If one wonders how Americans might have felt about George Washington 66 years after his death, they might visit Istanbul, Turkey and talk to Turks there about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk, the leader of the Turkish war for independence, has been dead since 10 November, 1938. He is still held in the highest regard by his countrymen. Our guide referred to him as “our national hero.”
Like Washington, Ataturk was military hero. He commanded a regiment at the WWI battle of Gallipoli. Later he served in the Caucuses fighting the Russians, suppressed a British inspired Arab revolt and in an unsuccessful campaign in Palestine.
Like Washington, Ataturk led the Turkish war for independence, when over-reaching victorious WWI allied forces (British, French) tried to occupy and divide up the Ottoman empire. Atarurk, at great odds, led nationalist forces to maintain what is today modern Turkey. Atatruk not only had to battle outside occupying forces but internal forces that remained committed to the keeping the Ottoman Sultan in power.
Like Washington, Ataturk became the first president of a fledgling democracy. While a bit more heavy handed politically than Washington, given the neighborhood, the constant meddling of European powers, and the width and breadth of reforms, Ataturks heavy-handedness might be unbderstood.
Turkey is now backsliding with Prime Minister Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who was once convicted for religious inciting religious hatred in 1998. He was sentenced to ten months imprisonment of which he served four between March and July 1999. His crime? Oddly, in a predominantly Muslim country he was convicted for reciting a well-known poem written by secular nationalist poet Ziya Gökalp, stating "Mosques are our barracks, domes our helmets, minarets our bayonets, believers our soldiers."
Our tour guide, a well educated woman with no desire for Islamist control of Turkey, noted that hopefully “he won’t be around long.”
1 comment:
Interesting post on Ataturk. My wife and I visited Turkey a few years back and that inspired me to do a lot of reading on his life and times when I got home. The more I learned, the more I admired the guy.
In my book, Ataturk rates with FDR and Churchill as one of the three great leaders of the twentieth century.
Your comment on his "heavy-handedness" is quite fair. While the ACLU or Amnesty International might have disapproved of some of Ataturk's actions, just compare him with some of the characters that came to power in the supposedly enlightened European nations around the same time. In that light, he's a regular Mr. Rogers!
And unlike the Francos and Mussolinis of the era (we'll leave you-know-who out of the conversation entirely), Ataturk actually was working to establish a democratic system that respected individual rights. Considering how far behind he was starting from, his accomplishments toward that goal are astounding.
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