Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and The Rise of Modern Turkey

By: Ryan Webb

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Out of the ashes of World War I a phoenix arose. In the next two decades, the Turks created in Anatolia a nation unique to the Middle East. This phoenix, the Republic of Turkey, replaced the moribund Ottoman Empire, which succumbed to internal disorder as well as British and Arab forces in Arabia. At the conclusion of World War I, Great Britain, France, Greece, Italy, the Kurds, and Armenians all hoped to gain land or influence in Anatolia. However, a popular Ottoman general, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, resigned from the army, united the Turkish Nationalist forces, and pushed back the invading Greek army. In 1923, he secured the Treaty of Lausanne and established the Republic of Turkey. While the Kemalist era continued a reformist tradition dating back to Selim III’s New Order in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the sudden and significant changes that occurred between 1923 and 1938 were unparalleled in Turkish history. Indeed, under Ataturk’s leadership, Turkey underwent a significant transformation in government, law, religion, and culture that distinguishes her from her Middle Eastern neighbors.