Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Cult Of Personality

The cult has been compared to similar personality cults in the authoritarian regimes of Central Asia and the Soviet Union.

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

 

Atatürk's memory remains a major part of Turkish politics and society into the 21st century. Almost every city in Turkey has streets named for him, and statues of him are commonly found in city squares, schools, and public offices, the latter two of which feature his portrait. The phrase Ne mutlu Türküm diyene (How happy is the one who says "I am a Turk"), which Atatürk used in his speech delivered for the 10th Anniversary of the Republic in 1933, is used widely in Turkey and is often seen along with his statues. It continues to be part of the compulsory Student Oath, though it was removed between 2013 and 2018. It was once again removed in 2021.

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

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

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

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

Law on Atatürk

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

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

• Kemalism
• Atatürk's Reforms

Bibliography

• Copeaux, Etienne, ″La transcendance d'Atatürk″, in Mayeur-Jaouen Catherine (ed.), Saints et héros du Moyen-Orient contemporain, Paris, Maisonneuve et Larose, 2002, pp. 121–138.
• Glyptis, Leda (December 2008). "Living up to the father: The national identity prescriptions of remembering Atatürk; his homes, his grave, his temple". National Identities. 10 (4). London: 353–372. Bibcode:2008NatId..10..353G. doi:10.1080/14608940802271647. ISSN 1460-8944. S2CID 145591969.
• Mandel, Mike, and Zakari, Chantal, The State of Ata. The Contested Imagery of Power in Turkey, Eighteen Publications, Boston, 2010, 256-xvi p.

• "The Myth of 'New Turkey': Kemalism and Erdoganism as Two Sides of the Same Coin". Dr. Ceren Şengül. News About Turkey.