At the same time, through political and administrative pressure and greater efficiency, secularization and modernization have increasingly pervaded the rural areas and small towns. State schools have increased in numbers in the countryside, introducing more-national and cosmopolitan ideas. Bureaucracy has introduced registration of births, deaths, and marriages and more-complex systems of credit and law. Land disputes are now often settled by official and legal means rather than by local social pressures. Legal divorce has tended to replace socially recognized separation.
The state is constitutionally secular, but it still controls the religious establishment. Until 1950 no religious teaching was permitted, but modern religious schools and theology faculties were later established, and religious lessons were allowed in state schools. Many courses and groups outside the state system have been set up to teach children religion, and the number of new mosques is large. Thus, the deep attachment of the majority to Islam has been demonstrated. With the exception of a secularist elite, many Turkish people remain committed to a Muslim identity and to an Islamic worldview.
Changes in kinship, family, and marriage have resulted from economic and demographic changes. Young men can now more easily establish economic independence. Universal formal education and the possibilities of upward social mobility or migration for work have given young people a view of the world that is different from that of their ancestors, but significant changes in customary behaviour are slow in developing. Arts and media
During the 20th century, Western forms of art, music, and literature assumed a place in Turkish national culture alongside traditional indigenous cultural expressions. While many writers, artists, and musicians have abandoned traditional Islamic modes in favour of Western ones, Turkish culture has adopted a strongly nationalistic slant evidenced by the use of the vernacular in literature, the depiction of village scenes in the visual arts, and the popularity of folk ballads and other traditional forms in music. Western-style theatres, orchestras, and opera companies are thriving, while the popular arts also flourish. There are many popular dances and games specific to particular regions. Folk instruments include drums, trumpets, flutes, tambourines, viols, and cymbals. Popular drama includes shadow plays, performed by puppets reflected on a linen screen, and the orta oyunu, a type of improvised comedy. Popular traditional literature takes the form of narrative (hikâye) and poetry (siir), recited by minstrels known as âşıks. Turkish contemporary literature was the focus of wide international regard when Orhan Pamuk, an acclaimed Turkish novelist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.
Formal cultural institutions are led by the Ministry of Culture, established in 1971. Organizations devoted to the sciences and arts include music conservatories in Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir, the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, the National Folklore Institute in Ankara, the Turkish Folklore Society in Istanbul, and many scientific and professional societies. There are archaeological museums in Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul. The National Library is located in Ankara.
The country’s leading newspapers include Milliyet, Sabah, Zaman, and Hürriyet, all based in Istanbul; Cumhuriyet is also an influential publication. The state-run Turkish Radio-Television Corporation (TRT) operates four radio networks and five domestic television channels, as well as a major international satellite television channel. There also are private radio stations and television channels. Freedom of the press is occasionally restricted, particularly for leftist or pro-Kurdish publications. Sports and recreation
Football (soccer) is a favourite sport in Turkey; introduced to the region in the late 19th century, the game was repressed by Ottoman officials, who believed that it was connected to rebellious activities. In 1923 a national federation was formed, and it became affiliated with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association later that year; in 1954 the country appeared in its first World Cup. Wrestling is another favoured sport. Numerous athletes still compete in oiled wrestling—a sport practiced in the region for some six centuries—in annual competitions.
Turkey made its first Olympic appearance at the 1908 games in London, where it was represented by gymnast Aleko Mulas. However, most of the country’s medals have been for wrestling, although it has also had success in boxing and track and field. One of Turkey’s most famous Olympians is Naim Süleymanoğlu (known as Pocket Hercules), a Bulgarian-born featherweight weightlifter who defected to Turkey while a teenager. Süleymanoğlu set numerous world records in the late 1980s and ’90s and won a number of Olympic gold medals. John C. Dewdney The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica History
This entry discusses the history of modern Turkey from its formation in the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat in World War I (1914–18) until the 21st century. For discussion of earlier history of the area, see Anatolia; Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal and the Turkish War of Independence, 1919–23
Although the legal Ottoman government in Istanbul under the 36th and last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI (Vahideddin; ruled 1918–22), had decided that resistance to Allied demands was impossible, pockets of resistance remained in Anatolia—the rump of the Ottoman state that later was to form the bulk of modern Turkey—after the Armistice of Mudros, the agreement that ended Ottoman involvement in World War I. These included bands of irregulars and deserters, a number of intact Ottoman units, and various societies for the “defense of rights.” Resistance was stimulated by the Greek occupation of İzmir (May 15, 1919). At this time Mustafa Kemal—one of the empire’s most successful officers during the war—was sent on an official mission to eastern Anatolia, landing at Samsun on May 19. He immediately began to organize resistance, despite official Ottoman opposition. Through the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Eastern Anatolia (founded March 3, 1919), congress was summoned at Erzurum (July–August), followed by a second congress at Sivas (September) with delegates representing the whole country. The new Association for the Defense of the Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia was established, and an executive committee with Mustafa Kemal as chairman was created to conduct resistance.
The official government yielded to Kemalist pressure. The unpopular grand vizier, Damad Ferid Pasha, resigned and was replaced by the more sympathetic Ali Riza Pasha. Negotiations with the Kemalists were followed by the election of a new parliament, which met in Istanbul in January 1920. A large majority in parliament was opposed to the official government policy and passed the National Pact, formulated at Erzurum and Sivas, which embodied the political aims of independence roughly within the October 1918 armistice lines. The Allies countered by extending the occupied area of Istanbul (March 16, 1920) and by arresting and deporting many deputies. Damad Ferid became grand vizier again on April 5 and, with religious support, set out to crush the Kemalists. The Fundamental Law and abolition of the sultanate
The Kemalists were now faced with local uprisings, official Ottoman forces, and Greek hostility. The first necessity was to establish a legitimate basis of action. A parliament, the Grand National Assembly, met at Ankara on April 23 and asserted that the sultan’s government was under infidel control and that it was the duty of Muslims to resist foreign encroachment. In the Fundamental Law of January 20, 1921, the assembly declared that sovereignty belonged to the nation and that the assembly was the “true and only representative of the nation.” The name of the state was declared to be Turkey (Türkiye), and executive power was entrusted to an executive council, headed by Mustafa Kemal, who could now concentrate on the war.