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The Forum: The Emergence of Modern Turkey

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A statue of Ataturk located in Marmaris harbor, Turkey. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

20/12/2018 GMT

The Emergence of Modern Turkey

BBC World Service - The Forum, The Emergence of Modern Turkey

The birth of the secular republic of Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire

How Atatürk’s reforms transformed the nation and strong armed the country into modernity. Joining Bridget Kendall are Recep Boztemur, Dr Hülya Adak and Yeşim Özsoy.

100 years ago, Turkish defeat in World War One signalled the end of the once great Ottoman Empire. What emerged was a European orientated secular republic led by a man who used social engineering to shape Turkey in his own image – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Bridget Kendall examines this key period of Turkish history and asks whether modernisation could have been brought in less forcefully, and why the women who were helping bring about similarly progressive ideas were eventually side-lined. And what impact did Ataturk’s social revolution have on the arts and literature? Joining Bridget is Recep Boztemur, Professor of History at the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara, Dr Hülya Adak from Sabanci university in Istanbul, who specialises in gender and nationalism, and the actor, theatre director and playwright Yeşim Özsoy, whose latest play examines Turkish identity from 1918 onwards.

Photo: A statue of Ataturk located in Marmaris harbor, Turkey. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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