Ataturk

Everywhere we go; there are pictures of a man hanging in restaurants, and woven into rugs. His name was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). In order to find out more, I picked up a book about him in a used book store. When I read the book, I found him described as the founder of modern Turkey.

Turkey was a declining part of the Ottoman Empire going into the First World War, and Turkey sided with Germany during World War I. After the war, the Europeans--English, French, Greeks, and Italians--were each given an area to oversee. When the divisions had gone too far in the eyes of some Turkish nationalists, the nationalists formed the Turkish National Movement headed by an army officer, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The Greeks, backed by the British, invaded the heartland of Turkey. The Turkish National Movement under Kemal’s guidance defeated the Greeks. Eventually, Kemal became the president of Turkey, and proceeded to established modern Turkey.

The people of the country were mostly uneducated peasants. Within his life time, he changed it into the modern Turkey it is today. Some of the things he did were: separated the church and the state; founded universities; made primary education universal; encouraged the study of English; adopted the Latin characters for the alphabet, the Gregorian calendar, and the metric system; emancipated women; abolished polygamy; introduced western civil, commercial, and criminal codes; improved the justice system, and enacted prison reform; made the peasants landowners; modernized the labour laws; adopted western social customs and dress; encouraged sport; suppressed the use of drugs; improved and increased the number of health centers. He also established museums, picture galleries, and encouraged concerts of classical music.

Due to Ataturk’s contributions, Turkey is a democracy built on a solid foundation.  Turkey is a clean country, has modern highways and infrastructure, and has a tolerance for other religious and ethnic minorities. The population is 94% Muslim, 3% Christian, and the remainder is Jewish.  He is revered by the Turkish people.