19.11.2023, Moscow.
Kemal Atatürk transformed Turkey into a nation state that combined Islam and development, the leader of the Essence of Time movement, philosopher and political scientist Sergey Kurginyan said on November 3 on the program Conversation with a Sage on the Zvezda radio station.
Kurginyan reminded that Atatürk saved Turkey from total destruction when it was at the losing side in World War One.
“Kemal… saved Anatolian Turkey, and he said that it would be a Turkish nation state where any kind of Islamism in its radical form would be its enemy, which would pursue a policy with an Islamic specifics towards enlightenment to become a member of the family of ‘reasonably’ European, conservatively European nations,” the political scientist reminded.
However, this kind of Turkey did not seek to restore its empire or expand its territory. As its goal, it declared the building of a secular state that would respect the Islam religion and would be ready to build relations with Islam as long as it is compatible with this kind of a state.
“This kind of Islam is a national Islam meaning that it is ready to co-exist with secular population of its nation to jointly develop a national, modernization-oriented, i.e. developing state,” the expert explained.
The USSR, starting from Lenin, who then supported Kemalist Turkey, developed relations with Ankara, Kurginyan reminded. Later, Turkey joined NATO, which became one of the factors that caused the Cuban Missile Crisis, although “this is another page of our history.”
More importantly, the Turkey of Atatürk and his successors (first of all military ones) fought Islamism, and its expressed respect towards national Islam pursuing a policy “towards a state keeping within its borders and seeking industrial, economic, cultural, and other kinds of secular development with an Islamic specifics,” the expert stressed.
“We were happy with that kind of a state even regardless of its membership in NATO,” the political scientist believes.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
