Turkey: Secularism with an Asiatic Connotation

The role of the military in Turkish history is perhaps more profound than its role in the history of any other nation. In essence, the history of Turkey is marked by wars and conquests. Turkey emerged in the region as an army before it became a nation; as Lybyer (1913) argues, the Ottoman Empire emerged as an army before it was any thing else, and modern Turkey was also created after the demise of the Ottoman Empire by the direct action of the remnants of the Imperial army. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, a skilful and well-organised nationalist movement emerged, led mainly by army generals inspired by Mustafa Kemal, later Kemal Ataturk. Kemal was an army general who came out of the war with his reputation boosted. Though the process of transforming the Ottoman Empire started earlier during the ‘Young Turks’ movement, Kemal, initially in favour of radical change in the Sultanate, was eventually instrumental in abolishing it. The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in October 1923 and the Islamic sultanate was ended. Kemal’s aim was to establish a secular modern republic along the lines of some European countries. The relationship between the state and the military was well-defined and governed by the principle that the army must be kept loyal to the civilian government but not kept out of politics completely. The army, though it adopted the role gradually, regarded itself as the guardian of secularism as represented by Kemal’s principles of modernity. Army officers who wished to take public posts were required to resign their posts and give up their uniform.