ARTHUR'S MAN OF THE MONTH
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk!
Welcome to the first installment of The Arthur's Hall of Viking Manliness "Man of the Month" series. I came up with the idea for this series a while back when I realized that many of you out there are not as well informed as I am. While I will never expect that any of you will be able to match wits with me, I do feel like it is my duty to educate the ignorant masses. The Man of the Month series is an excellent way for me to fulfill this duty. As you come back every month to read these genius-inspired articles, you will notice that I am going to take time to profile men that may have slipped through the cracks of widespread notoriety. Any man worth a shit knows and reveres men like Ronald Reagan or Winston Churchill, so I want to bring other real men to your attention.
So what qualifies someone to be "Man of the Month"? An Arthur's Hall "Man of the Month" must be a man (obviously), accomplished is his field, important in some way to the development of the modern world, and most importantly, he must exhibit manliness in his actions and persona. These men will hail from nations all over the Earth (probably not from France, but that's a given), and could be alive or dead for a thousand years. All that matters is that they were influential, important and fucking manly.
The inaugural "Man of the Month" is none other than Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Why is this Turkish dude an Arthur's Hall "Man of the Month"? Well...he founded the modern secular nation of Turkey. This accomplishment alone qualifies him for this illustrious cadre of men. Creating and ruling a nation is the epitome of masculinity but I choose to enshrine Ataturk for the legacy of secularism and modernity he left behind. He built Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire with bravery in the face of massive opposition, rare foresight and vision and ruthless efficiency. The Ottoman Empire existed for over 600 years and at its zenith ruled most of the Middle East, North Africa and southeastern Europe. It was, for intents and purposes, a Muslim Roman Empire. It was, without question, the height of Muslim power in the world. But at its core, it was Muslim. The Ottoman incursion into Europe is responsible for the Muslim faith being commonplace in the Balkans and thus, lead to countless wars between different factions of the Christian world and the Muslim Empire.
Ataturk rose to prominence in what would be the Ottoman's Empire undoing, World War I. He lead a division in the Battle of Gallipoli, where his troops routed the Allies. After WWI and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies occupied Turkey and Ataturk realized that Turkish independence was soon to be destroyed and began organizing a force to fight the Allied occupation force. Sure enough, the Allies declared the end of the Ottoman Empire and began partitioning it. He found this solution to be unacceptable and founded an alternate government and led the fight for Turkish sovereignty. After two years of fighting the Allies had enough of dealing this guy leading to withdrawal and the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
Ataturk was the clear leader of the new republic and he immediately set out to reform and modernize his new nation. One of his first actions may have been the most important. In 1924, he abolished the Caliphate. The Caliphate is a sort of pseudo-government in the Sunni Muslim religion. It is the only acceptable form of government in the fundamentalist view of Islam. The Caliphate had existed since the death of the "prince of child rapists" Mohammed died in 632. After Ataturk abolished the Caliphate, other Muslim nations and leaders tried to re-establish it but those attempts were unsuccessful and to this day the Caliphate does not exist. One of the major goals of Islamic Fundamentalism is to re-establish the Caliphate. The Sunni faith has not an unquestioned leader since Ataturk told him to go fuck himself. Thanks Ataturk!
This reform was obviously not popular with conservative elements within Turkey. Ataturk faced a domestic revolt almost immediately upon dissolving the Caliphate led by a powerful Kurdish sheik. He moved to crush these goat-herding bastards and survived an assassination attempt and his ultimate victory ended up in the hanging of Islamic sympathizers in the Turkish government. Ataturk did not stop with the destruction of the Caliphate. His next stroke of genius was to ban Islamic law in Turkey. He replaced Sharia law with a civil code based on Swiss and Italian legal code. He said about this about his decision to modernize Turkey legal code...
"We must liberate our concepts of justice, our laws and our legal institutions from the bonds which, even though they are incompatible with the needs of our century, still hold a tight grip on us."
Ataturk's obsession with ridding Turkey of Arab dominance did not stop with Islamic political structure. At the time of independence, Turkey was a nation of illiterates. The Ottomans used Arabic script and, as is the case today, only Islamic schools taught Arabic. As a result, most Turks could not read Arabic so Ataturk decided that using a Latin based alphabet would speed Turkey's metamorphosis from an Islamic relic to a modern nation-state. Ataturk enthusiastically promoted the idea of widespread literacy and traveled the nation to teach people directly how to read and write. As a result, literacy increased from 10% to 90% in his reign. He even created two textbooks (one on Turkish Civics and another on Geometry) for use in the new Turkish public education system.
The most enlightened of all of Ataturk's views were his views on the role of women in a modern society. From the time he took office until his death, he promoted the idea that a society can only progress if all of its citizens participate. This view was not common in the Western World at the time and was (and still is) heretical in the Muslim world. To my knowledge, there is still not a Muslim nation or community that recognizes women as equal partners. He also believed that only a secular nation could fully integrate women. The fact is that all organized religion, whether it be Christianity or Islam, perpetuates the idea of female inferiority either implicitly or explicitly. For a man who was raised in an Islamic Empire to understand that Islam was counterproductive to his vision of modernity, equal rights and freedom is simply amazing. Ataturk on women's rights...
"There is no logical explanation for the political disenfranchisement of women. Any hesitation and negative mentality on this subject is nothing more than a fading social phenomenon of the past. ...Women must have the right to vote and to be elected; because democracy dictates that, because there are interests that women must defend, and because there are social duties that women must perform."
Unlike in the Western world, his reform on the rights of women took hold immediately. Women were granted full political rights in 1934 and by 1935, 18 women held seats in the Turkish Parliament. Women were even granted equal rights in the marriage contract long before most Western nations. The world's first women combat pilot was not American or British but a Turk! Ataturk's modernist ideology did not stop with women's rights. He promoted the ideals of the arts and commissioned an opera in Turkish and oversaw the construction of museums, the rise of journalism and literature and athletic endeavours.
In another move that antagonized goat-raping fundamentalists, he banned religious clothing in Turkey. He banned the Fez and ordered that it be replaced by European style hats. He was initially indifferent about the traditional head-covering hijabs on women but his wife decided to stop wearing hers and most Turkish women followed suit. Ataturk correctly viewed as Islamic traditions as backwards and banned turbans, hijabs and even beards. DISCLAIMER ALERT: Banning beards is obviously reprehensible in a Western context because as you all know facial hair is manly, but in a traditionally Islamic nation I can embrace banning beards. Prior the establishment of The Turkish Republic, alcohol was officially banned. Once again, Ataturk called bullshit and allowed alcohol to be consumed and did it himself in massive quantities.
Ataturk's views on civilization and global politics were also ahead of his time. He said this about the rise of Islam in Turkey...
"Turks were a great nation even before they adopted Islam. This religion did not help the Arabs, Iranians, Egyptians and others to unite with Turks to form a nation. Conversely, it weakened the Turks’ national relations; it numbed Turkish national feelings and enthusiasm. This was natural, because Mohammedanism was based on Arab nationalism above all nationalities."
In other words, he said that Islam was a hindrance to Turkey. This guy really knew what he was talking about. He correctly understood that Islam is more about Arab dominance than it is about any sort of religious life. We all know that Islam is not compatible with modern society and yet our leaders today are too gutless to say so. Yet in the 1920s a man who was raised Muslim was willing to tell the truth about the goals of Islamic theology. Ataturk also said that there was only one civilization....Europe and that it must imitated in every aspect by Turkey. Once again, he was right...
Even today, Ataturk is revered by the people of Turkey. The measure of a real man is the legacy he leaves behind. Pacifists, cowards and liberals do not leave legacies, they are forgotten as soon as they die. Men like Ataturk who blaze their path through life regardless of obstacles are remembered forever. His picture hangs in every public building and in most Turkish households, his likeness is seen on all Turkish banknotes and statues of him loom over nearly all Turkish cities. In 1981, a law was passed that banned any public criticism of his legacy or the defacing of anything that bears his likeness. You know you were a pillar of manliness when, 50 years after your death, no one is allowed to insult you.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a man ahead of his time and his legacy continues today. Turkey is the only Muslim nation to be a respected member of the world community and is a member of NATO and future member of the EU. He is solely responsible for the unique status of Turkey in the modern world. The Middle East needs the second coming of Ataturk. Perhaps we will see the next Ataturk in Iraq. For those who think that a Muslim nation is doomed to failure and repression...you can look to Turkey as an example of success. This was the vision behind the Iraqi invasion. The world is unquestionably better off due to the life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He is the father of the Turks and I hope that he can be the grandfather of a modernized Muslim world in my lifetime. Hail the Man of the Month and the Father of the Turks!! |
