So, what was the role of Turkish nationalism in this revolutionary retrieval of Turkish independence? Turkish nationalism really took root only during the war with the Greeks, but then with very strong Islamic undertones. As a mobilizing force together with Islam. It was used in the war against the infidels, the Greeks, and Mustafa Kemal had the title Gazi, which has a very strong Islamic meaning. Gazi goes back to the first days of Islam, and is the title of a conqueror in the name of Islam. Only Muslims were considered real Turks. It was only Muslims who were Turks in the full sense of the term. And in the negotiations for the Lausanne Treaty of July 1923, an agreement was also achieved between Turkey and Greece on a population exchange. About one million Greeks were sent from Turkey to Greece, and a lesser number of Turks were sent from Greece to Turkey. But what is particularly interesting in this question was how these national identities were defined. Religion was what defined which nation these people belonged to, and not language. Therefore, Christians who spoke Turkish were defined as Greeks and were sent to Greece. Muslims who spoke Greek were defined as Turks and were sent to Turkey. And in this exchange of population, both Turkey and Greece became more homogeneous nation states. The population of Turkey had declined as a result of the ravages of war. And the population exchange. In a census in 1927 showed that the population of Turkey was only 13.6 million. Of these, however, 98% were Muslim. And of the Muslim population some 10% were Kurdish. And the Greek and Armenian populations had sharply reduced after the war and the population exchange. The main ideologue of Turkish nationalism as we have already seen in our discussion on the emergence of nationalism prior to World War One, was Ziya Gokalp. But now his ideas of a more narrowly based Turkishness were more readily accepted. The empire no longer existed. There were not huge populations who were not Turkish that were part of the empire and therefore Turkishness was much more readily accepted now, after the desolution of empire, than before. And Gokalp had been deeply influenced by the French philosopher and sociologist Emile Durkheim, who had regarded nationalism as a form of civil religion. Accordingly, in Gokalp's version of nationalism, Islam became an inseparable part of the Turk's cultural heritage. But it was not the cohesive element of society. But only one of a number including language, history and culture. Religion however was separated from the state and replaced with secular nationalism and religion was reduced to a matter of personal belief, at least in theory. The collapse of the empire and decision not to expand the borders, paved the way for a process of radical secularizing reforms, that went hand-in-hand with the founding of the new Turkish Republic. The Sultan's deep hostility towards the nationalist movement only accelerated this process of radical reform. At the end of 1922, Ankara was determined as the new capital. Ankara, in the Turkish heartland of Anatolia rather than Imperial Ottoman Istanbul. At the same time, the abolition of the Sultanate, Sultan Mehmed the sixth, fled and he was replaced by Abdulmecid the second, who was appointed Caliph, a purely ceremonial position, with no political power. In October 1923, Turkey formally became a republic. And in March 1924 the Caliphate was finally abolished. The role of Islam in lone education was terminated. The Sharia courts were abolished. Sharia personal law was replaced by a version of the Swiss Civil Code in 1926. The Sufi mystical orders were banned, and in 1925 a special Hat Law requiring that men wear hats with brims. Which would seem a rather innocuous introduction of a new law. But in fact, it had great political and cultural importance. The hats with brims were designed to obstruct the regular performance of prayer. This was a way of imposing secularizing and secular reform. Between 1928 and 1937, secularism was established as a principle of governance in accordance with the constitution. The only country in the Middle East that has such a clause in its constitution. The Latin alphabet was introduced in 1928, which was an obvious attempt to erase the influence of Arabic and Persian in the Turkish language. And by changing the alphabet, creating this huge disconnect between the present and the past. No other country in the Middle East ever went that far in the formal process of secularization. And this was all part of a very deliberate effort by Ataturk to break with the past and to emphasize the uniqueness of the Turkish nation. Opposition, which there was, they're not very substantial. Coming mainly from some religious or Kurdish sources in the East were ruthlessly crushed. The republican regime was unquestionably autocratic. The Israeli-Ottoman historian Uli al-Hed noted that Kemalism was a logical result of the very long process of Westernization. Which had created a secular upper social class in Turkey. One should add to that that the reform was possible due to the prestige and legitimacy of Ataturk, the victor in the courageous war of liberation that the Turks had fought for their independence. The collapse of empire had also dealt a blow to the status and the image of the Ottoman legacy. In later years however, this would all change again.
