Turkey celebrated the founding of the republic 100 years ago by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today laid a wreath at Ataturk’s mausoleum in the capital, Ankara. There were celebrations across the country, with red and white Turkish flags and portraits of the country’s founder hanging from buildings.
Atatürk proclaimed the republic on October 29, 1923, a good year after the official end of the Ottoman Empire. He implemented reforms based on the Western model and a strictly secular course, that is, the separation of religion and State.
In the 1930s, women were given the right to vote and run for office and therefore can vote and be elected. The Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin one. To this day there is a cult of personality surrounding Atatürk (in German: father of the Turks). He is controversial, among other things, because of his minority politics.
Critics accuse Erdogan of Islamizing Turkey and thus undermining the ideology of the country’s founder. The president is considered the most powerful politician since Ataturk and repeatedly glorifies the Ottoman Empire in his speeches.