DO YOU KNOW MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATURK?

[samett35]

What do you know about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish State?

Do you know what he did for humanity and his country?

Thanks for your responses.

[KostasKouvalis]

I'll be honest, I'm not completely fond of him. He was hypocritical in many aspects.

He said we should acknowledge the contributions of pre-Ottoman cultures to shaping the Turkey of today, yet he expelled all the Greeks and Armenians from Turkey and replaced them with Turkic MUSLIMS, despite claiming that he supports a secular Turkish state. He claimed he wasn't a fan of headscarves, yet didn't ban them. Yet, he outlawed Sufism which was the least radical sect of Islam.

HY PO CRITE!

[AnusDestroyer3169]

You are a greek, I dont expect you to write something positive to questions related to Turks but the amount of misinformation you have literally made me cringe.
You can hate him if you want but at least learn what you are talking about.
First thing first, he has never banned sufism. I have never even heard anyone claiming it before in my life and I am Turkish myself and %99 of Turkish muslims literally are sufist themselves. I dont even know where you are coming from or what you are talking about.
Secondly secularism means separation of religion and state to provide religious freedom for
its own citizens and break neck of monarchy (ottomans in that case)
Banning headscarfs would be against religious freedom.
As a secular society Turkish people are free to believe or not to believe whatever religion they want and they are free to wear whatever they want.
Turkish secularism also helped us in purpose of getting rid of ottoman monarchy who is also islamic khalifah (head of all islamic world , like a muslim version of pope).
Greeks and armenians are not REPLACED. Turks had been living here since 1071 alongside with armenians and greeks for nearly 1000 years.
Greeks were deported after 1923 greek-turkey population exchange act which was made by greek goverments demand.
Turks in greece were deported to Turkey and greeks in Turkey deported to greece. It was a two sided aggrement.(my own family came from theselloniki in 1923 which is in modern day greece now).
and Armenians yeah we deported them but they should taught about that before weaponizing and revolting against us in the first place during our weakest time. They stabbed us from our back like cowards.

[AnusDestroyer3169]

And last of all, Pre ottoman culture of Turkey is central Asian Turkic history and culture. Not greek and armenian. Greeks and armenians are our neighbors, not our brethren.
I am well aware that most people have a tendency of associating Ottoman empire with Turks but what they forget is Ottoman empire was a monarchy, not a modern day nation state like Turkey or greece. Ottoman founders and rulers were of Turkish descent thats true but they have never really cared about Turkishness infact Ottomans tried to erase Turkish identity , culture and language in favor of arabness since khalifah (ruler of the islamic world ) in islam can only be of arab descent. They grabbed that tittle by force after conquering ummayad state in Egypt so they needed to gain legitimacy among non turkish muslims especially arabs.
Turks were revolting against ottomans way before other ethnicities such as greeks or armenians. We have been oppressed by the Ottomans. Ottomans (ruling family, not turks) only cared about enriching themselves.
Ataturk revived our culture, language and identity.
Associating old byzantium and armenian heritage in anatolia with its modern day inhabitants aka with Turks is nothing but insulting and no different than ottomans arabization attemp on Turks.
We are Turks, we came from central asia , descendant from central Asian Turkic people, oghuz tribe and speak a Turkic langauge.
We are not arab, greek and armenian.

[AnusDestroyer3169]

Shortly, after 600 years long ottoman assimilation, someone had to remind us our true roots and it was Ataturk.
Thats why I always say Turkish identity is for me means more than just an ethnic identity.
It represent republicanism, democracy, personal freedoms, secularism.
Thats why I am a Turkish nationalist.
Turkish nationalism has always been a progressive ideology, nothing like conservative nationalism you see on other parts of the world.

[goaded]

Not a lot, but a secular leader of Türkiye, believer in education and equality for girls and women.

A quick look at Wikipedia shows me:

"To the women: Win for us the battle of education and you will do yet more for your country than we have been able to do. It is to you that I appeal.

To the men: If henceforward the women do not share in the social life of the nation, we shall never attain to our full development. We shall remain irremediably backward, incapable of treating on equal terms with the civilizations of the West."

Dead right.

[RavVid]

Yes he is quite famous in Australia because of Gallipoli in WWI.

After WWI he wrote an ode to the Australian mother who had lost their son their. It say they are now resting in their soil and have become their sons as well. A generous guesture.

[samett35]

Atatürk has a very famous sentence.

Peace at home, peace in the world.

[RavVid]

He had a way with words.

There is an Ataturk memorial opposite our war memorial in Canberra with this
You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

It is almost invariably mentioned at some time on ANZAC day. So yeah Ataturk is not forgotten.

[QuietRunner]

He ended the Ottoman Empire which is the solution for all of the trouble in the Middle East today.

[samett35]

You know our history wrong.
Yes, people in the Middle East lived in peace during the Ottoman period.
This is true
However, with the French Revolution of 1789, nationalist movements began to be adopted by societies other than Turkish communities in the Ottoman lands. Many communities established new countries and achieved independence.
One of these states was Saudi Arabia.
They rebelled against the Ottoman Empire and founded a new state.
So the Ottoman Empire was not the solution.
It was a sick state.
Its people were crushed under heavy taxes and poverty.
In other words, it experienced a decline period of 300 years and actually ended with the First World War.