REFORMS
Introduce BY MUSTAFA KAMAL
Mustafa Kamal is 1923, with his strenuous and sagacious efforts succeeded
in defeating the Greeks and ousting the Allies. First of all he abolished the
caliphate and declared Turkey a Republic. He was elected the first President of
Turkey. He had great projects in his mind for the progress and modernization of
this economically destroyed and politically defeated country. He emphasized that
all men and women must contribute to the development and rebuilding of Turkey.
He wished to see Turkey a developed and progressive country. To achieve this
objective he introduced many radical and daring reforms. He attached supreme
importance to education. He wanted to educate the masses. For this purpose he
trained as many teachers as were possible, so that, they might be instrumental
in eradicating illiteracy and ignorance from the country. He made it compulsory
for all inhabitants to get themselves educated. In this respect he considered
the Arabic script as a great barrier. Therefore, he immediately replaced it with
the Roman script. He also set up a committee of the experts to simply the
Turkish language. It was necessary because the educated Turkish speech was a
mixture of Turkish, Arabic and Persian words and was full of elaborate mode of
address and Flowery pluses and was out of place in the modern world. He set up a
committee for the puttification of the language by substituting genuine Turkish
words for those of Arabic and Person origin. This made the whole nation go to
school once again and learn the new script.
He wanted to change the mental and physical aspects of the Turkish
people. He abolished the old title of Pasha and introduced Bay for a man and
Bayan for a woman. He banned the use of Fez, a headdress of Greek origin. He
replaced it with hat and felt. People promptly obeyed him. He toured all over
the country to bring home to the Turkish, the importance of women’s education
and their active participation in the development of the country. He, therefore,
abolished the veil and persuaded women to get higher education and work shoulder
to shoulder with men in every field of life.
Mustafa Kamal brought about a revolution in the economic, social and
transportation fields. He constructed railways, road and bridges at a large
scale. There was only one railway line and almost no roads. He inaugurated
greats development and construction schemes for railways and roads. He set up
hundreds of factories. In 1919, there were only one hundred and fifty factories
in the country but by 1933, the number increased to two thousand. He banking
system was also re-organized. The Ottoman public debt was reduced to one tenth
of its former size without incurring more loans. The economic condition because
sound and the political image of the country improved.
Under the intelligent and efficient leadership of Mustafa Kamal a complete change occurred in the social, economic and administrative fields, which profitably affected religion, justice, economic, education, language, the status of women and the national dress. Due to prudent reforms in the political, social, economic and religious life, the people of Turkey made a rapid progress. Mustafa Kamal also eliminated corruption, improved public education, done away with polygamy. He uplifted the status of common man, elevated the depressed spirits of the Turks, infused a zeal for progress and prosperity among the masses, and made the ”sick man of Europe” reflective of modern advancement in industry and technology. In short, he made Turkey a modern and developed country in a short span of fifteen years.