Associates of Kemal Atatürk (1932-1938)

Year 1970, Volume: 34 Issue: 136, 633 - 652, 20.10.1970

Walter F. Weıker

Abstract

Politics is people, and political influence is greatly facilitated by having access to key political leaders. Access is, of course, far from the only factor which contributes to political influence, but in a system such as Turkey's during the presidency of Kemal Atatürk (1923-1938) contact with the central power-holder is certainly a crucial dimension. This article will analyze the partial record of contacts with Atatürk from November, 1931 through his death in November, 1938 (as reflected in the list of official appointments kept by his receptionists and published in Turkish), and seek to assess the significance of the contacts. The shortcomings of the data must be pointed out immediately. First, it covers only official appointments, whereas it is known that Atatürk almost nightly held dinners at which vital issues were debated among many influential persons. Second, the appointment calendar does not show the length of appointments, the subjects discussed, whether the visits might have been for ceremonial reasons only, etc. Third, it is very difficult to measure "influence" even if we had more complete data such as just mentioned. Nevertheless, I feel that certain tentative conclusions can be drawn and general patterns delineated which will supplement other data previously published and data still unresearched.

Keywords

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Life of Kemal Atatürk, Associates of Kemal Atatürk, 1932-1938, Period of Presidency