principles were incorporated into the platform of the ruling Republican People’s Party,
founded by Ataturk. Six years later, they were included in the constitution as the coun-
try’s “fundamental and unchanging principles.” The most recent version of the con-
stitution, adopted in 2001, does not include the six principles specifically, but requires
members of the Grand National Assembly to take an oath of office swearing to uphold
“Ataturk’s principles and reforms.”
The principle that Ataturk called reformism—or “revolutionism” depending on
the version of the Six Arrows text—lies at the heart of his entire program. According
to him, it means a willingness by the Turkish people and national institutions to accept
change, even if it breaks sharply with the imperial past. Republicanism signifies Tur-
key having become a republic, with a representative government, rather than a monar-
chy as in the past.
Secularism represents one of the clearest breaks with the past. Its implementation
led to some of the most obvious changes in the national and daily lives of ordinary
Turks. On a political level, secularism in Turkey generally has meant eliminating Islam
as the principle guide for public affairs. Among other things, its implementation
entailed the abolition of institutions that had been at the heart of the Ottoman Empire,
notably the sultan’s dual position as the caliph(protector) of Islam, the national reli-
gious schools, the Ministry of Religious Endowments, and the use of sharia(Islamic
law) as the basis of the legal code. Secularism also affected how Turks worshiped and
what they wore. Ataturk’s regulations banned the mystical Sufi and Dervish orders of
Islam, prohibited religious ceremonies at tombs, and barred men from wearing the tra-
ditional fez and discouraged women from wearing the veil in public. Ataturk also
switched the day of rest from Friday—the traditional day of prayer for Muslims—to
Sunday. One illustration of the often contradictory nature of Ataturk’s reforms was
that a new constitution written by his government in 1924 declared that “the religion
of the Turkish state is Islam,” a status that had never been accorded it even during
the Ottoman era. Changes to the constitution in 1928 and 1937 deleted this language,
however. Some scholars contend that Ataturk’s fundamental goal was to have the state
control the mosque, rather than vice versa.
Ataturk’s concept of nationalism basically meant creating a sense of Turkish
national identity, beginning with translating the Quran into Turkish and replacing Ara-
bic with the Roman alphabet. Ataturk fundamentally sought to make the people of
Turkey proud to be called Turks,a term that over the years had been used (especially
in Western countries) as one of disparagement. An important aspect of Ataturk’s nation-
alism was a conscious attempt to absorb ethnic minorities into the mainstream of Turk-
ish life by eliminating their distinctiveness. Turkey’s Kurdish population, residing pri-
marily in the southeastern part of the country, became the chief target of this policy.
For example, until 2003, the government prohibited the use of the Kurdish language
in schools and other public forums and regularly cracked down on Kurdish separatist
groups. The status of Kurds remains one of the most sensitive subjects in Turkey.
Populism represents Ataturk’s notion of equality of citizenship for Turks—at least for
all Turkish males, who were entitled to vote; women could not vote until 1934. Insist-
ing on a classless society, Ataturk abolished the system of nobility developed under the
Ottomans. Etatism, or stateism, refers to the government’s guiding role in managing the
economy, including its ownership of large-scale industrial enterprises. Ataturk wanted to
avoid control by foreign interests by keeping most of the economy in Turkish hands.
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