Career of Mustafa Kemal
This is an excerpt from the paper...
This research paper deals with an important facet of Mustafa Kemal's career, namely, the facts and circumstances,including his personal leadership qualities, decisions and actions which accompanied and were instrumental in his rise to a position of supreme power in Turkey. The principal focus of this essay is on the middle period of that career (1915 1927) when Kemal was between the ages of 34 and 46. Its thesis is that a primary factor in Kemal's rise to power was his extraordinary talent during that period in: assessing accurately the nature and the strength of the forces with which Turkey and he had to contend; establishing clear and attainable goals; and employing and implementing realistic means to achieve those goals. Mustafa Kemal (1881 1938), the son of an unimportant Ottoman military officer and customs clerk, was named by his parents, as was then the custom, Mustafa (Mister). One of his teachers, impressed with his apt pupil, reportedly added Kemal (Perfection) (Kinross, 1965, p. 14). Kemal was in many respects a remarkable individual and an extremely effective military and political leader. He was far from being a perfect human being. Prior to the Dardanelles campaign, his future as a military officer was questionable. On occasion, he used up his troops in a profligate manner. His underlings committed (but he did not direct or initiate) some of the worst atrocities in modern Turkis
. . .
tion for the weakness of Turkey's position, Mango says that "Mustafa Kemal knew how to bide his time and divide his enemies" (Mango, 1968, p. 46). He organized several National Assemblies which appointed him Commander and Chief of the armed forces and President of the National Assembly. His power was, however, not absolute at that time, so he proceeded, according to Mango, "to eliminate his opponents and rivals one by one" (p. 51).
Kemal's Consolidation of Power (1923 1927)
After his army defeated the Greeks and expelled them from Asia Minor following the Turkish capture of Smyrna in the fall of 1922, Kemal was "in no mood to even consider a compromise solution" (Kouslatis, 1974, p. 126), but once the war was over, "he made peace with the Greeks, settling the ancient disputes between them by the brutal but effective method of an exchange of populations" (Lewis, 1961, p. 255) in Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace.
Indifferent to religion himself and known to despise religious extremists, Kemal walked a fine line on religion. He repeatedly invoked the spirit of Islamic holy war to motivate the army and the population to eject the infidels. After the Greeks had been defeated, he became dissatisfied with the faction ridden Nat
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Britain Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, Greek Armenian, Leader Allies, Hitlerian Stalinist, Sanders Kemal, Opposition Kemal, Mustafa Kemal's, Kemal Lenczowski, Izmir Kemal, armstrong 1933, mustafa kemal, kinross 1964, moorehead 1956, asia minor, mango 1968, civil war, university press, turkish army, power kemal, 1923 treaty lausanne, 1965 14 kemal, armenian nationalist aspirations, kinross 1965 14,
Approximate Word count = 3500
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Career of Mustafa Kemal
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
