Turkish Military Cadets Chant 'We Are Ataturk's Soldiers' – A Nostalgic Call for Secularism or Hint of Rebellion?

Around 400 Turkish military cadets, during their graduation ceremony, took an oath to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This came after the traditional military oath, revealing that secular strongholds still exist.

The “secular oath” sworn to the founder of secular Turkiye (Atatürk), chanted by the graduates while raising their swords, contradicts the new military oath implemented in 2022, which omits any mention of Atatürk.

Political and partisan reactions to this act have been divided. Erdogan's threat to dismiss these graduates for their allegiance to secularism, along with the military’s announcement of an investigation, indicates that the battle between secularists and the movement to restore Turkiye’s Islamic heritage is far from over.

‘Ataturk's Soldiers’

On August 30, 2024, following a graduation ceremony for 960 officers at the Turkish Military Academy, around 400 of them celebrated their graduation outdoors, chanting: “We are Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s soldiers, we are the guardians of secularism.”

A striking aspect of the ceremony was that the top graduates of all three classes were female, with the first in rank, Ebru Eroglu, leading the oath to Ataturk. The young officers followed her in reciting a second oath, after the official one, pledging their loyalty to Ataturk.

This event sparked debate in Turkiye. Some viewed it as a display of enthusiasm from the new graduates, while others saw it as a “new military rebellion message,” possibly backed by secular leaders within the military who trained these graduates.

Many Turks reacted on social media, warning of the resurgence of secularist ideology, which has been behind several coup attempts in Turkiye’s military history.

Secular circles and opposition parties, particularly the Republican People’s Party (CHP), founded by Ataturk, along with the Istanbul mayor, voiced their support for the graduates' actions. They warned against any repercussions and declared, “We are Ataturk’s soldiers.”

Istanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, criticized President Erdogan’s stance, stating, “The loyalty of our armed forces to the Republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, transcends politics.” He urged the government to “abandon the habit of framing every incident as a coup.”

Ozgur Ozel, Leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), criticized President Erdogan’s remarks about punishing the new lieutenants, condemning what he called the “exploitation of newly commissioned officers wielding swords for political purposes.”

He urged that these talented young officers should not be “sacrificed for Erdoğan’s hardline political agenda.”

In contrast, figures from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli saw this as a new military rebellion, reminiscent of the 2016 coup attempt.

They argued that these chants were a threat and a deliberate effort to revive the dark era of military coups, calling for an investigation.

The slogan, they claimed, was politically charged and aligned with a party, namely Ataturk’s CHP. First heard after the 1997 coup of February 28, the slogan had been abolished in 2016 but resurfaced this year.

President Erdogan took a decisive stance on September 7, 2024, stating, “Whoever they are, it is not possible for them to be part of our military,” and vowed to cleanse the military of those responsible. Reports indicated that at least 100 of the new graduates were immediately dismissed following the ceremony.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony for religious school students, Erdogan directly addressed the secular officers who had sworn allegiance to Ataturk while raising their swords, “Against whom are you raising your swords? What was your intent?”

He added, “The military will be purged of these opportunists,” and promised to cleanse it of the “ignorant few responsible for this secular oath,” asserting, “We will never allow the army to be used for political purposes, nor will we tolerate any attempt to divide it.”

In a speech following a government meeting on September 9, 2024, President Erdogan stated, “We will not allow the weakening of the army or its use in political calculations, nor will we tolerate the exploitation of Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's name for political purposes.”

He added that meetings had been held with university officials and the land forces to discuss the incident, emphasizing, “We are against any attempt that would cast a shadow on the discipline, harmony, and reputation of our military.”

Targeting secularists, Erdogan warned, “Those dreaming of power through alliances with foreign forces are today trying to manipulate the nation by exploiting the name of Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.”

He also sent a message to both secularists and his Islamist supporters, stating that “the matter of drafting a civilian constitution is no longer just an urgent need; it has become a duty for Turkish democracy to settle scores with coups and the coup mentality.”

The Ministry of Defense confirmed that an investigation had already begun, while Hurriyet reported on September 8, 2024, that the commander of the graduating officers' battalion from the War College had resigned following widespread reactions to his unit's actions.

Implications and Consequences

After Erdogan assumed the role of Prime Minister and later President of Turkiye, the secular state began to adopt a more overtly Islamic stance, moving away from the secular traditions of “Kemalist Turkiye” that had been established when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk became the first president of the republic on April 23, 1920, and abolished the caliphate.

Since Ataturk, the military had positioned itself as the guardian of secularism, leading to a series of coups, including three between 1960 and 1980, as well as the ousting of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan’s “Islamic” government in 1997.

However, in 2016, after the public thwarted the last coup attempt against Erdogan, thousands were purged from the armed forces, judiciary, and other public institutions, and generals involved in previous coups were prosecuted.

President Erdogan attended the military academy graduation ceremony in Ankara on August 30, 2024. The incident only came to light later, when these officers celebrated again by raising their swords and chanting for Ataturk.

This parallel ceremony was not part of the official graduation program for officers from the Army, Navy, and Air Force academies.

Many Turks and analysts viewed this recent event, where graduates swore allegiance to Ataturk’s secularism, as a dangerous sign of the resurgence of secularists and coup plotters within the military, fearing its connection to past military coups.

They saw the incident as a “political message” and “signs of rebellion” against the government, sparking intense debate in the media and on social platforms. Some warned of its implications, while others downplayed it as a routine occurrence.

Pro-government commentators harshly criticized the actions of the military graduates, pointing out that it could challenge Erdogan's government.

Meanwhile, secularists praised the ceremony as a signal that “the Turkish army will remain secular, regardless of the ruling Islamic-oriented party.”

Secularism in the Military

This event brought to mind another event from April 3, 2021, which showed the continuing rebellion of secularists against Erdogan's authority and his party’s move toward reviving Turkiye's Islamic heritage as a source of its uniqueness and strength.

In that instance, 103 retired naval admirals issued a “military memo” criticizing Erdogan's plan for a new canal, “Istanbul,” which was seen as a sign of a potential coup attempt.

While the official focus of the retired admirals’ statement was the Istanbul Canal, their real aim was to oppose Erdogan’s plans to amend the secular constitution, according to a previous report by Al-Estiklal.

The core issue behind their statement, masked by their opposition to the canal, was the proposed constitutional changes, which they claimed deviated from the “path set by Ataturk, the founder of the republic.”

At that time, the admirals expressed discomfort over “discussions to amend the constitution,” reaffirming the military's rejection of any changes or the drafting of a new constitution.

One of the key amendments, passed by parliament on January 25, 2023, provided constitutional guarantees for women to wear the hijab.

What unsettled Erdogan was the admirals’ attempt to revive the idea that “the military is the guardian of secularism and Ataturk's principles,” which was, later, dismantled to a large extent by the people’s uprising against the July 2016 coup.

The generals, as Ataturk’s heirs, believed that they alone had the right to draft and amend the constitution, treating it as “military property” in a bid to preserve what remained of the secularists’ influence.

This led Erdogan and his party to condemn the admirals' memo as having “sinister coup undertones,” denouncing it as a “reminder of the coup era” with rhetoric that evoked memories of past military takeovers.

Most of the admirals involved were aligned with the “Kemalist left,” a powerful faction in the Turkish military and foreign affairs, though weak in other state institutions, as noted by Turkish journalist Muhammed Unalmis.

The recurrence of incidents like the “Secular Oath” by the graduates of the Military Academy on August 30, 2024, has raised concerns—not about the new officers themselves, but about the generals who trained them, who still hold the same secular, Ataturk-inspired coup mentality.

Changes Against Secularism

President Erdogan, on October 28, 2022, introduced the “Century of Turkiye” vision for his party (AKP), outlining the programs and objectives for the republic’s new century.

The goal of this vision is to replace the current constitution, which was crafted by the secular coup generals.

An analysis of the 16 general points of the “Century of Turkiye” reveals that Turkiye set three main objectives following Erdogan’s victory in the May 2023 elections:

First, drafting a civilian constitution to replace the 1982 constitution. The 1982 constitution (amended several times, most recently in 2017) was written by military generals after the 1980 coup.

It was overseen by coup leader General Kenan Evren, who, similar to Egypt’s Sisi after the 2013 coup, conducted fraudulent elections that resulted in his election as president in November 1982 with 90% of the vote.

This military-drafted constitution strengthened the army’s role in civilian life, under the pretext of protecting the republic and secularism, as outlined in Articles 35 and 85.

It also granted coup generals immunity from prosecution in Article 15. Thirty years after the coup, Erdogan’s AKP managed to amend dozens of articles in that constitution, including the military’s immunity, but it remained a patchwork.

Since then, the 1982 constitution has undergone 19 amendments, 10 of which were during the AKP's rule. This is why Erdogan has declared that the priority for the next century should be to draft a new constitution.

Second, the pursuit of a “New Turkiye” or a “Strong Turkiye” has always been central to Erdogan and the AKP's rhetoric, contrasting with the “Old Turkiye”—weak, ineffective, and burdened with internal and external crises, including the issue of arms production.

Erdogan has worked to strengthen Turkiye by providing all the necessary elements of material power, including science, industry, healthcare, and weaponry, transforming Turkiye into a major influential state.

Third is the emphasis on prioritizing moral superiority and the triumph of “the rightful” over “the powerful” in the coming century.

On June 7, 2024, tensions flared between Erdogan and secularists over the new educational curriculum, which secularists complained weakened secularism. Erdogan, however, defended the changes as part of his vision for education, according to Reuters.

The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), along with educational unions and NGOs, expressed concerns about the democratic credentials of the curriculum, criticizing the shift towards religious studies at the expense of other subjects.

Yet, the Turkish president dismissed these criticisms and pledged to prioritize “national values” in response to secular parties' concerns that the changes might erode the scientific and secular foundations of schools.

“We will not allow anyone to come between the children of this country and religious values. The period in which children faced discrimination just because they prayed and wore a headscarf is behind us,” Erdogan said, referring to his reversal of a ban on headscarves in schools and public institutions in the 2000s.

In late May 2024, the Ankara government approved the curriculum referred to as the “Turkiye Century Education Model,” which has been gradually implemented starting from the current school year.

Under Erdogan's watch, Turkiye has opened many “Imam Hatip” Islamic schools, aligning with his goal of creating a “pious generation.”

The steps taken in 2023 to reinforce traditional moral values among students, increase Islamic lessons, and open prayer rooms in schools have further fueled secularist fears, particularly among secular political parties in Turkiye.