The president walks a fine line between honouring the country’s founder and building his own legacy.
ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will mark Turkey’s centenary on Sunday by honouring the post-Ottoman republic’s revered founder, while chipping away at the foundation of his secular state.
Meaning the ‘father of all Turks’, the surname Ataturk was bestowed on Mustafa Kemal by Turkey’s parliament after the field marshal drove out foreign armies and built a new, staunchly secular republic from the Ottoman Empire’s ruins. State television is also rolling back coverage of the celebrations, citing Israel’s war with Gaza militants.
Historian, researcher and writer Ekrem Isin said Ataturk is still viewed by vast strata of society as a liberator who both defended Turks from World War I invaders and ended the religious conservatism of sultans’ rule.“Anyone who raised his head a little was hit with a stick. There was a climate of fear.”
This may be exemplified best by the fate of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, an ancient cathedral that the Ottomans converted into a mosque.Ataturk turned the Unesco-protected building — once the seat of Eastern Christianity — into a museum, bestowing it a religious neutrality that underscored his vision of modern “Turkishness”.
“I think Erdogan has anti-secularism in his veins,” added political analyst and columnist Barcin Yinanc.“We are entering the second century of the republic with a government that is not at peace with the republic. Perhaps it does this consciously, because it feeds on polarisation.”