On 29 October 1923, an assembly in Ankara proclaimed the formation of the Republic of Turkey and elected Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk as its first president. The new Republic promised a fresh start after more than a century of conflict that had seen the Ottoman Empire contract and collapse.<\/p>\n
Varl\u0131k <\/em>marks the national centenary with a collection of articles on the achievements and failings of the Kemalist Republic, a radical project of sweeping reforms to laws, language and education aimed at building a modern, secular and independent nation.<\/p>\n Alphan Akg\u00fcl reflects on Turkey\u2019s 20th<\/sup>-century experience of dystopia and utopia, from the horrors and destruction of World War I and the subsequent War of Independence to the utopian thinking that powered the early years of Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s Republic.<\/p>\n Looking at present-day Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan and the AKP, Akg\u00fcl is convinced that a new wave of utopian thinking is needed. He suggests combining modern thought with the inspirations of a century ago:<\/p>\n Developing a new economic and ethical model by reconciling [Thomas] Piketty\u2019s utopia of libertarian socialism with the idea of solidarity in the first years of the Republic can enable our Republic to rise from the ashes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Turkey\u2019s official history claims that the struggle for women\u2019s rights was born alongside the Republic. The narrative according to which the founding fathers \u2018granted\u2019 rights to women has been a weight on women\u2019s backs ever since, retarding examination of the \u2018brave and loud\u2019 movements during the Ottoman Empire, argues Funda \u015eenol.<\/p>\n Starting from those feminist forerunners, she traces a century of women\u2019s magazines and movements that were sometimes aided by the state, and sometimes hampered by it. The Turkey of today, writes \u015eenol, is one in which the \u2018authoritarianism of the AKP, which began with the Gezi protests and deepened with the 2015 election, has led to a regression in the struggle for gender equality\u2019.<\/p>\n Koray T\u00fct\u00fcnc\u00fc starts his examination of the Republic with an account of how he went to university \u2018having internalized without the slightest doubt the Republic\u2019s historical narrative, worldview, and vision for the future\u2019 but then found his certainties crumbling. The Kemalist position was attacked from the left as an elitist project and from the right as a betrayal of deep cultural values.<\/p>\n \u2018For both, the basic problem was that the Republic was unable to integrate with society. In reproducing its own values, the Republic could not establish a democratic relationship. And because it could not, neither could it meet its promises of general welfare and happiness. Because it spent all its energy in conflict with its own public.\u2019<\/p>\n Korkmaz Alemdar traces the successes and failings of the media system established by the Republic in the 1930s. The original Kemalist vision was of trained, educated journalists working for autonomous media organizations under the protection of strong labour laws. While some of those elements existed at times, the demands of politics, international relations and business steadily eroded and undermined them in various ways.<\/p>\n Still, says Alemdar, there are lessons to be learned a century later about the \u2018importance of autonomous media institutions and what it means for journalism to be strong in the face of power and capital\u2019.<\/p>\n Also to look out for:<\/strong> In a series of interviews carried out over the years with individuals of different generations, Birsen Karaca offers personal histories of how the Republic changed lives through educational reforms.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/varlik-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRepublican utopianism<\/h2>\n
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Official history and feminism<\/h2>\n
An unpopular republic<\/h2>\n
Republican media<\/h2>\n