Secularity Governance in Turkey

Ataturk and Reza Shah had a large influence on the governments of Turkey and Iran by secularizing and westernizing each. This secularization has had a distinct role in shaping the language, education, religion and government of both Turkey and Iran. Their end goals were to create a powerful and prevalent world powers that is distinct. Comparing the two countries, there were many similarities between each reformation, but each is distinct in certain aspects.

Turkey, though once the throne of Christendom, it began a new and glorious religious history starting in 1453 with the sack of Constantinople by the Islamic Turkish forces. During the next half millennium the strong Ottoman state is primarily controlled by the Islamic Sultanate and Caliphate. Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire was a, if not the, cultural center of the Islamic world. The empire brought great wealth, knowledge and culture into the modern day lands of Turkey. Although the modern Republic tried to suppress its Ottoman past, Turkey's Islamic beginnings remain a source of great Turkish pride. Though most people can no longer access their history through original Ottoman texts it is impossible to hide the

The independence of Turkey and its early development as a country full of energetic youth required a combination of two almost contradictory ideals : In order to illustrate its disassociation with the past Ottoman authority the new government desired international style which expresses scientific modernization and political liberation; However, the Kemalists also wanted to preserve a certain degree of cultural root in order to boost, if not, maintain nationalistic devotion of its citizens. Consequently, a new hybridization of theses two ideals emerged

The Ottoman Empire, during its peak, was one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world, where the empire lasted from the fourteenth century until the early twentieth century. The Ottoman Empire stretched from North Africa, Arabs states, and the Balkan. However, just like any great empire, the Ottoman Empire would eventually experience significant problems and potentially lead to its decline as a great power in the European and Asian continent. In order to combat the decline of the empire and bring back their strength in comparison to the European powers, the Ottomans started a period of reform, known as the Tanzimat (1839 – 1876), which means reorganization in Turkish. There were major reforms developed for the empire, but whether they were truly effective is still debated.

Armenia became the first nation to accept Christianity as their religion. An era of great accomplishments followed; a distinct alphabet, the flourishing of literature and art, and a unique style of architecture. In the eleventh century a Turkish invasion happened in the Armenian homeland (“United Human Rights Council”). The Ottoman Empire came to power in the thirteenth century, but became one of the most powerful states in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and by this time, Armenia has been caught up in it (Yapp). In the eighteen hundreds the Ottoman Empire was in a serious decline. Greeks, Serbs and Romanians had achieved their independence, while the Armenians and Arabs remained stuck in the bankrupt empire, that was now under the rule of the autocratic Sultan Abdul Hamid II (“United Human Rights Council”). Armenians were not treated equally and had to deal with certain type of treatments and hardships (“Armenian Genocide”). Armenians began to press for political forms for the right to vote and to end the discriminatory practices such as the special taxes made especially for them because they were Christians (“United Human Rights Council”). The Sultan responded with merciless persecutions and

In the first millennium CE Turkic people began migrating into Anatolia. They had established the Ottoman Empire by the 14th Century. For over the next five centuries the Empire’s ethnically diverse population was organized into a “millet system, thereby ensuring cultural and religious pluralism” (Rutgers, 2013).

The Ottoman Empire, one of the most valiant world powers of its time, received heavy influence from the spread of Islam through Europe and Asia Minor. Culture, military, and politics also held a stranglehold on the Ottoman Empire. Emerging as one of the many Turkish states in Asia Minor from the decline of the Seljuk Turk Empire, the Ottoman Turks began to engulf surrounding states, gaining vast territory. By the mid to late 1400’s, the Ottoman Empire was one of the most dominant empires in all of Europe.

Nationalism is also considered as one of his huge achievements, and.as Morin claimed “Ataturk’s antireligious attitude marked Turkish nationalism during this era” (488). The Republican revolution is also a nationalist revolution. The purpose of this reformation is to protect the independence of the Republic of Turkey, and besides to develop the country's political aspect. As a final point, this nationalism gave the belief that the Turkish state is an indivisible whole

Middle East tried to preserve the Ottoman Empire but when “Kemal’s forces drove the Greeks from the Anatolian peninsula and persuaded the British to agree to a new treaty (699).” “In 1923,

So when Mustafa Kamal (Ataturk) began to form a Turkish nation state, it was not clear what constituted a Turk but soon, Kurds were considered as Turks and a policy aiming at the detribalization and assimilation of the Kurds was adopted… The Turkish government's pursuit of full assimilation has led to the proscription of publications of any book, newspaper, or other material in the Kurdish language. Moreover, there has also been an instance of arrests of entertainers for singing songs or performing in Kurdish.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is known as a very important idealist in Turkey, which had become an idol for Turks. One of the most important reasons he was that crucial for Turkey was that him being a nationalist founder and leader, and the first president of the Turkish Republic. Ataturk was born in Salonika (then known as the Ottoman Empire), in 1881. The real truth is that, Ataturk, still being at his young ages, started to think about making reforms for his country and society, and eventually had reached his goals making Turkey a 'free' and 'civilized' country, by also being the first president of Turkey. There are several policies and revolutions of Ataturk, which make him a really known, loved, and respected person worldwide, such as Republicanism,

The Ottoman Empire (1299?1923) was a Turkish-Muslim state that existed for more than six hundred years. It was one of the largest and longest-lived empires in history, and it represented one of the greatest civilizations of the modern period. Its territories, at its height, included Anatolia (part of present-day Turkey), the Middle East, parts of East and North Africa, and southeastern Europe, comprising a total area of more than 22 million square kilometers (about 8.5 million square miles).

The history of turkey is a very long and detailed one. Turkey was originally settled by groups of farmers probably thousands of years ago. Today, historians call these people the Hittites. During their time, the Hittites were ruled by kings, and had their high officials buried in shaft tombs. Shortly after the Hittites moved in, Indo-Europeans moved into the area, and formed the kingdom of the Hittites, with the capital being Hattusa. The kingdom survived for hundreds of years. However

Turkey was inherited with large debts and had an economic structure that was based around agriculture.  They were given this structure by the founder which was the Ottoman Empire. New laws were introduced to the country and a financial institution was

Over half of the countries in the world are considered democracies, one of which being Turkey. Turkey believes that they are a model of a true democracy while other countries believe that Turkey is very far from being considered a democracy. This has been an ongoing argument amongst many people. If we take in to consideration what it means to be a true democracy, then Turkey would only possess a few of those qualities. If we were to look at the basic structure and elements of a dictatorship, Turkey would fit into majority of them. This is what leads me to believe that Turkey should not be considered a democracy but instead a soft dictatorship. There is a lot of evidence that would prove as to why Turkey should not be considered a democracy including, lack of freedom in many different way, lack of suffrage rights, a long process of trying to become a member of the European Union, high levels of government control, and high military power.