Political Science Turkey

Noe Valencia
Writing Assignment #1: Prompt #1
Leaders are “people who are able to coordinate the members of an interest group or community, set-up an organization or institution construction, initiate an action, and make viable the provision of public good in which the group is interested.”(p.55, Colomer). Kemal Mustafa Ataturk is an example of a political leader who was able to reconstruct the toppled state of Turkey. These characteristics were key for his success in making Turkey a modern and secular country.
Ataturk changed the Ottoman Turkey into a entirely different state by taking action as a leader.When the allies imposed the Treaty of Sevres on the Ottoman Empire to divide it into nation states,Turkey was going to be carved up as such; the east for the Kurds and Armenians, and the west for the Greeks. At this point Ataturk fought back, his goal was to regain lost territory for Turkey. Through communication he rallied the Turks, he was able to uplift their broken spirits through persuasion to fight back for their land [public good]. Although the odds against Turkey were tremendous they defeated the opposition; the Greeks, Armenians, and Kurds. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24th, 1923, which declared the Republic of Turkey as it’s own sovereign state.
The Republic of Turkey was now established and with its new self elected leader, Kemal Mustafa Ataturk, it was now ready to reform the state with its new Turkish identity. With Ataturk’s new gained respect from leading the Turkish War on Independence his credibility on bringing change was also increased. This allowed Ataturk to make many political and social reforms for the Turkish nation. In terms of social reforms he established many public goods, he brought forth to the Turks a new alphabet by using the Latin letters; since the majority of the Turks were uneducated he established schools to educate them; as well as banning the Islamic attire. In terms of political reforms...