ABSTRACT
The first achievement of the Turkish Republic was to establish law and order in a country where lawlessness and brigandage had been endemic. One can even say that law and order were the precondition for the establishment of the republic. Speaking to journalists on January 16, 1923, some eight months before the republic was proclaimed, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the new state, said:
I believe that the overriding aim of domestic policy should be to establish order, security and discipline in the country. My latest enquiries have shown that . . . the level of order and security in the country is very high. Except for a couple of political bands – which have appeared and have been struck down recently – there have been no incidents. Even ordinary crime is decreasing.1
