Mustafa Kemal Atat�rk

I asked him to repost the site of Encyclopedia Britannica where it is refered that he is Jewish.

Other than that i don't see why we cant question Ataturk.The Turks can question Genocides of Millions of people and we can't question just one person?It seems that our Turkish friends are used to the metality of the Turkish Goverment , where the state is more important than individual freedoms.

By the way i would prefer him to burn a piece of paper and let the  innocent men, women and children to live.

''Kemal celebrated his triumph by transforming Smyrna into ashes and by slaughtering the whole indigenous Christian population'' Winston Churchill.

i have Encyclopedia Britannica ultimate suite

and here what is written there under the name Ataturk

((Turkish: �Kemal, Father of Turks�), )
born 1881, Salonika [now Thessaloníki], Greece
died Nov. 10, 1938, Istanbul, Turkey

original name Mustafa Kemal, also called Mustafa Kemal Paṣa soldier, statesman, and reformer who was the founder and first president (1923�38) of the Republic of Turkey. He modernized the country's legal and educational systems and encouraged the adoption of a European way of life, with Turkish written in the Latin alphabet and with citizens adopting European-style names.

One of the great figures of the 20th century, Atat�rk rescued the surviving Turkish remnant of the defeated Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. He galvanized his people against invading Greek forces who sought to impose the Allied will upon the war-weary Turks and repulsed aggression by British, French, and Italian troops. Through these struggles, he founded the modern Republic of Turkey, for which he is still revered by the Turks. He succeeded in restoring to his people pride in their Turkishness, coupled with a new sense of accomplishmentas their backward nation was brought into the modern world. Over the next two decades, Atat�rk created a modern state that would grow under his successors into a viable democracy. (For a more complete discussion of this period in Turkish history, see Turkey, history of: The emergence of the modern Turkish state.)

((Turkish: �Kemal, Father of Turks�), )

Early life and education

Atat�rk was born in 1881 in Salonika, then a thriving port of the Ottoman Empire, and was given the name Mustafa. His father, Ali Riza, had been a lieutenant in a local militia unit during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877�78, indicating that his origins were within the Ottoman ruling class, if only marginally. Mustafa's mother, Z�beyde Hanım, came from a farming community west of Salonika.

Ali Riza died when Mustafa was seven years old, but he nevertheless had a significant influence on the development of his son's personality. At Mustafa's birth, Ali Riza hung his sword over his son's cradle, dedicating him to military service. Most important, Ali Riza saw to it that his son's earliest education was carried out in a modern, secular school, rather than in the religious school Z�beyde Hanım would have preferred. In this way Ali Riza set his son on the path of modernization. This was something for which Mustafa always felt indebted to his father.

After Ali Riza's death, Z�beyde Hanım moved to her step-brother's farm outside Salonika. Concerned that Mustafa might grow up uneducated, she sent him back to Salonika, where he enrolled in a secular school that would have prepared him for a bureaucratic career. Mustafa became enamoured of the uniforms worn by the military cadets in his neighbourhood. He determined to enter upon a military career. Against his mother's wishes, Mustafa took the examination for entrance to the military secondary school.

At the secondary school, Mustafa received the nickname of Kemal, meaning �The Perfect One,� from his mathematics teacher; he was thereafter known as Mustafa Kemal. In 1895 he progressed to the military school in Monastir (now Bitola, Macedonia). He made several new friends, including Ali Fethi (Okyar), who would later join him in the creation and development of the Turkish republic.

Having completed his education at Monastir, Mustafa Kemal entered the War College in Istanbul in March 1899. He enjoyed the freedom and sophistication of the city, to which he was introduced by his new friend and classmate Ali Fuat (Cebesoy).

There was a good deal of political dissent in the air at the War College, directed against the despotism of Sultan Abd�lhamid II. Mustafa Kemal remained aloof from it until his third year, when he became involved in the production of a clandestine newspaper. His activities were uncovered, but he was allowed to complete the course, graduating as a second lieutenant in 1902 and ranking in the top 10 of his class of more than 450 students. He then entered the General Staff College, graduating in 1905 as a captain and ranking fifth out of a class of 57; he was one of the empire's leading young officers.

Military career

Mustafa Kemal's career almost ended soon after his graduation when it was discovered that he and several friends were meeting to read about and discuss political abuses within the empire. A government spy infiltrated their group and informed on them. A cloud of suspicion hung over their heads that was not to be lifted for years. The group was broken up and its members assigned to remote areas of the empire. Mustafa Kemal and Ali Faut were sent to the 5th Army in Damascus, where Mustafa Kemal was angered by the way corrupt officials were treating the local people. Becoming involved again in antigovernment activities, he helped found a short-lived secret group called the Society for Fatherland and Freedom.

Nevertheless, in September 1907 Mustafa Kemal was declared loyal and reassigned to Salonika, which was awash with subversive activity. He joined the dominant antigovernment group, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which had ties to the nationalist and reformist Young Turk movement.

In July 1908 an insurrection broke out in Macedonia. The sultan was forced to reinstate the constitution of 1876, which limited his powers and reestablished a representative government. The hero of this �Young Turk Revolution� was Enver (Enver Paşa), who later became Mustafa Kemal's greatest rival; the two men came to dislike each other thoroughly.

In 1909 two elements within the revolutionary movement came to the fore. One group favoured decentralization, with harmony and cooperation between the Muslims and the non-Muslims. The other, headed by the CUP, advocated centralization and Turkish control. An insurrection spearheaded by reactionary troops broke out on the night of April 12�13, 1909. The revolution that had restored the constitution in 1908 was in danger. Military officers and troops from Salonika, among whom Enver played a leading role, marched on Istanbul. They arrived at the capital on April 23, and by the next day they had the situation well in hand. The CUP took control and forced Abd�lhamid II to abdicate.

Enver was thus in the ascendancy. Mustafa Kemal felt that the military, having gained its political ends, should refrain from interfering in politics. He urged those officers who wanted political careers to resign their commissions. This served only to increase the hostility of Enver and other CUP leaders toward him. Mustafa Kemal turned his attention from politics to military matters. He translated German infantry training manuals into Turkish. From his staff position he criticized the state of the army's training. His reputation among serious military officers was growing. This activity also brought him into contact with many of the rising young officers. A feeling of mutual respect developed between Mustafa Kemal and some of these officers, who were later to flock to his support in the creation of the Turkish nation.

The CUP, however, was fed up with him, and he was transferred to field command and then sent to observe French army maneuvers in Picardy. Although consistently denied promotion, Mustafa Kemal did not lose faith in himself. In late 1911 the Italians attacked Libya, then an Ottoman province, and Mustafa Kemal went there immediately to fight. Malaria and trouble with his eyes required him to leave the front for treatment in Vienna.

In October 1912, while Mustafa Kemal was in Vienna, the First Balkan War broke out. He was assigned to the defense of the Gallipoli Peninsula, an area of strategic importance with respect to the Dardanelles. Within two months the Ottoman Empire lost most of its territory in Europe, including Monastir and Salonika, places for which Mustafa Kemal had special affection. Among the refugees who poured into Istanbul were his mother, sister, and stepfather.

The Second Balkan War, of short duration (June�July 1913), saw the Ottomans regain part of their lost territory. Relations were renewed with Bulgaria. Mustafa Kemal's former schoolmate Ali Fethi was named ambassador, and Mustafa Kemal accompanied him to Sofia as military attach�. There he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Mustafa Kemal complained of Enver's close ties to Germany and predicted German defeat in an international conflict. Once World War I broke out, however, and the Ottoman Empire entered on the side of the Central Powers, he sought a military command. Enver made him cool his heels in Sofia but finally gave him command of the 19th Division, which was being organized in the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was here that the Allies attempted their ill-fated landings, giving Mustafa Kemal the opportunity to throw them back and thwart their attempt to force the Dardanelles (February 1915�January 1916). During the battle, Mustafa Kemal was hit by a piece of shrapnel, which lodged in the watch he carried in his breast pocket and thus failed to cause him serious injury. His success at Gallipoli thrust Mustafa Kemal onto the world scene. He was hailed as the �Saviour of Istanbul� and was promoted to colonel on June 1, 1915.

In 1916 Mustafa Kemal was assigned to the Russian front and promoted to general, acquiringthe title of pasha. He was the only Turkish general to win any victories over the Russians on the Eastern Front. Later that year, he took over the command of the 2nd Army in southeastern Anatolia. There he met Colonel İsmet (İnön�), who would become his closest ally in building the Turkish republic.

The outbreak of the Russian Revolution in March 1917 made Mustafa Kemal available for service in the Ottoman provinces of Syria and Iraq, on which the British were advancing from their base in Egypt. He was appointed to the command of the 7th Army in Syria, but he was appalled by the sad state of the army. Resigning his post, he returned without permission to Istanbul. He was placed on leave for three months and then assigned to accompany Crown Prince Mehmed Vahideddin on a state visit to Germany.

On his return to Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal fell ill with kidney problems, most probably related to gonorrhea, which it is believed he had contracted earlier. (His physical problems would later require him to have a personal physician in constant attendance throughout his years aspresident of the Turkish republic.) He went to Vienna for treatment and then to Carlsbad to recuperate. While he was in Carlsbad, Sultan Mehmed V died, and Vahideddin assumed the throne as Mehmed VI. Mustafa Kemal was recalled to Istanbul in June 1918.

Through Enver's machinations, the sultan assigned Mustafa Kemal to command the collapsing Ottoman forces in Syria. He found the situation there worse than he had imagined and withdrew northward to save the lives of as many of his soldiers as possible.

Fighting was halted by the Armistice of Mudros (Oct. 30, 1918). Shortly afterward, Enver and other leaders of the CUP fled to Germany, leaving the sultan to lead the government. To ensure the continuation of his rule, Mehmed VI was willing to cooperate with the Allies, who assumed control of the government.

((Turkish: �Kemal, Father of Turks�), )

The nationalist movement and the war for independence

The Allies did not wait for a peace treaty to begin claiming Ottoman territory. Early in December 1918, Allied troops occupied sections of Istanbul and set up an Allied military administration. On Feb. 8, 1919, the French general Franchet d'Esp�rey entered the city on a white horse, emulating Mehmed the Conqueror's entrance in 1453 but signifying that Ottoman sovereignty over the imperial city was over. The Allies made plans to incorporate the provinces of eastern Anatolia into an independent Armenian state. French troops advanced into Cilicia in the southeast. Greece and Italy put forward competing claims for southwestern Anatolia. The Italians occupied Marmaris, Antalya, and Burdur, and on May 15, 1919, Greek troops landed at Izmir and began a drive into the interior of Anatolia, killing Turkish inhabitants and ravaging the countryside. Allied statesmen seemed to be abandoningWoodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points in favour of the old imperialist views set down in the secrettreaties and contained in their own secret ambitions.

Meanwhile, Mustafa Kemal's armies had been disbanded. He returned to Istanbul on Nov. 13, 1919, just as ships of the Allied fleet sailed up the Bosporus. This scene, as well as the city's occupation by British, French, and Italian troops, left a lasting impression on Mustafa Kemal. He was determined to oust them. He began meeting with selected friends to formulate a policy to save Turkey. Among these friends were Ali Fuat and Rauf (Orbay), the Ottoman naval hero. Ali Fuat was stationed in Anatolia and knew the situation there intimately. He and Mustafa Kemal developed a plan for an Anatolian national movement centred on Ankara.

In various parts of Anatolia, Turks had already taken matters into their own hands, calling themselves associations for the defense of rights and organizing paramilitary units. They began to come into armed conflict with local non-Muslims, and it appeared that they might soon do so against the occupying forces as well.

Fearing anarchy, the Allies urged the sultan to restore order in Anatolia. The grand vizier recommended Mustafa Kemal as a loyal officer who could be sent to Anatolia as inspector general of the 3rd Army. Mustafa Kemal contrived to get his orders written in such a way as to give him extraordinarily extensive powers. These included the authority to issue orders throughout Anatolia and to command obedience from provincial governors.

Modern Turkish history may be said to begin on the morning of May 19, 1919, with Mustafa Kemal's landing at Samsun, on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. So psychologically meaningful was this date for Mustafa Kemal that, when in later life he was asked to provide his date of birth for an encyclopaedia article, he gave it as May 19, 1919. Abandoning his official reason for being in Anatolia�to restore order�he headed inland for Amasya. There hetold a cheering crowd that the sultan was the prisoner of the Allies and that he had come to prevent the nation from slipping through the fingers of its people. This became his message to the Turks of Anatolia.

The Allies pressured the sultan to recall Mustafa Kemal, who ignored all communications from Istanbul. The sultan dismissed him and telegraphed all provincial governors, instructing them to ignore Mustafa Kemal's orders. Imperial orders for his arrest were circulated.

Mustafa Kemal avoided dismissal from the army by officially resigning late on the evening of July 7. As a civilian, he pressed on with his retinue from Sivas to Erzurum, where General K�zim Karabekir, commander of the 15th Army Corps of 18,000 men, was headquartered. At this critical moment, when Mustafa Kemal had no military support or official status, K�zim threw in his lot with Mustafa Kemal, placing his troops at Mustafa Kemal's disposal. This wasa crucial turning point in the struggle for independence.

K�zim had called for a congress of all defense-of-rights associations to be held in Erzurum on July 23, 1919. Mustafa Kemal was elected head of the Erzurum Congress and thereby gained an official status. The congress drafted a document covering the six eastern provinces of the empire. Later known as the National Pact, it affirmed the inviolability of the Ottoman �frontiers��that is, all the Ottoman lands inhabited by Turks when the Armistice of Mudros was signed. It also created a provisional government, revoked the special status arrangements for the minorities of the Ottoman Empire (the capitulations), and set up a steering committee, which then elected Mustafa Kemal as head.

Mustafa Kemal sought to extend the National Pact to the entire Ottoman-Muslim population of the empire. To that end, he called a national congress that met in Sivas and ratified the pact. He exposed attempts by the sultan's government to arrest him and to disrupt the Sivas Congress. The grand vizier in Istanbul was driven from office. The new government, which was sympathetic to the nationalist movement, restored Mustafa Kemal's military rank and decorations.

Unconvinced of the sultan's ability to rid the country of the Allied occupation, Mustafa Kemalestablished the seat of his provisional government in Ankara, 300 miles (480 kilometres) from Istanbul. There he would be safer from both the sultan and the Allies. This proved a wise decision. On March 16, 1920, in Istanbul, the Allies arrested leading nationalist sympathizers, including Rauf, and sent them to Malta.

The conciliatory Istanbul government fell and was replaced by reactionaries who dissolved the parliament and pressured the religious dignitaries into declaring Mustafa Kemal and his associates infidels worthy of being shot on sight. The die was cast�it would be the sultan's government or Mustafa Kemal's.

Many prominent Turks escaped from Istanbul to Ankara, including İsmet and, after him, Fevzi (Çakmak), the sultan's war minister. Fevzi became Mustafa Kemal's chief of the general staff.New elections were held, and a parliament, called the Grand National Assembly (GNA), met in Ankara on April 23, 1920. The assembly elected Mustafa Kemal as its president.

In June 1920 the Allies handed the sultan the Treaty of S�vres, which he signed on Aug. 10, 1920. By the provisions of this treaty, the Ottoman state was greatly reduced in size, with Greece one of the major beneficiaries. Armenia was declared independent. Mustafa Kemal repudiated the treaty. Having received military aid from the Soviet Union, he set out to drive the Greeks from Anatolia and Thrace and to subdue the new Armenian state.

As the war against the Greeks started to go well for Mustafa Kemal's forces, France and Italy negotiated with the nationalist government in Ankara. They withdrew their troops from Anatolia. This left the Armenians in southeastern Anatolia without the protection of the French troops. With the French and Italians out of the picture, K�zim then moved against the Armenian state. He was assisted by the Bolsheviks, who had established relations with the government of the GNA. Deserting their Armenian prot�g�s, the Russians supplied the nationalists with weapons and ammunition and joined the assault on the Armenian Socialist Republic, which had been their own creation. This combined attack was too much for the Armenians, who were crushed in October and November 1920; they surrendered early in November. By the treaties of Alexandropol (Dec. 3, 1920) and Moscow (March 16, 1921), the nationalists regained the eastern provinces, as well as the cities of Kars and Ardahan, and theSoviet Union became the first nation to recognize the nationalist government in Ankara. Turkey's eastern borders were fixed at the Arpa and Aras rivers.

The Greeks were more difficult to overcome, as they continued the advance toward Ankara which had begun in June 1920. By the end of July they had taken Bursa and were pushing on toward Ankara. Ali Fuat was relieved as commander on this front and replaced by İsmet. The Turkish army stood its ground at the İnön� River, north of K�tahya. They threw the Greeks back on Jan. 10, 1921, at the First Battle of the İnön�.

The Greeks did not resume their offensive until March 1921. İsmet again met them at the İnön� River, in a battle that raged from March 27 to April 1. On the evening of April 6�7, 1921, the Greeks broke off the engagement and retreated. In 1934, when the Turks were required bylaw to take last names, İsmet assumed the surname İnön� in memory of these important victories.

Undaunted, the Greeks launched another offensive on July 13, 1921. İsmet fell back to the Sakarya River, so close to Ankara that the artillery fire could be heard there. Opposition to Mustafa Kemal developed in the GNA, led by K�zim, who had grown jealous. The opposition demanded that Mustafa Kemal's powers be curtailed so that a new policy could be developed. In addition they sought to have Mustafa Kemal assume personal direction of the war against the Greeks, anticipating a Greek victory that would result in the destruction of Mustafa Kemal's stature and charisma. On August 4, Mustafa Kemal agreed, on the condition, which was accepted, that he be granted all the powers assigned to the GNA. He then assumed the role of commander in chief with total authority. He defeated the Greeks at the Battle of the Sakarya (Aug. 23�Sept. 13, 1921) and initiated an offensive (Aug. 26�Sept. 9, 1922) that pushed the Greeks to the sea at Izmir.

With Anatolia rid of most of the Allies, the GNA, at the behest of Mustafa Kemal, voted on Nov. 1, 1922, to abolish the sultanate. This was soon followed by the flight into exile of SultanMehmed VI on November 17. The Allies then invited the Ankara government to discussions that resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923. This treaty fixed the European border of Turkey at the Maritsa River in eastern Thrace.

The nationalists occupied Istanbul on October 2. Ankara was named the capital, and on October 29 the Turkish republic was proclaimed. Turkey was now in complete control of its territory and sovereignty.

The Turkish republic

Mustafa Kemal then embarked upon the reform of his country, his goal being to bring it into the 20th century. His instrument was the Republican People's Party, formed on Aug. 9, 1923, to replace the defense-of-rights associations. His program was embodied in the party's �Six Arrows�: republicanism, nationalism, populism, statism (state-owned and state-operated industrialization aimed at making Turkey self-sufficient as a 20th-century industrialized state), secularism, and revolution. The guiding principle was the existence of a permanent state of revolution, meaning continuing change in the state and society.

The caliphate was abolished on March 3, 1924 (since the early 16th century, the Ottoman sultans had laid claim to the title of caliph of the Muslims); the religious schools were dismantled at the same time. Abolition of the religious courts followed on April 8. In 1925, wearing the fez was prohibited�thereafter Turks wore Western-style headdress. Mustafa Kemal went on a speaking tour of Anatolia during which he wore a European-style hat, setting an example for the Turkish people. In Istanbul and elsewhere there was a run on materials for making hats. In the same year, the religious brotherhoods, strongholds of conservatism, were outlawed.

The emancipation of women was encouraged by Mustafa Kemal's marriage in 1923 to a Western-educated woman, Latife Hanım (they were divorced in 1925), and was set in motion by a number of laws. In December 1934, women were given the vote for parliamentary members and were made eligible to hold parliamentary seats.

Almost overnight the whole system of Islāmic law was discarded. From February to June 1926 the Swiss civil code, the Italian penal code, and the German commercial code were adopted wholesale. As a result, women's emancipation was strengthened by the abolition of polygamy, marriage was made a civil contract, and divorce was recognized as a civil action.

A reform of truly revolutionary proportions was the replacement of the Arabic script�in whichthe Ottoman Turkish language had been written for centuries�by the Latin alphabet. This took place officially in November 1928, setting Turkey on the path to achieving one of the highest literacy rates in the Middle East. Once again Mustafa Kemal went into the countryside, and with chalk and a blackboard he demonstrated the new alphabet to the Turkish people and explained how the letters should be pronounced. Education benefited from this reform, as the youth of Turkey, cut off from the past with its emphasis on religion, were encouraged to take advantage of new educational opportunities that gave access to theWestern scientific and humanistic traditions.

Another important step was the adoption of surnames or family names, which was decreed bythe GNA in 1934. The assembly gave Mustafa Kemal the name Atat�rk (�Father of the Turks�).

After having settled Turkey firmly within its national borders and set it on the path of modernization, Atat�rk sought to develop his country's foreign policy in similar fashion. First and foremost, he decided that Turkey would not pursue any irredentist claims except for the eventual incorporation of the Alexandretta region, which he felt was included within the boundaries set by the National Pact. He settled matters with Great Britain in a treaty signed on June 5, 1926. It called for Turkey to renounce its claims to Mosul in return for a 10 percent interest in the oil produced there. Atat�rk also sought reconciliation with Greece; this was achieved through a treaty of friendship signed on Dec. 30, 1930. Minority populations were exchanged on both sides, borders were set, and military problems such as naval equality in the eastern Mediterranean were ironed out.

This ambitious program of forced modernization was not accomplished without strain and bloodshed. In February 1925 the Kurds of southwestern Anatolia raised the banner of revolt inthe name of Islām. It took two months to put the revolt down; its leader Şeyh Said was then hanged. In June 1926 a plot by several disgruntled politicians to assassinate Atat�rk was discovered, and the 13 ringleaders were tried and hanged.

There were other trials and executions, but under Atat�rk the country was steadfastly steeredtoward becoming a modern state with a minimum of repression. There was a high degree of consensus among the ruling elite about the goals of the society. As many of those goals were achieved, however, many Turks wished to see a more democratic regime. Atat�rk even experimented in 1930 with the creation of an opposition party led by his longtime associate Ali Fethi, but its immediate and overwhelming success caused Atat�rk to squash it.

In his later years Atat�rk grew more remote from the Turkish people. He had the Dolmabah�e Palace in Istanbul, formerly a main residence of the sultans, refurbished and spent more time there. Always a heavy drinker who ate little, he began to decline in health. His illness, cirrhosis of the liver, was not diagnosed until too late. He bore the pain of the last few months of his life with great character and dignity, and on Nov. 10, 1938, he died at 9:05 AM in Dolmabah�e. His state funeral was an occasion for enormous outpourings of grief from the Turkish people. His body was transported through Istanbul and from there to Ankara, where it awaited a suitable final resting place. This was constructed years later: a mausoleum in Ankara contains Atat�rk's sarcophagus and a museum devoted to his memory.

Atat�rk is omnipresent in Turkey. His portrait is in every home and place of business and on the postage and bank notes. His words are chiseled on important buildings. Statues of him abound. Turkish politicians, regardless of party affiliation, claim to be the inheritors of Atat�rk's mantle, but none has matched his breadth of vision, dedication, and selflessness.

 

thats all

 

Could you please do the same about the D�nme also spelled D�NMEH

What is that word? "D�nme" is a Turkic originated word, and it doesnt have a sound "h" at the end of it. And what does it have to do with our topic?

Oguz
>>What is that word? "D�nme" is a Turkic originated word, and it doesnt have a sound "h" at the end of it. And what does it have to do with our topic?<<

What does it have to do????
Weren't you the one that judged my post on his Jewish origin in one of your previous posts, well, it seems like you never did read it, did you???

From a different source :

"The D�nme are descendants of the Jewish followers of a self-proclaimed messiah, Sabbatai Sebi (or Zevi, 1626-76), who was forced by the sultan to convert to Islam in 1666. Their doctrine includes Jewish and Islamic elements. They consider themselves Muslims and officially are recognized as such. Their name is the Turkish word for convert , but it carries overtones of turncoat as well."

Mixcoatl

good one.

could also mean 'gay' it sound more funny with the 'h'

First of all, after so much time away from AE. I can see our friends,whom we can really see that they love Turks, began one more time to form ideas without having full knowledge..And also taking the discussion to different areas.

Let's talk about Ataturk and what he had done, and why he is seen as a martyr in Turkey.

1- It is so natural for the Greeks,Armenians and our other Western friends who was in Allied side during WW I to dislike Ataturk. Why?

Ataturk has brought an end both to Megalo Idea dreams of Greeks and "Greater Armenia" project of the Armenians, and also other Allied powers who were struggling to keep their gains in Anatolia, all by organizing the Turkish nationalist movement with a group of patriot fellow officers.

2- I had seen that you had given a quote of W.Churchill above, about Ataturk. At that time, Winston Churchill, the flamboyant-tough guy of the politics hadn't even met Ataturk. Only way he knew him was the Gallipoli Landings, which was an incident for Allies. As Ataturk played a major role in stopping the ANZAC troops in Gallipoli, I really do give a right to Churchill to hate him, as Ataturk was the man who caused Churchill after Gallipoli disaster to lose his post as British naval minister.

3- It is taught in the Western countries that; "Ataturk was a dictator blah blah blah" and when we say that he wasn't, we are replied like "these are the propaganda made so by your government etc."...

Ataturk surely was NOT a dictator. The only time he assumed the dictatorial powers was between 1921-22, during the most critical days of Turkish Independence War with Greeks, where he accepted to take the dictatorial powers with the VOTE OF CONFIDENCE from house of representatives. My suggestion is that you better learn what he done and what he hadn't and then come talk here.Let's list some of his doings(or things done according to his decisions) at the times he was,

1-President of the House of Representatives, 2-President of the Republic of Turkey.

1921-22: Directing the war

1922: Look here carefully. Ataturk was the man who dismissed the Sultanate from Turkey and ended the Ottoman Empire. Ataturk could have assumed the title of Sultan and Caliph himself. He had the power to do that. But he didn't. His ideals were much more different. He also dismissed the Caliphate at 1924 for a secular state structure.

- Ataturk had been the founder of the only secular and republican state of all Asia at the time, Republic of Turkey. If Ataturk had been a dictator, why he would need to found a house of representatives and plan his steps according to that(There had been times that House of Representatives rejected some of Ataturk's development plans). Every step he took was to be voted by the house of representatives..

- Ataturk ordered for two opposition parties to be founded for a more democratic political life in Turkey. Why would a dictator order an opposition party to be formed against him? He wanted because he wanted a more democratic and active political system in Turkey and he wanted his citizens to get the political consciousness

-Also, the elections were frequently made in Turkey, the so-called dictatorship of Ataturk

- If you go learn the developments Ataturk, who was also referred to be the greatest leader of 20th century with his vision, dedication and intellectuality and modern system of thinking and ethics, you would find that he had done many to improve everything in TurkeyI will write more detail later about these):

One example is the law that made men and women equal in front of law and another one, which gave the women right of voting(Turkey is one of the first European countries that gave the right of voting to women, even before than the so-called cradle of democracy) 

He transformed the education system from a religious one to a secular-scientific and modern one. He opened many new engineering, law, music and trade schools in Turkey...

-And I also want to add that, our Western Anatolian Turkish cities, including Izmir, were not burned by Turkish soldiers marching westward. It was burned by Greek soldiers running away westward. Thousands of innocent villagers were killed and cities like Denizli were burned. Greece accepted the harm it had done during the war with Lausanne Treaty and gave Karaa�a� to Turkey as compensation.

And finally, none of the statues and monuments in Turkey were made with Ataturk's orders. And not many of them were made at his time. Most of them were made after him and he didn't order them, people had done them for their saviours.

In a dictatorial country, dictator would order such things for propaganda.

Please don't confuse Turkey at Ataturk's time with the dictatorships of Western or Soviet-supported Middle Eastern kingdoms and autocracies.If it was so, you would see sign of "Welcome to Ataturk's Turkey" , like in Syria, where you see the sign, "Welcome to Assad's Syria"

One more thing about the religion stuff: Not the religion of Ataturk, but what he had done should interest us. We know that Ataturk had quotes that compliments the Islam(if it is done in the right way), but he wanted members of every religion to live freely in Turkey and made Turkey a secular republic, and he had stood against every single attempt against this secular republic,as he stood against radical extremist groups and the Sheikhs, who used religion as a tool for their own benefits.

Edited by Kapikulu

He changed the alphabet because the new one was much easier. We can easily see that as we look at increasing rates of reading and writing.

I am not sure about this.I  think he changed our  alphabet because he want to make us only westerner. But well It looks like he failed. Nor Us neither  europeans thinks us as a Eurapean country.

We can easily see that as we look at increasing rates of reading and writing.

And  know we learn two alphabet, first latin (for reading writing), Second  arabic for reading  Quran.

I dont  think  Arabic alphabet is much difficult than latin one.

 

 

Originally posted by baracuda could also mean 'gay' it sound more funny with the 'h'

transsexual actually,not gay

I did not really understand the nonsense of that rum idiot brothers,don't mind him

You dare call me an idiot, when you can't comprehend the simplest of posts.

God forbid anyone questions Turkeys actions. They are imediately labeled traitors, agents, members of a Christian Club, liars, muderers, whimps......

It is interesting YAFES mention Nazi. Let's see some connections to Germany.

I'm real eager to see what Ambassador Morgenthau's title will be.

Some abstracts from his 'stories'

"But even in March, 1914, the Germans had pretty well tightened their hold on Turkey. Liman von Sanders, who had arrived in December, had become the predominant influence in the Turkish army."

"Since Germany, however, had her own plans for Asia Minor, inevitably the Greeks in this region formed a barrier to Pan-German aspirations. As long as this region remained Greek, it formed a natural obstacle to Germany's road to the Persian Gulf, precisely as did Serbia. Any one who has read even cursorily the literature of Pan-Germania is familiar with the peculiar method which German publicists have advocated for dealing with populations that stand in Germany's way. That is by deportation. The violent shifting of whole peoples from one part of Europe to another, as though they were so many herds of cattle, has for years been part of the Kaiser's plans for German expansion."

"The Turkish officials pounced upon the Greeks, herded them in groups and marched them toward the ships. They gave them no time to settle their private affairs, and they took no pains to keep families together. The plan was to transport the Greeks to the wholly Greek islands in the Aegean. Naturally the Greeks rebelled against such treatment, and occasional massacres were the result, especially in Phocaea, where more than fifty people were murdered. The Turks demanded that all foreign establishments in Smyrna dismiss their Greek employees and replace them with Moslems. Among other American concerns, the Singer Manufacturing Company received such instructions, and though I interceded and obtained sixty days' delay, ultimately this American concern had to obey the mandate. An official boycott was established against all Christians, not only in Asia Minor, but in Constantinople, but this boycott did not discriminate against the Jews, who have always been more popular with the Turks than have the Christians."

"This procedure against the Greeks not improperly aroused my indignation. I did not have the slightest suspicion at that time that the Germans had instigated these deportations, but I looked upon them merely as an outburst of Turkish ferocity and chauvinism. By this time I knew Talaat well; I saw him nearly every day, and he used to discuss practically every phase of international relations with me. I objected vigorously to his treatment of the Greeks; I told him that it would make the worst possible impression abroad and that it affected American interests. Talaat explained his national policy: these different blocs in the Turkish Empire, he said, had always conspired against Turkey; because of the hostility of these native populations, Turkey had lost province after province---Greece, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Egypt, and Tripoli. In this way the Turkish Empire had dwindled almost to the vanishing point. If what was left of Turkey was to survive, added Talaat, he must get rid of these alien peoples. "Turkey for the Turks " was now Talaat's controlling idea. Therefore he proposed to Turkify Smyrna and the adjoining islands."

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Now all about the Nazi collaboration in wwII

We know for a fact that during ww1 Germany and Turkey were the best of allies but did this continue and untill when?

Originally being allied with Britain and France by the alliance of October 1939, Turkey delared neutrality in June 1940 after the fall of France.
Now, after the fall of the Balkans to the Nazis, Turkey signed a Treaty of Friendship with Germany in June 1941.
October 1941, Turkey signed a trade agreement with Germany to exchange raw material, especially chromite ore. ("Clodius agreement")
Note that Turkey was the Nazi's sole source for chrome, without it, steel making is impossible. Many sources among them Albert Speer (the architect of Hitler's Third Reich) stated that Turkey�s chrome was so vital to the Nazis that war production would come to a complete stop 10 months after the supply was cut off!!!

It wasn't untill late June 44' and after threats of economic sanctions did Turkey cease to export chrome to Gemany, in August ceased all dimplomatic relations and in late Febuary 1945 did Turkey finally declare war on the Nazi.

Note that another Turkey-Nazi agreement was signed in Oct. 1943 despite the prior agreements signed with her alleged allies Britain and France to export all chrome sources ONLY  to them. (but why respect their agreements?)

I could post the letters of Roosevelt to Turkey on March 10, 1944 and Albert Speer's,  to Hitler on November 10, 1943, but you get the point.

You can NOT judge people like Churchill nor their actions, simply because you collaborated with the masters of massacre.