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The Abolition of the Caliphate
The year 1924 saw the abolition of the Caliphate. On the
2nd March the GNA passed a law deposing the Caliph and abolishing
his office, "the function of the Caliph being essentially
included in the meaning and connotation of the Government
of the Republic". All princes and princesses would
have to leavve Turkey within ten days. Other secularising
laws were also passed abolishing the office of Seyh-ül
Islam, and the Ministry of Seriat and Evkaf, and replacing
it by a new Department of Prime Ministers' Office - the
Directorate of Religious Affairs. Religious courts were
abolished on 8th April, and on 20th April a new constitution
was accepted. At the end of February, R.C.Lindsay reported
confidentially to the new British Prime Minister and Foreign
Secretary, Ramsay MacDonald, about the possibility of getting
rid of the Caliph and his family, upon which D.G.Osborne
made the following comments :
"...The Caliphate of the House of Osman is abolished
and all the members of the house are to follow the Caliph
and the late Sultan into exile. It is an historical event
of the first importance. Their property is to revert to
the state. Justice and education are to be entirely purged
of their religious associations. The policy of disestablishment
or laicization is carried to its logical limit...Kemal has
always been determined to make a clean sweep of all contributory
causes of of the decay of the Turkish Empire and to give
the Turkish state a fair and fresh start. Hence the dissappearance
of capitulations, the expulsion of the Greeks and Armenians,
the repudiation of Constantinople as the capital, the overthrow
of the Sultanate and now the abolition of the Caliphate
and -which is almost as important- of Islamic law. A tremendous
revolution has been effected by entirely pacific means,
and it is impossible not to admire the courage, determination
and statesmanship of Kemal. The effects on Islam are incalculable...it
is not easy to estimate the precise significance of the
Turkish action. Turkey has repudiated the religious and
political leadership of Islam technically inherent in the
holding of the Caliphate by the head of the Turkish state...It
seems to leave the way open to Kemal, as President, to assume
the functions of Caliph if this be the ambition."
William Tyrell added on 4th March : "I should hesitate
in my tribute to Kemal's statesmanship until we are in a
better position to judge the effects of secularization in
Turkey and the rest of the Mohammedan world, though I believe
the effect upon the latter will be more considerable."
Meanwhile the Caliph was removed from his palace at dawn
on 4th March and taken by motor to Çatalca. There
he was put on the express train and sent to Berne. The New
York Tribune observed on this occasion that Kemal's decision
to abolish the Caliphate might have had a practical political
motive, as the "powerful religious caste" might
have attempted to plot counter-revolution through that institution.
Kemal preferred secular education and civilisation to ancient
Moslem theocracy. Under the Republic, "Turkish religious
fanaticism" had withered, and the dominating fact was
that the old and the new Turkey were separated by an "impassable
gulf", concluded the paper.
The New York Times observed that, when the Turkish national
regime was fighting for its life, the Caliphate was one
of its strongest assets; if Kemal was now prepared to discard
so valuable a trump, it must be that he felt that his country's
position was secure. The Christian Science Monitor said
that the Kemalists had turned the course of Turkish destiny
definitely towards the West, and by abolishing the Caliphate
had challenged all Islam to make a similar choice.
Meanwhile, the president of the association of Ulema ,
Al Azhar, published to the Muslim World on 15th March 1924
a press statement by the Grand Sheikh, repudiating Mustafa
Keal's action in its entirety. Other telegrams of criticism
were sent to Kemal by Abdul Hamid, a member of the Hizb
el Watani in Egypt, and by Shaukat Ali of India; but Kemal
replied that this was an internal issue for the Turks. British
consul C.A. Creig reported from Sarajevo on 11th March that
the expulsion of the Caliph apparently awakened among the
local "Ulema" and educated Muslim classes a feeling
of despondent bewilderment mingled within dignition towards
Mustafa Kemal and the Ankara Assembly, whose drastic action,
they feared, would weaken and isolate the one state on whose
revival hopes were set. Similar protests and telegrams of
support came from all over the Muslim world; e.g. British
Cosul J.H. Monahan (Tripoli) reported on 22nd April that,
although the Ulema of Tripoli protested to Mustafa Kemal
against the abolition of the Caliphate; the educated Muslims
there had much symphaty for him as one ready to defy European
ascendancy. On the other hand, British Consul Crosy reported
on 2nd June from Batavia that the abolition of the Caliphate
had created little excitement among the natives of the country,
or among the Arab community some of whom professed to see
in this a wise move on Kemal's part, having for its object
definite separation of religion and state. They even applauded
Kemal's policy on the ground that the princess of the House
of Osman had been corrupted by British gold, and that they
had for that reason merited the decree of expulsion passed
against them.
Source : "Atatürk-The Founder of Modern Turkey"
by Salahi R.Sonyel,
Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, Ankara, 1989
Hat Reform and The Revolution in Dress
Although the rebellion in the East had been crushed, the
Law for the Maintenance of Order still contributed in operation,
to prevent if possible new disturbances. The Gazi was going
to make use of this to put into practice the social reforms
on which he had long meditated.
The people said that the Gazi was keeping the Emergency
Law, really Martial Law, in order to use it as an instrument
of despotism, but he only used it to ensure the stability
of the Republic, expect also to destroy the people's false
beliefs and oblige them to adopt Western dress and customs.
On the 24th of August the Gazi began a journey to the coast
of the Black Sea. He left at such an early hour, that only
those accompanying him noticed the original manner in which
His Excellency the President was planing to travel: instead
of the famous astrakhan cap of the Nationalists, he was
wearing a panama hat. When he arrived at the city of Kastamonu,
the multitude who had come to welcome him were left dumb
with amazement when they saw the Liberator salute them with
a "hat", and receive their delegations with his
head uncovered.
The surprise of the inhabitants of Kastamonu was fully
justified, since until that day the hat, as used in Europe,
was the distinctive sign of foreigners, of the "Gavur,"
infidels. The Turks wore the fez, and during the War of
Independence, the kalpak began to be worn amongst the Nationalists,
but this custom was still very much in the minority in 1925.
The fez, which in Turkey represented the traditionalist
and religious spirit, was not of Turkish but of African
origin, and bore the name of the city of Fez, where there
were the best factories of this kind of headgear. It consists
of a cylindrical cap of scarlet or purple felt, ornamented
with a tassel of long black cord. Having no peak, it was
a great nuisance on sunny days, and since it had to be worn
on all occasions, even in closed places, during meals, and
in offices, the colour and lower part were deformed by perspiration.
The fez became generally worn amongst the Greeks on the
islands and the Anatolian coast of the Aegean. It had been
instituted by the Sultan Mahmut II, the reformer who wished
to Westernize the Empire but who lacked the moral strength
of the Gazi, who was to achieve this later on. The Padisah
wanted to make his subjects adopt a uniform headgear, since
until that time they had been using the most varied turbans,
caps and coiffures. The different parts of the Army and
Navy, as also the Imperial Guards and Janissaries, distinguished
themselves by their headgear, which was in some cases so
large and complicated that it was sometimes a real impediment.
Civil servants and administrators showed their rank by the
shape and colour of their turbans, as was also the case
with the different categories of clergy and dervish sects.
It was easy to distinguish a man by his headgear.
At a time when the Empire was still large, and the Padisah
had numerous non-Moslem subjects, and while the Great Powers
were exercising pressure in favour of non-Moslem's rights,
Mahmut's policy of eliminating as far as possible the signs
which separated them from the Faithful was an intelligent
one. Mahmut tried not only to standardise headgear with
the fez, but also to Westernize the from of dress. He himself
wore a simple frock coat buttoned up to the neck, and trousers,
with a European style cloak over all, capped and sumptuous
clothing of the time of Selim III, Mustafa IV and Abdülhamit
I.
When Mahmut began his fez campaign in 1829 he believed
that it would be accepted by the people without much protest,
because of its convenience and because it suited the rules
of Moslem ritual, which demand that player is made with
the head covered, and that the forehead is touched to the
ground as a sign of humility. It was in every way a delicate
subject. The Sultan wished before all else to attract support
from the higher class of what can be called the Moslem clergy,
the ulemas, that is the Doctors of Theology and senior priests.
He knew that if they accepted the fez, the people would
do likewise. However the mosques trembled at the first attempt.
What! A hoca, an imam, wearing a fez? The Seyhülislam,
Minister for Religion, categorically refused to obey the
Imperial ruling, although he was a liberal man who had often
supported the Sultan's reforming ideas; this new proposal,
however, went beyond all limits. He declared: "The
Sultan can cause the head of his slave to fall, but he must
not profane it". The affair reached such dimensions
that Mahmut feared revolution, and decided not to insist
upon it.
Little by little the fez came into general use, and with
the exception of men of religion and those who pretended
to be such, who went on using the turban, the country adopted
it, so that it came to represent the spirit of the nation
and the religion, the opposite of what it ad been originally
considered, a symbol of anti-Islamic reforms.
In 1903, the Red Sultan tried to have the cavalry troops
adopt the kalpak, which was of Turkoman origin, but the
Seyhülislam and his counsellors declared that the sacred
fez could not be replaced by the kalpak.
When Kemal began his campaign in 1925 in favour of the
the hats used in civilized countries, those who defended
the fez used the same arguments as had been used in 1829
by those who favoured the turban. The fez, which at that
time had meant progress, was now the emblem of reaction.
The Gazi conversed with the inhabitants of Kastamonu and
made speeches in favour of the adoption of the hat. He declared
that it was necessary for the Turks to reach the level of
the civilized peoples from every point of view, and that
they must completely change their old mentality. "Look
at the Turkish and Moslem world" he said, "and
think about the misfortunes that have happened to us. If
we have saved ourselves with the space of a few years, it
had been thanks to the transformation of our mentality.
We must not stop; we must always go forward. The nation
must know that civilization has a strength which destroys
everything which remains indifferent to it."
The Gazi tirelessly tried to convert the people to this
ideas; he talked to the tailors, and asked them to make
cloth caps, since the demand would soon be so great that
it would be wise for them to start working right away. The
news of the Gazi's promotion of the use of hats flew through
the telegraph wires. Thus his speeches were not confined
to his hearers in Kastamonu but reached the whole nation.
A gasp of horror passed through the mosques and dervish
convents. The last warning made to the people by the men
of religion had been: "They will even make you wear
hats," and this was seen to have happened.
From Kastamonu the reforming President moved on to the
port of Inebolu, where he took his reforms of dress a stage
further. The costume used by the Turks could not be called
national, since it was an amalgam of heterogeneous garments:
tunics, wide coloured sashes, the "salvar" or
trousers gathered in half way down the leg, and with an
enormous fullness in the upper part, woolen stocking with
many-coloured patterns, and shoes of skin with the wool
still wrapped in the "çarsaf" and their
face covered with the "peçe." "Comrades"
said Kemal, "the international and civilized method
of dress in suitable for our nation, and we shall adopt
it. We shall shoes and boots on our feet; we shall wear
trousers, waistcoat, tie, shirt and jacket and naturally
to complete this method of dress, I will say frankly, a
hat. There are some people who oppose the adoption of a
hat; I call them fools and ignorant people. By the side
of the power of civilisation, which illuminates, studies
and examines, those nations who insists on going ahead with
a medieval mentality and with primitive superstitions are
condemned to disappear, or at the every least to liven in
slavery."
The Turks had good examples to support the Gazi's claims,
in the ruin of the Ottoman Empire and the Moslem pepoles
who had been enslaved or humiliated by the Europeans. Kemal
also spoke of women, and the place which must be accorded
to them in the home and the life of the nation; he spoke
of the religious orders, and said that it was advisable
to close the convents, dissolve the sects and establish
rules for the way in which the clergy should dress.
When the reforming President returned to the capital on
the 1st of September, a multitude of heads could be seen
wearing hats; from then on, the intellectuals and the majority
of the populations of the large towns adopted the hat without
any law being passed; however news reached Ankara that in
the Eastern provinces and generally in the less civilized
parts of the country the inhabitants, like a large part
to the inhabitants of the large cities, were continuing
to use the fez and turban, and roundly refusing to wear
the sign of the infidel upon their heads. It was surprising
that part of the population should have become so angry
over a matter of lesser importance like this, compared to
the abolition of the Califate or the proclamation of the
Republic.
When the Assembly met again, a bill was passed making the
wearing of hats compulsory, on the 25th of November. When
attempts were made to put the law into practice, disorders
of only moderate importance happened; however, there were
demonstrations in several places, led by men bearing the
green flags of the prophet, carried from the mosque. Since
the movement was daily reaching larger proportions, and
like the Kurdish revolt against the reforms from Ankara
had already cost a lot of blood and sacrifices, the government
decided to put it down with energy. For this it sufficed
that the Independence Tribunals began their work, and several
dozen instigators were hanged at a time at the doors of
mosques.
The Gazi said: "We had to throw off the fez, which
sat upon our head as an emblem of ignorance, fanaticism,
and hatred of progress and civiliation."
Source : "Atatürk", by Jorge Blanco Villalta,
translated from Spanish by William Campbell,
Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayinevi, 1991
The Calendar Reform
On the 23rd December 1925, the international calendar and
time were adopted. This reform ended the complication and
difficulties which the use of three different calendars
caused Turkey in her international relations and her internal
life.
The Ottoman Empire followed the Arab lunar calendar. The
lunar month begins when the moon first appeared in the sky
as a thin crescent, which is still referred to as "new
moon". New moon occurs when the moon lies directly
between the earth and the sun and, in consequence, can not
be seen. The cycle of the moon's phases takes a little over
29 1/2 days and therefore in Arab calendar a lunar year
contains 354 days and some hours, which show differences
from place to place. According to the calendar used in the
West, the year is that period of time in which the earth
performs one revolution in its orbid around the sun. The
year contains approximately 365 days and 6 hours. The lunar
year is 11 days and 6 hours shorter than the solar year.
The months of the lunar calendar do not keep the same season
in relation to the sun. Therefore in countries where the
lunar calendar is used, social gatherings such as the New
Year, religious festivities or similar occasions may fall
either on winter or summer. Besides the lunar calendar,
it was necessary to use the solar calendar, which enabled
observation of the growth of plants.
It was also complicated to make the months and days agree.
The Imperial Government found it necessary to adopt a solar
calendar. From then on, two calendars had been in use; the
Turkish solar calendar for official purposes, and the lunar
calendar, together with the international Georgian calendar,
which had to be resorted to in order to find out what day
the rest of the world was living in.
Another reform which was approved on the same day abolished
the traditional division of the hours in favour of international
time. From then on the time of sunset is considered 12 O'clock
and afterwards the time runs as 1,2,3...Thus it had been
that in earlier times the Turks had followed the time called
"alaturca", while the foreigners had followed
the "alafranga" time, which as easy to imagine,
gave rise to frequent misunderstandings.
Source : "Atatürk" by Jorge Blanco Villalta,
translated from Spanish by William Campbell,
Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1991
Adoption of the Latin Alphabet
A new measure of undeniable importance, which was intended
to get rid of the obstacles which hindered the communication
of the Turks with the civilised countries, was that concerned
with numerals. Turkey was using the Arabic numerals which
had been used in Arabia before being introduced Europe in
the tenth century. Europe adopted the system in place of
the rather awkward Roman characters; however, the numbers
suffered changes that made them unrecognisable at first
sight, to such an extent that it was necessary to make a
special study to be able to identify the Arabic numerals
now in international use, with the old style, still used
in Turkey. The new figures adopted by the Republic began
to be used officially from June 1928.
During the whole of the autumn and winter of 1927, the
Gazi concentrated his constructive powers on the preparation
of the reform of writing, to which he gave a basic and essential
place in the people's efforts to rebuild and progress intellectually;
this was Kemal's passion as an administrator.
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The Turks had adopted Arabic alphabet at the same time
as their conversion to Islam, about a thousand years before.
Under Moslem influence, they abandoned their old form of
writing, in which a number of inscriptions have been found
in Northern Mongolia, on the banks of the river Selenga,
tributary of lake Baikal, and which are known as the Orhon
inscriptions. The Arabic Alphabet is not convenient or adaptable
to the sounds of the Turkish language, which is rich in
vowels. Apart from this, there arose another great difficulty;
to learn the Arabic script, which was excessively complicated
and uncertain, one needed long years of study, which naturally
favoured illiteracy, and made knowledge the privilege of
the rich classes. Kemal's philosophy could in no way admit
this, since he belived that education must be accessible
to the whole people. He therefore accused the monarchical
regime of having left its people illiterate and ignorant,
during centuries of great universal progress.
The Arabic writing was strangling Turkey's desire for international
cooperation in intellectual affairs, and hindered her cultural
progress. The Gazi had taken upon himself the task of getting
rid of the alphabet then in use, and replacing it by one
which would not only be easy to teach, but which would also
be very similar to the Latin alphabet, used internationally.
He therefore got down to work; he called in linguists, historians,
grammarians, and intellectuals generally, and after explaining
his plans for reforming the alphabet in general lines, he
asked their opinion and discussed with them the system which
would be most advantageous to introduce. He gave careful
study to the various adoptions of the Latin alphabet which
were in use for different languages, and the phonetic values
given to its signs; then he began to adapt them to Turkish,
after a conscientious analysis of the grammar, phonetics
and peculiarities of the Turkish language.
The studies presented by the specialists were discussed
at special meetings, until the road of reform was gradually
marked out. As the work proceeded, Kemal returned again
to Istanbul and took up residence in Dolmabahçe Palace,
which was transformed into a real academy. The sessions
presided over by the reformer were dutifully attended by
professors and linguists, Ministers and Members of Parliament.
As one can well imagine, there were some who were doubtful
about the proposed reform. Would it not make it necessary
to reprint all the books in the Turkish bibliography, dictionaries,
and school and university texts ? This task, which would
certainly take years, together with the learning of the
new alphabet which would not take less than that, would
mean a serious hold up in the development of public education.
People who had already finished school could not return
there to learn to write all over again.
The final version of the alphabet was ready in August 1928.
The greater part of the success achieved was due to the
reformer itself, since it was he who found by tenacity and
logic the letters which most exactly represented the sounds
of the Turkish language. This latin-based alphabet, which
is called the Turkish alphabet, as opposed to the Arabic,
is not only the most modern known, but is essentially phonetic;
there is no letter or sign which is unnecessary, nor are
there double letters or any of the hindrances which other
languages, such as French and English especially, have preserved
through tradition, and which make it difficult to learn
them and make confusion easy. The new Turkish alphabet is
easy to learn; a foreigner who learns the phonetic value
of its letters can read Turkish perfectly in a very few
days.
On the night of the 9th of August, a great crowd had gathered
in the park at Sarayburnu, formerly the playground of the
Sultan, and where the first statue of the Gazi had been
erected. The people had been invited to go there by the
People's Party, to listen to the speech which the Gazi was
going to make, and in which he was going to reveal another
of his national secrets. At the announced time the speaker
mounted the platform, and explained the necessity of freeing
themselves from the Arabic alphabet, which they had never
been able to understand properly, and which had for ages
been a kind of prison for the Turkish spirit. He assured
them that the new alphabet could be learnt in a short time,
and even those who had never learnt to read would be able
to do this. He issued a call for general mobilisation against
illiteracy, which reached the figure of about 90 % of the
population.
The mobilisation for the new alphabet had the desired success.
The conscript teachers were set before their blackboards;
in towns and villages, in the countryside, and in all places
one could see those already initiated into the Turkish alphabet
surrounded by those who wanted to learn it. The Members
of Parliament went back to their respective constituencies
to direct the intensive teaching of reading and writing,
but no one equalled the Gazi in his educational activity.
He appeared every day in different places, carrying a portable
blackboard in his car, and there he carefully explained
the value of the orthographic signs; then like a schoolmaster
in class he brought forward one of his pupils, examined
him, and made him write some word, such as his name, for
example. He checked the level of advance in the improvised
schools. People called him the "Teacher in Chief",
and he was never seen as happy and satisfied as on that
campaign.
He began a journey along the shore of the Black Sea and
through Central Anatolia, in order to teach and activate
the teaching of the new alphabet, which he believed was
a decisive step towards progress. In Tekirdag, he expressed
his pleasure to the people for the enthusiasm in which they
had set about learning the new characters, and the speed
at which they had familiarized themselves with them.
"When I shut my eyes" he added, "and see
how lofty and brilliant will be the degree of strength and
universal esteem which Turkey's intellectual development
will reach thanks to the new alphabet, the sight fill me
with ecstasy."
When he was proposing to the Assembly that the Law of the
New Alphabet should be accepted, he said : "I am filled
with emotion with this success, such an emotion that no
happiness brought by any victory can ever be compared with
it. I am filled with the moral satisfaction given by the
simple duty of a teacher who will free our fellow citizens
from ignorance. Dear comrades, thanks to this immortal measure
we have taken, the Turkish nation will enter into a new
world of light."
The campaign for education became more organised, and evening
classes were opened for workers and people of both sexes
who had passed school age. Improvised classes were found
in a great many places, and attended by children and elderly
people. The new writing was being taught in the mosques
and even in the cafes, and it was as if the whole nation
had gone back to school. The reforming President went on
teaching the humble people with his blackboard.
On the basis of various precedents and opinions, it had
been said that it would take about 20 years before this
reform could be completely adopted. They talked about the
capacity of the people to learn, the evolution which must
take place, and other reasons, but none of this convinced
the Gazi. There was no reason whatever, that something which
an uneducated person could learn in four or six months should
take 20 years to be learnt by a people which was after all
composed of men. What was necessary was an intensive campaign
for public education, so as to bring the benefits to the
largest possible number of citizens.
To print anything in the old Arabic alphabet, the press
needed no less than 612 different characters, which made
it very difficult to edit a work; this was the reason for
the small advance made by printing in Turkey. The Turkish
alphabet, based on the Latin, needed only 70, including
the numbers, capitals and signs. It was thus possible to
give a great encouragement to the book industry and all
kinds of publications, which resulted in a noticeable rise
in the country's culture.
The success Kemal achieved in his happiest campaign of
all was that completed in the field of public education.
If we look for a figure worth quoting especially, and which
gives eloquent testimony to that first and most important
attempt, we can point to 1 1/2 million illiterates who ceased
to be so within a few years.
After the barrier of the Arabic alphabet had been overcome,
a new barrier was encountered : this was the excessive number
of Arabic and Persian words which had entered the language
during the course of eight centuries under the literary
influence of those languages; this had given birth to two
Turkish languages; the palace language, full of Arabic and
Persian words, which was spoken by the upper classes, and
the popular language, or the more pure Turkish, which was
despised by the erudite. At the Gazi's instructions, the
Republican Government decided to take measures to bring
back its ancient beauty and originality to the mutilated
national language. As a first measure, from September 1929,
the teaching of Arabic and Persian was forbidden in the
Lises, which were the last places in which these lessons
had remained.
Source : "Atatürk", by Jorge Blanco Villalta,
translated from Spanish by William Campbell,
Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, Ankara, 1991
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