‘Rekindling’ a Flame Long Gone

The death of the Eternal Chief, as Atatürk was posthumously designated, as already pointed out, created a gap in the Republic’s political system, as it removed one of the pillars that bestowed on it the effects of his auctoritas, derived from his charisma and his privileged relationship with ‘the people’, within the political elite and in the country at large. The republican elite, partly in order to endow itself, the party and the Republic’s institutions with the auctoritas of the late president, planned the transition in ways that would allow it to emphasise the inextricable links connecting Atatürk, the state and the CHP. In strictly ritualistic terms, Atatürk was celebrated and commemorated, not only as the deceased President of the Republic, but also as the lost father of ‘the people’. The mourning mood of the sober ceremonies was reflected in the press coverage of Gazi’s passing and the popular reaction to it. Atatürk’s body lay in state in Dolmabahçe Palace flanked by three high torches at each side symbolising the six pillars of Kemalist ideology. There, over three days, thousands of mourners paid their respects (Hürriyet, 10 November 1998) and, after a religious funeral closed to the public, Atatürk’s body was transferred with military honours to a special funeral train awaiting it at İzmit, whence it completed its land trip to Ankara, where it was greeted by his successor, İsmet İnönü, and other high-ranking government officials amid widespread demonstrations of grief and mourning (Zürcher 2017:185).

İsmet İnönü, elected as president the day after Atatürk’s death thanks to support from CHP hardliners and the Turkish military, and as CHP leader at an extraordinary party congress in December 1938, was designated Permanent Party Chairman and, to ensure that the continuity of leadership of the party and the state became visible to the public, he was proclaimed National Chief (Millî Şef ), a title used for Atatürk in the 1930s. In that congress, Mustafa Kemal was designated the ‘eternal party chairman’, in an attempt to stress that his legacy was being kept alive in the CHP. İnönü made clear that his predecessor’s basic policies would be left intact, as would the guiding principles of Kemalism. The Republic claimed the unbroken continuity between the Atatürk era and the uncertain times whose arrival had been marked by his death.