Prof. Sean McMeekin, a Stanford and Berkeley graduate, has compiled the process from Abdulhamid’s accession to the throne to Lausanne in a 526-page book titled The Last Chapter in the Ottoman Empire.
‘I was very impressed by Ataturk’s putting forward his vision of a constitutional Republic of Turkey, instead of using his military prestige in 1922 to seek to become sultan.’
Atatürk explained why he preferred a republic over a sultanate as follows:
‘A republic is a government based on moral virtue. A republic is virtue. A sultanate is a government based on fear and threats. A republican government raises virtuous and honorable people. Because a sultanate is based on fear and threats, it raises cowardly, lowly, miserable and disgraceful people. The difference is just these.'