Cumhuritey — more commonly spelt Cumhuriyet — is the Turkish word for “republic.” It refers to the modern Turkish state founded on October 29, 1923, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk replaced the Ottoman sultanate with a secular, people-governed nation.
Today, it is also known as Turkey’s oldest and most internationally recognised newspaper.
The Word Itself — Where Cumhuritey Comes From
The word has a clear paper trail. It traces back to the Arabic Jumhur, meaning “the people” or “the public.” Ottoman Turkish absorbed it as Cümhûriyet, and modern Turkish simplified it to Cumhuriyet. The spelling “Cumhuritey” circulates in English-language writing as an informal transliteration — different letters, same concept.
What makes the word interesting is what it carries beyond its dictionary entry. In Turkish, calling something a cumhuriyet signals that sovereignty belongs to citizens, not a dynasty or a caliph. That distinction was not academic in 1923. It was a direct, deliberate break from six centuries of Ottoman rule.
October 29, 1923 — The Day the Republic Began
World War I left the Ottoman Empire in pieces. Allied forces occupied Istanbul. The empire’s government signed away large parts of Anatolia under the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. Most observers assumed that Turkey as a sovereign state was finished.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk disagreed. Between 1919 and 1923, he led the Turkish National Movement through a grinding war of independence against Greek, Armenian, French, and Italian forces. On April 23, 1920, his government established the Grand National Assembly in Ankara — deliberately far from the sultan’s occupied capital.
Three years later, the fighting was over. On October 29, 1923, the Assembly formally declared Turkey a republic. Atatürk became its first president. The word Cumhuriyet moved from political theory to constitutional fact in a single vote.
The new state’s international legal foundation came through the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which replaced Sèvres and recognised Turkish sovereignty — a rare case of a defeated World War I power successfully renegotiating its own terms.
The Six Pillars Atatürk Built the Republic On
Atatürk did not simply change the name of the government. He rewrote how Turkish society organised itself. His ideology — Kemalism — rests on six principles, often called Altı Ok (Six Arrows), embedded in Turkey’s 1937 constitution:
- Republicanism — power belongs to elected representatives, not hereditary rulers
- Nationalism — a shared Turkish civic identity above ethnic or religious divisions
- Populism — laws apply equally to all citizens
- Statism — the state directs economic development
- Secularism — religion and government operate in separate spheres
- Reformism — society must keep updating itself to stay modern
These were not soft aspirations. They produced real, measurable change. The Arabic script was replaced with a Latin alphabet in 1928, which raised literacy rates dramatically over two decades. Religious courts were abolished. In 1934 — ten years before France — Turkish women gained the right to vote in national elections. That single fact is one of the clearest demonstrations of what Cumhuriyet meant in practice.
Two Meanings, One Word — The Concept vs. The Newspaper
Here is where many readers get confused. Cumhuriyet refers both to the Turkish Republic as a political entity and to a newspaper that has been publishing since 1924. They are separate things, but they are not unrelated.
| Cumhuriyet (Republic) | Cumhuriyet (Newspaper) | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | October 29, 1923 | May 7, 1924 |
| Founder | Mustafa Kemal Atatürk | Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu |
| Core purpose | Political governance | Independent journalism |
| Stance | Secular, democratic state | Secular, pro-democracy press |
| Current owner | Turkish state (constitutional) | Cumhuriyet Foundation (since 2001) |
| Key challenge | Political polarization | Press freedom, government pressure |
The newspaper was founded just seven months after the republic by Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu, a journalist and close associate of Atatürk. It was designed from the start to advocate for the republic’s secular values — and it has done so at considerable cost.
In May 2015, the paper published footage purporting to show Turkish state intelligence trucks transporting weapons into Syria. President Erdoğan filed criminal charges. Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül were arrested. On the day of Dündar’s verdict, a gunman attempted to shoot him outside the courthouse.
That year, Reporters Without Borders awarded the newspaper its Freedom of the Press Prize. In 2016, it received the Right Livelihood Award — sometimes called the “Alternative Nobel” — for what the committee described as courageous investigative reporting under systematic state pressure.
The context for those awards matters: Turkey currently ranks 151st out of 180 countries in the RSF World Press Freedom Index. The newspaper’s survival is not a given.
Why Cumhuriyet Still Matters
Every year on October 29, Turkey observes Cumhuriyet Bayramı — Republic Day. Schools close. Flags go up on every public building. Military parades move through Ankara and Istanbul. Citizens lay wreaths at Atatürk’s mausoleum, Anıtkabir.
The celebration is not purely ceremonial. It is also a contested space. Supporters of Atatürk’s secular vision see the day as a reaffirmation of what the republic stands for. Critics of Turkey’s current government use it to push back against what they view as the erosion of those founding principles. The parade and the protest often happen within blocks of each other.
Internationally, the establishment of the Turkish Republic is studied in political science programs as one of the most successful examples of top-down national modernisation in the 20th century. Atatürk’s model influenced post-colonial nation-building across Africa and Asia.
That reach is why “Cumhuritey” — in whatever spelling you encounter — is worth understanding properly. It is not simply a Turkish political term. It represents a specific argument: that ordinary people, given the right institutional structures, can govern themselves without a monarch, a caliph, or a military strongman doing it for them. Whether Turkey has lived up to that argument in every generation is debated. That the argument was made, codified, and defended at real cost — that part is settled history.
FAQs
What does Cumhuriyet mean in English?
Cumhuriyet is the Turkish word for “republic.” It derives from the Arabic Jumhur, meaning “the people.” In political terms, it describes a system of governance where sovereignty belongs to citizens rather than a hereditary ruler.
Who founded the Republic of Turkey?
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk proclaimed the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923, following the Turkish War of Independence. He served as the country’s first president until he died in 1938.
What is the Cumhuriyet newspaper?
Founded on May 7, 1924, by journalist Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu, Cumhuriyet is Turkey’s oldest upmarket daily newspaper. It has been recognised internationally for its independent journalism and currently operates under the nonprofit Cumhuriyet Foundation.
When did Turkish women get the right to vote?
Turkish women gained full voting rights in national elections in 1934 — earlier than women in France (1944), Italy (1945), and Switzerland (1971).
What is Cumhuriyet Bayramı?
Cumhuriyet Bayramı is Turkey’s Republic Day, observed every October 29. It marks the anniversary of the republic’s proclamation in 1923 and is one of the country’s most significant national holidays.