MUSTAFA KEMAL: THE GREYWOLF OF TURKEY

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 237, 7 October 1936, Page 16

MUSTAFA KEMAL: THE GREYWOLF OF TURKEY

The Amazing Rise to Power of Mr- Ataturk, who has Forged a New Nation from a Crushed, Worn-out People

jpEOM the rniddlo of the last century right

up to the outbreak of tho Great War, it was generally agreed that Turkey was the “Sick Man of Europe" round •whose bed the Great Powers, in the guise of doctors, waited and watched to seize what was left from the wreck of a great empire which had once extended to the gates of Vienna. Indeed, by 1914, so far as Europo was concerned, there was precious little left—only Thrace stretching up behind Constantinople, and to the west Macedonia, with Salonika as its important centre. But outside Europe Turkey still held sway over Anatolia (across the Straits from Constantinople) and tho Arab-speaking territories which we now know as the Ilejaz, Syria and

second an inspired and inspiring patriot, third an impassioned believer in Western civilisation, and only fourth a politician. A touchy, clever, and ambitious young officer, he took no great part in the ]9OS revolution which drove out the Sultan Abdul al Hamid. He was In no position to lead, and lie has never cared to play second fiddle. But lie fought against tho Italians in Tripoli and in tho Balkan Ware, and tho Great War set the seal on his reputation as a brilliant general, for it is recognised that it was he, more than any other individual Turk or German, who prevented tho British fro-m breaking through in tho Gallipoli campaign. So that it was to this successful leader that the demoralised Turkish Government looked for the suppression of tho faint murmur of revolt with which tho Anatolians greeted the peace terms which in duo course wore dictated by tho victorious Allies. Mustafa Hemal obeyed orders in so far as he travelled to Anatolia, but onco there he threw tho whole of his energies into stirring the smouldering discontent into a raging flame, capable of (Ic-

Angora which he claimed to bo the true Turkish Government. In 1922 ho drove tho Greeks into the sea, and the Allies were forced to tear up the Treaty of Sevres which they had dictated to the beaten Turkey, and their statesmen negotiated a new settlement, tho Treaty of Lausanne, which met th few salient demands on which Kemal's policy had from tho first been based. So that Turkey, who had been so easily crushed, was yet the only enemy State which was able to negotiato its peace settlement.

Iraq. There was a Sultan—tho embodiment of tho Sick Man—a repressive tyrant called Abdul al Hamid, from 1576 to 190 S, and after him a weakling, Abdul Mejid; and the Sultan was also Caliph, the religious head oC a hundred million [Moslems. That was

at onco Turkey’s strength and her weakness, for sko was ruler of Islam, the great reli-

gious community which recognised no difference between temporal and spiritual power,

so that the Sultan’s corrupt and inefficient administration was founded on the precepts laid down in the Holy Books which, among other things, denied to women any place in tho life of the community, and which kept at bay the great body of Western ideas which the more enlightened section of tho world regarded as essential to* civilisation. Only in. one department of the State had any element of Westernisation been allowed to penetrate. Perforce the army had been remodelled on European lines, and it is significant that it was among the Turkish officers that, in the first ten years of tho present century, there grew up a movement directed at once towards revolt and reform,

a movement which had its headquarters in Macedonia and which numbered among its adherents a young graduate of the Saloniko Military School, one Mustafa Hemal, son of a minor Customs official turned timber merchant by his marriage to the daughter of an Anatolian farmer. To-day tkw same Mustafa Hemal is perpetual president and all-powerful dictator of tho new Turkish Republic, with an honourable place among the small band of men who, in the years following tho Great War, succeeded in catching tho imaginations of the mass of the people in their different countries, firing them to carry out programmes of widesweeping reforms. You know the others Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler—to name but three.

Before the Great War, Turkey's position was, as we have seen, pitiable and wretched. As an ally of Germany sho was on tho losing side, and emerged so crushed and despoiled that it was freely said that at last the Sick Man was really dying. To-day she is an independent, reformed, civilised and progressive modern State. Sho has been shorn, it is true, of the non-Turkish parts of her former possessions, and 'the Sultanate and Caliphate have both been abolished, but these losses may well prove to be tbo new Turkey’s gain. It is Mustafa Kcmal who achieved this miracle of healing and rejuvenation, becauso he was first a brilliant soldier and organtsei,

vouring the crushed, inefficient Constantinople Government and of preventing the final annihilation which stared Turkey in the face. And the creed he preached was nationalism; Turkey for the Turks, a simple creed that could be understood by the simple people. In a lot of ways he had luck on his side. Already the victorious Allies were at loggerheads over tho division of tho Turkish spoils, and they sent against this revolutionary movement a Greek army; and tho Greeks are the traditional enemies of the Turks. Mustafa Kemal cared nothing for tho loss of tho Arab-speaking Empire. Disowned by the Sultan and his ministers, he had only himself to look to. When it seemed as if his nationalist policy would at last find favour in tho capital, tho Allies occupied Constantinople. Time and again ■ the Greek army nearly had him beaten. But he triumphed. Ho set up an assembly at

So far we have seen Mustafa Kemal in the roles of military leader and of patriot. The year 1923 witnessed his emergence as an enlightened reformer; for, with his territory freed at last from foreign occupation, ho caused Turkey to be declared a Kepublie with himself as President, and in the following year the Caliphate was also abolished, and the tortuous enveloping shrouds of Islam were thrown off, so that the breath of Western civilisation could reach tho new state. The process of reform was no easy one. Kemal started by abolishing tho fez, which, for a hundred years, had been the national headgear and which had a deep religious significance. lie led the way by himself appearing in a panama hat. The old religious codes were replaced by German, Italian and Swiss legal systems which introduced, among other reforms, an entirely new conception of tho place of women in the State. Polygamy disappeared, and with it the veil, the harem, and the old cramped miserable existence which women had led. Education was placed on a proper footing, and tho Latin alphabet replaced the old difficult Arabic characters. Kemal travelled about tho country with a portable blackboard demonstrating the new characters to all and sundry. The true Turkish language was restored, and finally a new system of surnames was decreed. Kemal took that of Mr Ataturk, and liis Minister of Education christened himself Mr Kulture. And side by side with these cultural and social reforms there marched an ambitious pro gramme, aimed at making Turkey economically strong and independent. So much for Mustafa Kemal the reformer. Mustafa Kemal the politician has been less successful. There is, in name at least, an elected Assembly with responsible Ministers. But in point of fact the Government is by one single man —Mustafa Kemal. He stands supremo and alone, challenged, it is true, but as yet unbeaten. lie is not a horse which can take its place in a team. And what about Mustafa Kemal the man? Even from so baro a story as that related here, something of his character may have emerged. Ho always meant to bo different from other men. He has dynamic energy and is a stranger to fear. He can be eloquent and persuasive, but ho is by nature reserved, cynical and suspicious. He has no family life. He is lonely, cruel and ruthless, yet ho has enthusiasms which ho can pass on to others. In his queer composition there is much of tho schoolmaster; they call him tho grey wolf, and lie hunts alone. Yet from

a crushed, beaten, degraded, worn-out people he has forged a new nation.