Abstract

Once the Ottoman Empire collapsed, a new Turkish state was established after a struggle for national freedom. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,1 aimed to develop a western-like democratic state for the people of the remaining Empire, even though he could have become the next sultan. All stages necessary for the emergence of a new state had already been fulfilled before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the establishment of the Turkish Republic was the final element within the transformation process of the Ottoman state.2 Atatürk, as the successor of the Young Turks who gained political power through the constitutional movement in 1908, abolished the monarchy and established a ..