MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATURK AND HIS VISION OF THE TURKIC WORLD

Abstract

The geography, which has been called "Central Asia/Turkestan" from past to present, has always been seen as the first Turkish provinces in the sources in terms of common culture, civilization and ethnology, and a special importance has been attributed to this region. This geography, which has a historical and strategic depth, has always preserved its place in Atatürk's subconscious, and he followed reasonable-logical policies step by step for these ancient lands. He believed that the spiritual ties between Anatolian Turks and the Turkish world should always be strong and should not be forgotten. National culture, which is at the forefront of these items, essentially meant the development of language theses with a common historical consciousness. Atatürk drew particular attention to two main factors for the work to be done in these areas; the first is the adoption of a national consciousness within Anatolia, and the second is the establishment of language-culture unity with the outside Turks. The basis of the ideas of unity of the Turkish World was actually expressed by some important Turkish intellectuals before Atatürk. This idea of unity especially started with the Second Constitutional Monarchy (1908), and by being embodied in the Balkan Wars, it has grown since then and opened the door to new formations. Mustafa Kemal, who considered it appropriate to establish a cultural bond with foreign Turks due to the conjuncture, saw the concrete return of this visionary thought in the War of Independence. In other words, without breaking diplomatic ties with the Bolsheviks, he was able to receive financial and moral support both from that region and from the Turkish world. In this sense, Atatürk spread the idea of Turkish unity over time and acted according to the conditions of the period, and made efforts to revive the ties that were on the verge of being lost, especially with the studies in the field of common language, history and culture. In this study, Atatürk's view of the political and cultural unity of the Turkish world and the content of the projects he tried to create the infrastructure for the future will be discussed in a general framework in the light of the data in the scanned literature and archives.