Why did modern Turkish replace the Arabic script with a Latin alphabet in 1928?

The transition from the Arabic script to the Latin alphabet in 1928 was a central component of the modernization reforms initiated by the Turkish republican government under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.12

The primary motivations for this shift included:

• Modernization and Secularization: The reform aimed to bring Turkey into the 20th century by distancing the nation from its Ottoman past, which was heavily influenced by religious traditions and the Arabic script.2
• Educational Advancement: By adopting the Latin alphabet, the government sought to improve literacy rates. The new script was more accessible, and the reform provided the youth with better access to Western scientific and humanistic traditions, effectively cutting them off from the religious emphasis of the previous era.2
• Linguistic Reform: The movement contributed to ridding the Turkish vocabulary of many foreign elements, such as Arabic and Persian loanwords and grammatical forms that had been absorbed over centuries, allowing for the emergence of an essentially new literary language.1

Atatürk personally championed this change, traveling throughout the countryside to demonstrate the new alphabet to the public.2