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{{Short description|Radical reforms that created the Turkish nation state}}
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'''Atatürk's reforms''' ({{langx|tr|Atatürk İnkılapları}} or ''Atatürk Devrimleri''), also referred to as the '''Turkish Revolution''' ([[Turkish language|Turkish]]: ''Türk Devrimi''),<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gürcan |first1=Efe Can |last2=Yurtçiçek |first2=Serdar |last3=Özyiğit |first3=Suat Eren |last4=Demircan |first4=Necati |date=2024-10-24 |title=Conceptualizing the Turkish Revolution in the Longue Durée |journal=Journal of Labor and Society |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=463–495 |doi=10.1163/24714607-bja10161 |issn=2667-3657|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mardin |first=Şerif A. |date=1971 |title=Ideology and Religion in the Turkish Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/162194 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=197–211 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800001094 |jstor=162194 |issn=0020-7438|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Turkish Revolution |url=https://www.ktb.gov.tr/EN-104190/the-turkish-revolution.html |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=www.ktb.gov.tr}}</ref> were a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes, designed to transform the new [[Turkey|Republic of Turkey]] into a [[Secularism in Turkey|secular]], modern [[Nation state|nation-state]], implemented under the leadership of [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] in accordance with the [[Kemalism|Kemalist]] framework.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kili |first=Suna |date=1980 |title=Kemalism in Contemporary Turkey |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1601123 |journal=International Political Science Review |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=388–391 |doi=10.1177/019251218000100308 |jstor=1601123 |issn=0192-5121|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The principal political entity, the [[Republican People's Party]] (CHP), ruled [[One-party period of the Republic of Turkey|Turkey as a one-party state]] from 1923 to 1945, with several exceptions of attempts for a multi-party democracy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ertem |first=Barış |date=2010-06-01 |title=SİYASAL BİR MUHALEFET DENEMESİ OLARAK SERBEST CUMHURİYET FIRKASI |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/odusobiad/issue/27566/290037 |journal=Ordu Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Sosyal Bilimler Araştırmaları Dergisi |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=71–92 |issn=1309-9302}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Çay |first=Mustafa Murat |date=2018 |title=Multi-Party Transition Experiments in the Turkish Republic (1925-1930) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339596178 |journal=International Society for Research in Education and Science |pages=57–86 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref>

[[Death and state funeral of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|Following Atatürk's death in 1938]], his successor [[İsmet İnönü]] took over the leadership and integrated further Kemalist reforms. İnönü's work was however stranded by World War II and the CHP eventually [[1950 Turkish general election|lost the elections to the Democratic Party in 1950]], putting an end to the Turkish Revolution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oğuz |first=Hasan Burak |date=2010 |title=1945 Yılı Türk Basınında Cumhurbaşkanı İsmet İnönü ve Türk Devrimi |url=https://nek.istanbul.edu.tr/ekos/TEZ/46194.pdf |journal=Istanbul University |pages=11–17}}</ref>

Central to the reforms was the belief that Turkish society had to modernize, which meant implementing widespread reform affecting not only politics, but the economic, social, educational and legal spheres of Turkish society.<ref>S. N. Eisenstadt, "The Kemalist Regime and Modernization: Some Comparative and Analytical Remarks," in J. Landau, ed., Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1984, 3–16.</ref> The reforms involved a number of fundamental institutional changes that brought an end to many traditions, and followed a carefully planned program to unravel the complex system that had developed over previous centuries.<ref>Jacob M. Landau "Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey" page 57.</ref>

The reforms began with the modernization of the constitution, including enacting the new [[Turkish Constitution of 1924|Constitution of 1924]] to replace the [[Turkish Constitution of 1921|Constitution of 1921]], and the adaptation of European laws and [[jurisprudence]] to the needs of the new republic. This was followed by a thorough [[Secularism in Turkey|secularization]] and modernization of the administration, with a particular focus on the education system.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} This can be observed by looking at the literacy rate within the Republic of Turkey, which rose from 9% to 33% in only 10 years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358055677|title=EDUCATIONAL REFORMS DURING THE ATATURK ERA}}</ref>

The elements of the political system visioned by Atatürk's Reforms developed in stages, but by 1935, when the last part of the Atatürk's Reforms removed the reference to Islam in the Constitution; Turkey became a secular ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#2.1|2.1]]) and democratic ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#2.1|2.1]]), republic ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#1.1|1.1]]) that derives its sovereignty ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#6.1|6.1]]) from the people. Turkish sovereignty rests with the Turkish Nation, which delegates its will to an elected unicameral parliament (position in 1935), the [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]]. The [[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#Preamble|preamble]] also invokes the principles of nationalism, defined as the "material and spiritual well-being of the Republic" (position in 1935). The basic nature of the Republic is [[laïcité]] ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#2|2]]), [[social equality]] ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#2|2]]), [[Legal egalitarianism|equality before law]] ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#10|10]]), and the indivisibility of the Republic and of the Turkish Nation ([[s:Constitution of the Republic of Turkey#3.1|3.1]])." Thus, it sets out to found a [[Unitary state|unitary]] [[nation-state]] (position in 1935) with [[separation of powers]] based on the principles of [[secular democracy]].

Historically, Atatürk's reforms follow the [[Tanzimât]] ("reorganization") period of the [[Ottoman Empire]], that began in 1839 and ended with the [[First Constitutional Era]] in 1876,<ref>Cleveland, William L & Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East: 4th Edition, Westview Press: 2009, p. 82.</ref> [[Abdul Hamid II]]'s authoritarian regime from 1878 to 1908 that introduced large reforms in education and the bureaucracy, as well as the Ottoman Empire's experience in prolonged [[List of political parties in the Ottoman Empire|political pluralism]] and rule of law by the [[Young Turks]] during the [[Second Constitutional Era]] from 1908 to 1913, and various efforts were made to secularize and modernize the empire in the [[Committee of Union and Progress]]'s one party state from 1913 to 1918.

== Goals ==
[[File:Ataturk_Poster.jpg|thumb|A propaganda poster describing the Turkish Revolution, from right to left: [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Victory against the Greek occupation]], the [[Hat Revolution]], the abolition of religious cults, the [[Turkish alphabet reform|Alphabet Revolution]], and the [[Turkish civil code (1926)|Turkish civil code]].]]
[[File:Anavatan 1927.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Map of Turkey in 1927 which was published before the alphabet reform]]

=== National unity ===
The goal of Atatürk's reforms was to maintain the independence of Turkey from the direct rule of external forces (Western countries).<ref name="Rahman202">{{cite journal |last1=Daud |first1=Ismail |last2=Nooraihan |first2=Ali |last3=Fadzli |first3=Adam |title=Modernization of Turkey under Kamal Ataturk |journal=Asian Social Science |date=January 2015 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=202–205 |url=https://eprints.unisza.edu.my/5769/ }}</ref> The process was not [[utopia]]n (in the sense that it is not one leader's idea of how a perfect society should be, but it is a unifying force of a nation), in that Atatürk united the Turkish Muslim majority from 1919 to 1922 in the [[Turkish War of Independence]], and expelled foreign forces occupying what the [[Turkish National Movement]] considered to be the [[Anatolia|Turkish homeland]].<ref name="Rahman202" /> That fighting spirit became the unifying force which established the identity of a new state, and in 1923, the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] was signed, ending the Ottoman Empire and internationally recognizing the newly founded [[Turkey|Republic of Turkey]].<ref name="Rahman202" /> From 1923 to 1938, a series of radical political and social reforms were instituted. They transformed Turkey and ushered in a new era of modernization, including civil and political equality for sectarian minorities and women.<ref name="Rahman202" />

=== Reformation of Islam ===
The Ottoman Empire was an [[Islamic state]] in which the head of the state, the Sultan, also held the position of [[Ottoman Caliphate|Caliph]]. The social system was organized around the [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|millet]] structure. The millet structure allowed a great degree of religious, cultural and ethnic continuity across the society but at the same time permitted the religious ideology to be incorporated into the administrative, economic and political system.<ref>{{cite web |author=Öztürk, Fatih |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/12937 |title=The Ottoman Millet System |pages=71–86}} - Cited: p. 72</ref>

There were two sections of the elite group at the helm of the discussions for the future. These were the "Islamist reformists" and the "Westernists". Many basic goals were common to both groups. Some secular intellectuals, and even certain reform-minded Muslim thinkers, accepted the view that social progress in Europe had followed the Protestant reformation, as expressed in [[François Guizot]]'s ''Histoire de la civilisation en Europe'' (1828). The reform-minded Muslim thinkers concluded from the Lutheran experience that the reform of Islam was imperative. [[Abdullah Cevdet]], [[İsmail Fenni Ertuğrul]] and Kılıçzâde İsmail Hakkı (İsmail Hakkı Kılıçoğlu), who were westernist thinkers, took their inspiration rather from the subsequent marginalization of religion in European societies.<ref name=Hanioglu53>
{{cite book| last=Hanioglu| first=Sükrü|title=Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography|year=2011|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=53}}
</ref> To them, a reformed religion had only a temporary role to play as an instrument for the modernization of society, after which it would be cast aside from public life and limited to personal life.<ref name=Hanioglu53/>

=== Modernization ===
{{See also|Eastern Question|Sick man of Europe}}
[[File:La Turquie Kemaliste kapak.jpg|thumb|''[[La Turquie Kemaliste]]'' (1933–1949) was a [[public diplomacy]] campaign to promote Turkey and Kemalism into European audiences.]]
The Young Turks and other Ottoman intellectuals asked the question of the position of the empire regarding the West (primarily taken to mean Christian Europe).<ref name=Hanioglu54/> The West represented intellectual and scientific ascendancy, and provided the blueprint for the ideal society of the future.<ref name=Hanioglu54>{{cite book|last=Hanioglu|first=Sükrü|title=Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography|year=2011|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=54}}</ref>

== Political reforms ==
{{See also|Politics of Turkey|Atatürk's nationalism}}

=== Republicanism ===
{{See also|Republicanism in Turkey|Constitutional history of Turkey}}

Until the proclamation of the republic, the [[Ottoman Empire]] was still in existence, with its heritage of religious and dynastic authority. The [[Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate|Ottoman monarchy was abolished]] by the Ankara Government, but its traditions and cultural symbols remained active among the people (though less so among the elite).

On 1 November 1922, the [[Ottoman sultan|Ottoman Sultanate]] was abolished by the Turkish [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey|Grand National Assembly]] and Sultan [[Mehmed VI]] departed the country. This allowed the [[Turkish nationalism|Turkish nationalist]] government in Ankara to become the sole governing entity in the nation. The most fundamental reforms allowed the Turkish nation to exercise [[popular sovereignty]] through [[representative democracy]]. The Republic of Turkey ("Türkiye Cumhuriyeti") was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

The [[Turkish Constitution of 1921]] was the fundamental law of Turkey for a brief period. It was ratified by the [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]] in the middle of the [[Turkish War of Independence]]. It was a simple document consisting of only 23 short articles. The major driving force behind the preparation of the 1921 Constitution was that its sovereignty derived from the nation and not from the Sultan, the absolute monarch of the Ottoman Empire. The 1921 Constitution also served as the legal basis for the Turkish War of Independence during 1919–1923, since it refuted the principles of the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] of 1918 signed by the Ottoman Empire, by which a great majority of the Empire's territory would have to be ceded to the Entente powers that had won the First World War. In October 1923 the constitution was amended to declare Turkey to be a republic.

In April 1924, the constitution was replaced by an entirely new document, the [[Turkish Constitution of 1924]].

=== Civic independence (popular sovereignty) ===
The establishment of [[popular sovereignty]] involved confronting centuries-old traditions. The reform process was characterized by a struggle between progressives and conservatives. The changes were both conceptually radical and culturally significant. In the Ottoman Empire, the people of each millet had traditionally enjoyed a degree of autonomy, with their own leadership, collecting their own taxes and living according to their own system of religious/cultural law. The Ottoman Muslims had a strict hierarchy of [[ulama]], with the [[Sheikh ul-Islam]] holding the highest rank. A Sheikh ul-Islam was chosen by a royal warrant among the [[qadi]]s of important cities. The Sheikh ul-Islam issued fatwas, which were written interpretations of the [[Quran]] that had authority over the community. The Sheikh ul-Islam represented the law of shariah. This office was in the [[Ministry of Evkaf|Evkaf Ministry]]. Sultan Mehmed VI's cousin [[Abdulmejid II|Abdulmecid II]] continued on as [[Ottoman Caliphate|Ottoman Caliph]].

Besides the political structure; as a part of civic independence, religious education system was replaced by a national education system on 3 March 1924, and The [[Islamic]] courts and [[Sharia|Islamic canon law]] gave way to a secular law structure based on the [[Zivilgesetzbuch|Swiss Civil Code]], which is detailed under their headings.

==== Abolition of Caliphate (1924) and Millet System ====
[[File:Abolition_of_the_Caliphate,_The_Last_Caliph,_Le_Petit_Journal_illustré,_16_March_1924.jpg|thumb|Abolition of the Caliphate, The Last Caliph, Le Petit Journal illustré, 16 March 1924]]

{{Main|Abolition of the Caliphate|Millet (Ottoman Empire)}}
Reformers followed the European model (French model) of secularization. In the European model of secularizing; states typically involves granting individual religious freedoms, disestablishing state religions, stopping public funds to be used for a religion, freeing the legal system from religious control, freeing up the education system, tolerating citizens who change religion or abstain from religion, and allowing political leadership to come to power regardless of religious beliefs.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Madeley |first1=John T. S. |last2=Enyedi |first2=Zsolt |title=Church and State in Contemporary Europe: The Chimera of Neutrality |date=2003 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-7146-5394-5 }}{{page needed|date=April 2024}}</ref><ref>Jean Baubérot [http://www.ambafrance-us.org/atoz/secular.asp The secular principle] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080222013645/http://www.ambafrance-us.org/atoz/secular.asp |date=2008-02-22 }}</ref> In establishing a [[secular state]], the Ottoman Caliphate, held by the Ottomans since 1517, was abolished and to mediate the power of religion in the public sphere (including recognized minority religions in the [[Treaty of Lausanne]]) left to the Directorate for Religious Affairs. Under the reforms official recognition of the [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Ottoman millets]] withdrawn. Shar’iyya wa Awqaf Ministry followed the Office of Caliphate. This office was replaced by the Presidency of Religious Affairs.

The abolishing of the position of Caliphate and Sheikh ul-Islam was followed by a common, secular authority. Many of the religious communities failed to adjust to the new regime. This was exacerbated by emigration or impoverishment, due to deteriorating economic conditions. Families that hitherto had financially supported religious community institutions such as hospitals and schools stop doing so.

==== Directorate for Religious Affairs ====
Atatürk's reforms define [[laïcité]] (as of 1935) as permeating both the government and the religious sphere. Minority religions, like the [[Armenian Orthodox Church|Armenian]] or [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople|Greek Orthodox]]y are guaranteed protection by the constitution as ''individual'' faiths (personal sphere), but this guarantee does not give any rights to any ''religious communities'' (social sphere). (This differentiation applies to Islam and Muslims as well. Atatürk's reforms, as of 1935, assume the social sphere is secular.) The [[Treaty of Lausanne]], the internationally binding agreement of the establishment of the Republic, does not specify any nationality or ethnicity. Treaty of Lausanne simply identifies non-Muslims in general and provides the legal framework which gives certain explicit religious rights to [[Jews in Turkey|Jews]], [[Greeks in Turkey|Greeks]], and [[Armenians in Turkey|Armenians]] without naming them.

The [[Directorate of Religious Affairs]] (Diyanet) was an official state institution established in 1924 under article 136, which received the powers of the Shaykh al-Islam. As specified by law, the duties of the Diyanet are “to execute the works concerning the beliefs, worship, and ethics of Islam, enlighten the public about their religion, and administer the sacred worshiping places”.<ref>[http://www.diyanet.gov.tr/english/tanitim.asp?id=13 Basic Principles, Aims And Objectives] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219234720/http://www.diyanet.gov.tr/english/tanitim.asp?id=13 |date=2011-12-19 }}, Presidency of Religious Affairs</ref> The Diyanet exercised state oversight over religious affairs and ensuring that people and communities did not challenge the Republic's "secular identity".<ref name="Lepeska-2015">{{cite journal|last1=Lepeska|first1=David|title=Turkey Casts the Diyanet|journal=Foreign Affairs|date=17 May 2015|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/turkey/2015-05-17/turkey-casts-diyanet|access-date=27 July 2016}}</ref>

=== Public administration ===

==== New capital ====
[[File:Sedat Simavi cartoon Oct 1922.JPG|thumb|"The Sheep of Ankara, shows its hand last." by [[Sedat Simavi]], in Istanbul magazine Güleryüz in October 1922.]]
The reform movement chose [[Ankara]] as its new capital in 1923, as a rejection of the perceived

corruption and decadence of cosmopolitan Istanbul and its Ottoman heritage,<ref>Mango, ''Atatürk'', 391–392</ref> as well as electing to choose a capital more geographically centered in Turkey. During the disastrous 1912–13 [[First Balkan War]], Bulgarian troops had advanced to [[Çatalca]], mere miles from Istanbul, creating a fear that the Ottoman capital would have to be moved to Anatolia; the reform movement wanted to avoid a similar incident with Turkey.<ref>{{cite web|last=Şimşir |first=Bilal |title=Ankara'nın Başkent Oluşu |url=http://atam.gov.tr/ankaranin-baskent-olusu-2/ |publisher=atam.gov.tr |access-date=15 March 2013 |language=tr |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130504163819/http://atam.gov.tr/ankaranin-baskent-olusu-2/ |archive-date=4 May 2013 }}</ref>

==== Advances in the press ====
The [[Anadolu Agency]] was founded in 1920 during the [[Turkish War of Independence]] by Journalist [[Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu]] and writer [[Halide Edip]]. The agency was officially launched on 6 April 1920, 17 days before the [[Turkish Grand National Assembly]] convened for the first time. It announced the first legislation passed by the Assembly, which established the Republic of Turkey.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url=http://www.aa.com.tr/en/corporate/61991--history 
 |title=History 
 |publisher=Anadolu Agency 
 |access-date=21 July 2014 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703223719/http://www.aa.com.tr/en/corporate/61991--history 
 |archive-date=3 July 2014 
}}</ref>

However, Anadolu Agency acquired an autonomous status after Atatürk reformed the organizational structure (added some of his closest friends) to turn the Anadolu Agency into a western news agency. This new administrative structure declared the "Anadolu Agency Corporation" on 1 March 1925. Anadolu Agency Corporation acquired an autonomous status with an unexampled organizational chart not existed even in the western countries in those days.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/corporate-news/anadolu-agency-celebrates-its-99th-anniversary/1444038
 |title=Anadolu Agency celebrates its 99th anniversary
 |publisher=Anadolu Agency 
}}</ref>

==== Statistical and census information ====
{{See also|Census in Turkey}}
Ottomans had [[Census in the Ottoman Empire|censuses]] ([[1831 census of the Ottoman Empire|1831 census]], [[1881–82 census of the Ottoman Empire|1881–82 census]], [[1905–06 census of the Ottoman Empire|1905–06 census]], and [[1914 population statistics for the Ottoman Empire|1914 census]]) performed, and financial information collected under [[Ottoman Bank]] for the purpose of payments on [[Ottoman public debt]]. One of the Atatürk's major achievement is the establishment of a principal government institution in charge of statistics (economic and financial statistical data) and census data.

Modern statistical services began with the establishment of The Central Statistical Department in 1926. It was established as a partially centralized system. [[Turkish Statistical Institute]] is the Turkish government agency commissioned with producing official statistics on Turkey, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It was founded in 1926 and has its headquarters in Ankara.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/wsd/docs/Turkstat_and_history_of_statistics.pdf
 |title=TURKISH STATISTICAL INSTITUTE AND THE HISTORY OF STATISTICS 
 |publisher=unstats.un.org (United Nations)
 |page=2
}}</ref> In 1930, the title of the department was changed to The General Directorate of Statistics (GDS), and The National Statistical System was changed to a centralized system. In earlier years, statistical sources were relatively simple and data collection was confined to activities related to some of the relevant functions of the government with population censuses every five years, and with agriculture and industry censuses every ten years.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/wsd/docs/Turkstat_and_history_of_statistics.pdf
 |title=TURKISH STATISTICAL INSTITUTE AND THE HISTORY OF STATISTICS 
 |publisher=unstats.un.org (United Nations)
 |page=3
}}</ref> Gradually the activities of the GDS widened in accordance with the increasing demand for new statistical data and statistics. In addition to those censuses and surveys, many continuous publications on economic, social and cultural subjects were published by this institute to provide necessary information.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/wsd/docs/Turkstat_and_history_of_statistics.pdf
 |title=TURKISH STATISTICAL INSTITUTE AND THE HISTORY OF STATISTICS 
 |publisher=unstats.un.org (United Nations)
 |page=4
}}</ref>{{multiple image
| header    = 1927 Census (First systematic census)
| width     = 150
| align     = center
|image1=Density of Population-Turkey-1927.png
|caption1=Population distribution
|image2=1927-widowhood-Turkey.png
|caption2=Widowhood
|image3=Taxation-Turkey-1927.png
|caption3=Taxation
|image4=1927-Ratio of Prime Adults-Turkey.png
|caption4=Adults (able to work)
}}

==Social reforms==
{{See also|Secularism in Turkey|Freedom of religion in Turkey}}
Some social institutions had religious overtones, and held considerable influence over public life. Social change also included centuries old religious social structures that has been deeply rooted within the society, some were established within the [[Government of the late Ottoman Empire|state organisation of the Ottoman Empire]]. The Kemalist reforms brought effective social change on women's suffrage.

=== Religious reform ===
[[File:Atatürk vatandaşla sohbet ediyor (30 Aralık 1931).jpg|thumb|250x250px|Atatürk speaking with a civilian in 1931.]]
In the Ottoman [[public sphere]] religious groups exerted their power. The [[public sphere]], can be defined an area in social life where individuals come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. It is "a discursive space in which individuals and groups congregate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment."<ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.1080/03637759809376439 | last = Hauser | first = Gerard | author-link = Gerard Hauser | title = Vernacular Dialogue and the Rhetoricality of Public Opinion | journal = Communication Monographs | volume =65 | issue = 2 | pages = 83–107 Page. 86 |date=June 1998 | issn = 0363-7751 | postscript = .}}</ref> Atatürk's Reforms target the structure of the public space. The construction of a secular nation-state required important changes in state organization, though Atatürk's reforms benefited from the elaborate blueprints for a future society prepared by the Ottoman proponents of [[positivism]] during the Second Constitutional Era. 
<ref name="Hanioglu132">{{cite book|last=Hanioglu|first=Sükrü|title=Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography|year=2011|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=132}}</ref><ref>Mango, Atatürk, 394</ref>

==== Religious insignia ====
{{See also|Sumptuary law}}
The Ottoman Empire had a social system based on religious affiliation. Religious insignia extended to every social function. It was common to wear clothing that identified the person with their own particular religious grouping and accompanied headgear which distinguished rank and profession throughout the Ottoman Empire. The [[turban]]s, [[Fez (hat)|fez]]es, [[Bonnet (headgear)|bonnet]]s and head-dresses surmounting Ottoman styles showed the sex, rank, and profession (both civil and military) of the wearer. These styles were accompanied with strict regulation beginning with the reign of [[Süleyman the Magnificent]]. Sultan [[Mahmud II]] followed on the example of [[Peter the Great]] in [[Russia]] in modernizing the Empire and used the dress code of 1826 which developed the symbols (classifications) of [[feudalism]] among the public. These reforms were achieved through introduction of the new customs by decrees, while banning the traditional customs. The view of their social change proposed that if the permanence of secularism was to be assured by removal of persistence of traditional cultural values (the religious insignia), a considerable degree of cultural receptivity by the public to the further social change could be achieved.

Atatürk's Reforms defined a non-civilized person as one who functioned within the boundaries of superstition. The ulema, according to this classification, was not befit for 'civilized' life, as many argued that they were acting according to superstitions developed throughout centuries. On 25 February 1925, parliament passed a law stating that [[religion]] was not to be used as a tool in [[politics]]. [[Kemalism|Kemalist ideology]] waged a war against superstition by banning the practices of the ulema and promoting the 'civilized' way ("[[Westernization]]").  The ban on the ulema's social existence came in the form of dress code. The strategic goal was to change the large influence of the ulema over politics by removing them from the social arena. However, there was the danger of being perceived as anti-religious. Kemalists defended themselves by stating "Islam viewed all forms of superstition (non-scientific) nonreligious". The ulema's power was established during the Ottoman Empire with the conception that secular institutions were all subordinate to religion; the ulema were emblems of religious piety, and therefore rendering them powerful over state affairs.<ref name="inalcik">İnalcık, Halil. 1973. "Learning, the Medrese, and the Ulemas." In the Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. New York: Praeger, pp. 171.</ref> Kemalists claimed: {{blockquote |The state will be ruled by [[positivism]] not [[superstition]].<ref name=inalcik/>}}

An example was the practice of medicine. Kemalists wanted to get rid of superstition extending to herbal medicine, potion, and religious therapy for mental illness, all of which were practiced by the ulema. They excoriated those who used herbal medicine, potions, and balms, and instituted penalties against the religious men who claimed they have a say in health and medicine. On 1 September 1925, the first Turkish Medical Congress was assembled, which was only four days after Mustafa Kemal was seen on 27 August at İnebolu wearing a modern hat and one day after the [[s:tr:Atatürk'ün Kastamonu Nutku|Kastamonu speech]] on 30 August.
[[File:Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1928).jpg|thumb|Atatürk with his [[top hat]]|left|274x274px]]
Official measures were gradually introduced to eliminate the wearing of religious clothing and other overt signs of religious affiliation. Beginning in 1923, a series of laws progressively limited the wearing of selected items of traditional clothing. Mustafa Kemal first made the hat compulsory to the civil servants.<ref name=UNESCO>İğdemir, ''Atatürk'', 165–170</ref> The guidelines for the proper dressing of students and state employees (public space controlled by state) was passed during his lifetime. After most of the relatively better educated civil servants adopted the hat with their own he gradually moved further. On the 25 November 1925 the parliament passed the [[Hat Revolution|Hat Law]] which introduced the use of Western style hats instead of the fez.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/turkeys-glorious-hat-revolution/|title=Turkey's Glorious Hat Revolution|last=Genç|first=Kaya|website=Los Angeles Review of Books|date=11 November 2013|access-date=2019-01-12}}</ref> Legislation did not explicitly prohibit veils or headscarves and focused instead on banning fezzes and turbans for men. The law had also influence of school text books. Following the issuing of the Hat Law, images in school text books that had shown men with fezzes, were exchanged with images which showed men with hats.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Becoming Turkish|last=Yılmaz|first=Hale|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-3317-4|pages=54|date=2013-07-30}}</ref> Another control on the dress was passed in 1934 with the [[:s:tr:Bazı Kisvelerin Giyilemiyeceğine Dair Kanun|law relating to the wearing of 'Prohibited Garments']]. It banned religion-based clothing, such as the veil and turban, outside of places of worship, and gave the government the power to assign only one person per religion or sect to wear religious clothes outside of places of worship.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Becoming Turkish|last=Yılmaz|first=Hale|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-3317-4|pages=45|date=2013-07-30}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| header            = Signs of religious affiliation and clothing
| width             = 150
| align             = center
| image1            = 
| caption1          = 
| image2            = Constantinople(1878)-ulema.png
| caption2          = A member of the [[ulema]], who was distinguished by his headgear, could not use it after the [[s:tr:Şapka İktisası Hakkında Kanun|Hat Law of 1925]]
| image3            = Turkish women in niqab.ogv
| caption3          = [[:s:tr:Bazı Kisvelerin Giyilemiyeceğine Dair Kanun|The Law Relating to Prohibited Garments of 1934]] banned religion-based clothing for men in public. However, the government did not interfere with women's clothing, but some municipalities did ban the [[niqāb]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.belgeler.com/blg/1gnl/basina-gore-sapka-ve-kilik-kiyafet-inkilabi-the-hat-and-attire-revolution-according-to-press |title=Burcu Özcan, '''Basına Göre Şapka ve Kılık Kıyafet İnkılabı''', ''Marmara Üniversitesi, Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İstanbul 2008'' |access-date=2017-10-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308180412/http://www.belgeler.com/blg/1gnl/basina-gore-sapka-ve-kilik-kiyafet-inkilabi-the-hat-and-attire-revolution-according-to-press |archive-date=2017-03-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
}}

==== Religious texts, prayer, references ====
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| header            = Translation of religious information
| width             = 200
| image1            = Elmalı 35 baskısı.jpg|
| caption1          = The original 1935 print of the first [[List of translations of the Quran#Turkish|Quran in Turkish]] language, ordered by Atatürk.
}}

All printed [[Quran]]s in Turkey were in [[Classical Arabic]] (the [[sacred language]] of Islam) at the time. Translated Qurans existed in private settings. A major point of Atatürk's Reform was, according to his understanding; "...teaching religion in Turkish to Turkish people who had been practicing Islam without understanding it for centuries"<ref name="Radu">Michael Radu, (2003), "Dangerous Neighborhood: Contemporary Issues in Turkey's Foreign Relations", page 125, {{ISBN|978-0-7658-0166-1}}</ref> Turkish translations published in Istanbul created controversy in 1924. Several renderings of the [[List of translations of the Quran#Turkish|Quran in the Turkish language]] were read in front of the public.<ref>Cleveland, ''A History of the Modern Middle East'', 181</ref> These Turkish Qurans were fiercely opposed by religious conservatives. This incident impelled many leading Muslim modernists to call upon the Turkish Parliament to sponsor a Quran translation of suitable quality.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = M. Brett | title = The First Translations of the Quran in Modern Turkey (1924–1938) | journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies | date = 2009 | volume = 41 | issue = 3| pages = 419–435 | doi=10.1017/s0020743809091132| s2cid = 73683493 }}</ref> The Parliament approved the project and the Directorate of Religious Affairs enlisted [[Mehmet Akif Ersoy]] to compose a Quran translation and an Islamic scholar [[:tr:Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır|Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır]] to author a Turkish language Quranic commentary ([[tafsir]]) titled "[[:tr:Hak Dini Kur'an Dili|Hak Dini Kur'an Dili]]." Ersoy declined the offer and destroyed his work, to avoid the possible public circulation of a transliteration which might be remotely faulty. Only in 1935 did the version read in public find its way to print.

The program also involved implementing a [[Turkish language|Turkish]] [[adhan]], as opposed to the conventional [[Arabic language|Arabic]] call to prayer. The Arabic adhan was replaced with the following: {{blockquote|Tanrı uludur<br />Şüphesiz bilirim, bildiririm<br />Tanrı'dan başka yoktur tapacak.<br />Şüphesiz bilirim, bildiririm;<br />Tanrı'nın elçisidir Muhammed.<br />Haydin namaza, haydin felaha,<br />Namaz uykudan hayırlıdır.}} Following the conclusion of said debates, the Diyanet released an official mandate on 18 July 1932 announcing the decision to all the mosques across Turkey, and the practice was continued for a period of 18 years. Following the victory of the [[Democrat Party (Turkey, 1946–1960)|Democrat Party]] in the country's first multi-party [[1950 Turkish general election|elections in 1950]], a new government was sworn in, led by [[Adnan Menderes]], which restored Arabic as the [[Sacred language|liturgical language]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Atalay |first1=Hidayet Aydar Mehmet |title=THE ISSUES OF CHANTING THE ADHAN IN LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ARABIC AND RELATED SOCIAL REACTIONS AGAINST IT IN TURKEY |journal=Journal of Istanbul University Faculty of Theology |date=18 April 2012 |issue=13 |pages=45–63 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/iuilah/issue/977/10995 }}</ref>

The reformers dismissed the [[imam]] assigned to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, saying that prayer should be performed in a mosque, not in the parliament.<ref name=Hanioglu141>{{cite book|last=Hanioglu|first=Sükrü|title=Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography| year=2011| publisher=Princeton University Press| pages=141–142}}</ref> They also removed the "references to religion" from the decorum. The only Friday sermon ([[Khutbah|khutba]]) ever delivered by a Turkish head of state was given by Atatürk; this took place at a mosque in [[Balıkesir]] during the election campaign. The reformers said that "to repeat the sermons [by a politician in the parliament] of a thousand years ago was to preserve backwardness and promote nescience."<ref name=Hanioglu141/>

==== Religious organizations ====
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| header            = Eliminating religious "associations" from political arena
| width             = 200
| image1            = Dhikr Rifa-iyya.jpg
| caption1          = The Sufi "orders" —congregations formed around a master— which meet for majalis, in meeting places known as tekke.
}}

The abolishment of Caliphate removed the highest religious-political position. This act left Muslim associations who were institutionalized under the convents and the dervish lodges without higher organizing structure.

The reformers assumed that the original sources, now available in Turkish, would render the orthodox religious establishment (the ‘ulamā’) and the Ṣūfī ṭarīqas obsolete, and thus help to privatize religion as well as produce a reformed Islam.<ref name=Hanioglu149>{{cite book|last=Hanioglu|first=Sükrü|title=Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography| year=2011| publisher=Princeton University Press| page=149}}</ref> In 1925 institutions of religious covenants and dervish lodges were declared illegal.<ref>William Dalrymple: What goes round... The Guardian, Saturday 5 November 2005 {{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/nov/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview26|title=What goes round...| location=London|work=The Guardian|first=William|last=Dalrymple|date=5 November 2005}}</ref>

The reformers imagined that the elimination of the orthodox and Ṣūfī religious establishments, along with traditional religious education, and their replacement with a system in which the original sources were available to all in the vernacular language, would pave the way for a new vision of Islam open to progress and modernity and usher in a society guided by modernity.<ref name=Hanioglu150>{{cite book|last=Hanioglu|first=Sükrü|title=Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography|year=2011|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=150}}</ref>

Along with the multi-party period, with [[Democrat Party (Turkey, 1946–1960)|Democrats]] both taking part and winning for the first time in the [[1950 Turkish general election]], religious establishments started becoming more active in the country.

==== Religious holiday (Work week) ====
Turkey adapted the European workweek and weekend as the complementary parts of the week devoted to labor and rest, respectively. In the Ottoman Empire, the workweek was from Sunday to Thursday and the weekend was Friday and Saturday.

A law enacted in 1935 changed the weekend, which now began Friday afternoon (not Thursday afternoon) and ended on Sunday.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.meb.gov.tr/belirligunler/10kasim/inkilaplari/toplumsal/takvim_saat.htm |title=TAKVİM, SAAT VE ÖLÇÜLERDE DEĞİŞİKLİK |publisher= MEB (Education deportment of Turkey) }}</ref>
[[File:İnkılap_Yolunda_(1933)_by_Zeki_Faik_İzer.jpg|thumb|''[[On the Path to Revolution]]'' symbolizes the Turkish women as the pioneer of liberties.]]

=== Women's rights ===

{{See also|Women in Turkey}}
During a meeting in the early days of the new republic, Atatürk proclaimed:

{{blockquote|'''To the women''': ''Win for us the battle of education and you will do yet more for your country than we have been able to do. It is to you that I appeal''.<br /> '''To the men''': ''If henceforward the women do not share in the social life of the nation, we shall never attain to our full development. We shall remain irremediably backward, incapable of treating on equal terms with the civilizations of the West''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kinross |first1=Patrick Balfour Baron |title=Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation |date=1964 |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |isbn=978-90-70091-28-6 |page=343 }}</ref> }}

In the following years of Atatürk's Reforms women's rights campaigners in Turkey differed from their sisters (and sympathetic brothers) in other countries. Rather than fighting directly for their basic rights and equality, they saw their best chance in the promotion and maintenance of Atatürk's Reforms, with its espousal of secular values and equality for all, including women.<ref>Nüket Kardam "Turkey's Engagement With Global Women's Human Rights" page 88.</ref>

==== Equal participation ====
[[File:Political cartoon commenting on women's voting rights in Quebec.jpg|right|thumb|[[Canada|Canadian]] political cartoon of a woman in [[Quebec]] reading a sign that reads:<br />"News bulletin: for the first time in Turkish history women will vote and be eligible to the public office in the general election which takes place this week."<br />Women were granted the right to vote in Turkey in 1930, but the right to vote was not extended to women in provincial elections in Quebec until 1940.]]
{{See also|Women in Turkish politics}}
In Ottoman society, women had no political rights, even after the [[Second Constitutional Era]] in 1908. During the early years of the Turkish Republic educated women struggled for political rights. One notable female political activist was [[Nezihe Muhittin]] who founded the first women's party in June 1923, which however was not legalized because the Republic was not officially declared.

With intense struggle, Turkish women achieved voting rights in local elections by the act of 1580 on 3 April 1930.<ref name="tempo">''Türkiye'nin 75 yılı'', Tempo Yayıncılık, İstanbul, 1998, p.48,59,250</ref> Four years later, through legislation enacted on 5 December 1934, they gained full universal suffrage, earlier than most other countries.<ref name="tempo"/> The reforms in the Turkish civil code, including those affecting women's suffrage, were "breakthroughs not only within the Islamic world but also in the western world".<ref>Necla Arat in Marvine Howe's ''Turkey today'', page 18.</ref>

In 1935, in the general elections Eighteen female MPs joined the parliament, at a time when women in a significant number of other European countries [[Timeline of women's suffrage|had no voting rights]].

==== Equality of the sexes ====
Beginning with the adoption of the Turkish Civil Code in 1926, a modified Swiss Penal Code, women gained extensive civil rights. This continued with women gaining the right to vote and stand for elections at the municipal and federal levels in 1930 and 1934, respectively. Various other legal initiatives were also put into effect in the years following to encourage equality.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mangold-Will|first=Sabine|date=October 2012|title=Şükrü M. Hanioğlu, Atatürk. An Intellectual Biography. Princeton/Oxford, Princeton University Press 2011 Hanioğlu Şükrü M. Atatürk. An Intellectual Biography. 2011 Princeton University Press Princeton/Oxford £ 19,95|journal=Historische Zeitschrift|volume=295|issue=2|pages=548|doi=10.1524/hzhz.2012.0535|issn=0018-2613}}</ref>

The Turkish Civil Code also allowed equal rights to divorce to both men and women, and gave equal child custody rights to both parents.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Emancipated but unliberated? : reflections on the Turkish case|last=Kandiyoti, Deniz A.|oclc=936700178}}</ref>

Polygamy was permitted in the Ottoman Empire under special circumstances, with certain terms and conditions. Atatürk's reforms made [[Polygamy in Turkey|polygamy illegal]], and became the only nation located in the Middle East that had abolished polygamy, which was officially criminalized with the adoption of the Turkish Civil Code in 1926, a milestone in Atatürk's reforms. Penalties for illegal polygamy was set up to be 2 years imprisonment.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://legislationline.org/documents/action/popup/id/6872/preview |title=Turkish Penal Code, Art. 230 |access-date=28 April 2013 |archive-date=10 July 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710103852/http://legislationline.org/documents/action/popup/id/6872/preview |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Under Islamic law, a woman's inheritance was half the share of a man, whereas under the new laws man and women inherited equally.<ref name="atakay"/>

Besides the advancements, men were still officially heads of the household in the law. Women needed the head of the household's permission to travel abroad.<ref name="atakay"/>

Atatürk's Reforms aimed to break the traditional role of the women in the society. Women were encouraged to attend universities and obtain professional degrees. Women soon became teachers at coed schools, engineers, and studied medicine and law.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=Jenny B. |title=State Feminism, Modernization, and the Turkish Republican Woman |journal=NWSA Journal |date=2003 |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=145–159 |doi=10.2979/NWS.2003.15.3.145 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |id={{Project MUSE|53246}} |jstor=4317014 }}</ref> Between 1920 and 1938, ten percent of all university graduates were women.<ref name="atakay"/>

In 1930, the first female judges were appointed.<ref name="atakay">Eylem Atakav "Women and Turkish Cinema: Gender Politics, Cultural Identity and Representation, page 22</ref>

Additionally, the female labor participation rate of the Kemalist single-party period was as high as 70%. The participation rate continued to decline after the democratization of Turkey due to the backlash of conservative norms in the Turkish society.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Göksel |first1=İdil |title=Female labor force participation in Turkey: The role of conservatism |journal=Women's Studies International Forum |date=November 2013 |volume=41 |pages=45–54 |doi=10.1016/j.wsif.2013.04.006 }}</ref>

==== Women's role models ====
Atatürk's regime promoted female role models who were, in his words, "the mothers of the nation." This woman of the republic was 'cultured, educated, and modern'; to promote this image, the Miss Turkey pageants were first organized in 1929.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hanioğlu|first=M. Şükrü|date=2018-05-24|title=Turkey and the West|publisher=Princeton University Press|volume=1|doi=10.23943/princeton/9780691175829.003.0009}}</ref>
{{multiple image
| header    = Women's role models
| align = center
| width = 150
|image1=First female MPs of the Turkish Parliament (1935).jpg
|caption1=Eighteen female [[Member of Parliament|MPs]], 1935 general elections.
|image2=Sabiha_gokcen2.jpg
|caption2=[[Sabiha Gökçen]], first female pilot in personalized uniform ordered by Atatürk.
|image3=Feriha Tevfik.gif
|caption3=[[Feriha Tevfik]], first ever [[Miss Turkey]], 1929.
}}

=== Social structure ===
==== Personal names ====
Under the Ottoman Empire many people, especially Muslims, did not use surnames.  The [[Surname Law (Turkey)|Surname Law]] was adopted on 21 June 1934.<ref>[http://www.perge.gov.tr/EN/BelgeGoster.aspx?17A16AE30572D313E603BF9486D4371DF01B9CC4F1C001E7 1934 in history], Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.</ref> The law requires all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of hereditary, fixed, surnames. Much of the population, particularly in the cities as well as Turkey's [[Christians|Christian]] and [[Jewish]] citizens, already had surnames, and all families had names by which they were known locally.

==== Measurement (Calendar, time, and the metric system) ====
The clocks, calendars and measures used in the Ottoman Empire were different from those used in the European states. This made social, commercial and official relations difficult and caused considerable confusion. In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, some studies were made to eliminate this difference.

First, a law enacted on 26 December 1925 and banned the use of [[Hijri year|Hijri]] and [[Rumi calendar|Rumi]] calendars. Turkey began to use [[Gregorian calendar|Gregorian]] calendar officially on 1 January 1926. One calendar prevented the complications of multiple calendars in state affairs.<ref name="meb.gov.tr">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.meb.gov.tr/belirligunler/10kasim/inkilaplari/toplumsal/takvim_saat.htm
 |title=TAKVİM, SAAT VE ÖLÇÜLERDE DEĞİŞİKLİK
 |publisher= MEB (Education deportment of Turkey)
}}</ref>

The clock system used by the contemporary world was accepted instead of the Turkish 'sunset clock'. With the time scale taken from the West, one day was divided into 24 hours and daily life was organized accordingly.<ref name="meb.gov.tr"/>

With a change made in 1928, international figures were adopted. A law adopted in 1931 changed the old weight and length measurements. Previously used measurement units such as arshin, endaze, okka have been removed. Instead, meters were accepted as length measurements and kilograms as weight measures. With these changes in length and weight measurements, unity was achieved in the country.<ref name="meb.gov.tr"/>

==== Fine art drive ====
{{See also|Architecture of Turkey}}
The fundamental changes within the regime and the society were supplemented with a series of cultural reforms, in an attempt to embrace a national identity. Countering the customs practiced over the previous centuries by which the architecture was inspired by Islamic values, the emerging [[first national architectural movement]] was promoted by the Turkish government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yaldız |first=Esra |date=2018 |title=Birinci Ulusal Mimarlık Dönemi Kamu Yapıları |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329020681 |journal=Social Sciences Studies Journal |volume=4 |issue=24 |pages=4930–4947 |doi=10.26449/sssj.947 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> Many structures over the country, especially in [[Ankara]], Turkey's new capital under construction, were built to reflect distinct characteristics of the Turkish culture, a blend of [[Anatolian Seljuk architecture|Anatolian Seljuk]] and [[Ottoman architecture|Ottoman]] heritage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Öksüz |first=Ebrar Mihrimah |date=2022-01-01 |title=Architecture in the Early Turkish Republic |url=https://www.academia.edu/83788056 |journal=Architecture in the Early Turkish Republic}}</ref>

With an influx of many public institutions being moved from [[Istanbul]], to the new capital, [[Ankara]], Mustafa Kemal Atatürk paid an attention on the course of transforming the city into a planned metropolitan area. In 1928, the central government established a dedicated body, the City of Ankara Directorate of Construction.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duru |first=Bülent |title=Mustafa Kemal Döneminde Ankara'nın İmarı |url=https://www.academia.edu/3382593 |journal=Ankara University Press}}</ref> Invited to Turkey, urban planner [[Hermann Jansen]] arranged a layout that determines the spatial development plan for Ankara.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Türkiye için Modern ve Planlı bir Başkent Kurmak: Ankara 1920-1950 |url=https://www.goethe.de/ins/tr/ank/prj/urs/geb/sta/trindex.htm |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=www.goethe.de}}</ref> [[Henri Prost]] was appointed with similar plans to reconstruct Istanbul. However, the efforts were stranded with the struggles of World War II.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Uluskan |first=Seda Bayındır |date=2007-10-01 |title=Atatürk Dönem İnde İstanbul'un İmarı Ve Henrİ Prost Planının Basındaki Yankıları (1936- 1939) |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/erdem/issue/44053/542761 |journal=Erdem |language=tr |volume=16 |issue=48 |pages=148 |issn=1010-867X}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| header            = [[First national architectural movement]]
| align             = center
| width             = 150
| image1            = Ankara asv2021-10 img23 Ziraat Bank Museum.jpg
| caption1          = Former [[Ziraat Bankası]] headquarters, built in 1929
| image2            = Ankara asv2021-10 img71 Republic Museum.jpg
| caption2          = [[Republic Museum]], formerly used as the [[Turkish Parliament]], built in 1924
| image3            = Ankara asv2021-10 img64 Arts and Sculpture Museum.jpg
| caption3          = [[State Art and Sculpture Museum]], opened in 1930
| image4            = Ankara asv2021-10 img58 Ankara State Theatre.jpg
| caption4          = Second Evkaf Apartment in [[Altındağ]]
| image5            = Yunus Emre Enstitüsü, 2023.jpg
| caption5          = [[Yunus Emre Institute]]
}}

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in seeking to revise a number of aspects of Turkish culture, used what he saw as the ancient heritage and village life of the country, forcing the removal of perceived Arabic and Persian cultural influences.<ref>Sardar, Marika. “Art and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Turkey.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000</ref> [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] summarized this period as "While there was a general agreement on the rejection of the last flowering of Ottoman art, no single, all-encompassing style emerged to replace it. The early years of the Republic saw the rise of dozens of new schools of art and the energetic organization of many young artists."<ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/anrt/hd_anrt.htm
 |title=Art and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Turkey
 |date=October 2004
 |publisher= metmuseum (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
}}</ref>

The [[State Art and Sculpture Museum]] was dedicated to fine arts and mainly sculpture. It was designed in 1927 by architect [[Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu]] and built between 1927 and 1930 as the ''Türkocağı Building'', upon the direction of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mimarlikmuzesi.org/Collection/Detail.aspx?BiographyID=26|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727083617/http://www.mimarlikmuzesi.org/Collection/Detail.aspx?BiographyID=26|url-status=usurped|title=Turkish Architecture Museum Database: Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu|archivedate=27 July 2011|accessdate=4 April 2023}}</ref> It is located close to the [[Ethnography Museum of Ankara|Ethnography Museum]] and houses a rich collection of Turkish art from the late 19th century to the present day. There are also galleries for guest exhibitions.

{{multiple image
| header = Fine art drive
| align = center
| width = 150
| image1 = Ataturk opens Ankara Museum of Fine Arts and Sculpture.png
| caption1 = Opening of the [[State Art and Sculpture Museum]] in 1927
| image2 = Ethnography Museum of Ankara, 1930s (16230092164).jpg
| caption2 = The Ethnography Museum in the 1930s
}}

==Legal reforms==
[[File:1879-Ottoman Court-from-NYL.png|thumb|An Ottoman trial in 1877|350x350px]]

The Ottoman Empire was a religious empire in which each religious community enjoyed a large degree of autonomy with the [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Millet]] structure. Each millet had an internal system of governance based upon its religious law, such as [[Sharia]], [[catholicism|Catholic]] [[Canon law (Catholic Church)|Canon law]], or [[Judaism|Jewish]] [[Halakha]]. The Ottoman Empire tried to modernize the code with the reforms of 1839 [[Edict of Gülhane|Gülhane Hatt-i Sharif]] which tried to end confusion in the judicial sphere by extending the legal equality to all citizens.

The leading legal reforms instituted included a secular [[Constitution of Turkey|constitution]] (laïcité) with the complete [[Separation of church and state|separation of government and religious affairs]], the replacement of [[Islamic]] courts and [[Sharia|Islamic canon law]] with a secular civil code based on the [[Swiss Civil Code]], and a penal code based on that of Italy (1924–37).

=== Legal system ===
{{See also|Legal System in the Republic of Turkey}}
On 8 April 1924, [[sharia]] courts were abolished with the law ''Mehakim-i Şer'iyenin İlgasına ve Mehakim Teşkilatına Ait Ahkamı Muaddil Kanun''.<ref name="Hanioglu2011">{{cite book|author=M. Sükrü Hanioglu|title=Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dNFhZzug6tMC&pg=PA158|access-date=2013-06-05|date=2011-05-09|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-3817-2|page=158}}</ref>

=== Codification ===
{{See also|Mecelle|Swiss Civil Code}}
The non-Muslim millets affected by the [[Age of Enlightenment]] in Europe modernized Christian law. In the Ottoman Empire, Islamic law and Christian law became drastically different. In 1920, and today, many forms of Islamic law do not contain provisions regulating the sundry relationships of "political institutions" and "commercial transactions".<ref name="TIMUR">Timur, Hıfzı. 1956. "The Place of Islamic Law in Turkish Law Reform", ''Annales de la Faculté de Droit d'Istanbul''. Istanbul: Fakülteler Matbaası.</ref> The rules relating to "criminal cases", shaped under Sharia were too limited in serving their purpose adequately.<ref name="TIMUR"/> Beginning with the 19th century, the Ottoman Islamic codes and legal provisions were generally impracticable in dealing with the wider concept of social systems. In 1841, a new criminal code was drawn up in the Ottoman Empire. However, when the Empire dissolved, there was still no legislation with regard to family and marital relationships.<ref name="TIMUR"/> Polygamy was also banned, and was not to be practiced by law-abiding citizens of Turkey after Atatürk's reforms, in contrast to the former rules of the [[Mecelle]].<ref>Dr. Ayfer Altay "Difficulties Encountered in the Translation of Legal Texts: The Case of Turkey", ''Translation Journal'' volume 6, No. 4.</ref> There were thousands of other articles in the Mecelle which were not used due to their perceived inapplicability.

The adaptation of laws relating to family and marital relationships is an important step attributed to Mustafa Kemal. The reforms also instituted legal equality and full political rights for both sexes in 1934, well before [[Timeline of women's suffrage|several other European nations]]. A penal code based on that of Italy was passed between 1924 and 1937.

==Educational reforms==
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| header            = Major achievements in educational reforms
| width             = 250
| image1            = 1924okuryazar.png
| caption1          = Literacy in Turkey, 1924.
| image2            = Ataturk-September 20, 1928.jpg
| caption2          = Introduction of the new [[Turkish alphabet]] in [[Kayseri]], on 20 September 1928.
| image3            = Izmir High School for Boys Feb 1 1931.jpg
| caption3          = Atatürk visiting a math class at İzmir High School for Boys, 1 February 1931.
| image4            = Atatürk Adana'da öğrencilerle.jpg
| caption4          = Atatürk visiting a women's skills program in Adana.
| image5            = Atatürk Samsun'da coğrafya dersinde.jpg
| caption5          = Atatürk in geography class in a school in Samsun.
| image6            = Mustafa Kemal and establishment of Turkish History Institution.png
| caption6          = Establishment ceremony of the [[Turkish Historical Society|Turkish History Institution]] in 1931.
| image7            = Meeting of the Turkish Language Association, 1933, Dolmabahçe Palace.jpg
| caption7          = Meeting of the [[Turkish Language Association]], 1933.
}}
{{See also|Education in Turkey}}
[[Educational system]]s (schooling) involve institutionalized teaching and learning in relation to a curriculum, which was established according to a predetermined purpose of education. Ottoman schools were a complex educational system differentiated mainly by curricula. The Ottoman educational system had three main educational groups of institutions. The most common institutions were [[medrese]]s based on learning Arabic, teaching the [[Quran]] using the method of memorization. The second type of institution were the ''idadî'' and ''sultanî'', which were the reformist schools of the [[Tanzimat]] era. The last group included colleges and minority schools in foreign languages that often used more recent teaching models in educating their pupils.

The unification of education, along with the closure of the old-style universities, and a large-scale program of science transfer from Europe; education became an integrative system, aimed to alleviate poverty and used female education to establish [[gender equality]]. Turkish education became a state-supervised system, which was designed to create a skill base for the social and economic progress of the country.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ozelli |first1=M. T. |title=The Evolution of the Formal Educational System and its Relation to Economic Growth Policies in the First Turkish Republic |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |date=January 1974 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=77–92 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800032803 }}</ref> Unification came with the Law on Unification of National Education, which introduced three regulations.<ref name="education">{{cite web|title=Education since republic|url=http://www.meb.gov.tr/Stats/apk2001ing/Section_3/1TransformationMotivated.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720184811/http://www.meb.gov.tr/Stats/apk2001ing/Section_3/1TransformationMotivated.htm|archive-date=20 July 2006|access-date=2007-01-01|publisher=Ministry of National Education (Turkey)}}</ref> They placed the religious schools owned by private foundations under the scope of the Ministry of Education. By the same regulations, the Ministry of Education was ordered to open a religious faculty at the [[Darülfünun]] (later to become the [[Istanbul University]]) and schools to educate imams.<ref name="education" />

Atatürk's reforms on education made education much more accessible: between 1923 and 1938, the number of students attending primary schools increased by 224% from 342,000 to 765,000, the number of students attending middle schools increased by 12.5 times, from around 6,000 to 74,000 and the number of students attending high schools increased by almost 17 times, from 1,200 to 21,000.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kapluhan|first=Erol|year=2011|title=Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Atatürk Dönemi Eğitim Politikaları (1923–1938) ve Coğrafya Eğitimi|publisher=[[Marmara University]]|type=PhD thesis|language=tr|pages=203–5}}</ref>

=== Militarization of education ===
Military training was added to the curriculum of secondary education with the support of Mustafa Kemal who stated "just as the army is a school, so is the school an army". He was also in favor of deploying army sergeants as teachers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Üngör|first=Ugur Ümit|title=The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950|date=2012-03-01|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-164076-6|pages=178|language=en|author-link=Uğur Ümit Üngör}}</ref>

=== Coeducation and the education of girls ===
[[File:Ataturk visits a school.jpg|thumb|Atatürk visits İzmir High School for Girls on 1 February 1931. After the reorganization of Istanbul University by the University Law of 31 May 1933, the Turkish government introduced coeducational education in academies, colleges and universities in Turkey.]]
In 1915, during the Ottoman period, a separate section for girl students named the ''İnas Darülfünunu'' was opened as a branch of the ''İstanbul Darülfünunu'', the predecessor of the modern Istanbul University.

Atatürk was a strong supporter of [[coeducation]] and the education of girls. Coeducation was established as the norm throughout the educational system by 1927.<ref>Landau, ''Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey'', 191.</ref> Centuries of sex segregation under Ottoman rule had denied girls equal education, Atatürk thus opposed segregated education as a matter of principle. The matter of coeducation was first raised as a result of a controversy in [[Tekirdağ]] in 1924, where, due to the lack of a high school for girls, girls requested enrollment in the high school for boys. Upon this, works on coeducation began and the Minister of Education declared that both sexes would follow the same curriculum. In August 1924, it was decided that coeducation would be introduced to primary education, giving boys the right to enroll in girls' high schools and vice versa. Atatürk declared in his [[Kastamonu speech]] in 1925 that coeducation should be the norm. Whilst the educational committee had agreed in 1926 to abolish single-sex education in middle schools that were not boarding schools, segregation persisted in middle and high schools, and statistics in the 1927–28 educational year revealed that only 29% of those enrolled in primary schools were girls. This figure was 18.9% for middle schools and 28% for high schools. Acting on these figures, 70 single-sex middle schools were converted to coeducational schools in 1927–28 and new coeducational middle schools were established. This was despite the opposition of [[Mehmet Fuat Köprülü|Köprülüzade Fuat Bey]], the Undersecretary for Education. Whilst the policy was transition to coeducational high schools based on the success in middle schools from 1928 to 1929 onwards, this policy could only be implemented effectively from 1934 to 1935 onwards.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kapluhan|first=Erol|year=2011|title=Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Atatürk Dönemi Eğitim Politikaları (1923–1938) ve Coğrafya Eğitimi|publisher=[[Marmara University]]|type=PhD thesis|language=tr|pages=232–7}}</ref>

=== Higher education ===
One of the cornerstone of educational institutions, the [[University of Istanbul]], accepted [[Germany|German]] and [[Austria]]n scientists whom the [[Nazi Germany|National Socialist regime]] in Germany had considered 'racially' or politically undesirable. This political decision (accepting German and Austrian scientists) established the nucleus of science and modern [higher education] institutions in Turkey.<ref name="science">Regine ERICHSEN, «Scientific Research and Science Policy in Turkey», in Cemoti, n° 25 – Les Ouïgours au vingtième siècle, [En ligne], mis en ligne le 5 décembre 2003.</ref> The reform aimed to break away the dependency on the transfer of science and technology by foreign experts.<ref name="science" />
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Name
!Founded
!Description
|-
|[[Ankara University, Law School|Ankara School of Judicial Law]]
|5 November 1925
|Founded to overwrite the obsolete [[Law of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Law]] with a novel, secular legal framework.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mumcu |first=Ahmet |date=1995-05-01 |title=ANKARA ÜNİVERSİTESİ HUKUK FAKÜLTESİ NEDEN VE NASIL KURULDU |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/auhfd/issue/42690/514838 |journal=Ankara Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=0 |doi=10.1501/Hukfak_0000000694 |issn=1301-1308}}</ref>
|-
|[[Gazi Eğitim Enstitüsü|Gazi Institute of Education]]
|1 March 1927
|School of educational sciences to cultivate teachers for elementary, middle, high, technical schools, and the [[Village Institutes|village institutes]]. It later evolved into establishing the [[Gazi University]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-08 |title=Gazi Eğitim Enstitüsü (1926-1980) |url=https://ataturkansiklopedisi.gov.tr/bilgi/gazi-egitim-enstitusu-1926-1980/ |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=Atatürk Ansiklopedisi |language=tr}}</ref>
|-
|[[Istanbul University]]
|1 August 1933
|The already existing ''Darülfünun'', founded in 1453, was a school of natural sciences with a religious [[madrasa]]h. A decree by the Turkish Parliament transformed the school into a general university.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Erdem |first1=Ali Rıza |last2=Atatürk |first2=Mustafa Kemal |date=2012-07-01 |title=ATATÜRK'ÜN LİDERLİĞİNDE ÜNİVERSİTE REFORMU: YÜKSEKÖĞRETİM ve BİLİM TARİHİMİZDE DÖNÜM NOKTASI |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/belgi/issue/35040/388719 |journal=Belgi Dergisi |issue=4 |pages=376–388 |issn=2146-4456}}</ref>
|-
|Higher Agricultural Institute
|30 October 1933
|Originally founded in 1930 as the Higher School of Agriculture, it offered degrees in agriculture, veterinary medicine, and forestry. The institute was later incorporated into the [[Ankara University]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Köseçavuş |first=Murat |title=Tarihçe |url=https://www.agri.ankara.edu.tr/tarihce-2/ |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=Ankara Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi |language=tr-TR}}</ref>
|-
|[[Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University|School of Political Sciences]]
|10 June 1935
|The original ''Mülkiye'' was established in Constantinople, 1859 to raise the Ottoman bureaucracy. In 1935, the Turkish government moved the school to Ankara under a new identity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Serin |first=Necdet |date=1985-01-01 |title=Mekteb-i Mülkiye'den Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi'ne 125. Yıl |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ausbf/issue/3120/43319 |journal=Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi |language=tr |volume=40 |issue=1 |page=1 |doi=10.1501/SBFder_0000001464 |issn=0378-2921}}</ref>
|-
|[[School of Language and History – Geography|Faculty of Language and History – Geography]]
|22 June 1935
|Founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as an independent humanities school to promote the [[Turkish History Thesis]], languages, and archeology. Restructured under the [[Ankara University]] in 1946.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Koç |first=Bekir |date=2016-01-01 |title=Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi'nin Kuruluş Süreci, İlk Mezunları ve Halil İnalcık |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/otam/issue/67189/1048818 |journal=OTAM Ankara Üniversitesi Osmanlı Tarihi Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi Dergisi |language=tr |issue=40 |pages=27–43 |issn=1019-469X}}</ref>
|-
|[[Ankara University Medical School|Ankara Faculty of Medicine]]
|23 June 1937
|It was established in 1937 as an alternative to the [[Istanbul Faculty of Medicine]]. However, the school could not begin education until 1946 as the efforts were hindered by World War II.<ref>{{Cite web |last=asklepios_adm |title=Genel Tanıtım |url=https://www.medicine.ankara.edu.tr/genel-tanitim/ |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi |language=tr-TR}}</ref>
|}

=== Religious education ===
First, all [[medrese]]s and schools administered by private foundations or the Diyanet were connected to the Ministry of National Education. Second, the money allocated to schools and medreses from the budget of the Diyanet was transferred to the education budget. Third, the Ministry of Education had to open a religious faculty for training higher religious experts within the system of higher education, and separate schools for training imams and hatips.

=== Improving literacy ===
The literacy movement aimed adult education for the goal of forming a skill base in the country. Turkish women were taught not only child care, dress-making and household management, but also skills needed to join the economy outside the home.

==== New alphabet ====
{{see also|Turkish alphabet reform|Atatürk's Reforms#Curriculum secularization}}
The adoption of the [[Latin script]] and the purging of foreign loan words was part of Atatürk's program of modernization.<ref name="nafi">Nafi Yalın. ''The Turkish language reform: a unique case of language planning in the world'', Bilim dergisi 2002 Vol.&nbsp;3 page 9.</ref> The two important ends were sought, which were the democratization of writing and language, and the 'secularization' of the Turkish language.

Turkish had been written using [[Ottoman Turkish script|a Turkish form]] of the [[Perso-Arabic script]] for a thousand years. It was well suited to write the [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]] vocabulary that incorporated a great deal of Arabic and Persian vocabulary and even grammar. However, it was poorly suited for older, Turkic grammar and vocabulary, which was rich in vowels and poorly represented by the Arabic script, an [[abjad]] which by definition only transcribed consonants. It was thus inadequate at representing Turkish [[phonemes]]. Some could be expressed using four different Arabic signs; others could not be expressed at all. The introduction of the [[telegraph]] and printing press in the 19th century exposed further weaknesses in the Arabic script.<ref name="Zürcher-188">[[Erik-Jan Zürcher|Zürcher, Erik Jan]]. ''Turkey: a modern history'', p. 188. I.B.Tauris, 2004. {{ISBN|978-1-85043-399-6}}</ref>

Use of the Latin script had been proposed before. In 1862, during [[Tanzimat]], the statesman [[Mehmed Tahir Münif Pasha|Münif Pasha]] advocated a reform of the alphabet. At the start of the 20th century, similar proposals were made by several writers associated with the [[Young Turks]] movement, including [[Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın|Hüseyin Cahit]], [[Abdullah Cevdet]], and Celâl Nuri.<ref name="Zürcher-188" /> The issue was raised again in 1923 during the first Economic Congress of the newly founded Turkish Republic, sparking a public debate that was to continue for several years. Some suggested that a better alternative might be to modify the Arabic script to introduce extra characters to better represent Turkish vowels.<ref>Gürçağlar, Şehnaz Tahir. ''The politics and poetics of translation in Turkey, 1923–1960'', pp.&nbsp;53–54. Rodopi, 2008. {{ISBN|978-90-420-2329-1}}</ref>

A language commission responsible for adapting the Latin script to meet the phonetic requirements of the Turkish language was established. The resulting Latin script was designed to reflect the actual sounds of spoken Turkish, rather than simply transcribing the old Ottoman script into a new form.<ref name="Zürcher-189">Zürcher, p.&nbsp;189</ref> The [[Turkish alphabet|current 29-letter Turkish alphabet]] was established. It was a key step in the cultural part of Atatürk's Reforms.<ref>''Yazım Kılavuzu'', Dil Derneği, 2002 (the writing guide of the Turkish language)</ref> The Language Commission (''Dil Encümeni'') consisting of the following members:<ref>{{cite web |title=Harf Devrimi |url=http://www.dildernegi.org.tr/TR,609/harf-devrimi---1-kasim-1928.html |website=dildernegi.org.tr |publisher=Dil Derneği |access-date=22 March 2023 |archive-date=1 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101183503/http://www.dildernegi.org.tr/TR,609/harf-devrimi---1-kasim-1928.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+The Language Commission
|-
|'''Linguists'''
|[[Ragıp Hulûsi Özdem]]
|[[Ahmet Cevat Emre]]
|İbrahim Grandi Grantay
|-
|'''Educators'''
|Mehmet Emin Erişirgil
|İhsan Sungu
|[[Fazıl Ahmet Aykaç]]
|-
|'''Writers'''
|[[Falih Rıfkı Atay]]
|[[Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın]]
|[[Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu]]
|}

Atatürk himself was personally involved with the commission and proclaimed an "alphabet mobilisation" to publicise the changes. In 1926 the Turkic republics of the [[Soviet Union]] adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in Turkey.<ref name="Zürcher-188" /> On 1&nbsp;November 1928, the new [[Turkish alphabet]] was introduced by the ''Language Commission'' at the initiative of Atatürk, replacing the previously used Perso-Arabic script. The Language Commission proposed a five-year transition period; Atatürk saw this as far too long and reduced it to three months.<ref>Gürçağlar, p.&nbsp;55</ref> The change was formalized by the Turkish Republic's law number 1353, the ''Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet'',<ref name=kanun1353>{{cite web|title= Tūrk Harflerinin Kabul ve Tatbiki Hakkında Kanun|language= tr|url= http://www.idealhukuk.com/hukuk/hukuk.asp?mct=mevzuatdetay&x=kanun&y=Kanunlar&id=910&h=t&tit=T%C3%9CRK%20HARFLER%C4%B0N%C4%B0N%20KABUL%20VE%20TATB%C4%B0K%C4%B0%20HAKKINDA%20KANUN|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090624032239/http://www.idealhukuk.com/hukuk/hukuk.asp?mct=mevzuatdetay&x=kanun&y=Kanunlar&id=910&h=t&tit=T%C3%9CRK%20HARFLER%C4%B0N%C4%B0N%20KABUL%20VE%20TATB%C4%B0K%C4%B0%20HAKKINDA%20KANUN|url-status= dead|archive-date= 2009-06-24}}</ref> passed on 1 November 1928. The law went into effect from 1 January 1929, making the use of the new alphabet compulsory in all public communications.<ref name="Zürcher-189" />

==== Literacy drive (Millet Mektepleri) ====
Before the adoption of the new alphabet a pilot program had been established with 3304 class units around Turkey, awarding a total of 64,302 certificates. This program was declared to be unsuccessful and a new organization was proposed which would be used in the drive to introduce the new alphabet.<ref name=bozkurt>[http://deu.mitosweb.com/browse/47125/07-%2520ibrahim%2520Bozkurt.pdf İbrahim Bozkurt, Birgül Bozkurt, '''Yeni Alfabenin Kabülü Sonrası Mersin’de Açılan Millet Mektepleri ve Çalışmaları''', ''Çağdaş Türkiye Araştırmaları Dergisi, Cilt: VIII, Sayı: 18–19, Yıl: 2009, Bahar-Güz'']  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120408223602/http://deu.mitosweb.com/browse/47125/07-%20ibrahim%20Bozkurt.pdf |date=8 April 2012 }}</ref> The name of the new organization which would be used in the literacy drive was "[[Millet mektepleri]]".

National Education Minister [[Mustafa Necati]] Bey passed the "National Schools Directive" (Directive) 7284 dated 11 November 1928, which stated that every Turkish citizen ''between the ages of 16–30'' (only primary education had been made mandatory at the time) had to join the Millet Mektepleri and this was mandatory. It was also noted that it would be in two stages. Atatürk became the General Chairman of the initial (group I) schools and became the "principal tutor" of 52 schools (teacher training schools) around the country, teaching, course requirements, the money for the provision of classrooms, the use of the media for propaganda purposes, the documents of those schools were successfully established.<ref name=bozkurt/> The active encouragement of people by Atatürk himself, with many trips to the countryside teaching the new alphabet, was successful, which lead to the second stage.

In the first year of the second stage (1928), 20,487 classrooms were opened; 1,075,500 people attended these schools, but only 597,010 received the final certificate. Due to the global economic crisis ([[Great Depression]]) there was insufficient funding and the drive lasted only three years and 1 ½ million certificates were presented. The total population of Turkey in this period was less than 10 million, which included the mandatory primary education age pupils who were not covered by this certificate.<ref name=bozkurt/> Eventually, the education revolution was successful, as the literacy rate rose from 9% to 33% in just 10 years.

The literacy reform was supported by strengthening the private publishing sector with a new ''Law on Copyrights'' and congresses for discussing the issues of copyright, public education and scientific publishing.

=== Curriculum secularization and nationalization ===
[[File:20141231 142414 Turkish second national assembly.jpg|thumbnail|[[Ottoman Turkish alphabet]] and 1930s modern Turkish alphabet guide, from the [[Republic Museum]], [[Ankara]]|333x333px]]

{{see also|Turkish alphabet reform|Replacement of loanwords in Turkish}}
Another important part of Atatürk's reforms encompassed his emphasis on the Turkish language and history, leading to the establishment of the prescriptivist linguistic institution, the [[Turkish Language Association]] and [[Turkish Historical Society]] for research on [[Turkish language]] and [[History of Turkey|history]], during the years 1931–2. Adaptation of technical vocabulary was another step of modernization, which was tried thoroughly. Non-technical Turkish was vernacularized and simplified on the ground that the language of Turkish people should be comprehensible by the people. A good example is the Turkish word "Bilgisayar" (''bilgi'' = "information", ''sayar'' = "counter"), which was adapted for the word "Computer".

The second president of Turkey, [[İsmet İnönü]] explained the reason behind adopting a Latin script: ''"The alphabet reform cannot be attributed to ease of reading and writing. That was the motive of Enver Pasha. For us, the big impact and the benefit of alphabet reform was that it eased the way to cultural reform. We inevitably lost our connection with Arabic culture."''<ref>{{cite book|title=Hatıralar|isbn=975-22-0177-6|author=İsmet İnönü|page=223|language=tr|chapter=2|date=August 2006|publisher=Bilgi Yayinevi }}</ref>

The alphabet's introduction has been described by the historian [[Bernard Lewis]] as "not so much practical as [[pedagogy|pedagogical]], as social and cultural – and Mustafa Kemal, in forcing his people to accept it, was slamming a door on the past as well as opening a door to the future." It was accompanied by a systematic effort to rid the Turkish language of Arabic and Persian loanwords, often replacing them with words from Western languages, especially French. Atatürk told his friend Falih Rıfkı Atay, who was on the government's Language Commission, that by carrying out the reform "we were going to cleanse the Turkish mind from its Arabic roots."<ref>Toprak, p. 145, fn. 20</ref>

Yaşar Nabi, a leading pro-Kemalist journalist, argued in the 1960s that the alphabet reform had been vital in creating a new Western-oriented identity for Turkey. He noted that younger Turks, who had only been taught the Latin script, were at ease in understanding Western culture but were quite unable to engage with Middle Eastern culture.<ref>Toprak, p. 145, fn. 21</ref> The new script was adopted very rapidly and soon gained widespread acceptance. Even so, the Turkish Arabic script nonetheless continued to be used by older people in private correspondence, notes and diaries until well into the 1960s.<ref name="Zürcher-189" />

It was argued by the ruling Kemalist elites who pushed this reform that the abandonment of the Arabic script was not merely a symbolic expression of secularization by breaking the link to Ottoman Islamic texts to which only a minor group of ulema had access; but also Latin script would make reading and writing easier to learn and consequently improve the literacy rate, which succeeded eventually. The change motivated by a specific political goal: to break the link with the Ottoman and Islamic past and to orient the new state of Turkey towards the West and away from the traditional Ottoman lands of the Middle East. He commented on one occasion that the symbolic meaning of the reform was for the Turkish nation to "show with its script and mentality that it is on the side of world civilization."<ref>Karpat, Kemal H. "A Language in Search of a Nation: Turkish in the Nation-State", in ''Studies on Turkish politics and society: selected articles and essays'', p. 457. BRILL, 2004. {{ISBN|978-90-04-13322-8}}</ref>

The idea of absolute monarchy in the textbooks was replaced by the limited ideology known as liberalism. The teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu based republics were added as content.

[[Şerif Mardin]] has noted that "Atatürk imposed the mandatory Latin alphabet in order to promote the national awareness of the Turks against a wider Muslim identity. It is also imperative to add that he hoped to relate Turkish nationalism to the modern civilization of Western Europe, which embraced the Latin alphabet."<ref>Cited by Güven, İsmail in "Education and Islam in Turkey". ''Education in Turkey'', p. 177. Eds. Nohl, Arnd-Michael; Akkoyunlu-Wigley, Arzu; Wigley, Simon. Waxmann Verlag, 2008. {{ISBN|978-3-8309-2069-4}}</ref>

The explicitly nationalistic and ideological character of the alphabet reform was illustrated by the booklets issued by the government to teach the population the new script. It included sample phrases aimed at discrediting the Ottoman government and instilling updated "Turkish" values, such as: ''"Atatürk allied himself with the nation and drove the sultans out of the homeland"''; ''"Taxes are spent for the common properties of the nation. Tax is a debt we need to pay"''; ''"It is the duty of every Turk to defend the homeland against the enemies."'' The alphabet reform was promoted as redeeming the Turkish people from the neglect of the Ottoman rulers: ''"Sultans did not think of the public, Ghazi commander [Atatürk] saved the nation from enemies and slavery. And now, he declared a campaign against ignorance. He armed the nation with the new Turkish alphabet."''<ref>Güven, pp. 180–81</ref>

== Economic reforms ==
{{See also|Economic history of Turkey|Economy of Turkey}}
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| header            = Symbols of economic achievements
| width             = 200
| image1            = Orman Çiftliği, Ankara, 14 Temmuz 1929.png
| caption1          = [[Atatürk Forest Farm and Zoo|Orman Çiftliği]] was a model for modern farming methodologies.
| image2            = Türkiye İş Bankası logo.svg
| caption2          = [[Türkiye İş Bankası]] (1924) was the first Turkish bank established with solely national resources.
| image3            = Mustafa Kemal surveying the model of the quarter of Ministries.jpg
| caption3          = The government-subsidized industrial textile complex of [[Sümerbank]], 1935.
}}

The pursuit of state-controlled economic policies by Atatürk and [[İsmet İnönü]] was guided by a national vision: they wanted to knit the country together, eliminate foreign control of the economy, and improve communications. [[Istanbul]], a trading port with international foreign enterprises, was abandoned and resources were channeled to other, less-developed cities, in order to establish a more balanced development throughout the country.<ref name=mango470>Mango, ''Atatürk'', 470</ref>

=== Agriculture ===
[[Agha (title)|Agha]] is the title given to tribal chieftains, either supreme chieftains, or to village heads, who were wealthy landlords and owners of major tracts of real estate in the urban centers.

Throughout the mid-1930s through the mid-1940s, attempts were made at land reforms. Atatürk's land reform program redistributed 300,000 hectares to Turkish peasants and opened rural agricultural institutions to educate peasants to become more productive in economic activities.<ref name="Singer-1983">{{cite journal |last1=Singer |first1=Morris |title=Atatürk's Economic Legacy |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |date=July 1983 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=301–311 |doi=10.1080/00263208308700552 |jstor=4282948 }}</ref> These reforms further culminated in the reform Law of 1945, 7 years after Atatürk's death. 2.2 million hectares of unused land was confiscated by the government in this reform, along with 3.4 million hectares of government-controlled land, was redistributed to Turkish peasants.<ref>{{cite web |last1=DEMİREL |first1=Zerrin |last2=GÜLSEVER |first2=Fatma Zehra |title=Land Reform and Practices in Turkey |url=https://www.oicrf.org/-/land-reform-and-practices-in-turkey |website=OICRF |publisher=Yildiz Technical University |access-date=12 September 2023}}</ref>

The [[Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Turkey)|Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock]] was established in 1924. The ministry promoted farming through establishing [[model farm]]s. One of these farms later became a public recreational area to serve the capital, known as the [[Atatürk Forest Farm and Zoo|Atatürk Forest Farm]].

=== Industry and nationalization ===

The development of industry was promoted by strategies such as import substitution and the founding of state enterprises and state banks.<ref name="science"/> Economic reforms included the establishment of many state-owned factories throughout the country for the agriculture, machine making and textile industries. Many of these grew into successful enterprises and were [[Privatization|privatized]] during the latter part of 20th century.

[[Turkish tobacco]] was an important industrial crop, while its cultivation and manufacture were French monopolies under [[capitulations of the Ottoman Empire]]. The tobacco and cigarette trade was controlled by two French companies, the [[Regie Company]] and [[Narquileh Tobacco]].<ref>Shaw, ''History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey'', 232–233.</ref> The Ottoman Empire gave the tobacco monopoly to the [[Ottoman Bank]] as a limited company under the [[Ottoman Public Debt Administration|Council of the Public Debt]]. Regie, as part of the Council of the Public Debt, had control over production, storing, and distribution (including export) with an unchallenged price control. Turkish farmers were dependent on Regie for their livelihood.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bianet.org/2003/01/30/16340.htm|title=Tütün, İçki ve Tekel|language=tr|date=29 January 2003|access-date=10 October 2007|last=Aysu|first=Abdullah|publisher=BİA Haber Merkezi|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015212242/http://bianet.org/2003/01/30/16340.htm|archive-date=15 October 2007}}</ref> In 1925, this company was taken over by the state and named [[Tekel]].

The development of a national rail network was another important step for industrialization. The State Railways of the Republic of Turkey ([[Turkish State Railways]]) was formed on 31 May 1927, and its network was operated by foreign companies. The TCDD later took over the Chemin de Fer d'Anatolie-Baghdad (Anatolian Railway (CFOA)). On 1 June 1927, it had control over the tracks of the former Anatolian Railway (CFOA) and the Transcaucasus Railway line within Turkish borders. This institution developed an extensive railway network in a very short time. In 1927, the road construction goals were incorporated into development plans. The road network consisted of {{cvt|13885|km}} of ruined surface roads, {{cvt|4450|km}} of stabilized roads, and 94 bridges. In 1935, a new entity was established under the government called "Sose ve Kopruler Reisligi" which would drive development of new roads after World War II. However, in 1937, the {{cvt|22000|km}} of roads in Turkey augmented the railways.

=== Establishing the banking system ===
In 1924, the first Turkish bank [[Türkiye İş Bankası]] was established. The bank's creation was a response to the growing need for national establishment and the birth of a banking system which was capable of backing up economic activities, managing funds accumulated as a result of policies providing savings incentives and, where necessary, extending resources which could trigger industrial impetus.

In 1931, the [[Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey]] was realized. The bank's primary purpose was to have control over the exchange rate, and [[Ottoman Bank]]'s role during its initial years as a central bank was phased out. Later specialized banks such as the [[Sümerbank]] (1932) and the [[Etibank]] (1935) were founded.

=== International debt/capitulations ===
{{see also|Ottoman Public Debt Administration|Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire}}
The [[Ottoman Public Debt Administration]] (OPDA) was a European-controlled organization that was established in 1881 to collect the payments which the Ottoman Empire owed to European companies in the [[Ottoman public debt]]. The OPDA became a vast, essentially independent bureaucracy within the Ottoman bureaucracy, run by the creditors. It employed 5,000 officials who collected taxes that were then turned over to the European creditors.<ref>Donald Quataert, ''"The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922"'' (published in 2000.)</ref> [[Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire]] ([[ahdname]]s) were generally bilateral acts whereby definite arrangements were entered into by each contracting party towards the other, not mere concessions, yet this gradually changed in the 19th century.

Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire were removed by the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] (1923), specifically by Article 28. During the Paris Conference of 1925, reformers paid 62% of the Ottoman Empire's pre-1912 debt, and 77% of the Ottoman Empire's post-1912 debt. With the Paris Treaty of 1933, Turkey decreased this amount to its favor and agreed to pay 84.6 million liras out of the remaining total of 161.3 million liras of Ottoman debt. The last payment of the Ottoman debt was made by Turkey on 25 May 1954.

== Social policy reforms and economic progress ==
Atatürk was also credited for his transformational change in Turkish agriculture and ecological development. The Kemalist government planned four million trees, modernized the Turkish agricultural mechanism, implemented flood controls, opened schools in rural areas with rural institutions such as agricultural banks, and implemented land reform that removed heavy taxes on peasants of the Ottoman era. He was described as the "Father of Turkish Agriculture."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://globalmediajournaltr.yeditepe.edu.tr/sites/default/files/10_derya_nil_budak.pdf |title=Atatürk, The National Agricultural Leader, Father of Modern Turkish Agriculture and The National Development: A Review From the Perspective of Agricultural Communications and Leadership |last=Budak |first=Derya Nil |access-date=9 October 2022 |archive-date=4 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804051122/https://globalmediajournaltr.yeditepe.edu.tr/sites/default/files/10_derya_nil_budak.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://businessturkeytoday.com/factories-established-by-great-ataturk-founder-of-turkey-in-first-15-years-of-republic.html | title=Factories established by Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, in first 15 years of Republic | date=23 November 2020 }}</ref> The Turkish economy developed in an exceptional rate with heavy industrial production increased by 150% and GDP capita rose from US$800 to around 2000 USD by late 1930s, on par with Japan.<ref>{{cite report |last1=Colpan |first1=Asli M. |first2=Geoffrey |last2=Jones |title=Vehbi Koç and the Making of Turkey's Largest Business Group |publisher=Harvard Business School |id=Case 811-081 |date=June 2011 }}</ref>

Atatürk's regime also passed the 1936 Labor Law, which gave substantial wage increases and improved the working conditions of workers in Turkish enterprises.<ref name="Singer-1983"/>

== Analysis ==

=== Arguments over effectiveness ===
Some people thought that the pace of change under Atatürk was too rapid as, in his quest to modernize Turkey, he effectively abolished centuries-old traditions. Nevertheless, the bulk of the population willingly accepted the reforms, even though some were seen as reflecting the views of the urban elites at the expense of the generally illiterate inhabitants of the rural countryside, where religious sentiments and customary norms tended to be stronger.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kinross |first1=Patrick Balfour Baron |title=Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation |date=1964 |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |isbn=978-90-70091-28-6 |page=503 }}</ref>

Probably the most controversial area of reform was that of religion. The policy of state secularism ("active neutrality") met with opposition at the time and it continues to generate a considerable degree of social and political tension. However, any political movement that attempts to harness religious sentiment at the expense of Turkish secularism is likely to face the opposition of the armed forces, which has always regarded itself as the principal and most faithful guardian of secularism. Some assert that a historical example is the case of Prime Minister [[Adnan Menderes]], who was overthrown by the military in 1960.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kinross |first1=Patrick Balfour Baron |title=Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation |date=1964 |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |isbn=978-90-70091-28-6 |page=504 }}</ref> He and two of his Ministers were hanged by the Military Tribunal. However, their charges were not for being anti-secular. Although Menderes did relax some restrictions on religion he also banned the [[Nation Party (Turkey, 1948)|Nation Party]] which was avowedly Islamist. Further, the charges at the Military Tribunal did not involve antisecular activities and it can be concluded that Menderes was overall in favour of the secular system.

=== Arguments over reform or revolution===

The Turkish name for Atatürk's Reforms literally means "Atatürk's Revolutions", as, strictly speaking, the changes were too profound to be described as mere 'reforms'. It also reflects the belief that those changes, implemented as they were during the [[One-party period of the Republic of Turkey|one-party period]], were more in keeping with the attitudes of the country's progressive elite than with a general populace accustomed to centuries of Ottoman stability – an attempt to convince a people so-conditioned of the merits of such far-reaching changes would test the political courage of any government subject to multi-party conditions.

=== Military and the republic ===

Not only were all the social institutions of Turkish society reorganized, but the social and political values of the state were replaced as well.<ref name="military">Ali Arslan "The evaluation of parliamentary democracy in turkey and Turkish political elites" HAOL, núm. 6 (invierno, 2005), 131–141.</ref> This new, secular state ideology was to become known as [[Kemalism]], and it is the basis of the democratic Turkish Republic. Since the establishment of the republic the Turkish military has perceived itself as the guardian of Kemalism, and it has intervened in Turkish politics to that end on several occasions, including the overthrow of civilian governments by coup d'état. Notably, the military handed their newly attained powers back to the civilians each time. While this may seem contrary to democratic ideals, it was argued by military authorities and secularists as necessary in the light of Turkish history, ongoing efforts to maintain secular government, and the fact that the reforms were implemented [[interwar period|at a time]] when the military occupied 16.9% of the professional job positions (the corresponding figure today is only 3%).<ref name="military"/>

== Milestones ==

=== 1920s ===
* '''Political''': ''1 November 1922'': [[Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate|Abolition of the office of the Ottoman Sultanate]]
* '''Political''': ''29 October 1923'': Proclamation of the Republic – [[Turkey|Republic of Turkey]]
* '''Political''': ''3 March 1924'': Abolition of the office of [[Caliphate]] held by the [[Ottoman Caliphate]]
* '''Economic''': ''24 July 1923'': Abolition of the [[capitulations of the Ottoman Empire|capitulations]] with the [[Treaty of Lausanne]]
* '''Educational''': ''3 March 1924'': The centralization of education
* '''Legal''': ''8 April 1924'': Abolition of [[sharia]] courts
* '''Economic''': ''1924'': The Weekend Act ([[Workweek]])
* '''Social''': ''25 November 1925'': Change of headgear and dress
* '''Social''': ''30 November 1925'': Closure of religious convents and [[dervish]] lodges
* '''Economic''': ''1925'': Establishment of model farms (e.g.: Orman Çiftliği, present-day [[Atatürk Forest Farm and Zoo|Atatürk Orman Çiftliği]])
* '''Economic''': ''1925'': The International Time and Calendar System ([[Gregorian calendar]], [[time zone]])
* '''Legal''': ''1 March 1926'': Introduction of the new [[Criminal law|penal law]] modeled after the Italian penal code.
* '''Legal''': ''4 October 1926'': Introduction of the new [[civil code]] modeled after the [[Swiss civil code]]
* '''Legal''': ''1926'': The Obligation Law
* '''Legal''': ''1926'': The Commercial Law
* '''Economic''': ''31 May 1927'': Establishment of the [[Turkish State Railways]]
* '''Educational''' ''1 January 1928'': Establishment of [[Turkish Education Association]]
* '''Educational''': ''1 November 1928'': Adoption of the new [[Turkish alphabet]]

=== 1930s ===
* '''Educational''': ''1931'': Establishment of [[Turkish Historical Society]] for research on [[History of Turkey|history]]
* '''Educational''': ''12 July 1932'': Establishment of [[Turkish Language Association]] for regulating the [[Turkish language]]
* '''Economic''': ''1933'': The System of Measures ([[International System of Units]])
* '''Economic''': ''1 December 1933'': First Five Year Development Plan (planned economy)
* '''Educational''': ''31 May 1933'': Regulation of the university education
* '''Social''': ''21 June 1934'': [[Surname Law (Turkey)|Surname Law]]
* '''Social''': ''26 November 1934'': Abolition of titles and by-names
* '''Political''': ''5 December 1934'': Full [[Civil and political rights|political rights]] for women to vote and be elected.
* '''Social''': ''14 October 1935'': Closure of the [[Freemasonry|Masonic]] [[Masonic lodge|lodge]]s<ref>"[https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/maltribune19351014-1.2.24 TURKISH BAN ON FREEMASONS. All Lodges To Be Abolished]". ''Malaya Tribune'', 14 October 1935, p. 5. ''The Government has decided to abolish all Masonic lodges in Turkey on the ground that Masonic principles are incompatible with nationalistic policy.''</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?datum=14.10.1935&year=1935&month=10&day=14 |title=Tageseinträge für 14. Oktober 1935 |website=chroniknet |access-date=16 April 2024 }}</ref><ref>''[https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/477375 Atatürk Döneminde Masonluk ve Masonlarla İlişkilere Dair Bazı Arşiv Belgeleri]'' by Kemal Özcan</ref>
* '''Political''': ''5 February 1937'': The inclusion of the principle of [[laïcité]] (secularism) in the constitution.
* '''Economic''': ''1937'': Second Five Year Development Plan (planned economy)

==See also==
*[[Abdullah Cevdet]]
*[[Village Institutes]]
*[[1942 wealth tax in Turkey]]
*[[History of the Republic of Turkey]]
*[[Timeline of Turkish history]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Bein, Amit. ''Ottoman Ulema, Turkish Republic: Agents of Change and Guardians of Tradition'' (2011) 
* Ergin, Murat. "Cultural encounters in the social sciences and humanities: western émigré scholars in Turkey," ''History of the Human Sciences,'' Feb 2009, Vol. 22 Issue 1, pp 105–130
* Hansen, Craig C. "Are We Doing Theory Ethnocentrically? A Comparison of Modernization Theory and Kemalism," ''Journal of Developing Societies'' (0169796X), 1989, Vol. 5 Issue 2, pp 175–187
* Hanioglu, M. Sukru. ''Ataturk: An intellectual biography'' (2011) 
* Kazancigil, Ali and Ergun Özbudun. ''Ataturk: Founder of a Modern State'' (1982) 243pp
* Ward, Robert, and Dankwart Rustow, eds. ''Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey'' (1964).
* Yavuz, M. Hakan. ''Islamic Political Identity in Turkey'' (2003) 
* Zurcher, Erik. ''Turkey: A Modern History'' (2004) 
*{{cite web|url=https://newsaboutturkey.com/2020/05/13/the-myth-of-new-turkey-kemalism-and-erdoganism-as-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/|title=The Myth of 'New Turkey': Kemalism and Erdoganism as Two Sides of the Same Coin|work=Dr. Ceren Şengül|date=7 May 2024 |publisher=News About Turkey}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Atatürk's reforms}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070207071701/http://www.mebnet.net/ataturk/inlilaplar.htm Ministry of National Education and Culture, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus] {{in lang|tr}}

{{Secularism in Turkey|state=autocollapse}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ataturk's Reforms}}
[[Category:History of the Republic of Turkey]]
[[Category:Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]]
[[Category:Reform movements]]
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[[Category:Reform in Turkey]]
[[Category:Kemalism]]
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