Are you meet to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and what do you think about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk?

[Cay2345]

I really wonder.

[nightdrot]

Ataturk was an innovative thinker and he certainly gave Turkey a sense of its' place in the world and its' identity as the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Sultanate - and the Caliphate - dissolved with it. The irony being that the hour of the man who built modern Turkey has ended.

In that sense, Ataturk's project contained within it the seeds of its' own destruction. He offered a combination of Turkish nationalism and Western-style modernization at a moment in time when Turkey's role in the world and its' sense of itself was teetering.

Turkey had once been the heart not just of an empire, but in many respects, with the caliphate, the whole of Islam. However, it was an identity rooted in religion and transnationalism. As Europe encroached and as the ideas of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment nationalism took hold, the intellectual and cultural pillars of the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The Empire meeting its' formal end with its' defeat in World War I and its' immediate aftermath.

Ataturk fused Turkey's sense of itself to a narrowly Turkish nationalism rooted in ethnicity and history and not the broad, if implicit, transnationalism of Islam, the caliphate and the empire. Suffice to add that the idea only partially ever took hold - especially in the better to do urban centers of Turkey, including Istanbul (notably the former Constantinople) and Ankara.

As populism has swept the world and as the rural population has grown more assertive, religion is becoming a force in Turkey again - and as it is, the ideas of Ataturk, and the constituencies that developed around it, have been eclipsed. A populist Islam is gaining force and hence the rise of Mr. Erdogan.

Mr. Erdogan represents those forces in Turkish society that opposed Ataturk's (very Western) conception of modernity. Hence, for example, his move to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. This an appeal to the rising religious fundamentalism, particularly in the rural areas where he gets the most support.

Long story short, Ataturk's was an ambitious, and in many ways noble if not perfect, project. He arose at an hour when what Turks had assumed were the defining pillars of their society and culture were defeated and in disrepute.

However, Ataturk's triumph, it turns out, was only skin deep. As Western ideas have been overtaken by a populist wave, the Turks are recurring to the ideas and values that characterized Turkey at the height of the Ottoman Empire. (This being decidedly a mixed blessing - certainly it will not be good for democarcy.)

Thus Mr. Erdogan and whatever else may be said, the eclipse of Ataturk. Turks may still pay a cultural tip of the hat to the founder of modern Turkey. However, as a practical matter, Ataturk's hour has passed and his ideas are as dead as the dinosaurs. A peculiar outcome for a man who thought he was bringing Turkey into the modern world.

[TonyV]

I dont know who that is, so he by default means nothing to me

[Cay2345]

OK my friend

[TonyV]

I'm not trying to be rude or nothing, I just dont know, I would. geuss part of a religion but I don't know

[Anonymous]

I'd ask him how it feels to be conquered

[hknmhmn4]

He is a dead man bro how can I meet him?

But I know that he is the father of Turkish people and the founder of Turkey, I think he has a big importance in Turkish history

[andreasderjuengere]

I know that many Turks adore him. To me he's a rather irrelevant person: he had no impact on my own little world.

[QuietRunner]

Leader of a great modern nation, however it would be better if the Ottoman Empire would have remained.

[EmmaMary]

Just wtf is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk?

[Cay2345]

I don't understand you

[EmmaMary]

And I don't understand you either.

[TwoToTooTutu2]

He's the George Washington of Turkey. First President, War Hero, and Founder of the Nation.

[EmmaMary]

So that's why I've never heard of him. lol

[TwoToTooTutu2]

Yeah he's an important Historical figure, but if you're not into History (Or Turkish), you wouldn't know him.

[Anonymous]

Atatürk has a cute butt.

[Cay2345]

oh my god😑😑😑

[JoseLuisGonalez]

I didn't meet him because he died long before I was born. I even had to google him.

[TwoToTooTutu2]

I like Ataturk. Cool guy.