THE SPIRIT OF KEMALISM
By ROM LANDAU
TO perceive fully what Kamal Attatiirk* has done for his country one has to visit Turkey. When confronted with the living examples of Kemalism one begins to wonder whether future history will not consider the achievements of Anita& more- important than those of Fascism and Bolslieviirn for their respective countries. Russia is even today, twenty years after the Revolution, an enigma, and meets he critics with the reply that in the history of a nation twenty year are nothing. The Turkish Revolution is far more recent; the country in which it took place was more backward, Molt disorganised and "less disciplined, and yet the achievements of Kamal's revolution are already definite enough not to require any apologies. Attatiirk's accomplish- ment appears to be superior to that of his Italian and German colleagues, especially when one remembers that he fought his revolution in a ruined country with no national unity, with an edonornic life almost entirely in the hands offoreigners, and with an "administration that " was both corrupt and a hundred years behind the times. Attatiirk's Creation of an independent, homogeneous Turkey is a great historical feat ; but more important is the fact that he is giving the Turkish nation -a new soul: Nowhere perhaps is this more apparent than in the domain which was once that of religion. For Kamal had the courage to replace a religion that had degenerated into a system of superstitions by something entirely new, yet without attacking the adherence of the individual citizen to that religion. And he lacked the.type of megalomania which might have made him believe that he had actually created a new religion. This modesty proved him superior to some of the leaders of both the Bolshevik and the Nazi revolutions who are apt to ,make claims of a vaguely religious character.
* * * * Kemalism which is the foundation of modern Turkey is not only a political and social system nor is it merely a philosophy of life. It is something more. Kemalism means the opening up of Turkey to modern science and progress ; it means rationalism instead of fatalism and intellectual darkness ; it means also new industries, new education. But Kemalism stands also for a new attitude towards work, towards destiny (a most important factor in Muslim life !), and towards man's own position in the universe. .
The one thing which Kemalism does not stand for is dictatorship. Of course no one but KaMal Attatiirk is responsible for modem Turkey as a geographical unit, a nation., a social entity ; of course no important decision can be taken in Turkey without his approval. But Attatiirk loses his temper when ignorant foreigners call him a dictator. Parliament at Ankara does not meet only once or twice a year like the Reichstag or the Supreme Fascist Council to approve without debate the policy of the dictator : it meets daily, it debates, it prepares legislation. But the main democratic feature of Kemalism is not embodied in Parlia- ment but rather in KamaPs own attitude towards rulership. To work out his policies he does not shut himself away in mysterious seclusion, but summons his friends or ministers
*Formerly Kama Attattirk's name was Mnsmpha Kemal. But since his campaign for the purification of Turkish names he dis- carded his Arab name Mustapha altogether, and changed Kemal into its Turkish form Kamal.
Ankara.
and debates with- then' the proposed schemes until the early hours of the morning, often night after night. Similarly he often visits some little town or village in the country, seeking there the unprejudiced opinions of local peasants, schoolmasters, business men. Thus his ideas do not become law without having first been discussed in private and later in Parliament. Shiikrii Xaya, the Home Secretary, told me during a conversation : ._!' I have been in .turns Minister of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Horne Secretary for the last fourteen years, yet AttatUrk has never given me what you might call an order. He made suggestions, we have discussed them, even argued about them, but he has nev:r ordered me to do this or that, never interfered with my work as a minister. The other members of the Cabinet will tell you ill: same with reference LI their own work."
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To my mind the most important achievement of Kemalism is that Attatiirk has replaced an obsolete creed which had become the refuge of superstition and ignorance by what might be called practical religion : social Service, public welfare, the idea of selfless collaboration. None of these were known in pre-Kamal Turkey, a country ruled by a caste of officials and sheikhs, both equally Mercenary and corrupt.
The new rationalism introduced by Attatiirk has given the Turkish citizen, and specially the peasant, who forms the vast majority of the population, a new consciousness of his power and of his rightful place in a hitherto alien universe. Formerly every failure, a field that did not yield, a tree that bore no fruit, an illness, were met without much resistance in the spirit of that defeatism and fatalism to which Islam in Turkey had degenerated. Inshallah, "If God will," excused and sanctified any failure, was a hindrance to progress and a godsend to the lazy and unambitious. Attattirk created in the centre of the Anatolian wilderness his new capital, and established quite close to it his large model farm which is visited regularly by thousands of Turks. Here the amazed peasant can see how perseverance, industry and knowledge have transformed a desert into fertile land and how man instead of remaining the slave of nature can become its master. This practical discovery has a truly revolutionary effect upon his fatalistic mind. A new conception of God and man, of life and work is created. Nothing during my whole visit to Turkey—none of the Germanic looking modern hospitals, schools and Government buildings, none of the well-planned streets at Ankara—impressed me so much as this transformation of the tenets of a creed into its living practice. This, however, would not have been possible if Attatiirk had allowed the sheikhs and immams to continue to exercise their influence. Religion is not forbidden as in Russia nor persecuted as in Germany ; the State never interferes with the religious life of the citizen. In fact, the only Field Marshal in the Turkish army is a devout muslin, and Kamal Attatiirk often teases him about his punctilious religious observances. But Attatiirk has removed the religious influence from those spheres of life to which it did not belong and in which unscrupulous sheikhs had made it a hindrance to progress. The activities of sheikhs and immams are confined to the precincts of the Mosque ; no longer may they interfere with the educational, professional or legal life of the citizen.
Whether the new ideas of work, service, knowledge will completely satisfy t'le religious urge of the Turk remains yet to be seen. Although eager Kemalists tried to assure me that only old people and women cared for religion, I found the Mosques well attended by the middle-aged and even by youth, and I spoke to students who kept the Ramaclhan and to young men and women who were genuinely religious. With little doubt, the final solution of the religious problem has not yet been found. I questioned most of the Cabinet Ministers, intellectuals and politicians with whom I came in contact about it. The fanatical followers of Attatiirk- those eager gentlemen in the Press and propaganda depart- ments who by their childish anxiety to be regarded as purely Western and their contempt for everything Eastern make heavy demands on the impartiality and the sense of humour of the foreigner—would have it that Kemalism has replaced religion once and for all. More discriminating people admitted that the complete indifference of the State to religion may perhaps not be final but that the moment for dealing with this problem cannot come until the new elements of .work, progress and rationalism have become an integral part of Turkish life.
Attatiirk himself does not seem to care to discuss religion. I sent him some questions on the subject, but he did not reply to them. Nevertheless I have the feeling that a day may come when he will produce a solution even for this complex problem, reconciling the inborn need of the Turk for religion with the necessarily non-religious character of Kemalism. Although a materialist at heart he possesses an uncanny instinct for the spiritual requirements of his people. His enthusiastic efforts to purify the Turkish language and to discover the roots of Turkish history show that he does not stop at merely rationalising and westernising Turkish life. In fact, a reconciliation between the religious and non-religious elements of Turkish life will be very necessary if Kemalism is to proceed to be a spiritual force. In a few years, when Kemalism, thoroughly transformed into a government system and a social structure, will have lost most of the idealism of its early days, many Turks will be on the look-out for some ideal. For otherwise their only spiritual foundation will be undiluted nationalism.
Nationalism plays an important part in the philosophy of Kemalism. Up till now it has been overshadowed by other elemets and has not found time to become dangerous. Everyone tried to assure me of the pacifist character of Turkish nationalism. Yet at times I had the feeling that that character may last only so long as the Turkish armaments, finances and industry are not ready to give it another character.
Attatiirk's own record suggests that he himself may expand the ideal of Kemalism beyond the boundaries of nationalism. "Both Attatiirk and myself have learned," Tewfik Riistii Aras, Turkey's famous Foreign Minister, said to me, " that selfishness does not take a nation very far, that a feeling for the community of nations is indispensable for the happiness of each individual nation, that faith in the final betterment and understanding of nations is our best policy." I hope that the shrewd Riistii Aras was sincere and that the spiritual revolution which the Turkish nation is still undergoing under Attatiirk's guidance will create such ethical founda- tions in the Turkish soul that no aggressiveness will be able to take root within it.
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