law creating courts of independence, which severely punished deserters and bandits. For the same purpose, flying gendarme detachments were created, which were actively used to assert the sovereign rule of the nationalists, and they were not shy about methods of suppressing dissidents. Kemal and his entourage also liquidated the opposition group of deputies in the VNST and the opposition press, including the left, and in January 1921 the leadership of the Communist Party of Turkey, headed by M. Subhi, was destroyed. Meanwhile, the occupiers continued to divide Turkey and on August 10, 1920, in Sevres (near Paris), they signed an agreement with the Sultan's government, which reduced the country to the position of an appendage of other powers. As a result, almost all the people went over to the side of Kemal. In August 1921, Mustafa Kemal's men won a three-week battle near the Sakkaria River. The Greeks took to flight. Over the next year, the Turks, with the support of France, Italy and Russia, regained Smyrna. In September, Mustafa arrived in triumph at the ill-fated port and announced that any Turkish soldier who harmed the civilian population would be shot. Nevertheless, just a few hours later, a mob of Turks tore the Greek patriarch to pieces with the tacit approval of the new commandant of Smyrna. Then mass robberies, rapes and murders began. The Turkish military moved methodically from one house to another in the Greek and Armenian quarters in the northern part of the city. “By evening, the streets were strewn with corpses,” said an American eyewitness. However, the worst was yet to come. On Wednesday, September 13, Europeans noticed detachments of Turkish soldiers doused with gasoline and set fire to houses in the Armenian quarters. The wind spread the flames to the north, and very soon thousands of dilapidated houses were engulfed in flames. Five hundred people died in the church after the arson. The sickening smell of burning flesh spread over the city. Tens of thousands of inhabitants, pursued by a wall of fire, rushed to the water. English, American, Italian and French warships were stationed in the bay. Each of them received strict orders to remain neutral in the conflict between the Greeks and the Turks. The next morning, compassion overpowered the orders, and spontaneously organized rescue operations began. Watching the fire, Mustafa Kemal said: “We have before us a sign that Turkey has been cleansed of Christian traitors and foreigners. From now on, Turkey belongs to the Turks.” Three days after the fire, he announced that all men between the ages of 15 and 50 would be taken to the center of the country for forced labor. The women and children must leave Smyrna by 30 September, otherwise they will also be rounded up and deported. He was later forced to extend the deadline by six days. Warships and merchant ships performed a real miracle, transporting almost 250,000 people to safety. No one will be able to accurately calculate the number of corpses left in Smyrna, however, according to the most conservative estimates, there were at least one hundred thousand of them. Mustafa Kemal has always claimed that Greeks and Armenians set fire to Smyrna, however, according to a report submitted to the US State Department, all the evidence pointed to an attempt by Turkish troops to destroy evidence of robberies, massacres and violence that raged on the streets of this city for four days ... August 5, 1921 VNST appointed Kemal supreme commander with unlimited powers. His talent as a leader was again shown. The month-long battle on Sakarya ended with the defeat of the Greeks, who stopped the offensive; the front line has stabilized. The VNST awarded Kemal the rank of marshal and the title of Gazi (winner). A year later, he organized a counteroffensive. In the decisive battles between the Turkish and Greek armies, Kemal again distinguished himself and in September 1922 liberated Anatolia from the Greek troops, and after a brilliant victory at Dumlupinar entered Izmir. On October 11, the Mudan truce was signed between Turkey and the Entente; occupiers still remained in Istanbul, but Eastern Thrace was returning to the Turks. The victory at the front brought to the fore the problem of political power. A chalmon-bearing reaction appeared in the VNST - the clergy, who united with the sultan's dignitaries and the generals' opposition. They accused, and not without reason, Kemal of dictatorship. On November 1, 1922, the VNST passed a law on the separation of secular power from religious power and the liquidation of the sultanate. Mehmed VI fled abroad. At the Lausanne Peace Conference, which lasted intermittently from November 20, 1922 to July 24, 1923, the Turkish delegation achieved the main thing: it defended its state independence. On October 29, 1923, Turkey was proclaimed a republic with Ankara as its capital. Mustafa Kemal became its first president (then he was invariably re-elected to this post every 4 years). But with the previous composition of the VNST, Kemal believed, it would not be possible to reach an agreement on the problems facing the country. In order to have a solid footing, Kemal decided to found the People's Party (since 1924 - the People's Republican Party (CHP)) and undertook a long trip to Anatolia. During numerous speeches, he defended the principles of popular government, considering them the most important. On March 3, 1924, the VNST abolished the Caliphate and expelled all members of the Sultan's dynasty from the country. On April 20, 1924, a new constitution was adopted, which consolidated the republican system. The president was elected by the VNST for four years and could be re-elected, he was the supreme commander in chief, appointed the prime minister and entrusted him with the formation of the government. The constitution fixed Islam as the "religion of the Turkish state", which put the mass of non-believers in a dependent position. Only men from the age of 22 could participate in the elections to the VNST, there was a majoritarian system that ignored the interests of the small peoples of Turkey. The constitution demonstrated the nationalism of its creators. The vast majority of anti-Kemalist protests were held under religious slogans, behind which were hidden the discontent of national minorities, infringed on their rights, and the indignation of peasants deprived of land and continuing to experience the oppression of semi-feudal lords and the burden of state taxes, and the discontent of religious figures who felt a real threat to their well-being, and even the excitement of some former participants in the liberation struggle, who sometimes continued to adhere to traditional views. In November 1924, an opposition movement arose in Ankara, united in the ranks of the Progressive Republican Party (PRP). It was headed by well-known political and military figures, including Karabekir, and the entire right-wing opposition was drawn to it. By the beginning of 1925, there were 10,000 people in this party. In February of the same 1925, a powerful Kurdish movement was resumed in the southeastern provinces, led by Sheikh Said. The uprising swept those areas where the Kurdish tribes have long, but unsuccessfully, fought for independence. To suppress the uprising, Kemal introduced a state of emergency in Turkish Kurdistan. Nevertheless, 40,000 rebels occupied the city of Charput and laid siege to Diyarbakir. On March 4, the NTSG approved a policing law that gave the government unlimited powers. The activities of the courts of independence in Kurdistan and Ankara were restored: they were given the right to immediately carry out death sentences. In June, Said and 46 other Kurdish leaders were hanged. On June 3, 1925, the activities of the PRP were banned, and its leaders were put on trial. Opposition press organs were closed, 150 “undesirable” journalists who actively participated in the national liberation movement were repressed. In November, the government passed a resolution to close also (the dervish monasteries) and the türbe (venerated tombs of saints), which remained sites of anti-republican propaganda. Special decrees forbade wearing the distinctive clothes of dervishes and religious ministers, fez and other medieval headdresses and clothes, and ordered their replacement with clothes of European cut. In June 1926, a conspiracy of progressives and former Young Turks who wanted to kill Kemal was uncovered in Izmir. Their leaders Javid, K. Kemal and others were hanged. The President believed that the most honorable member of society is a hardworking peasant. “Sokha is our pen with which we will write our national history, the history of the people, the national era,” said Kemal. On his instructions, a program was developed for new forms of education, the creation of a system of university and secondary technical education (agricultural schools, trade and commercial schools, etc.), libraries, museums, art exhibitions, and printing houses. Despite the difficult economic situation of the country, Kemal invariably demanded the allocation of significant public funds for education, science and culture. One of the brilliant victories of Ataturk is the emancipation of women and their involvement in social activities. The Civil Code of 1926 formally equalized women's rights with men. One of the most difficult Kemalist transformations was the introduction of the Latin alphabet instead of the Arabic one. The Muslim calendar was replaced by the European one. The Quran was translated from Arabic into Turkish. In the first years of the military revolution, Kemal, counting on the process of capitalization, sought to rely on big capital that was born in the country. On August 26, 1924, a private-state Business Bank was established with a capital of 1 million lira, of which 250,000 Kemal himself contributed from the funds collected by the Muslims of India and sent to him during the years of the liberation movement. The business bank acquired the nickname of the Bank of Politicians among the people. Its shareholders and founders, most of whom were close to Kemal, became large owners in a number of business sectors. The global economic crisis of 1929-1933 forced Kemal to correct economic reforms. He passed through the NTST a law on the stabilization of the national currency. A consortium of banks was created to maintain the exchange rate of the lira. In 1930, they founded an issuing Central Bank and passed an export control law. The main goal was to increase exports and limit imports. Kemal publicly rejected the socialist path of development as anti-people and at the same time rejected the model of supporting private capital with open doors, adopting a policy of statism: state capitalism while maintaining a market economy and competition. It was Kemal who became the initiator and theorist of etatism. His speech in April 1931 on the program of the IRP gave a clear description of the planned line. And in 1937, a provision on etatism was introduced into the constitution, after which a law was passed regulating the activities of the public sector and state enterprises (1938). Turkey has become a pioneer of statism in the Middle East. Following it, many countries that subsequently won independence repeated this path of development. The establishment of etatism took place in conditions of active opposition from the opposition. In 1930, Kemal dealt with the short-lived Liberal Republican Party of A. Fethi. From 1931 to 1940, Turkey's national income steadily increased; in industry it has doubled, in agriculture - by a third, and the share of industry in the total national income has increased significantly. In 1936, a 48-hour work week was fixed, but at the same time a ban on strikes was introduced. In 1932, the country became a member of the League of Nations, two years later became part of the Balkan Entente along with Greece, Yugoslavia and Romania. The Montreux Conference (June-July 1936) made it easier for Turkey to control the straits. The situation was worse in some areas of domestic politics: the bulk of the peasants did not have land and expressed strong discontent, and in 1931 and 1936–1937 Atatürk again had to suppress Kurdish uprisings. Kemal was very sensitive to the opposition against the dictatorial regime he had established. He understood the shortcomings of a one-party dictatorship and tried to create a legal opposition through the organization of a "different" party controlled by him personally. But this experience failed, and until the end of Kemal's life, the Republican People's Party founded by him remained in power. A long-standing disease of the liver and kidneys increasingly made itself felt, and on November 10, 1938, Kemal died. By decision of the government, Atatürk was buried in Ankara, which he made the capital of the new state. A mausoleum was built over his grave, constantly guarded by military personnel.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk; Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha(tur. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk; 1881 - November 10, 1938) - Ottoman and Turkish reformer, politician, statesman and military leader; founder and first leader of the Republican People's Party of Turkey; the first president of the Turkish Republic, the founder of the modern Turkish state.

After the defeat (October 1918) of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, he led the national revolutionary movement and the war for independence in Anatolia, achieved the liquidation of the great government of the Sultan and the occupation regime, created a new republican state based on nationalism (“sovereignty of the nation”), held a number of serious political, social and cultural reforms, such as: the liquidation of the Sultanate (November 1, 1922), the proclamation of the Republic (October 29, 1923), the abolition of the Caliphate (March 3, 1924), the introduction of secular education, the closure of dervish orders, the dress reform (1925), adoption of a new European-style criminal and civil code (1926), latinization of the alphabet, purification of the Turkish language from Arabic and Persian borrowings, separation of religion from the state (1928), granting suffrage to women, abolition of titles and feudal forms of address, introduction of surnames (1934) , the establishment of national banks and national industry. As the chairman of the Great National Assembly (1920-1923) and then (since October 29, 1923) as the president of the republic, who was re-elected to this post every four years, as well as the irremovable chairman of the Republican People's Party created by him, he acquired indisputable authority and dictatorial powers in Turkey.

Origin, childhood and education

Born in 1880 or 1881 (there is no reliable information about the date of birth; later Kemal chose May 19 as his date of birth - the day the struggle for Turkish independence began) in the Hojakasym quarter of the Ottoman city of Thessaloniki (now Greece) in the family of a small timber merchant, former customs officer Ali Ryz -effendi and his wife Zubeyde-khanim. The origin of his father is not known for certain, some sources claim that his ancestors were Turkish settlers from Soke, others insist on the Balkan (Albanian or Bulgarian) roots of Ataturk, the family spoke Turkish and professed Islam, although among the Islamist opponents of Kemal in the Ottoman Empire Empire, it was widely believed that his father belonged to the Jewish sect Dönme, one of the centers of which was the city of Thessaloniki. He and his younger sister Makbule Atadan were the only children in the family who survived to adulthood, the rest died in early childhood.

Mustafa was an active child with a fiery and extremely independent personality. The boy preferred loneliness and independence to communication with peers or his sister. He was intolerant of the opinions of others, did not like to compromise and always sought to follow the path chosen for himself. The habit of directly expressing everything that he thinks brought Mustafa a lot of trouble in later life, and with it he made numerous enemies.

Mustafa's mother, a devout Muslim, wanted her son to learn the Koran, but her husband, Ali Rıza, was inclined to give Mustafa a more modern education. The couple could not reach a compromise, and therefore, when Mustafa reached school age, he was first assigned to the Hafyz Mehmet Efendi school, located in the quarter where the family lived.

His father died in 1888 when Mustafa was 8 years old. On March 13, 1893, according to his aspiration, being 12 years old, he entered the preparatory military school in Thessaloniki. Selânik Askerî Rüştiyesi where the math teacher gave him a middle name Kemal("perfection").

In 1896 he was enrolled in a military school ( Manastır Askerî İdadisi) in the city of Manastir (now Bitola in modern Macedonia).

On March 13, 1899, he entered the Ottoman Military College ( Mekteb-i Harbiye-i Shahane) in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Unlike the former places of study, where revolutionary and reformist moods dominated, the college was under the strict control of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II.

February 10, 1902 entered the Ottoman Academy of the General Staff ( Erkan-ı Harbiye Mektebi) in Istanbul, which he graduated on January 11, 1905. Immediately after graduating from the academy, he was arrested on charges of unlawful criticism of the Abdulkhamid regime and after several months in custody was exiled to Damascus, where in 1905 he created a revolutionary organization Watan("Motherland").

Service start. Young Turks

In 1905-1907, together with Lutfi Mufit Bey (Ozdesh), he served in the 5th Army stationed in Damascus. In 1907, Mustafa Kemal was promoted and sent to the 3rd Army in the city of Manastir.

Already while studying in Thessaloniki, Kemal participated in revolutionary societies; after graduating from the Academy, he joined the Young Turks, participated in the preparation and implementation of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908; subsequently, due to disagreements with the leaders of the Young Turk movement, he temporarily withdrew from political activity.

In 1910, Mustafa Kemal was sent to France, where he attended the Picardy military maneuvers. In 1911 he began to serve in Istanbul, in the General Staff of the Armed Forces. During the Italo-Turkish war, which began in 1911 with the storming of Tripoli by the Italians, Mustafa Kemal, along with a group of his comrades, fought in the region of Tobruk and Derne. On December 22, 1911, Mustafa Kemal defeated the Italians in the battle of Tobruk, and on March 6, 1912, he was appointed to the post of commander of the Ottoman troops in Derna. In October 1912, the Balkan War began, in which Mustafa Kemal took part along with military units from Gallipoli and Bolaiyr. He played a big role in the recapture of Didymotikhon (Dimetoki) and Edirne from the Bulgarians.

In 1913, Mustafa Kemal was appointed to the post of military attache in Sofia, where in 1914 he received the rank of lieutenant colonel. Mustafa Kemal served there until 1915, when he was sent to Tekirdag to form the 19th division.

Kemal in World War I

At the beginning of the First World War, Mustafa Kemal successfully commanded the Turkish troops in the battle for Canakkale.

On March 18, 1915, the Anglo-French squadron tried to pass the Dardanelles, but suffered heavy losses. After that, the Entente command decided to land troops on the Gallipoli peninsula. On April 25, 1915, the Anglo-French, who landed at Cape Aryburnu, were stopped by the 19th division under the command of Mustafa Kemal. After this victory, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to colonel. On August 6-7, 1915, British troops again went on the offensive from the Aryburnu peninsula.

During the landing of the troops of the Australian and New Zealand Corps and other British units on the Gallipoli Peninsula during the Dardanelles operation, at the most desperate moment of the battles, on the morning of April 25, 1915, in the order of the day for his 57th regiment, Kemal wrote: “I do not order you to advance I command you to die. While we are dying, other troops and commanders will be able to come and take our places. The entire personnel of the 57th regiment died by the end of the battle.

On August 6-15, 1915, a group of troops under the command of the German officer Otto Sanders and Kemal managed to prevent the success of the British forces during the landing in Suvla Bay. This was followed by a victory at Kirechtepe (August 17) and a second victory at Anafartalar (August 21).

After the battles for the Dardanelles, he commanded troops in Edirne and Diyarbakir. On April 1, 1916, he was promoted to divisional general (lieutenant general) and appointed commander of the 2nd Army. Under his command, the 2nd Army in early August 1916 managed to briefly occupy Mush and Bitlis, but was soon driven out by the Russians.

After a short service in Damascus and Aleppo, he returned to Istanbul. From here, together with Crown Prince Vakhidettin Efendi, he went to Germany to the front line for an inspection. Upon returning from this trip, he became seriously ill and was sent for treatment to Vienna and Baden-Baden.

On August 15, 1918, he returned to Aleppo as commander of the 7th Army. Under his command, the army successfully defended itself against the attacks of the British troops.

After the signing of the Armistice of Mudros (the surrender of the Ottoman Empire) (October 30, 1918), he was appointed to the post of commander of the Yildirim Army Group. After the dissolution of this formation, Mustafa Kemal returned to Istanbul on November 13, 1918, where he began working in the Ministry of Defense.

Angora government organization

The signing of a complete surrender forced the systematic disarmament and disbandment of the Ottoman army to begin. On May 19, 1919, Mustafa Kemal arrived in Samsun as an inspector of the 9th Army.

On June 22, 1919, in Amasya, he issued a circular ( Amasya Genelgesi), which said that the independence of the country was under threat, and also announced the convocation of deputies to the Sivas Congress.

On July 8, 1919, Kemal retired from the Ottoman army. July 23 - August 7, 1919, a congress was held in Erzurum ( Erzurum Kongresi) of the six eastern vilayets of the empire, followed by the Sivas Congress, held from 4 to 11 September 1919. Mustafa Kemal, who ensured the convocation and work of these congresses, thus determined the ways of "saving the fatherland." The Sultan's government tried to counteract this, and on September 3, 1919, a decree was issued on the arrest of Mustafa Kemal, but he already had enough supporters to oppose the implementation of this decree. On December 27, 1919, Mustafa Kemal was greeted with jubilation by the inhabitants of Angora (Ankara).

After the occupation of Constantinople (November 1918) by the troops of the Entente and the dissolution of the Ottoman parliament (March 16, 1920), Kemal convened his own parliament in Angora - the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT), the first meeting of which opened on April 23, 1920. Kemal himself was elected chairman of the parliament and head of the government of the Grand National Assembly, which was then not recognized by any of the powers. On April 29, the Grand National Assembly passed a law sentencing to death anyone who questions its legitimacy. In response to this, the Sultan's government in Istanbul issued a decree on May 1st sentencing Mustafa Kemal and his supporters to death.

The main immediate task of the Kemalists was to fight the Armenians in the northeast, the Greeks in the west, as well as the occupation of Turkish lands by the Entente and the de facto regime of capitulations that remained.

On June 7, 1920, the Angora government declared invalid all previous treaties of the Ottoman Empire; in addition, the government of the VNST rejected and ultimately, through military action, disrupted the ratification of the Treaty of Sevres signed on August 10, 1920 between the Sultan's government and the Entente countries, which they considered unfair to the Turkish population of the empire. Taking advantage of the situation when the international judicial mechanism provided for by the treaty was not created, the Kemalists seized hostages from among the British military and began to exchange them for members of the Young Turk government and other persons interned in Malta on charges of deliberately killing Armenians. The Nuremberg trials became a similar mechanism years later.

Turkish-Armenian war. Relations with the RSFSR

The main stages of the Turkish-Armenian war: the capture of Sarykamysh (September 20, 1920), Kars (October 30, 1920) and Gyumri (November 7, 1920).

Of decisive importance in the military successes of the Kemalists against the Armenians, and subsequently the Greeks, was the significant financial and military assistance provided by the government of the RSFSR from the autumn of 1920 until 1922. Already in 1920, in response to a letter from Kemal to Lenin dated April 26, 1920, containing a request for help, the government of the RSFSR sent 6,000 rifles, over 5 million rifle cartridges, 17,600 shells and 200.6 kg of gold bullion to the Kemalists.

Kemal's letter to Lenin dated April 26, 1920 read, among other things: “First. We undertake to link all our work and all our military operations with the Russian Bolsheviks, whose aim is to fight the imperialist governments and free all the oppressed from their rule.<…>» In the second half of 1920, Kemal planned to create a Turkish Communist Party under his control in order to receive funding from the Comintern; but on January 28, 1921, the leadership of the Turkish communists was liquidated with his sanction.

At the conclusion of March 16, 1921 in Moscow, an agreement on "friendship and brotherhood" (according to which a number of territories of the former Russian Empire went to Turkey: the Kars region and Surmalinsky district), an agreement was also reached on providing the Ankara government with gratuitous financial assistance, as well as assistance with weapons, in accordance with which the Soviet government during 1921 sent 10 million rubles to the Kemalists. gold, more than 33 thousand rifles, about 58 million cartridges, 327 machine guns, 54 artillery pieces, more than 129 thousand shells, one and a half thousand sabers, 20 thousand gas masks, 2 naval fighters and "a large number of other military equipment." In 1922, the government of the RSFSR came up with a proposal to invite representatives of the Kemal government to the Genoa Conference, which meant actual international recognition for the VNST.

Greco-Turkish War

According to Turkish historiography, it is believed that the "National Liberation War of the Turkish people" began on May 15, 1919 with the first shots fired in Smyrna at the Greeks who landed in the city. The occupation of Smyrna by Greek troops was carried out in accordance with Article 7 of the Mudros Truce.

The main stages of the war:

• Defense of the region of Chukurova, Gaziantep, Kahramanmarash and Sanliurfa (1919-1920);
• Inönü's first victory (January 6-10, 1921);
• İnönü's second victory (March 23 - April 1, 1921);
• Defeat at Eskisehir (Battle of Afyonkarahisar-Eskisehir), retreat to Sakarya (July 17, 1921);
• Victory in the battle of Sakarya (August 23-September 13, 1921);
• General offensive and victory over the Greeks at Domlupinar (now il Kutahya, Turkey; August 26-September 9, 1922).

After the victory at Sakarya, the VNST granted Mustafa Kemal the title of "gazi" and the title of marshal (9/21/1921).

On August 18, 1922, Kemal launched a decisive offensive, on August 26, the positions of the Greeks were broken through, and the Greek army actually lost its combat capability. Afyonkarahisar was taken on August 30, Bursa on September 5. The remnants of the Greek army flocked to Smyrna, but there was not enough fleet for the evacuation. No more than a third of the Greeks managed to evacuate. The Turks captured 40 thousand people, 284 guns, 2 thousand machine guns and 15 aircraft.

During the Greek retreat, both sides committed mutual cruelties: the Greeks killed and robbed the Turks, the Turks - the Greeks. About a million people on both sides were left homeless.

On September 9, Kemal, at the head of the Turkish army, entered Smyrna; the Greek and Armenian parts of the city were completely destroyed by fire; the entire Greek population fled or was destroyed. Kemal himself accused the Greeks and Armenians of burning the city, as well as personally Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Smyrna, who died a martyr's death on the very first day of the entry of the Kemalists (commander Nureddin Pasha betrayed him to the Turkish crowd, who killed him after cruel tortures. Now he is canonized).

On September 17, 1922, Kemal sent a telegram to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, which offered the following version: the city was set on fire by the Greeks and Armenians, who were encouraged to do so by Metropolitan Chrysostomos, who claimed that burning the city was a religious duty of Christians; the Turks did everything to save him. Kemal said the same to the French admiral Dumesnil: “We know there was a conspiracy. We even found everything necessary for arson in the Armenian women… Before our arrival in the city, in the temples they called for a sacred duty - to set fire to the city”. The French journalist Bertha Georges-Goly, who covered the war in the Turkish camp and arrived in Izmir after the events, wrote: “ It seems certain that when the Turkish soldiers became convinced of their own helplessness and saw how the flames consumed one house after another, they were seized with a mad fury and they defeated the Armenian quarter, from where, according to them, the first arsonists appeared.».

Kemal is credited with the words allegedly said by him after the massacre in Izmir: “We have before us a sign that Turkey has been cleansed of Christian traitors and foreigners. From now on, Turkey belongs to the Turks.”

Under pressure from British and French representatives, Kemal finally allowed the evacuation of Christians, but not men between 15 and 50 years old: they were deported to the interior for forced labor and most died.

On October 11, 1922, the Entente powers signed a truce with the Kemalist government, which Greece joined 3 days later; the latter was forced to leave Eastern Thrace, evacuating the Orthodox (Greek) population from there.

On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) was signed in Lausanne, ending the war and defining the modern borders of Turkey in the west. The Treaty of Lausanne, among other things, provided for the exchange of population between Turkey and Greece, which meant the end of the centuries-old history of the Greeks in Anatolia (Asia Minor catastrophe).

Abolition of the Sultanate. Creation of the republic

On April 23, 1920, the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (GNAT), which was then an extraordinary body of power that combined legislative, executive and judicial powers, heralded the creation of the Turkish Republic. Kemal became the first chairman of the VNST.

On November 1, 1922, the caliphate and the sultanate were separated from each other; the sultanate was abolished. In a speech that Kemal delivered during a meeting of the GRTU on November 1, 1920, he, having made an excursion into the history of the caliphate and the Ottoman dynasty, in particular, said:

<…>Finally, during the reign of Vahidaddin, the 36th and last padishah of the Ottoman dynasty, the Turkish nation was plunged into the abyss of slavery. This nation, which for thousands of years had been a noble symbol of independence, was to be kicked into the abyss. Just as they are looking for some heartless creature, devoid of any human feelings, in order to instruct her to tighten the rope around the neck of the convict, so in order to strike this blow, it was necessary to find a traitor, a man without conscience, unworthy and treacherous . Those who pass the death sentence need help from such a vile creature. Who could be this vile executioner? Who could put an end to Turkey's independence, encroach on the life, honor and dignity of the Turkish nation? Who could have had the inglorious courage to stand up to his full height and accept the death sentence proclaimed against Turkey? (Screams: "Vakhideddin, Vakhideddin!", noise.)

(Pasha, continuing:) Yes, Wahideddin, whom unfortunately this nation had as its head and whom it appointed as sovereign, padishah, caliph ... (Screams: "May Allah curse him!")<…>

Russian translation of speech by: Mustafa Kemal. The path of the new Turkey. M., 1934, Vol. IV, p. 280: “Speech of His Excellency Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha at the meeting of November 1, 1922” (Extract from the meeting of the Grand National Assembly on the issue of declaring national sovereignty)

On November 19, 1922, Kemal informed Abdülmecid by telegram of his election by the Grand National Assembly to the throne of the Caliphate: accepted the enemy's proposals, insulting and detrimental to Islam, to sow discord among Muslims and even cause bloody slaughter among them.<…>»

On October 29, 1923, a republic was proclaimed with Kemal as its president. On April 20, 1924, the 2nd constitution of the Turkish Republic was adopted, which was in force until 1961.

reforms

According to the Russian Turkologist V. G. Kireev, the military victory over the interventionists allowed the Kemalists, whom he considers “national, patriotic forces of the young republic,” to secure the country the right to further transform and modernize Turkish society and the state. The more the Kemalists strengthened their positions, the more often they declared the need for Europeanization and secularization.

The first condition for modernization was the creation of a secular state. On February 29, 1924, the last traditional Friday ceremony of the visit of the last caliph of Turkey to the mosque in Istanbul took place. The next day, opening the next meeting of the Supreme National Assembly, Mustafa Kemal made an accusatory speech about the centuries-old use of the Islamic religion as a political tool, demanded that it be returned to its “true purpose”, urgently and most resolutely save “sacred religious values” from all sorts of “dark goals”. and desires." On March 3, at a meeting of the Supreme National Assembly under the chairmanship of M. Kemal, among others, laws were adopted on the abolition of Sharia legal proceedings in Turkey, the transfer of waqf property to the disposal of the general directorate of waqfs.

It also provided for the transfer of all scientific and educational institutions to the Ministry of Education, the creation of a unified secular system of national education. These orders also applied to foreign educational institutions and schools of national minorities.

In 1926, a new Civil Code was adopted, which established liberal secular principles of civil law, defined the concepts of property, ownership of real estate - private, joint, etc. The Code was rewritten from the text of the Swiss civil code, then the most advanced in Europe. Thus, the Mejelle - the set of Ottoman laws, as well as the Land Code of 1858, went into the past.

One of the main transformations of Kemal at the initial stage of the formation of the new state was the economic policy, which was determined by the underdevelopment of its socio-economic structure. Of the 14 million people, about 77% lived in villages, 81.6% were employed in agriculture, 5.6% in industry, 4.8% in trade and 7% in the service sector. The share of agriculture in the national income was 67%, industry - 10%. Most of the railways remained in the hands of foreigners. Banking, insurance companies, municipal enterprises, and mining enterprises were also dominated by foreign capital. The functions of the Central Bank were performed by the Ottoman Bank, controlled by English and French capital. Local industry, with a few exceptions, was represented by handicrafts and small handicrafts.

In 1924, with the support of Kemal and a number of deputies of the Mejlis, the Business Bank was established. Already in the first years of his activity, he became the owner of a 40% stake in the Turk Telsiz Phone TASH company, built the then largest Ankara Palace hotel in Ankara, bought and reorganized a woolen fabric factory, and provided loans to several Ankara merchants who exported tiftik and wool .

The Law on Encouragement of Industry, which came into force on July 1, 1927, was of paramount importance. From now on, an industrialist who intended to build an enterprise could receive a land plot of up to 10 hectares free of charge. It was exempted from taxes on covered premises, on land, on profits, etc. Materials imported for the construction and production activities of the enterprise were not subject to customs duties and taxes. In the first year of the production activity of each enterprise, a premium of 10% of the cost was established on the cost of its products.

By the end of the 1920s, an almost boom situation arose in the country. During the 1920s and 1930s, 201 joint-stock companies were established with a total capital of 112.3 million lire, including 66 companies with foreign capital (42.9 million lire).

In agrarian policy, the state distributed among the landless and land-poor peasants nationalized waqf property, state property and the lands of abandoned or deceased Christians. After the Kurdish uprising of Sheikh Said, laws were passed on the abolition of the ashar tax in kind and the liquidation of the foreign tobacco company Rezhi (1925). The state encouraged the creation of agricultural cooperatives.

To maintain the exchange rate of the Turkish lira and trade in currency, a temporary consortium was established in March 1930, which included all the largest national and foreign banks operating in Istanbul, as well as the Turkish Ministry of Finance. Six months after the creation of the consortium was granted the right to issue. A further step in streamlining the monetary system and regulating the exchange rate of the Turkish lira was the establishment in July 1930 of the Central Bank, which began its activities in October of the following year. With the beginning of the activities of the new bank, the consortium was liquidated, and the right to issue was transferred to the Central Bank. Thus, the Ottoman Bank ceased to play a dominant role in the Turkish financial system.

1. Political transformations:

• Abolition of the Sultanate (November 1, 1922).
• Creation of the People's Party and the establishment of a one-party political system (September 9, 1923).
• Proclamation of the Republic (October 29, 1923).
• Abolition of the Caliphate (March 3, 1924).

2. Transformations in public life:

• Headgear and clothing reform (November 25, 1925).
• Ban on the activities of religious monasteries and orders (November 30, 1925).
• Introduction of the international system of time, calendar and measures of measurement (1925-1931).
• Granting women equal rights with men (1926-1934).
• Law on Surnames (June 21, 1934).
• Cancellation of prefixes to names in the form of nicknames and titles (November 26, 1934).

3. Transformations in the legal sphere:

• Abolition of the Majelleh (code of laws based on Sharia) (1924-1937).
• The adoption of a new Civil Code and other laws, as a result of which the transition to a secular system of state government became possible.

4. Transformations in the field of education:

• Unification of all educational bodies under a single leadership (March 3, 1924).
• Adoption of the new Turkish alphabet (November 1, 1928).
• Establishment of the Turkish Linguistic and Turkish Historical Societies.
• The streamlining of university education (May 31, 1933).
• Innovations in the field of fine arts.

5. Transformations in the sphere of economy:

• Abolition of the ashar system (obsolete taxation of agriculture).
• Encouragement of private entrepreneurship in agriculture.
• Creation of exemplary agricultural enterprises.
• Publication of the Law on Industry and the establishment of industrial enterprises.
• Adoption of the 1st and 2nd industrial development plans (1933-1937), construction of roads throughout the country.

In accordance with the Law on Surnames, on November 24, 1934, the VNST assigned the surname Atatürk to Mustafa Kemal.

Atatürk was elected twice, on April 24, 1920 and August 13, 1923, to the post of speaker of the VNST. This post combined the posts of heads of state and government. On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, and Atatürk was elected its first president. In accordance with the constitution, presidential elections were held every four years, and the Turkish Grand National Assembly elected Atatürk to this post in 1927, 1931 and 1935. On November 24, 1934, the Turkish parliament gave him the surname "Ataturk" ("father of the Turks" or "great Turk", the Turks prefer the second translation).

Kemalism

The ideology put forward by Kemal and called Kemalism is still considered the official ideology of the Turkish Republic. It included 6 points, subsequently enshrined in the constitution of 1937:

• nationality;
• republicanism;
• nationalism;
• secularism;
• statism (state control in the economy);
• reformism.

Nationalism was given a place of honor, it was seen as the basis of the regime. The principle of “nationality” was associated with nationalism, which proclaimed the unity of Turkish society and interclass solidarity within it, as well as the sovereignty (supreme power) of the people and the VNST as its representative.

The Greek historian N. Psirrukis gave the following assessment of the ideology: “A careful study of Kemalism convinces us that we are talking about a deeply anti-people and anti-democratic theory. Nazism and other reactionary theories are a natural development of Kemalism.”

Nationalism and the policy of Turkization of minorities

According to Atatürk, the elements that strengthen Turkish nationalism and the unity of the nation are:

• Pact of National Accord.
• national education.
• National culture.
• Unity of language, history and culture.
• Turkish identity.
• Spiritual values.

Within these concepts, citizenship was legally identified with ethnicity, and all the inhabitants of the country, including Kurds, who made up more than 20 percent of the population, were declared Turks. All languages ​​except Turkish were banned. The whole system of education was based on the upbringing of the spirit of Turkish national unity. These postulates were proclaimed in the constitution of 1924, especially in its articles 68, 69, 70, 80. Thus, Atatürk's nationalism opposed itself not to its neighbors, but to the national minorities of Turkey, who tried to preserve their culture and traditions: Atatürk consistently built a mono-ethnic state, by force imposing a Turkish identity and discriminating against those who tried to defend their identity.

Ataturk's phrase became the slogan of Turkish nationalism: How happy is the one who says “I am a Turk!”(tur. Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!), symbolizing the change of self-identification of the nation that previously called itself the Ottomans. This saying is still written on walls, monuments, billboards and even on mountains.

The situation was more complicated with religious minorities (Armenians, Greeks and Jews), to whom the Treaty of Lausanne guaranteed the opportunity to create their own organizations and educational institutions, as well as to use the national language. However, Atatürk did not intend to fulfill these points in good faith. A campaign was launched to introduce the Turkish language into the life of national minorities under the slogan: "Citizen, speak Turkish!". Jews, for example, were insistently demanded that they abandon their native language Judesmo (Ladino) and switch to Turkish, which was seen as evidence of loyalty to the state. At the same time, the press called on religious minorities to “become real Turks” and, in confirmation of this, voluntarily renounce the rights guaranteed to them in Lausanne. With regard to the Jews, this was achieved by the fact that in February 1926 the newspapers published the corresponding telegram, allegedly sent by 300 Turkish Jews to Spain (while neither the authors nor the addressees of the telegram were ever named). Although the telegram was blatantly false, the Jews did not dare to refute it. As a result, the autonomy of the Jewish community in Turkey was liquidated; its Jewish organizations and institutions had to stop or largely curtail their activities. They were also strictly forbidden to maintain contact with Jewish communities in other countries or participate in the work of international Jewish associations. Jewish national-religious education was virtually eliminated: the lessons of Jewish tradition and history were canceled, and the study of Hebrew was reduced to the minimum necessary for reading prayers. Jews were not accepted for service in state institutions, and those who worked in them earlier were fired under Atatürk; in the army they did not accept officers and did not even trust them with weapons - they served military service in labor battalions.

Repression against the Kurds

After the extermination and expulsion of the Christian population of Anatolia, the Kurds remained the only large non-Turkish ethnic group on the territory of the Turkish Republic. During the War of Independence, Atatürk made promises of national rights and autonomy to the Kurds, which won their support. However, immediately after the victory, these promises were forgotten. Kurdish public organizations formed in the early 1920s (such as, in particular, the Azadi Society of Kurdish Officers, the Kurdish Radical Party, the Kurdish Party) were defeated and outlawed.

In February 1925, a mass national uprising of the Kurds began, led by the sheikh of the Nakshbandi Sufi order, Said Pirani. In mid-April, the rebels were decisively defeated in the Gench Valley, the leaders of the uprising, led by Sheikh Said, were captured and hanged in Diyarbakir.

Atatürk responded to the uprising with terror. On March 4, courts-martial (“courts of independence”) were established, headed by Ismet İnönü. The courts punished the slightest display of sympathy for the Kurds: Colonel Ali-Rukhi received seven years in prison for expressing sympathy for the Kurds in a cafe, journalist Ujuzu was sentenced to many years in prison for sympathizing with Ali-Rukhi. The suppression of the uprising was accompanied by massacres and deportations of civilians; about 206 Kurdish villages with 8758 houses were destroyed, and more than 15 thousand inhabitants were killed. The state of siege in the Kurdish territories was extended for many years in a row. It was forbidden to use the Kurdish language in public places, wearing national clothes. Books in Kurdish were confiscated and burned. The words "Kurd" and "Kurdistan" were removed from textbooks, and the Kurds themselves were declared "mountain Turks" who, for some reason unknown to science, had forgotten their Turkish identity. In 1934, the "Law on Resettlement" (No. 2510) was adopted, according to which the Minister of the Interior received the right to change the place of residence of various nationalities of the country, depending on how much they "adapted to Turkish culture." As a result, thousands of Kurds were resettled in the west of Turkey; Bosnians, Albanians and others settled in their place.

Opening a meeting of the Majlis in 1936, Atatürk stated that of all the problems facing the country, the Kurdish one was perhaps the most important and called for "putting an end to it once and for all."

However, the repressions did not stop the rebel movement: the Ararat uprising of 1927-1930 followed, led by Colonel Ihsan Nuri Pasha, who proclaimed the Ararat Kurdish Republic in the Ararat mountains. A new uprising began in 1936 in the Dersim region, inhabited by Zaza Kurds (Alawites), and until that time enjoyed considerable independence. At Atatürk's suggestion, the issue of "appeasement" of Dersim was included in the agenda of the VNST, which resulted in the decision to transform it into a vilayet with a special regime and rename it Tunceli. General Alpdogan was appointed head of the special zone. The leader of the Dersim Kurds, Seyid Reza, sent him a letter demanding the abolition of the new law; in response, the gendarmerie, troops and 10 aircraft were sent against the Dersimites, which began bombing the area (see: Dersim massacre). In total, according to anthropologist Martin Van Bruynissen, up to 10% of the population of Dersim died. However, the Dersim people continued the uprising for two years. In September 1937, Seyid Reza was lured to Erzinjan, allegedly for negotiations, captured and hanged; but only a year later the resistance of the Dersim people was finally broken.

Personal life

On January 29, 1923, Atatürk married Latifa Ushaklygil (Latifa Ushakizade). The marriage of Atatürk and Latife-khanim, who, together with the founder of the Turkish Republic, went on many trips around the country, ended on August 5, 1925. The reason for the divorce, according to the unofficial version, is the constant interference of the wife in the affairs of Ataturk. He had no native children, but he took 8 adopted daughters (Afet, Sabiha, Fikrie, Ulkyu, Nebile, Rukiye, Zehra and Afife) and 2 sons (Mustafa, Abdurrahima). Ataturk provided a good future for all adopted children. One of Ataturk's adopted daughters became a historian, the other became the first Turkish female pilot. The career of Atatürk's daughters served as a widely promoted example for the emancipation of the Turkish woman.

Hobby Ataturk

Ataturk loved reading, music, dancing, horseback riding and swimming, had an extreme interest in zeybek dances, wrestling and folk songs of Rumelia, and enjoyed playing backgammon and billiards. He was very attached to his pets - the horse Sakarya and the dog named Fox.

Ataturk spoke French and German, he collected a rich library.

He discussed the problems of his native country in a simple atmosphere conducive to conversation, often inviting scientists, artists, and statesmen to dinner. He loved nature, often visited the forestry named after him, and personally took part in the work carried out there.

End of life

In 1937, Atatürk donated his lands to the Treasury, and part of his real estate to the mayors of Ankara and Bursa. He gave part of the inheritance to his sister, adopted children, Turkish societies of linguistics and history. In 1937, the first signs of deterioration in health appeared, in May 1938, doctors diagnosed cirrhosis of the liver caused by chronic alcoholism. Despite this, Atatürk continued to perform his duties until the end of July, until he became completely ill. Atatürk died at 9:50 on November 10, 1938, at the age of 57, in the Dolmabahce Palace, the former residence of the Turkish sultans in Istanbul.

Ataturk was buried on November 21, 1938 on the territory of the Museum of Ethnography in Ankara. On November 10, 1953, the remains were reburied in the Anitkabir mausoleum built for Ataturk.

Under Atatürk's successors, his posthumous cult of personality developed, reminiscent of the attitude towards Lenin in the USSR and the founders of many independent states of the 20th century. In every city there is a monument to Ataturk, his portraits are present in all state institutions, on banknotes and coins of all denominations, etc. It has become common to indicate the years of life on posters 1881-193 ∞ . After the loss of power by his party in 1950, Kemal's reverence continued. A law was adopted, according to which the desecration of images of Ataturk, criticism of his activities and denigration of the facts of his biography was recognized as a special kind of crime. In addition, the surname Atatürk is prohibited. Until now, the publication of Kemal's correspondence with his wife is prohibited as giving the image of the father of the nation too "simple" and "human" appearance.

In May 2010, a monument to Ataturk was unveiled in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The opening ceremony was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan.

Opinions and ratings

In modern Turkey, Ataturk is revered as a military leader who preserved the independence of the country, and as a reformer.

Kemal celebrated his triumph by reducing Smyrna to ashes and killing the entire native Christian population there.

Winston Churchill.

Noteworthy is the assessment given to Atatürk by Hitler, who considered him a "bright star" in the "dark days of the 1920s" when Hitler was trying to create his own National Socialist Party. In 1938, Hitler wrote: “Ataturk was the first to show the possibility of mobilizing and restoring the resources lost by the country. In this respect, he was a teacher. Mussolini was the first, and I am his second student."

After the death of Atatürk, Hitler expressed condolences, sending it to the chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Abdülhalik Renda: “Your Excellency Chairman, to the whole Turkish people personally and on behalf of the German people I express deep condolences on the death of Atatürk. Together with him, we lost a great warrior, an excellent statesman and a historical figure. He made a huge contribution to the creation of the new Turkish state. He will live in all generations of Turkey.”

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia of the second edition (1953) gave the following assessment of the political activities of Kemal Atatürk: “As a president and leader of the bourgeois-landlord party, he kept an anti-people course in domestic politics. By his order, the Communist Party of Turkey and other organizations of the working class were banned. Declaring his desire to maintain friendly relations with the USSR, Kemal Ataturk actually pursued a policy aimed at rapprochement with the imperialist powers.<…>»

Awards

Ottoman Empire:

• Order of the Medjidie, 5th class (December 25, 1906)
• Silver medal "For Distinction" ("Imtiaz") (April 30, 1915)
• Silver Medal of Merit (Liakat) (September 1, 1915)
• Order Osmaniye 2nd class (February 1, 1916)
• Order of the Medjidie, 2nd class (December 12, 1916)
• Gold Medal "For Distinction" ("Imtiaz") (September 23, 1917)
• Order of the Medjidie, 1st class (December 16, 1917)
• Military medal (May 11, 1918)

Turkish Republic:

• Medal "For Independence" ("Istiklal") (November 21, 1923)

Bulgarian kingdom:

• Order of Saint Alexander, Grand Cross (1915)

Austria-Hungary:

• Gold Military Medal "For Merit" (1916)
• Military Merit Cross, 3rd class (July 27, 1916)
• Military Merit Cross, 2nd Class

German Empire (Kingdom of Prussia):

• Iron Cross 2nd Class (9 September 1917)
• Iron Cross 1st Class (1917)
• Order of the Crown 1st Class (1918)

Kingdom of Afghanistan:

• Order of Ali-Lala

• Order of the Legion of Honor, Chevalier