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Ataturk’s Ideology Seen Deleted as Turkey Drafts New Charter

  • Erdogan aide says references to any ideology to be removed
  • Ataturk legacy viewed as bedrock of Turkey’s secular structure
A man sells flags of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, near the new mosque at Eminonu district in Istanbul, on June 9, 2016.

A man sells flags of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, near the new mosque at Eminonu district in Istanbul, on June 9, 2016.

Photographer: Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images
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Turkey’s leaders plan to remove references in the constitution binding public servants to the ideology of the nation’s secular founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the state, its principles and institutions under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The prevailing view is that there should be no reference to any specific ideology in the new constitution,” Mehmet Ucum, a chief adviser to Erdogan, said in an interview at the presidential palace in Ankara. “It’s thought to be more appropriate if the constitution’s preamble states that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the founding leader of the Turkish Republic.”