unbelief was gathering force to completely stifle the Islamic faith of the people of Anatolia.

• The Attempt to Uproot Islam

Indeed, 1925 had seen the start of twenty-five years of an absolute despotism which descended on Anatolia at the very moment of its liberation. By supreme effort its people had driven out the enemies who had seized their land and threatened their existence. Now it was becoming clear that one of those who had led them in that struggle and subsequently established himself as the nation's leader in Ankara, namely Mustafa Kemal, intended to root up the very values they had sacrificed themselves to preserve, their religion, Islam, and replace it with those of their eternal enemies. This could be done only by force. His purpose was to make Turkey into a Western-style state, so had to uproot one complete way of life together with everything that made it what it was, and impose an alien one. For centuries the Turkish people had carried the banner of the Islamic world, to be a Turk was to be a Muslim, every comer of Anatolia bore the traces of their forefather's religion, each part of its soil had been watered by their blood. Now, in order to remove all obstacles to Westernization, the intention was to distance them from Islam, to make them forget their religion, to sever all their links with the past. How could this be done other than by force, by despotism, by rooting out the very heart of the Turkish nation?
The drive to bring this about began soon after the victory in the War of Independence, and proceeded on all fronts. One after the other the institutions and marks of Islam were abolished or banned, and replaced by imported Western models. First the power of the Ulema, still considerable, which also constituted a possible threat to Mustafa Kemal, was removed. The Caliphate, the Office of Seyhü’l-Islam, and Ministry of the Seriat were all abolished; and the religious schools, the medreses, were closed. This all occurred in 1924 before Bediuzzaman visited Istanbul on his way to exile.
Following the Seyh Said Revolt in 1925, with the new dictatorial powers afforded the G overnment by the Law for the Maintenance of Order mentioned above, a law was passed providing for the closure of all dervish lodges, Sufi convents, and tombs of saints, and for the