Atatürk's reforms

Atatürk's reforms (Turkish: Atatürk İnkılapları or Atatürk Devrimleri), also referred to as the Turkish Revolution (Turkish: Türk Devrimi), were a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes, designed to transform the new Republic of Turkey into a secular, modern nation-state, implemented under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in accordance with the Kemalist framework. The principal political entity, the Republican People's Party (CHP), ruled Turkey as a one-party state from 1923 to 1945, with several exceptions of attempts for a multi-party democracy.

Following Atatürk's death in 1938, his successor İsmet İnönü took over the leadership and integrated further Kemalist reforms. İnönü's work was however stranded by World War II and the CHP eventually lost the elections to the Democratic Party in 1950, putting an end to the Turkish Revolution.

Central to the reforms was the belief that Turkish society had to modernize, which meant implementing widespread reform affecting not only politics, but the economic, social, educational and legal spheres of Turkish society. The reforms involved a number of fundamental institutional changes that brought an end to many traditions, and followed a carefully planned program to unravel the complex system that had developed over previous centuries.

The reforms began with the modernization of the constitution, including enacting the new Constitution of 1924 to replace the Constitution of 1921, and the adaptation of European laws and jurisprudence to the needs of the new republic. This was followed by a thorough secularization and modernization of the administration, with a particular focus on the education system. This can be observed by looking at the literacy rate within the Republic of Turkey, which rose from 9% to 33% in only 10 years.

The elements of the political system visioned by Atatürk's Reforms developed in stages, but by 1935, when the last part of the Atatürk's Reforms removed the reference to Islam in the Constitution; Turkey became a secular (2.1) and democratic (2.1), republic (1.1) that derives its sovereignty (6.1) from the people. Turkish sovereignty rests with the Turkish Nation, which delegates its will to an elected unicameral parliament (position in 1935), the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The preamble also invokes the principles of nationalism, defined as the "material and spiritual well-being of the Republic" (position in 1935). The basic nature of the Republic is laïcité (2), social equality (2), equality before law (10), and the indivisibility of the Republic and of the Turkish Nation (3.1)." Thus, it sets out to found a unitary nation-state (position in 1935) with separation of powers based on the principles of secular democracy.

Historically, Atatürk's reforms follow the Tanzimât ("reorganization") period of the Ottoman Empire, that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876, Abdul Hamid II's authoritarian regime from 1878 to 1908 that introduced large reforms in education and the bureaucracy, as well as the Ottoman Empire's experience in prolonged political pluralism and rule of law by the Young Turks during the Second Constitutional Era from 1908 to 1913, and various efforts were made to secularize and modernize the empire in the Committee of Union and Progress's one party state from 1913 to 1918.