Erdoğan’s Atatürk: memory politics and the symbolic reconfiguration of the founding legacy in Turkey

This article examines how President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reconfigures the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk through commemorative discourse. Using Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), it demonstrates a dual strategy: delegitimizing the early Republican era as exclusionary and culturally alien while selectively reclaiming Atatürk as a symbol of national sovereignty, continuity, and popular will. Rather than rejecting the founding figure, Erdoğan incorporates him into the AK Party's ideological vision. Drawing on theoretical insights from collective memory and memory politics, the study traces how the founding legacy is selectively reinterpreted in contemporary struggles over political legitimation, offering a perspective on symbolic politics of contemporary Türkiye.