Portal:Turkey/Selected article/2007/February
Atatürk’s Reforms (Turkish: Atatürk Devrimleri or Atatürk İnkılapları) are a series of political, legal, cultural, social and economic reforms following the Turkish War of Independence in the wake of World War I, by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and the first president of the Republic of Turkey. The reforms, initiated between 1922 and 1938, were accomplished hand-in-hand with the foundation of the new Turkish state, following the continuous decline and losses of the Ottoman Empire up to the Balkan Wars (1912 - 1913) and finally its collapse after World War I. The main motive behind the reforms was termed "to raise Turkey up to and above the level of modern civilization". Although commonly referred to as a reform movement in English, these might more accurately be termed as the steps of a revolutionary movement (as is the meaning of Atatürk Devrimleri in Turkish), given their distinctly fundamental nature. The accomplished reforms can be grouped under five categories: