The language and hermeneutics of statues

The large monumental statues commissioned from foreign sculptors for the country's major centers between 1927 and 1930 would play an important role in creating a "one-man" cult. Portraying Mustafa Kemal as an epic and mythological hero figure in this cult would fulfill an important communication-propaganda function. At the same time, these statues would undoubtedly play an important role in producing a new religiosity, alternative to Islam, again with the savior-founder leader at its center.

The statues would not merely form a decorative dimension of a city; they would also become the qibla, the most important component, indeed the very reason, of a ceremonial culture that was gradually taking shape.

This statue policy is one of the effective steps in establishing a new mythological understanding that soon spread, in the form of busts, to all the provinces and districts of the country, even to village primary schools. In this mythology, in which not the slightest acknowledgment, not even a sense of loyalty, was expressed toward any of the comrades-in-arms with whom the country had just fought the War of Independence, the country's "sole savior," "sole leader," and, by the Surname Law to be enacted later, "sole ancestor" would be the one. A semi-divine power and meaning, such as is given to the greatest heroes and extraordinary powers in mythologies, would also be attributed to this Ata. In his book Türkiye'de Siyasal Kültürün Resmi Kaynakları, Atatürk'ün Nutuk'u (İletişim Yayınları, 1991), Taha Parla shows with rich examples that this divine and mythological figure is a concrete manifestation of the subject that comes to the fore in the narrative of the Nutuk.

Saying "let us acquire a Western appearance, let us fight religiosity," this meant nothing other than, conversely, the substitution of a much stronger new religiosity, one that was entirely superstition. The religious symbols, beliefs and acts of worship eliminated by secularism were now replaced by new founding, savior and founder mythologies built around the War of Independence. After a while, a literature competing in sanctification joined the statues and the rituals centered on them.

The praises lined up for Mustafa Kemal, who received the title Ata of the Turks with the Surname Law, surpassed even those lined up for any religion's prophet. In Islamic history, at least, no sheikh or saint has ever been compared to a prophet or described as "ekber" (the greatest). But Yusuf Ziya Ortaç, one of the poets of the period, could say "Atatürk Ekber!" And Aka Gündüz, one of the CHP deputies, would write the following in the 4 December 1934 issue of Ulus newspaper:

"We are the worshippers of Atatürk! [...] In everything Atatürk, On earth He! In the sky He! At sea He! He exists and He does not exist! In everything He! Atatürk! [...] He is on the earth, in the sky, in the water, in the field, on the heights, in ambush. He sees the unseen! He knows the unknown! He hears the unheard! He senses the unsensed, He crushes the uncrushable! In everything Atatürk! We cover our faces with our hands, our hearts with our essence. We worship you! We worship you! [...] You exist, You are One, You are the Creator! Shame on those who are not bound to you!"

Viewed from today, this literature of sanctification and exaltation has taken on a form that is truly very hard to believe. The literature of exaltation went as far as producing a new religion with Atatürk at its center as a prophet, even as a deity. Considerable detail on this can be found in quite a few studies, so let us not prolong this here by giving more examples. We can only say that Kemalism was designed as a new religion for the Turks, alternative to Islam, and that an atmosphere had formed in which such words were uttered very easily during Atatürk's lifetime.

This may be hard for many people today to comprehend, but Onur Atalay's book Türk'e Tapmak, Seküler Din ve İki Savaş Arası Kemalizm (İletişim Yayınları, 2018) shows how what is hard for the human mind to grasp was actually lived as reality.

The point reached by the attempts at a single party, a single man and a single history is the Atatürk cult's acquiring a religious function. The literature describing him as a half-god, a prophet, or a mythological savior and creator hero, like those who described him as a deity, has become almost an ordinary literature.

It is of course not possible to say that such an atmosphere came about through people's voluntary participation. After the opposition was suppressed above all by the independence tribunals, the Takrir-i Sükûn law, executions and heavy sanctions, the subtle techniques of forcing people to applaud and to join the discourse come into play, and everyone, willingly or unwillingly, joins the applause and the acclamation. Thus the state's perspective and religion become the people's perspective and religion.

But looking at the character of those who took part in the discourse, one can also establish that in this period it remained confined to the urban population alone, that is, to a segment making up at most twenty percent of society. Indeed, the possibility that strikes one in a shocking way in the first and second multi-party attempts is that the CHP would be overthrown from power by the people's free votes.

There is also an apologetic Kemalist literature claiming that this cultification of Mustafa Kemal, this literature of exaltation to the degree of worship, was carried out against his will. The truth is that, considering the history of the statues, the characteristics of those who produced this literature of exaltation and their closeness to him, this is a very unnecessary and baseless literature. The cultification created with statues began to be implemented, by himself, in an extremely aggressive manner all over the country from the very first year of the Republic's founding.

Moreover, as we said before, this is done almost as if defying the anti-statue traditions and beliefs of Turkish society. However much a society embraces a person, however much gratitude it feels toward him, the tradition of expressing these feelings by erecting his statue is very foreign to this society. Therefore the apologetic approach claiming that this nation erected the statues for Mustafa Kemal has no basis whatsoever.

In many cities the statues were made with money collected from the public through campaigns, but these campaigns too were led by officials, and in the end Mustafa Kemal ensured that his own statues spread across the whole country, in squares, schools and government offices. In any case, the statues have a complementary monumentalizing effect on the mythological image of the hero who, in the Nutuk, is presented as almost the sole actor, sole director and sole hero of the National Struggle. These monuments were also placed at the center of ceremonies held periodically, daily, weekly or on special days, so that they were engraved with veneration in everyone's mind every day.

More detailed information can be found in our book Cumhuriyetin ilk Yılları: Demokrasi mi Diktatörlük mü? from Beyan Yayınları' Tarihin Gerçek Yüzü series, and in Muharrem Coşkun's book titled Kemalizm Din mi İdeoloji mi?.