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THE NATURE OF THE KEMALIST REVOLUTıONProf. Dr. Sina AKŞIN*1. The Renaissatıce of Kemalism: Foreigners who visit Turkey arein many cases surprised at the ommipresence of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.Everywhere they see his statues, busts, pictures. I think they mostly interpretthis as a "personality cult" and tend to think of it in negative terms.The explanation for Atatürk's ommipresence is this: it is he that personifiesthe Turkish Revolution. Most other revolutions are the work of manypersonalities. The French Revolution cannot be identified with a singleperson. With the Soviet Revolution we see the preponderance of Lenin,but he was able to guide the revolution, after it came to power, for 7 yearsonly. Without Stalin, one cannot understand the Soviet Revolution. Perhapsthe role of Mao-Zedung in the Chinese Revolution is comparable toAtatürk. He ruled China for 27 years. However, his successors have wellnighrepudiated him. There is also the question of the complementarity ofvarious communist leaders. With Mao, one cannot help noticing the roleand complementarity of Stalin, Lenin and Marx. With Atatürk, no suchcomplementary figures come to mind. Atatürk is the victorious leader ofthe struggle for independence, he is the founder of the Turkish Republic,he is the leader of the Turkish Revolution. One can say that it is a complete"success story". That is why his person is the symbol of the Republicand its Revolution. What the motto liberty-equality-fraternity representsfor the French Revolution, Atatürk represents for the TurkishRevolution, he is its symbol. You cannot be for the Turkish Revolutionand against Atatürk. But I think you can be for the French Revolution andagainst, say, Robespierre, Rousseau, Danton, Voltaire ete.For many decades after the death of Atatürk, the great majority ofthe Turks have felt nothing else than an unadulterated love and admirationfor him. It is clear that such a elimate of opinion was not conduciveto a critical evaluation of Kemalism. Kemalism was explained rather superficiallyby the offıcial six principles (republicanism, populism, revolutionism,secularism, statism, nationalism) which were inseribed into theConstitution of 1924. It cannot be said (in general) that these principlesAnkara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Öğretim Üyesi.19