The Republic of Turkey is proclaimed
Mustafa Kemal becomes the first president of a secular republic built from the wreckage of a six-century empire.
Quick facts
- Proclaimed
- 29 October 1923
- Capital
- Ankara
- First president
- Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk)
- Caliphate abolished
- March 1924
What happened
On 29 October 1923, the Grand National Assembly formally proclaimed the Republic of Turkey, with Ankara, rather than Ottoman Constantinople, as its capital. Mustafa Kemal became the republic's first president and immediately began a program of political, economic, and cultural reform intended to transform the former Ottoman territory into a modern, secular nation-state, later formalized under the ideology of Kemalism, built on republicanism, secularism, and nationalism. In March 1924, the Assembly abolished the Ottoman caliphate as well, the last remaining office connected to the House of Osman, and closed the religious courts and schools that had operated under it.
Why it matters
The republic replaced an empire that had spanned three continents at its height with a nation-state confined to Anatolia and eastern Thrace, built explicitly on the rejection of the dynastic and religious institutions that had defined Ottoman governance for over six centuries. Kemal's reforms in the years that followed, including the adoption of a Latin alphabet, secular law codes, and women's suffrage, reshaped Turkish society more completely than any single Ottoman reform movement had managed.
How we know
A SUNY-hosted world history course documents the 29 October 1923 proclamation, Mustafa Kemal's presidency, and the reform program that followed, describing it as an explicit attempt to build a modern secular nation-state from former Ottoman territory.
Sources
- SUNY, Lumen Learning World History. Ataturk and Turkish Independence · General sourcecourses.lumenlearning.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Ottoman Empire · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineThe Ottoman Empire31 events · A frontier warband on the edge of Byzantium grows into a 600-year empire spanning three continents, then dissolves into a modern republic.View all →