Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Nation

“Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

As quoted by Paul Wolfowitz in an address to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, D.C. (13 March 2002) http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=198
Context: Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say "What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?" If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.

Parting

“Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive. Yet it is also very important to note that religion is a link between Allah and the individual believer.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

As quoted in Kemalizm, Laiklik ve Demokrasi [Kemalism, Laicism and Democracy] (1994) by Ahmet Taner Kışlalı
Context: Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive. Yet it is also very important to note that religion is a link between Allah and the individual believer. The brokerage of the pious cannot be permitted. Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight. Know that whatever conforms to reason, logic, and the advantages and needs of our people conforms equally to Islam. If our religion did not conform to reason and logic, it would not be the perfect religion, the final religion.

Religion

“Our object now is to strengthen the ties that bind us to other nations. There may be a great many countries in the world, but there is only one civilization, and if a nation is to achieve progress, she must be a part of this civilization. The Ottoman Empire began to decline the day when, proud of her success against the West, she cut the ties that bound her to the European nations.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Speech to the press (29 October 1923), quoted in Vakur Versan, 'The Kemalist Reform of Turkish Law and Its Impact', in Jacob M. Landau (ed.), Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1984), p. 247

World , Success , Parting , Country

“The nation has placed its faith in the precept that all laws should be inspired by actual needs here on earth as a basic fact of national life.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

As quoted in A World View of Criminal Justice (2005) by Richard K. Vogler, p. 116

Life , Faith , Law

“Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Variant translation: Unless a nation's citizens are in danger, war is a crime.
"Adana Çiftçileriyle Konuşma" (16 March 1923) http://www.atam.gov.tr/index.php?Page=SoylevDemecler&IcerikNo=155; English translation as delivered in an address by Talat S. Halman (10 November 1995) http://turkishembassy.com/II/O/AtaturksPage.htm, quoted in The Turkish Times (1 December 1995)

Life , War

“Even before accepting the religion of the Arabs, the Turks were a great nation. After accepting the religion of the Arabs, this religion, didn't effect to combine the Arabs, the Persians and Egyptians with the Turks to constitute a nation. (This religion) rather, loosened the national nexus of Turkish nation, got national excitement numb. This was very natural. Because the purpose of the religion founded by Muhammad, over all nations, was to drag to an including Arab national politics.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

As quoted in Medenî Bilgiler ve M. Kemal Atatürk'ün El Yazıları [Civics and M. Kemal Atatürk's Manuscripts] (1998) by Afet İnan, p. 364

Religion , Nature

“Sovereignty and kingship are never decided by academic debate. They are seized by force. The Ottoman dynasty appropriated by force the government of the Turks, and reigned over them for six centuries. Now the Turkish nation has effectively gained possession of its sovereignty… This is an accomplished fact… If those assembled here … see the matter in its natural light, we shall all agree. Otherwise, facts will still prevail, but some heads may roll.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, 1922 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_the_Ottoman_sultanate; also quoted in Nutuk http://tr.wikisource.org/wiki/Nutuk/14._b%C3%B6l%C3%BCm/M%C3%BC%C5%9Fterek_Enc%C3%BCmen%27e_anlatt%C4%B1%C4%9F%C4%B1m_hakikat (1927) by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Light , Nature

“The torch that the Turkish nation holds in her hand and in her mind, while marching on the road of progress and civilisation, is positive sciences.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Speech on the tenth anniversary of the Republic, 1933 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atat%C3%BCrk%27s_Tenth_Year_Speech

Science

“I do not leave any verses, dogmas, nor any moulded standard principles as moral heritage. My moral heritage is science and reason. What I have done and intended to do for the Turkish nation lies in that. Anyone willing to appropriate my ideas for themselves after me will be my moral inheritors provided they would approve the guidance of science and reason on this axis.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

As quoted in Kemalist Devrim ve İdeolojisi (1980) by İsmet Giritli, İstanbul Üniversitesi Yayınları, p. 13

Idea , Science