Kemalism
The Kemalism (Turkish mostly Atatürkçülük , literally Atatürkismus , more rarely Kemalizm ) is the founding ideology of 1923 proclaimed Republic of Turkey .
This is named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and is symbolized by the so-called six arrows (Altı Ok) , which represent republicanism (as the most suitable form of government), secularism (i.e. the separation between religion and state ), populism (as an expression of the interests of the people , not a class-oriented politics), revolutionism (in the sense of a constant continuation of reforms), nationalism (as a turn against a multi-ethnic and religious state concept of Ottoman style) and statism (with partial state economic control). Kemalism, however, was never anti-religious, but concentrated solely on state control of religion.
Kemalism has also been a central component of the party program of the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) party, founded by Ataturk in 1923 and now the largest opposition party, since 1931 .
Since the Islamist Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) came to power in 2002, however, a re-Islamization and a suppression of Kemalism has been discernible.
Definition of the term
In the European press, the term Kemalism was already used in 1919 as a collective term for the resistance under Mustafa Kemal, then called "Islamist". In Turkey, the term did not appear until the early 1930s and refers to the reform movement by the Republican People's Party. From then on there have been several attempts to give Mustafa Kemal's policies an ideological basis. B. in the magazines " Kadro " (rather Marxist) or in Munis Tekinalps published work "Kemalizm" (more bourgeois-nationalist) in 1936.
Ataturk himself hardly spoke of "Kemalism", but of "party guidelines", which were only presented in the party program in 1935 as the principles of Kemalism. In the same party program it is said that the validity of these principles is not limited to a few years, but that they are also formulated for the future. However, he refused to accept dogmatic interpretation, but his rather pragmatic behavior, which, according to Daniel Lerner and Richard Robinson, did not correspond to adherence to an "a priori religious doctrine or political ideology", spoke against it.
The exact definition and whether and how Kemalism is to be interpreted as an ideology is the subject of debate.
Kemalism in the Constitution
The six principles were given constitutional status on February 5, 1937 - 14 years after the founding of the state . Article 2 sentence 1 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Turkey of 1924 read from then on:
- The state of Turkey is republican, nationalistic, popular, etatistic, secular and revolutionary.
Both after the military coup in 1960 and after that in 1980 , the Turkish Armed Forces initiated a fundamental revision of the constitution, the text of which was approved by referendum ( 1960 , 1980 ). The direct reference to the six principles was lost.
In the constitution of 1961 , human rights , the rule of law and the welfare state were initially emphasized more strongly: Article 2 sentence 1 now read:
"The Turkish Republic is a national, democratic, secular and social constitutional state based on human rights and the basic principles set out in the preamble."
In the constitution of the Republic of Turkey , which came into force in November 1982 , the peace of the community and national solidarity, but also Ataturk's nationalism were explicitly included in the sentence - Article 2 sentence 1 has since been:
"The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular and social constitutional state based on the basic principles proclaimed in the preamble, respecting human rights in the spirit of community peace, national solidarity and justice, connected with Ataturk's nationalism."
Over the years only the principles of secularism and nationalism and the republic have remained anchored in the constitution in the wording.
.svg)
Six arrows of Kemalism
Republicanism
Republicanism (cumhuriyetçilik) meant that the young Turkey received a republican form of government and no other (cf. Art. 1 of the constitution ).
The monarchy in the form of the Ottoman Sultanate , the Caliphate and the Millet system were abolished.
populism
Atatürk's populism (halkçılık) does not mean populism in the current sense, but the concept of cross-class social cooperation. This was particularly evident in the adaptation of the Swiss Civil Code . This populism was influenced by the solidarity concepts of Émile Durkheim and Léon Bourgeois . Populism should help mobilize the people to build a modern state. It found its expression, among other things, in the legal equality of women . Later, the principle served to justify the one-party system: the people are represented by the party.
Secularism
Secularism (laiklik) meant in Turkey, the non-interference of religious leaders in public affairs. This was achieved primarily through control of the religious apparatus and the ban on religious parties. Although the first constitution of Turkey determined that the religion of the Turkish state was Islam, this passage was deleted four years later. Secularism was incorporated into the then valid constitution in 1937 as one of the state principles . The Turkish Constitutional Court defined secularism u. a. as the liberation of religion from politicization.
The following reforms show the attempt to secularize society: abolition of the caliphate, standardization of the school system , prohibition of polygamy , repeal of Islamic law , introduction of western clothing ( hat law ), the Latin alphabet and the Gregorian calendar and the prohibition of religious parties. A state religious authority was created for religious questions: the Bureau for Religious Affairs . The so-called Diyanet pays the imams , maintains the mosques and is still affiliated with the Turkish Prime Minister's Office .
Revolutionism
Revolutionism (originally inkılâpçılık , today devrimcilik ) describes the principle of promoting the transformation of Turkish society even after the great reforms of the 1920s. The term also aims at the comprehensive modernization of the state. The traditional Ottoman institutions were replaced by contemporary ones.
nationalism
Ataturk's goal was to transform the multi-ethnic state of the Ottoman Empire into a nation state . Nationalism (milliyetçilik) served this purpose. The basis of the national feeling was a common language and the common history of the people of the country. The language and writing reform as well as the “Kemalistically constructed” Turkish thesis of history served to strengthen Turkish nationalism . Identity-creating Islam was banned and replaced by a secular, nationalist ideology. The Muslims' traditional Arabic call to prayer (" Adhān ") was also banned and replaced by a translation into Turkish.
The ethnic groups living in the national territory of Turkey such as Kurds u. a. however, they were denied and suppressed. Turkey only partially granted minority rights. Every citizen who called himself a Turk was accepted as such. Mustafa Kemal's nationalism was not based on the concept of race. Ataturk's nationalism rejected both Turanism and pan-Islamism . Nationalism finds its expression in Ataturk's saying: " Happy is the one who says: I am a Turk ."
Statism
The statism (devletçilik) says the intervention of the Turkish state in the economy . The reason was the lack of infrastructure and lack of industrialization. The state was entrepreneurial wherever there was no private sector involvement. The five-year industrial plan was implemented between 1933 and 1938 .
Influence on Turkish society
Elites as guardians of Kemalism
Kemalism continues to determine political, cultural and religious life in Turkey. A large part of the population leads a western lifestyle and many people who describe themselves more as religious still adhere to the principles of Kemalism. While the intellectual elite has always identified with parties that understand Kemalist ideas as a maxim , Islamic parties are particularly heard by the more religious population and are chosen by them as an alternative. The development in recent years, however, is that there is a new Islamic elite that is increasingly addressing intellectual circles.
A control function of the Turkish armed forces with the aim of protecting the constitution and its Kemalist principles was enshrined in law for a long time. As the guardian of Kemalist ideas, the Turkish military last saw itself legitimized in a coup in 1980 , when communist and right-wing extremist terrorists threatened the security of the state and the population and the military intervened in politics, as before in 1960 and 1971. The coup was followed by months of repression by political opponents, during which the rule of law was not only used, but arbitrary detention, kidnapping and torture were systematically used as measures.
With the legislative changes in the course of the EU process, the military, as a non-democratically legitimized body, has lost parts of its power. In schools, Kemalism is on the curriculum from the first year of school.
Parties and Kemalism
Today the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi , the Democratic Sol Parti (DSP) and the Turkish armed forces consider themselves to be representatives of Kemalism.
Both right-wing and left-wing parties claim Kemalist ideas for themselves and use them for their politics. Only the Islamic-oriented parties are distant from Kemalism or reject it entirely. Reasons for this are the propagated secularism and thus the separation between religion and state , but also the restrictive treatment of Islam by the Kemalists in the early years of the Turkish Republic.
Associations that are not organized as parties, such as the associations for the promotion of Ataturk's ideas and the Turkish Youth Association , refer to Ataturk's ideas.
See also
literature
- Şahinler Menter: Kemalism. Origin, effect and topicality . Anadolu, Hückelhoven 1997, ISBN 3-86121-072-X
- Bassam Tibi : Departure on the Bosporus. Turkey between Europe and Islamism . Diana, Munich and Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-8284-5012-1
- Leng Wang: Kemalism. A General Political Survey of the Rise of the Turkish Nationalism between 1918 and 1928 . Dissertation, Stanford University 1929 ( digitized, PDF )
- Ataturk Araştırma Merkezi: Ataturk'ün Söylev ve Demeçleri I-III . Ankara 2006 ( collection of Ataturk's speeches and addresses from the Ataturk Research Center )
- Gazi Çağlar : Turkey between Orient and Occident. A political analysis of their past and present. Münster 2003, ISBN 3-89771-016-1
Web links
- Sinan Özbek, Christof Ohm: Kemalism . (PDF file; 234 kB) In: Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism , Vol. 7 / I, Argument-Verlag, Hamburg 2008, Sp. 554-577.
- Bekim Agai: Islam and Kemalism in Turkey . In: From Politics and Contemporary History (APuZ) . B 33–34 / 2004, August 9, 2004, pp. 18–24 (here online on the website of the Federal Agency for Civic Education ; APuZ also available as PDF ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ See the corresponding quote from Oliver Kontny: Atheism in Turkey - A new secularism from below , Die Tageszeitung , Nov. 15, 2019
- ↑ https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/tuerkei-praesident-erdogan-untergraebt-kemalismus-13529850.html
- ^ Klaus Kreiser : Small Turkey Lexicon. Beck's series. Munich 1992, p. 95
- ↑ Murat Belge : Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. "Kemalist ideolojinin özellikleri", Radikal, October 7, 2003
- ↑ Jacob M. Landau : Ataturk and the Modernization of Turkey, essay by Paul Dumont. Westview Press Inc. 1984, p. 25
- ^ Constitution of 1924
- ↑ Article 2 Clause 1 of the Constitution of the Turkish Republic of 1961 ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Article 2 Clause 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey from 1982 ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Christian Rumpf: Laicism, fundamentalism and religious freedom in Turkey in constitution, law and practice. In: Constitution and Law Overseas. 1999, No. 2, p. 166 ff.
- ^ Richard Hattemer: Ataturk and the Turkish reform policy in the mirror of the Egyptian press . Ed .: University of Michigan. Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-87997-262-1 , p. 197 .
- ↑ Martin Strohmeier, Lale Yalçın-Heckmann: The Kurds: History, Politics, Culture . tape 1329 of the Beck series. CH Beck, 2010, ISBN 3-406-59195-7 , pp. 264 .
- ↑ Benjamin Wochnik: Ataturk's Islamic heritage. Who rules Turkey? Tectum, Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8288-2222-1 , p. 34.
