A dialectical historical figure, we tried to write about it in complete objectivity based on his history and the opinion of his opponents on.
About him:
The founder of modern Turkey and its national hero in the eyes of his fans, the enemy of Islam and the destroyer of the caliphate in the eyes of his opponents, he emerged as a military leader and then as a political leader in a short time, abolishing the Ottoman caliphate, and establishing in its place modern Turkey, which has become, as he wanted, a secular state of western character and laws.
Its beginnings:
Ataturk was born in 1881 in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, which was at that time affiliated with the Ottoman Empire, and his father was a simple employee.
His real name is Mustafa Ali Reda, one of his school teachers called him kemal(perfect) for his academic genius, so his name became Mustafa Kemal, meaning that the word Kemal is a title for him and not a name.
He started at a traditional religious school, then entered a modern school, then entered the High Military School in 1893 as a young boy.
Why is he called Ataturk?
Five years after his death, the Turkish Parliament granted him the title Ataturk (Father of the Turks) as a thank you for what he had done.[1]
Ataturk and military life
In 1905, he graduated from the military school with the rank of captain. Before the Ottoman Empire fought in the midst of the First World War, he participated with it in several wars within Albania and Tripoli,thus, Mustafa Kemal's star emerged as a high-ranking military leader, to be promoted to the rank of general in 1916 when he was only 35 years old.
It was not mentioned that this organization had a political activity, such as the Association of Union and Progress, but the two organizations proceed from one principle, which is to fight the Islamic Caliphate at the time, and it has been said that Mustafa Kemal actually joined the Union and Progress after the matter of his organization was exposed to the authorities.
Regardless of the strongly rising Ataturk political reference, his name was known in Istanbul and became famous after what he achieved with his forces in Palestine, Aleppo and Antakya during the war, but its importance increased after these events when the First World War ended with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the occupation of large parts of it by the Allied armies, Then Ataturk was able to play the role of knight.
Mustafa Kemal led the war of independence that aimed to liberate Anatolia, and Ataturk's personality and intentions appeared clearly when he refused the Sultan's orders to return to occupied Istanbul from the British, so he resigned from the Ottoman army and established what was known as the liberation forces that fought the Greek, English, French and Italian invaders.[2]
Ataturk in the eyes of the world at that time
These victories increased Ataturk's fame, which filled all parts of the Islamic world, who considered him a hero, especially as he used religious scholars to gather people to fight with him. And spread his fame to the Western world and wrote about him, which increased his fame and influence.
Ataturk and the abolition of the Islamic caliphate for the first time in the history of Islam
In the spring of 1920, Mustafa Kemal established the Grand National Council in Ankara to turn into a government parallel to the authority of the Ottoman Caliph in Istanbul, and this council was a representative of the popular forces and therefore Ataturk had to grow strongly, then Ataturk issued the Basic Law for this council and that was in 1921.
But how did Ataturk benefit from his victories?
The issuance of the Basic Law coincided with the announcement of the liberation of Turkish lands in the summer of 1922, after which Ataturk announced the abolition of the Sultanate in the Ottoman Empire.
The Ataturk government signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which affirmed his leadership of Turkey with international recognition,and that was in July of 1923
On October 29 of the same year, he announced the founding of the Turkish Republic and abolished the Islamic caliphate for the first time in the history of Islam. He declared himself president of the country and chose Ankara as the capital of the new state instead of Istanbul, and adopted an approach to secularizing the state.
How Ataturk transformed from a hero in the eyes of Muslims to a traitor[3]
Mustafa Kemal began the procedures of changing the character of the life of the conservative Turkish society in a noticeable way, which greatly contributed to changing Turkey...
- Banning the wearing of the fez and the turban, which have traditional importance for Turkish society and the origins of the Ottoman dress, and promoted Western clothing, as well as banning religious schools and abolishing Sharia courts, and abolishing religious titles. All this was considered an explicit war on everything related to Islam and the Ottoman Empire, according to researchers.
-He adopted the international calendar instead of the Hijri calendar, wrote laws inspired by the Swiss constitution, abolished the use of the Arabic letter in writing and ordered the use of the Latin letter in an attempt to cut Turkey's link with the East and the Islamic world. As the language of the East is Arabic, in addition to the fact that the Qur’an is written in Arabic and the Qur’an is the book of Muslims who make up the vast majority in Turkey.
-His opponents stress that he was not satisfied with removing the last countries of the Islamic caliphate, but he fought religion and religiosity through the secular system that he established in Turkey, and Turkic secularism is characterized by not only separating religion from the state, but it has controlled religious practice and prohibited all manifestations of religiosity through legal procedures protected by state institutions, most notably army.
His death
Mustafa Kemal died after his illness in November (November) 1938, and the laws that Ataturk put in place are still in effect to this day, but they remained the subject of internal controversy, declared or undeclared because they tried to destroy the religiosity that represents the soul of society, and these laws were violated more than once and today. It faces questions about its survival with the spread of Islamism in Turkey significantly.
Sources :
[1] Al Jazeera | 13/11/2006
https://www.aljazeera.net/2006/11/13/مصطفى-كمال-أتاتورك-2
[2] The book "Ataturk: The Autobiography of the Founder of Modern Turkey."
https://www.noor-book.com/كتاب-اتاتورك-السيره-الذاتيه-لمؤسس-تركيا-الحديثه-pdf
[3]An article by the writer on history science, Dr. Ragheb Al-Sarjani, entitled:
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
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