Project proposal

Title proposal

How did the Turks build a secular republic from a Muslim empire?

Other ideas

  1. How did the ottoman empire collapse?
  2. How did the Turks build a secular republic from a Muslim empire?
  3. How did the founding of Turkey affect its future? 

I’m leaning more towards how the Turks built a secular republic from a Muslim empire as I’m more interested in the nation building aspect rather than the wars. I also think it’s important as countries around the world seek to replicate Turkey’s success such as Egypt and Pakistan. This topic is also interesting as I would like to find out how Turkey was able to transition from a majority Muslim state to a secular republic and how that looks today. How did the founding of Turkey affect its future would be my second option but I think that’s a bit broad as the founder of Turkey Ataturk still affects Turkey today such as the military’s power over state institutions up to 2012. 

How did the Turks build a secular republic from a Muslim empire?

In the early 20th century, the Ottoman empire collapsed and was replaced by Turkey. What many people don’t know, especially today, was that the idea of the Turkish republic was supposed to be a secular republic and in the early years of the republic, Islam was outlawed. My question is: How did the Turks build a secular republic from a Muslim empire? I think this topic is important because other countries would try to replicate what the Turks did in their own countries. I also think its important because the first few years of the republic still affects Turkey today, such as how the military is expected to act.

Main questions to ask

  1. How did the Ottoman empire collapse?
  2. What were the founding ideals of the republic 
  3. What events could directly be linked to Turkey’s founding ideals?

sources for Digital History Project

Primary sources

“Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey,” August 26, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110826235341/http://www.anayasa.gov.tr/index.php?l=template&id=20&lang=0.
The source above is the second constitution of the Republic of Turkey and it further outlines the structure of government and how it operates. One of the most relevant details to my topic is the second amendment in which it states that the country’s main religion was Islam but then there’s an amendment that cut it from the constitution. Its relevant because it shows the influence that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had on the republic as he wanted to create a secular republic and he eventually outlawed Islam.

Lib Quotes. “Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Quote.” Accessed March 25, 2025. https://libquotes.com/mustafa-kemal-atatürk/quote/lbq1j5x.
The quote above is from Ataturk and his opinion on religion. He thinks that religion would hold the state back as he thinks it would get in the way of making strategic decisions. Ataturk didn’t want the leaders of Turkey to base strategic decisions off of Islam and he would outlaw Islam in the government in Turkey’s second constitution. His idea of strict secularization of Turkey would be upheld by the army and would result in coups later on.

Secondary sources

Schmid, Dorothée. “Franco-Turkish Visions of a Republic An Interview with Baskin Oran” July 2011. https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/migrated_files/documents/atoms/files/notefrancoturque6en.pdf

This source talks about the relationship between Turkey and France and it talks about how Turkey was modeled after the ideals of the French republic. One of the founding ideals that was copied from France was the separation of Church and State. The Turkish word for separation of church and state is Laicism, which comes from the French definition of laïcité meaning freedom from religion. The French and Turkish forms of separation of church and state is more strict than most European forms of secularism because it bans religious symbols and forms of prayer in public.

Unal, Birsen. “Education Policies during Ataturk Period.” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, International Conference on New Horizons in Education, INTE 2014, 25-27 June 2014, Paris, France, 174 (February 12, 2015): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815008794.

The source above talks about the reforms that were undertaken under Ataturk. Before Ataturk, most of rural Anatolia was illiterate and Ataturk wanted to spread education there. However, he also standardized education in Turkey by closing Islamic schools and requiring everything to be taught in the Turkish language. His reforms were largely successful at spreading education and reducing the amount of Islamic schools.

“The National Struggle and The Turkish War of Independence.” Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.ktb.gov.tr/EN-104188/the-national-struggle-and-the-turkish-war-of-independence.html.
This is a link to a speech that was given by Ataturk after the Turkish war of Independence and he gives a speech about paying respect to the soldiers that died. He also talks about how the Turkish people were able to drive out the foreign powers that were trying to conquer Anatolia and he says that everyone should congratulate themselves for being able to win the war and near the end he mentions that there is more work to be done with rebuilding the nation.

  1. Overview 
  • Ask the question of how many people think about Turkey and the region.
  • Include a map from a European and Middle Eastern view and show how overlooked Turkey is in the periphery
  • Ask the question of how Turkey came to be and why it matters today

2. How did the Ottoman empire collapse?

  • The Ottoman empire dissolved after the Turkish war of independence 
  • Ottoman empire was on the decline for a while
  • The first world war was the death nail for the empire

3. What were the founding ideals of the republic 

  • Introduce Ataturk and his ideas below
  • Modern Secular republic 
  • Based around Nationalism and inclusivity 
  • Ideas based on the French republic such as their views on religion

4. What events could directly be linked to Turkey’s founding ideals?

  • Arab nationalism taking inspiration from Turkey
  • The founding of Pakistan and Arab nationalism in the 60s
  • Coups linked to the power Ataturk gave to the army 
  • Talk about the kurds and how they were mostly betrayed

5. Conclusion

  • Summarize the points above
  • restate the ways that Turkey was formed
  • conclude with a thought about the future perhaps an opinion

Interactive Ideas

  • Longer Story Map JS
  • Maybe a timeline
  • Video Clips 
  • Maybe Flourish for Muslim population after Ataturk

Ideas/edits after project proposal pitch:

  1. Removed one of the main questions asking if Turkey was still a secular republic today due to being to subjective and opinionated.
  2. Removed
  3. Talk about Ataturk’s short comings such as the conflict in the east of Anatolia with the Kurds. I still want to remain within the 1910s- 1940s timeframe with a few segments into the future such as Egypt, Pakistan, and the coups of Turkey so I won’t be going too much into detail
  4. Talk less about the conflicts such as the First World War and the Turkish War of Independence and talk more about the nation building aspect. This was already my plan as I intend to quickly go through it only mentioning more relevant details

Target audience would be students and academics that are studying Turkey and the Ottoman empire. I chose this audience because I think these people would be some of the only ones that would ask questions such as “how do you form a republic based on modern ideas?” I think that going over nation building like this also helps us look at our own countries and ask how do the founding ideals still affect where we are from. The topic also doesn’t get enough coverage as Turkey is usually forgotten or is only heard on the news due to current affairs and not a lot of people know how Turkey as a state came to be.

I want to include a month by month timeline to talk about the last few years of the Ottoman Empire and the entire Turkish war of Independence because after doing pervious timelines and maps for this topic, I learned that so much happened in the span of a year that I think a month by month timeline would be better. I want to include a Story Map JS for the general picture such as talking about reforms that took place during the transition between Empire to Republic. The map would also include events that occurred post 1938 and would have a brief overview of events inspired by the founding of Turkey. This would include how Arab Nationalism was inspired by Turkish Nationalism, how the founders of Pakistan were inspired by Ataturk’s inclusivity, how a clause in the Turkish constitution allows for the army to intervene in politics, and after hearing some feedback, A section about the Kurds in eastern Anatolia. I plan to have a brief section between 2-4 sentences, Time, and Location, with additional links to readings and photos. However, I want to keep these sections brief since my topic is about Turkey and not these events so I’m thinking of imposing a hard cap of 3 paragraphs each for these events.