Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Modernizes Turkey: Privatization Of Islam, Azan In Turkish, And Abolishing The Arabic Alphabet

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Sumber: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - On November 10, 1938, Turkey's First President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk passed away. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk died from cirrhosis of the liver. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is a revolutionary who helped found the Republic of Turkey and succeeded in reforming Turkey into a modern state.

Citing Biography, Ataturk has been active in the revolutionary movement since he was young. He became a member of Muda Turkey, a revolutionary intellectual movement. He also participated in the Young Turkish Revolution of July 1908, which overthrew Sultan Abdülhamid II.

From 1909 to 1918, Attaturk held a number of positions in the Ottoman army. He fought against Italy in the Italo-Turkish War in 1911 and from 1912-1913 fought in the Balkan Wars.

Ataturk took power

After three years of fighting, the Ottoman war machine collapsed. The Allies began to divide the empire among themselves. Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.

However, when Ataturk returned to Istanbul after the First World War, Ataturk found the city occupied by Allied forces. He was determined to restore Turkish sovereignty.

In 1922, Turkey won the war for independence. Ataturk's success against the "invaders" gave him a rival government which increased legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was declared. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is a war hero of independence.

Ataturk has been named President of Turkey. Its power base, Ankara is the capital of the country. For more than 80 years, Turkey has been successfully governed by secular principles, principles introduced by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

After seizing power, Ataturk took drastic steps to redirect Turkey to the West. Using his power, Ataturk abolished the caliphate system, changed the alphabet, and made Islam a realm of privacy.

As division commander, Ataturk fought against the Allies in the famous Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Citing Al Jazeera, the Sultan's legitimacy as ruler lay in his position as Caliph, God's representative on earth, under Ottoman rule.

Moreover, state authority comes from Islam. But Ataturk abolished the position of caliph and the last caliph was expelled on March 3, 1924. He also closed all religious courts and schools, banned the wearing of headscarves for public sector employees, abolished the qanun law ministry and Islamic foundations, lifted the alcohol ban, adopted the Gregorian calendar in place of the Islamic calendar, and make Sunday a holiday instead of Friday.

He also changed the Turkish alphabet from Arabic letters to Roman letters. Ataturk also mandated that the call to prayer should be in Turkish rather than Arabic, even forbidding the wearing of the fez hat.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's government supported industrialization and adopted a new legal code based on the European model. "The civilized world is way ahead of us," Ataturk told the audience in October 1926. "We have no choice but to catch up."

Eight years later, Ataturk's government joined the League of Nations, raising literacy rates and giving women the right to vote, even though in practice it essentially imposes a one-party rule. Ataturk also shut down opposition newspapers, suppressed leftist workers' organizations and shut down any attempts at Kurdish autonomy.

Ataturk, who never had children, died in his bedroom at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. He was succeeded by İsmet İnönü, prime minister during most of Ataturk's rule, who continued his policies of secularization and westernization.

Although Ataturk maintains an iconic status in Turkey to this day. In reality, insulting his memory was a crime. Islam has re-emerged in recent years as a social and political force.