Comments by "Ggoddkkiller" (@ggoddkkiller1342) on "The Present Past"
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There were several big mistakes about Ataturk reforms, first of all it wasn't even done by Ataturk rather Turkish grand national assembly. It had islamists, republicans, secularists, communists you name it. And this was one of main reasons why Soviets thought Turkey could be an ally for them and supported Turkish war of independence. However the country was in mess and quick reforms were needed, so Swiss constitution was chosen as a template and altered according to Turkish people's needs. Turkish version even has socialist laws unlike Swiss version.
At first the grand national assembly didn't want to abolish Ottoman caliphate so it remained even after Ottoman as an empire was abolished. However soon problems began emerging as the caliphate was still acting like it was an empire, hosting foreign leaders in İstanbul etc and its demanded budget was massive. So the assembly realized this wasn't going to work and abolished the caliphate as well, two years later than the empire. However there was strong believe in the assembly they could not just abolish an Islamic instution as they wished so they established "Diyanet işleri" in same day. Diyanet işleri is essentially a caliphate, they give fatwas, all Mosques and Imams in Turkey are a part of them and they elect their own leaders from Islamic scholars. The only difference they don't have any political power, even today Diyanet işleri is working exactly same as it was established 100 years ago and Turkey isn't a secular country same as France or US at all. Simply because Turkey actually has an official government instution organizing religious affairs, you can not operate a Mosque apart from Diyanet işleri in Turkey like you can do in France or US. So i have absolutely no idea where he could learn Turkey copied French secularism, that's entirely false.
Same goes for banning women wearing scarves, that happened decades later than Ataturk died! Ataturk always aimed to unite everybody in Turkey including islamists too and tried to implement a multi-party system not once but rather twice. But both attempts failed as there were severe arguments, after his death ruling party CHP began simply oppressing islamic community with such bans and completely expelled them from the government. Later when right wing parties could win elections they began doing same to left wing this time. This is one of main reasons why there are still problems between islamic and republican populations within Turkey. As everybody claims they were a victim and when laws changing they weren't presented.
Alphabet change had nothing to do with religion. There are many Turkish sounds which are impossible to write with Arabic alphabet, in fact this was whole reason why Ottoman literature adopted many words from Persian and Arabic to replace those Turkish words which couldn't be written correctly. So the new government had two options either alter Arabic alphabet and make it usable for Turkish or choose another alphabet instead. Altering Arabic alphabet wasn't popular as it was going to be seen as anti-islamic. So Latin alphabet was chosen, even Latin was heavily altered to properly write Turkish language many letters were removed and new ones added.
Yeah, Turkish mosques in other countries are operated by again Diyanet işleri. It is pretty much like a modern Catholic church, nobody can operate Mosques but them. He knew this but still claimed Turkey copied French secularism? I'm sorry but there is clear propaganda purposes here or they did a poor research. Even Turkish government can not allow other organizations to operate Mosques rather it is stated only Diyanet işleri can do that in Turkish constitution. Again Turkish government has very little power to dictate what they do, they select their own leaders, decide their own fatwas and organize Islamic beliefs as they see fit. But it is true erdogan government has great influence over Diyanet işleri and they support him..
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