"Turkey Then and Now
by Josef Olmert • Oct 6, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Kemalism was one of the most successful ideological political ventures of the 20th century. The reason is simple; it worked in an era marked by the collapse of other revolutionary ideas. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938), the father of modern-day Turkey, created a republic whose population was 99 percent Muslim but whose constitution defined the state as secular. None of the other Muslim states, and there are 56 of them, have ever followed suit. But Ataturk went further. With the wisdom of foresight he entrusted the Turkish Army with the task of being the guardian of the secular constitution and, thus, the secularist character of the state."
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