Atatürk ruled the modern state of Turkey, as we know it today, till his death in 1938.

Major changes Atatürk put through:

• 1924          Turkey adopts its constitution
• 1925          Law abolishes polygamy
• 1926          Western style for legal code is introduced and from now on a civil marriage is required  instead of a religious one
• 1928          The Latin alphabet replaces the Arabic one. Islam is removed as the state religion.
• 1930          Constantinople becomes Istanbul and turkifications of other names of Turkish cities follow
• 1934          The right to vote and serve in parliament is granted for women too.
• 1935          Till this time, last names were not common in the Islamic world. Atatürk had everybody choose him or herself a last name.

Ataturk established the fundamentals of the modern, secular, westernized state Turkey is today.

After Ataturk

WW II stood in front of the door. The Turks tried to balance the slippery path of neutrality, fairly successfully. Internally it kept being in turmoil. Inönü, Atatürk's follower, stepped to a more democratic rule, but democracy isn't an easy way to go. In 1960 to 1970 the army intervened, protecting democracy and the constitution as Atatürk had declared them to do so. Clashes between left and right, money from Russia to destabilize the country and political parties in the center unable to do, or unwilling to do any governing, turns the country in a downward spiral. In 1980 for the third time the military intervened, bringing back law and order, but under the distantly but ever watching eye of the military.

After 1980 Turkey grew quickly. Nowadays it is a modern country with a fast growing free economy, but with political parties who have no trouble handling corruption, opportunism, inefficiency, bribes etc. in a single hand. With political parties unable to obtain a majority in parliament and incompetent of functioning in a coalition government, still Turkey is growing in wealth (although not evenly divided) and is one of the richest and best doing countries of the Balkan.

Many times although Turks will remark with all what's going wrong in political, economical, social and law system, the country still stand on its legs and is growing. This shows the resilience of Turkey. On many a story the final reply will often be - in good and bad way -:

Iste, burasi Türkiye!

Hey, this is Turkey! Everything is possible!