Reforms of the Republic.

The legal, educational, social, political, and economic transformations that built modern Turkey between 1922 and 1937.

Legal Reforms

1924. Religious courts (Sharia courts) abolished; unified secular judiciary established.
1926. Swiss Civil Code adopted, replacing Ottoman Islamic family law. Polygamy banned; civil marriage made mandatory; women granted equal rights in divorce and inheritance.
1926. Italian Penal Code adopted, replacing the Ottoman criminal code.
1926. German Commercial Code adopted, modernizing trade and business law.
1928. Constitutional clause designating Islam as the state religion removed.
1937. The Six Arrows incorporated into the constitution, codifying the principles of the republic.

1924. Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu (Law of Unification of Education) places all schools under the Ministry of Education. Religious medreses closed.
1928. Latin-based Turkish alphabet replaces Arabic script. Ataturk promotes the new letters in public demonstrations.
1929. Arabic and Persian language courses removed from school curricula.
1933. Istanbul University reorganized as a modern secular institution with assistance from exiled German academics.
1936. The Village Institutes program begins training teachers for rural Anatolia.

1928. The alphabet reform replaces Arabic script with a 29-letter Latin-based alphabet, dramatically increasing literacy over the following decade.
1932. Turk Dil Kurumu (Turkish Language Association) founded to replace Arabic and Persian loanwords with Turkish equivalents.
1932. The Turkish History Thesis presented, reinterpreting Turkish history within a national framework.
1934. The Surname Law requires all citizens to adopt fixed family names. The Assembly grants Mustafa Kemal the surname "Ataturk."

The truest guide in life is science.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, 1924

1925. The Hat Law bans the fez, encouraging Western-style headwear. Sufi orders (tekke) and religious brotherhoods (tarikat) closed.
1925. The international (Gregorian) calendar and 24-hour clock adopted, replacing the Islamic Rumi calendar.
1926. International numerals adopted in place of Arabic-Indic numerals.
1930. Women gain voting rights in local elections.
1934. Women gain full suffrage in national elections, before France (1944) and Italy (1946).
1935. The weekly day of rest shifts from Friday to Sunday. The metric system becomes mandatory.

1922. The Ottoman sultanate abolished by the Grand National Assembly. Sultan Mehmed VI leaves Istanbul.
1923. The Republic of Turkey proclaimed on October 29. Ankara named capital. Mustafa Kemal elected first president.
1924. The caliphate abolished on March 3, separating religious authority from the state.
1924. Ministry of Sharia and Pious Foundations (Seriye ve Evkaf Vekaleti) dissolved.
1930. Brief experiment with a controlled opposition party (Free Republican Party) to test multi-party democracy.
1934. Religious titles and honorifics (hoca, haci, molla,efendi) banned as forms of address.

1924. Is Bankasi (Business Bank) founded to provide credit for Turkish entrepreneurs.
1927. Tesvik-i Sanayi Kanunu (Law for the Encouragement of Industry) provides incentives for domestic manufacturing.
1934. First Five-Year Industrialization Plan launched, establishing state enterprises in textiles, steel, paper, and chemicals.
1935. Etibank and other state economic enterprises founded to develop mining, energy, and banking.
1937. Second Five-Year Plan prepared (implementation interrupted by World War II).