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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's cult of personality

February 03, 2023

Atatürk's cult of personality was started during the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk[1] and continued by his successors after his death in 1938, by members of both his Republican People's Party and opposition parties alike,[2] and in a limited amount by himself during his lifetime in order to popularize and cement his social and political reforms as a founder and the first President of Turkey.[3] Pro-PKK, British journalist, Alexander Christie-Miller, has described it as the "world's longest-running personality cult".[4]

A building facade with Turkish flags and a banner of Atatürk.
Atatürk Mask, a large sculpture of Atatürk in İzmir.

Overview

Following the defeat and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I, Mustafa Kemal led the Turkish National Movement through a War of Independence against Greece, Armenia, France, Britain, and other invading countries. Under his leadership, the Republic of Turkey was declared in 1923, and he was honoured with the name Atatürk ("Father of the Turks") by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1934. His other titles include Great Leader (Ulu Önder), Eternal Commander (Ebedî Başkomutan), Head Teacher (Başöğretmen), and Eternal Chief (Ebedî Şef).[5][6]

 
Numerous Turks attend marches and meetings in memory of Atatürk on 10 November, the day of his death. His famous word is written on this billboard: "My moral heritage is science and reason."

Atatürk's memory remains a major part of Turkish politics and society into the 21st century.[7] Almost every city in Turkey has streets named for him, and statues of him are commonly found in city squares, schools, and public offices, the latter two of which feature his portrait. The phrase Ne mutlu Türküm diyene (How happy is the one who says "I am a Turk"), which Atatürk used in his speech delivered for the 10th Anniversary of the Republic in 1933, is used widely in Turkey and is often seen along with his statues. It continues to be part of the compulsory Student Oath, though it was removed between 2013 and 2018.[8]

Atatürk's cult of personality is sometimes compared to those of authoritarian rulers of Central Asian countries, such as Nursultan Nazarbayev and Saparmurat Niyazov,[9] but differs significantly in light of Atatürk's democratic and progressive reforms in Turkey and because most of the statues and memorials of him were erected after his death. For example, before the 1950s, only the incumbent President of Turkey's image appeared on Turkish currency, but Prime Minister Adnan Menderes (1950–1960), in a political blow to rival President İsmet İnönü, passed a law to restore the late Atatürk's image on the currency in order to deny İnönü's image appearing instead.[2] Menderes's government, although opposed to Atatürk's Republican People's Party (which served as the opposition party in Parliament to Menderes's Democrat Party government), moved his body to a mausoleum 15 years after his death in 1953.[2] It also passed a law in 1951 that criminalized insulting "Atatürk's memory."[2]

The Economist wrote in 2012 that his personality cult "carpets the country with busts and portraits of the great man" and that this has been "nurtured by Turkey's generals, who have used his name to topple four governments, hang a prime minister and attack enemies of the republic."[10] According to this British weekly, "hard-core Islamists despise Ataturk for abolishing the caliphate in 1924 and expunging piety from the public space. They feed rumours that he was a womaniser, a drunk, even a crypto-Jew."[10]

A 2008 article in National Identities also discussed Atatürk's ubiquitous presence in the country:

Atatürk's houses exist in an Atatürk-inundated context with his face and sayings appearing on all official documents, buildings, television channels, newspapers and schoolyards, coins and banknotes. Moreover, regardless of personal belief, every Turk lives in a country where nationalism is part of standard political discourses. Politicians, teachers and journalists appeal to the nation and Atatürk on a daily basis. Yet they are not alone in this. The omnipresence of Atatürk paraphernalia can only be partly attributed to state sponsorship. Atatürk's face appears on posters behind supermarket counters, in barbershops and video stores, in bookshops and banks; Atatürk talismans even dangle from car mirrors, while Atatürk pins adorn lapels. And even the Turks who do not join in with such spontaneous commemorations know how to 'read' the Atatürk semiotic universe.[11]

Law on Atatürk

Turkish Law 5816 ("The Law Concerning Crimes Committed Against Atatürk")[12] was passed 13 years after Atatürk's death on July 25, 1951, by Prime Minister Adnan Menderes's government,[13] and protects "Atatürk's memory" from being offended by any Turkish citizen.[14] In 2011, there were 48 convictions for "insulting Atatürk"[10] and insulting Atatürk's memory is punishable by up to three years in jail.[15] The law has been interpreted in a very broad way, covering not only the protection of Atatürk's memory, but also of his legacy. Charges have been brought in domestic proceedings against persons who challenge the official, very positive, assessment of the first years of the Republic of Turkey and Atatürk's role.[16]

Statues

The first statue of Atatürk was sculpted in 1926 in the Sarayburnu district of Istanbul by Austrian sculptor Heinrich Krippel.[17] Today, statues of Atatürk can be found all over Turkey.[18][19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Berger, Lutz (2019). "The Leader as Father. Personality Cults in Modern Turkey". Kemalism as a Fixed Variable in the Republic of Turkey. Ergon-Verlag. pp. 119–128. ISBN 978-3-95650-632-1.
  2. ^ a b c d Andrew Mango (26 August 2002). Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey. Overlook. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-59020-924-0. In 1937, Bayar had sought to outdo İnönü in his adulation of Atatürk. Now the Democrat Party government outdid him in signs of respect for Atatürk's memory. His body was transferred to a grandiose mausoleum in 1953. A law was passed in 1951 making it a criminal offense to insult Atatürk's memory.
  3. ^ Tezcür, Güneş Murat (2010). Muslim Reformers in Iran and Turkey: The Paradox of Moderation. University of Texas Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780292773639. A man who was either irreligious or did not wear his faith on his sleeve, Atatürk established a cult of personality that has survived until now. He did not bother to attend the Friday prayers, a symbol of ruler-people unity...
  4. ^ Alexander Christie-Miller (April 20, 2013). "Lookalike keeps alive the cult of Ataturk". The Times of London.
  5. ^ Levine, Lynn A. (2010). Frommer's Turkey. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub. p. 31. ISBN 9780470877739. Mustafa Kemal was given the name Atatürk ("father of the Turks") by the Grand National Assembly
  6. ^ Villar, Juan (2004). The Seventh Wonder. Coral Springs, FL: Llumina Press. p. 28. ISBN 9781595262417. The Turkish parliament proclaimed Mustafa's last name to be Ataturk, "Father of the Turks." Today, his picture hangs in every government office and business establishment, his state appears in every city, and his statues forbid that anything bad or ridiculous be said about him. Free Speech was not among Ataturk's reforms.
  7. ^ Foreign Press on Cyprus, Volumes 10-11, Public Information Office, 1997 "It is the army's self-appointed role to maintain the secular character of a state that is 90 percent Muslim, but whose modern founder Kemal Ataturk forcibly wrenched into Westernization. The Ataturk cult of personality still towers over Turkey"
  8. ^ "Court rules Student Oath should be reinstated in Turkey". Ahval News. Oct 18, 2018.
  9. ^ Allison, Roy (1996). Challenges for the former Soviet south. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780815703211. A state-promoted "cult of personality" is developing rapidly in some of the Central Asian republics (although here, as in other ... This was clearly modeled on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the authoritarian modernizing leader of republican Turkey.
  10. ^ a b c "A secularist's lament". The Economist. 25 February 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  11. ^ Glyptis 2008, p. 356.
  12. ^ Bali, Rıfat N. (2007). New documents on Atatürk: Atatürk as viewed through the eyes of American diplomats. Isis Press. p. 32.
  13. ^ Seibert, Thomas (16 August 2011). "Some Turks ready to abolish law that protects memory of Ataturk". The National. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  14. ^ Kaya, Mehmed S. (2009). The Zaza Kurds of Turkey: A Middle Eastern Minority in a Globalised Society. London: Tauris Academic Studies. p. 209. ISBN 9781845118754.
  15. ^ Finkel, Andrew (2012). Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780199733040.
  16. ^ Baranowska, Grażyna (2020). Bachmann, Klaus (ed.). Memory laws in Turkey: protecting the memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Criminalizing History. Legal Restrictions on Statements and Interpretations of the Past in Germany, Poland, Rwanda, Turkey and Ukraine. Berlin: Peter Lang. pp. 107–125. ISBN 978-3-631-81353-9.
  17. ^ EĞRİKAVUK, IŞIL (9 January 2011). "Unaesthetic Atatürk monuments remain taboo in Turkey". Hurriyet. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  18. ^ Navaro-Yashin, Yael (2002). Faces of the State: Secularism and Public Life in Turkey. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. p. 89. ISBN 9780691088457. Today the statue that is most frequently encountered all over Turkey is still that of Ataturk.
  19. ^ Üngör, Ugur Ümit (2011). The Making of Modern Turkey:Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950. Oxford University Press. p. 180. ISBN 9780191640766. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the central focus of public manifestations of memory. Sculptures of him spread across the country in a matter of years and well before his death adorned every main square in the country.
Bibliography
  • Copeaux, Etienne, ″La transcendance d'Atatürk″, in Mayeur-Jaouen Catherine (ed.), Saints et héros du Moyen-Orient contemporain, Paris, Maisonneuve et Larose, 2002, pp. 121–138.
  • Glyptis, Leda (December 2008). "Living up to the father: The national identity prescriptions of remembering Atatürk; his homes, his grave, his temple". National Identities. London. 10 (4): 353–372. doi:10.1080/14608940802271647. ISSN 1460-8944.
  • Mandel, Mike, and Zakari, Chantal, The State of Ata. The Contested Imagery of Power in Turkey, Eighteen Publications, Boston, 2010, 256-xvi p.

February 03, 2023
mustafa, kemal, atatürk, cult, personality, atatürk, cult, personality, started, during, life, mustafa, kemal, atatürk, continued, successors, after, death, 1938, members, both, republican, people, party, opposition, parties, alike, limited, amount, himself, d. Ataturk s cult of personality was started during the life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 1 and continued by his successors after his death in 1938 by members of both his Republican People s Party and opposition parties alike 2 and in a limited amount by himself during his lifetime in order to popularize and cement his social and political reforms as a founder and the first President of Turkey 3 Pro PKK British journalist Alexander Christie Miller has described it as the world s longest running personality cult 4 A building facade with Turkish flags and a banner of Ataturk Ataturk Mask a large sculpture of Ataturk in Izmir Contents 1 Overview 1 1 Law on Ataturk 2 Statues 3 See also 4 ReferencesOverview EditFollowing the defeat and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I Mustafa Kemal led the Turkish National Movement through a War of Independence against Greece Armenia France Britain and other invading countries Under his leadership the Republic of Turkey was declared in 1923 and he was honoured with the name Ataturk Father of the Turks by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1934 His other titles include Great Leader Ulu Onder Eternal Commander Ebedi Baskomutan Head Teacher Basogretmen and Eternal Chief Ebedi Sef 5 6 Numerous Turks attend marches and meetings in memory of Ataturk on 10 November the day of his death His famous word is written on this billboard My moral heritage is science and reason Ataturk s memory remains a major part of Turkish politics and society into the 21st century 7 Almost every city in Turkey has streets named for him and statues of him are commonly found in city squares schools and public offices the latter two of which feature his portrait The phrase Ne mutlu Turkum diyene How happy is the one who says I am a Turk which Ataturk used in his speech delivered for the 10th Anniversary of the Republic in 1933 is used widely in Turkey and is often seen along with his statues It continues to be part of the compulsory Student Oath though it was removed between 2013 and 2018 8 Ataturk s cult of personality is sometimes compared to those of authoritarian rulers of Central Asian countries such as Nursultan Nazarbayev and Saparmurat Niyazov 9 but differs significantly in light of Ataturk s democratic and progressive reforms in Turkey and because most of the statues and memorials of him were erected after his death For example before the 1950s only the incumbent President of Turkey s image appeared on Turkish currency but Prime Minister Adnan Menderes 1950 1960 in a political blow to rival President Ismet Inonu passed a law to restore the late Ataturk s image on the currency in order to deny Inonu s image appearing instead 2 Menderes s government although opposed to Ataturk s Republican People s Party which served as the opposition party in Parliament to Menderes s Democrat Party government moved his body to a mausoleum 15 years after his death in 1953 2 It also passed a law in 1951 that criminalized insulting Ataturk s memory 2 The Economist wrote in 2012 that his personality cult carpets the country with busts and portraits of the great man and that this has been nurtured by Turkey s generals who have used his name to topple four governments hang a prime minister and attack enemies of the republic 10 According to this British weekly hard core Islamists despise Ataturk for abolishing the caliphate in 1924 and expunging piety from the public space They feed rumours that he was a womaniser a drunk even a crypto Jew 10 A 2008 article in National Identities also discussed Ataturk s ubiquitous presence in the country Ataturk s houses exist in an Ataturk inundated context with his face and sayings appearing on all official documents buildings television channels newspapers and schoolyards coins and banknotes Moreover regardless of personal belief every Turk lives in a country where nationalism is part of standard political discourses Politicians teachers and journalists appeal to the nation and Ataturk on a daily basis Yet they are not alone in this The omnipresence of Ataturk paraphernalia can only be partly attributed to state sponsorship Ataturk s face appears on posters behind supermarket counters in barbershops and video stores in bookshops and banks Ataturk talismans even dangle from car mirrors while Ataturk pins adorn lapels And even the Turks who do not join in with such spontaneous commemorations know how to read the Ataturk semiotic universe 11 Law on Ataturk Edit Turkish Law 5816 The Law Concerning Crimes Committed Against Ataturk 12 was passed 13 years after Ataturk s death on July 25 1951 by Prime Minister Adnan Menderes s government 13 and protects Ataturk s memory from being offended by any Turkish citizen 14 In 2011 there were 48 convictions for insulting Ataturk 10 and insulting Ataturk s memory is punishable by up to three years in jail 15 The law has been interpreted in a very broad way covering not only the protection of Ataturk s memory but also of his legacy Charges have been brought in domestic proceedings against persons who challenge the official very positive assessment of the first years of the Republic of Turkey and Ataturk s role 16 Statues EditThe first statue of Ataturk was sculpted in 1926 in the Sarayburnu district of Istanbul by Austrian sculptor Heinrich Krippel 17 Today statues of Ataturk can be found all over Turkey 18 19 See also EditKemalism Ataturk s ReformsReferences Edit Berger Lutz 2019 The Leader as Father Personality Cults in Modern Turkey Kemalism as a Fixed Variable in the Republic of Turkey Ergon Verlag pp 119 128 ISBN 978 3 95650 632 1 a b c d Andrew Mango 26 August 2002 Ataturk The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey Overlook p 36 ISBN 978 1 59020 924 0 In 1937 Bayar had sought to outdo Inonu in his adulation of Ataturk Now the Democrat Party government outdid him in signs of respect for Ataturk s memory His body was transferred to a grandiose mausoleum in 1953 A law was passed in 1951 making it a criminal offense to insult Ataturk s memory Tezcur Gunes Murat 2010 Muslim Reformers in Iran and Turkey The Paradox of Moderation University of Texas Press p 70 ISBN 9780292773639 A man who was either irreligious or did not wear his faith on his sleeve Ataturk established a cult of personality that has survived until now He did not bother to attend the Friday prayers a symbol of ruler people unity Alexander Christie Miller April 20 2013 Lookalike keeps alive the cult of Ataturk The Times of London Levine Lynn A 2010 Frommer s Turkey Hoboken NJ Wiley Pub p 31 ISBN 9780470877739 Mustafa Kemal was given the name Ataturk father of the Turks by the Grand National Assembly Villar Juan 2004 The Seventh Wonder Coral Springs FL Llumina Press p 28 ISBN 9781595262417 The Turkish parliament proclaimed Mustafa s last name to be Ataturk Father of the Turks Today his picture hangs in every government office and business establishment his state appears in every city and his statues forbid that anything bad or ridiculous be said about him Free Speech was not among Ataturk s reforms Foreign Press on Cyprus Volumes 10 11 Public Information Office 1997 It is the army s self appointed role to maintain the secular character of a state that is 90 percent Muslim but whose modern founder Kemal Ataturk forcibly wrenched into Westernization The Ataturk cult of personality still towers over Turkey Court rules Student Oath should be reinstated in Turkey Ahval News Oct 18 2018 Allison Roy 1996 Challenges for the former Soviet south Washington D C Brookings Institution Press p 27 ISBN 9780815703211 A state promoted cult of personality is developing rapidly in some of the Central Asian republics although here as in other This was clearly modeled on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk the authoritarian modernizing leader of republican Turkey a b c A secularist s lament The Economist 25 February 2012 Retrieved 17 March 2013 Glyptis 2008 p 356 Bali Rifat N 2007 New documents on Ataturk Ataturk as viewed through the eyes of American diplomats Isis Press p 32 Seibert Thomas 16 August 2011 Some Turks ready to abolish law that protects memory of Ataturk The National Retrieved 13 July 2013 Kaya Mehmed S 2009 The Zaza Kurds of Turkey A Middle Eastern Minority in a Globalised Society London Tauris Academic Studies p 209 ISBN 9781845118754 Finkel Andrew 2012 Turkey What Everyone Needs to Know New York Oxford University Press p 32 ISBN 9780199733040 Baranowska Grazyna 2020 Bachmann Klaus ed Memory laws in Turkey protecting the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Criminalizing History Legal Restrictions on Statements and Interpretations of the Past in Germany Poland Rwanda Turkey and Ukraine Berlin Peter Lang pp 107 125 ISBN 978 3 631 81353 9 EGRIKAVUK ISIL 9 January 2011 Unaesthetic Ataturk monuments remain taboo in Turkey Hurriyet Retrieved 21 March 2013 Navaro Yashin Yael 2002 Faces of the State Secularism and Public Life in Turkey Princeton Princeton Univ Press p 89 ISBN 9780691088457 Today the statue that is most frequently encountered all over Turkey is still that of Ataturk Ungor Ugur Umit 2011 The Making of Modern Turkey Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia 1913 1950 Oxford University Press p 180 ISBN 9780191640766 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was the central focus of public manifestations of memory Sculptures of him spread across the country in a matter of years and well before his death adorned every main square in the country BibliographyCopeaux Etienne La transcendance d Ataturk in Mayeur Jaouen Catherine ed Saints et heros du Moyen Orient contemporain Paris Maisonneuve et Larose 2002 pp 121 138 Glyptis Leda December 2008 Living up to the father The national identity prescriptions of remembering Ataturk his homes his grave his temple National Identities London 10 4 353 372 doi 10 1080 14608940802271647 ISSN 1460 8944 Mandel Mike and Zakari Chantal The State of Ata The Contested Imagery of Power in Turkey Eighteen Publications Boston 2010 256 xvi p Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 27s cult of personality amp oldid 1135296205, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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