The 2023 J.U.C. Media, Research & Writing Awards | Submitted Category: WRITING/Türkiye100
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The 2023 J.U.C. Media, Research & Writing Awards
Submitted Category: WRITING/Türkiye100
Sub-Category: Dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Turkiye
Submission Code: W3/TR100
Student age: 16 | Grade: 10 | Word count: 1189

THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

[The 2023 J.U.C. Awards, LMGlobal.Org]
The year 2023 has already come and this year, it will be a century after Turkey has gained its own freedom and independence. For sure, we owe all this success to Ataturk and his fellow soldiers who had a great deal of trouble during the war and fought against the imperialist countries in order to bring the citizens together with the republic of Turkey. In addition, not only did Atatürk establish The Republic, but also he brought his own revolutions and left such valuable quotes that still brighten our future and they are still useful and acceptable all over the world, in the 21st century. This case obviously points up the universality of Ataturk’s revolutions and the republic of Turkey as they have affected a lot of countries.

To show this universality, it is right to mention Kemalism which is defined as adopting Atatürk’s revolutions and the secularism, which came as an understanding of foresightedness and vision and because of these characteristics, Kemalism is identified with the 21st century innovations and it is also still being spread all over the world. Inspired by Ataturk’s perspective and revolutions, many leaders currently follow these principles that maintain international and national peace with the principle of “peace at home, peace in world.” and Atatürk turned this aim into a legal arrangement. This principle is considered as the foundation of the domestic policy and the foreign policy of Turkey. Moreover, by standing up with this arrangement that had come from Ataturk’s quote, a lot of countries shape their own laws which shows us an example of the universality of his system Also, the continuing of this universality is the proof that Ataturk’s developments are still a part of the 21 century developments.

It is also significant to perceive the lifestyle of Turkish society during and after the war time, especially the years between 1920 and 1930. In 1920, the biggest and the most important development that had happened was opening the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey). The aim behind opening is was to lay the foundations of the democracy and to count the public in administration. In the assembly, there were a lot of experienced people who strive with different jobs and came from different places of Turkey and the decisions were mostly started to be taken from there. In 1922, Great Offensive resulted in a big success and after this, it was almost certain that Turkey was going to bring its own independence and in the following year with Turkey being a republic, this was proved. After gaining the freedom, the most struggling part came which was to lift the country up with new reforms such as hat law, bringing women new rights, abolition of The Sultanate, making the economy stronger and many more. Those took a lot of years and it continued in the following years. However, these developments slowed down as Ataturk died in 1938. Ataturk was the leader who led these changes and without Ataturk, the changes continued but not as fast and productive as when he was alive.

The battle we have fought as Turkey against the imperialist countries ended up with a remarkable achievement and it has a huge place in the history of the world as it has affected not only Turkey but also other countries, especially the involved ones such as Russia, Armenia, Italy, France, Greece and England. The actual starting point of the war was that the Ottoman Empire had a lot of nations within their borders and because of the French Revolution, people started to become more aware of being an independent country functioning autonomously under one nation. Thus, there was a lot of chaos all over the country. This was a chance for the imperialist states to destroy the empire and take away all the natural resources. The Sultan was afraid of the situation and aimed to escape. Disregarding the public and not raising his voice about the war was the biggest mistake that he had made because this only caused problems for Ataturk and the soldiers.

That is why the war is very important and the reason for this is the historical reflections of it as I explained briefly. In this war, which was against the imperialist countries, Turkey had lost a lot of soldiers and civilians and because of these deaths, there were unforgettable moments which were scraped into humanity’s mind and the deep parts of the history. The main things that had made the war more complicated and challenging was the poverty and the insufficient number of military equipment. That’s why the public gave everything which they had away for the military. The fact that we are talking about a war won with sacrifice, shows us why it has a huge place in history with all of its details.

To link Ataturk’s revolutions with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, it is possible to mention the developments that United Nation has planned like bringing qualified education, social gender equality, opening strong organizations in order to bring peace and justice, decreasing the inequalities in the society and ensuring development in industry and substructure with innovativeness. Ataturk also brought new laws and revolutions related to all these topics and mentioned them in Turkey’s “National and Human Development” Agenda.

For instance, in the Ottoman Empire Era, women didn’t have political rights and were not involved enough in the society but with Ataturk bringing female rights, women soon caught up with the men and were able to work in different areas and choose various jobs that they wanted. Another example is that, there wasn’t association in education but this was no longer acceptable after Ataturk had brought the new education system and with that there were middle and high schools, universities all over the country. The other development happened with ending up the inequalities in the society. In the Ottoman Empire Era, people were called with different nicknames because of the religious studies they took and this case obviously caused social class differences. This was prevented by abolishing the islamic monasteries and the nicknames. In order to develop the economy and the substructure, a lot of factories were opened and activated. As it is seen, these changes are almost the same with the Sustainable Development Goals. This case shows us Ataturk’s capacity to see beyond again and that he had found maintainability from those years.

To sum up, the time between the starting of the war and bringing the republic was longed-termed and the significant thing is that this time is precious for the world’s history and especially for the history of Turkey. That’s why all the details, developments and events I have mentioned about this time are the cases that should be never forgotten today and also in the future. This year, we will be celebrating the 100th year of our republic, which is a gift received via hard-earned victory, proudly as all the other times we celebrated. The biggest mission for all of us, is to remember how we got our republic and keep it alive inside us all the time.

RESOURCES

ATATURKCULUK – TEMEL ILKELER – ATATURK ILKELERI VE INKILAPLARI. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2023, from https://www.ataturktoday.com/AtaturkIlkeleriVeInkilaplari.htm

Gürses, D. (n.d.). İnsani Gelişme ve Türkiye. Retrieved January 21, 2023, from https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/857077

Helvacı, P. (n.d.-a). Türkiye’de Cumhuriyetçilik Anlayışı: 1920-1930 Dönemine Bir Bakış. Retrieved January 21, 2023, from https://ctad.hacettepe.edu.tr/10_20/7.pdf

Odyakmaz, Z. (n.d.). ATATÜRK’ÜN HUKUK İNKILÂBININ 21. YÜZYILDA TÜRKİYE’DE YÖNETİM VE TOPLUM YAŞAMINDAKİ ETKİLERİ. Retrieved January 21, 2023, from https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1676309

Sadberk, A. (2019, June 5). 2030 Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Hedefleri Ve Üniversite Başlangıç Noktası. Başlangıç Noktası. https://baslangicnoktasi.org/2030-surdurulebilir-kalkinma-hedefleri-ve-universite/

Sansal, B. (n.d.). Ataturk’s Reforms | All About Turkey. Retrieved January 21, 2023, from https://www.allaboutturkey.com/ataturk-reforms.html