Foundation of The Republic of Turkey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Foundation of The Republic of Turkey - Essay Example This actually led to the fragmentation of the empire. In spite of this Ottoman participated in the First World War being a German ally and was defeated by the victorious forces. The Ottoman Empire was partly occupied by the victorious force, but in a bitter war Turkish nationalists who were brought together by Mustafa Kemal were able to expel them from Anatolia. Finally they were also able to abolish the Ottoman Empire in 1923. Once the republic of turkey was formed, country’s leaders focused on westernization and modernization of the country. Turkey went through massive social, economic, linguistic and political reforms during the period of 1924-1934 under the leadership of Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal). Today this ideology of Ataturk is known as â€Å"Kemalism†. Kemalism is basically the Turkish form of strong nationalism, secularism, western orientation and statism. In Turkey’s politics Kemalism is one of the most popular subject for discussing and debating because even today the principles of Kemalism are well accepted in Turkey. This was the foundation of modern Turkey. In World War II Turkey joined Allied force with the purpose of becoming a United Nations member. In 1952 Turkey became a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (US Department of State, History). Turkey’s geographical location is quite interesting as some part of the country is geographically part of Southeastern Europe and rest is part of Southwestern Asia. Basically it is a Middle East country. Turkey is placed in between the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Turkey’s total area is 783,562 sq km. Among this 769,632 sq km is the total land area and the rest is water. In terms of total area Turkey is slightly bigger than Texas. Turkey is at the 37th position in the world with respect to total area. It is quite clear from the global map of Turkey that turkey’s border is shared with eight different countries which are Armenia, Azerbaijan.