But with Sunday’s victory in both the presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan has now arguably achieved the same degree of control and power as Atatürk managed nearly a century ago – especially with the reform that turns Turkey into a presidential system now taking effect.
In March, Erdogan overtook Atatürk as Turkey’s longest-serving leader (the latter died on his 5,492nd day in office). The president’s supporters already worship him like a god. Moreover, he has been shaping Turkish society over the past 16 years in a way like no other Turkish leader since Atatürk’s reign ended in 1938. [...]
It is no wonder, then, that for the past decade, Erdogan has been obsessed with the year 2023, when Turkey celebrates 100 years since the establishment of the Republic. His rhetoric about a “New Turkey” – by which he means an economically successful state that has broken free of what he sees as the shackles of repressive secularism – has the centenary as its symbolic target. And, of course, Erdogan has long coveted reaching the year 2023 in power, thus presenting himself as the “founding father” of the “New Turkey” while the country is celebrating Atatürk, the hero of the Turkish War of Independence. [...]
Erdogan later called the coup “a gift from God” – a comment that observers understood to refer to the opportunity it gave him to go after members of Gülen’s movement. But Erdogan likely also saw it as a chance to boost his historical standing. This explains why the narrative of the “second war of independence,” of the victory against “foreign, occupying forces” during the night of the coup was quickly promoted by the government and its obliging press. On the coup’s first anniversary, the state offered hundreds of overseas journalists luxury trips to Turkey to hear the story firsthand.
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