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Atatürk, father of the modern Turkey

Built on the still-smouldering rubble of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was the first Muslim nation to enshrine itself as a secular republic in its constitution. The first one in the world and – as it prepares to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its creation on 23 October 2023 – the only one to date.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk imposed secularism in reaction to Ottoman theocracy and the institutions of the empire, against the Islam of the ulama and the Sufis, against the Islam of the people, and against the will of the majority.

https://vimeo.com/953044762

It was “his” secularism.
Secularism “alla Turca”: the Kemalist method of reducing a religion that
claims to govern everything – the political and the personal, all human
activity, the spiritual and the earthly – to a personal practice.

Mickaël Gamrasni
Director, Writer

Chantal de Rudder
Writer

Simone Harari Baulieu
Producer

Ted Anspach
Producer

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