Ataturk’s Legacy

To Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic, and his comrades in arms, Turkey’s number one national interest during the 1920s and 1930s was to protect the newly gained independence and sovereignty as well as successfully completing the radical transformation process at home (Hale, 2013, 31055). This required the pursuit of a pragmatic, prudent and realist foreign policy, enshrining the principle of ‘peace at home peace in the world’. Turkish rulers tried to help bring into existence a stable and cooperative regional environment so that developments outside the borders would never have negative consequences on the ongoing modernization and development processes at home. In this sense, there seems to exist a strong degree of continuity between Turkey’s efforts to support regional cooperation during the interwar years through the Balkan Entente and Saadabad Pact and the attempts of the Justice and Development Party governments at encouraging regional cooperation initiatives over the last fifteen years.

Pragmatism also suggested that Turkey would do well to construct friendly relations with former enemies. Involvement in the internal affairs of other states and pursuit of expansionist and irredentist foreign policies do not hold any place in Ataturk’s diplomatic legacy. This is the main reason why any attempt at regime change abroad is very much criticized at home. Traditional Turkish diplomacy is based on the idea that states are independent in their internal affairs and Turkey should not be involved in the business of regime change or value promotion. Trying to solve national security problems through diplomacy and international law is another legacy of Ataturk. The revision of the Lausanne regulations on the status of Turkish Straits through the Montreux Convention in 1936, the incorporation of Hatay region into Turkey in 1939, and the settlement of the Mousul question and the border dispute with Iraq in 1926 are all examples to the use of international law and diplomacy in Turkish foreign policy. Diplomacy backed by hard power capability and diplomatic initiatives conferring legitimacy on military victories constitute the backbone of Ataturk’s diplomatic legacy.