Liberal Kemalism

Liberal Kemalism is a convergence between Kemalism, the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey, and the idea of liberalism, which is based on liberty. Liberal Kemalism is a synthesis of classical liberalism and Kemalism. It was created by Ahmet Ağaoğlu in the 1930s, who was previously a nationalist person. Most Liberal Kemalists support Kemalist ideas such as secularism, republicanism, and reformism. Even though Liberal Kemalism was formalised by Ahmet Ağaoğlu, some historians might argue the fact that Atatürk was a liberal too in persona, or a more precisely estimate would be that he was a social liberal or a national liberal, but wasn't able to act on his liberal thoughts for the first decade of the republic because of the shortage of capital. Those historians support this idea with several evidentiary proofs. One of them being an opening speech that Atatürk made on November 1, 1937: "Unless there is an absolute necessity, the markets can't be intervened; also, no markets can be completely free." Secondly, the historians argue the fact that most of the regulations that has been decided at Izmir Economics Congress (1923) were liberal too. And for a final proof, historians say that after the resignation of the prime minister of the time İsmet İnönü, who is known to be a supporter of statist and a more regulated economy, Atatürk's assigning of Celal Bayar – who is known to be a liberal – to the Prime Ministry position in 1937, was indeed an act to make the markets of Turkey more liberal.