How Happy is the One Who Says I'm Turkish: Part-2
he aimed for the Turkish identity to embrace Turkish consciousness as the main subject of the new system established in the country by saying the motto "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk".
Westernizing and Staying Turkish
“Westernization” was on the agenda of the Ottoman Empire for a long time. In this sense, Ottomanism, Westernism along with Islamism became the ideologies valued by the sultanate. In particular, the integration of the Ottoman system with Western institutions was completed to a certain extent. This infrastructure became the starting point of the development and modernization moves of Atatürk's Turkey, which eventually proclaimed the Republic, and provided benefits.
Attaching great importance to westernization, Atatürk, while trying to bring the institutions of the West to Turkey, at the same time made Turkish nationalism one of the main axes of the reform movement he initiated in order to preserve the unique texture, culture and culture of the Turkish people. Turkish Nation's science, technology, legal structure, education system, etc. of the West. He asked her to take it and adapt it to herself. Instead of an imitative Westernism, he pursued a Westernism with personality. He did not want the Turkish nation to set aside its own values and adapt to all aspects of Western society, and ultimately, the "Turkish" identity to be destroyed by bad imitation. He never thought like that.
Protecting Turkish Consciousness and Values
For this reason, he aimed for the Turkish identity to embrace Turkish consciousness as the main subject of the new system established in the country by saying the motto "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk". He wanted the Turkish nation, which had pursued Ottomanism and Islamism (or ummahism) for years, to adopt its own essence and to claim its own identity. Emphatically, do not be ashamed of being Turkish, be proud of being Turkish. He declared to all Turkish people, as the head of state, that he would be accepted as Turkish if he embraced Turkishness and non-Turkish people also embraced being Turkish, by saying "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk".
Since he did not base the concept of the Turkish nation on racial and religious grounds, Atatürk, for example, treated Christians, Jews, Arabs, Kurds, Circassians, Laz, Greeks, Armenians, etc., who are considered minorities in the country. He also left an open door for the tribes to become 'Turks'. By saying "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk", he implied that everyone can be Turkish and that just saying this word would be enough. Thus, he aimed to gather the 13 million people living in fragmented nations on Anatolian lands under the umbrella of "Turkishness". He equated the national identity with the Turkish identity and aimed to adopt it to all Turkish people by making it a higher identity. In this, too, he was largely successful.
Common History Consciousness
One of the most distinctive features that characterizes Turkish society is the common and deep history of the Turkish nation. This is a vast accumulation and the starting point of Turkish culture. It is well known that Atatürk acted with awareness of the characteristics of the Turkish Nation in all his actions, including the conversations he had with his friends during his military life. Some might characterize Atatürk's approach as a high-pitched nationalist ideology. However, this passion for nationalism is very different from the racist ideologies of Hitler and Mussolini, the rising leaders of his time, the pioneers of national socialism, the fascist leaders.
According to Atatürk; The common history that the Turkish nation has, the common past, the fact that they have never lived in captivity in any period of history, the Turks who rule the world, who can rule a wide region from Central Asia to the middle of Europe, and who rule in Mecca and Medina, the cradle of Islam, cease to be Turks. It is their natural right to be happy, proud and proud. With this awareness, Atatürk highlighted the qualities of the Turkish nation, blessed not to be a Turk as a race, but to feel like a Turk in terms of the values one has, and to say "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk". Thus, he wanted to regain the self-confidence of the Anatolian people by saying "Turkish Praise, Work, Trust" to the Turkish people.
'Re-creating' the Nation with "How Happy is the One Who Says I'm a Turk"
While founding the republic, he said, "Republic is virtue" and declared that the regime that suits the virtuous Turkish people is a republican regime based on democracy. Based on the Turkish people that he wanted to bring a new spirit to, he initiated the necessary reform movement for development and westernization, melted everyone who could say "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk" in the same pot, and almost "created" a new nation from the beginning. Thus, the Turkish Nation regained its self-confidence and in order to rise to the level of contemporary civilizations, it embraced the moves to develop the homeland after the great leader Atatürk.
