29th of October 1923. What a wonderful day. The day that our country opened a whole new page. Everything started to change. And these changes were all for really good causes. First caliphate abolished in 1924.
With caliphate being abolished traditional religious schools closed and Sheriat abolished. Also, Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye adopted. By this event locals of Türkiye had their hopes up.
In 1925 Dervish brotherhoods were outlawed. The Hat Law has announced which forbids wearing Fez. And by that law both women and men has encouraged to dress like Western style. This changed lots of thing in our country’s idea in minds. The adjustment in calendars followed these new legislations by being in sync with Western (Gregorian) calendar instead of Islamic calendar.
New criminal, civil, and commercial regulations based on European models were adopted in 1926. Islamic polygamy and divorce by renunciation were abolished and civil marriage was established according to the new civil code. Millet system which was the Ottoman government of separate religious communities that recognized the authority of each community to manage its own affairs, ended.
Mahmud II held the first census in the Ottoman Empire in 1831 to estimate the number of soldiers and to account for taxes. Thus, this census only included men. In the Turkish Republic, the first census which included both men and women took place in 1927. This showed Turkish women that they all count as humans, and they can have a future too.
In 1928 a new Turkish alphabet was introduced. Section of the constitution establishing Islam as the official religion was deleted and the state was declared secular. With that people started to feel comfortable with their religions and they didn’t have to hide their own beliefs from others.
Since the official language became Turkish, in 1933 Islamic call to worship and public readings of the Quran required to be in Turkish rather than Arabic. This made it easy to everyone to obtain information about Islam and more in Türkiye.
Women were given the right to vote and hold government positions in 1934. The Grand National Assembly established the Law of Surnames and gave Mustafa Kemal the name Kemal Atatürk; Ismet Pasha adopted the surname Inönü.
Sunday became a recognized weekly holiday in 1935. And again in 1935 the Constitution specifies the role of the state in economic management.
As you can see these Atatürk’s reforms are all adopted after October 29, 1923. So, we can see that proclamation of the republic has affected our country in a wonderful way. We are all grateful for Atatürk for this country, the Republic of Türkiye. And in our republic’s 100th anniversary we all want to thank Kemal Atatürk for all the things he had done and faced for us.