Photos

Any tour of the Turkish culture, whether it is my small tour of The Turkish Society of Rochester, New York (where I took this photo), or of the mainland of Turkey, would be incomplete without a reference to the “George Washington” of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal or Ataturk (the foremost Turk). Ataturk was a giant among the great statesman and reformers of all time. Ataturk participated in the Young Turk Revolt of 1908 (the archaic and corrupt Ottoman Empire was in dire need of major reforms) and later distinguished himself as a military leader in the Dardanelles and in Syria. His Nationalist Party came to power after WWI, much to the distrust of the former WWI allies, especially France and Great Britain, who had ulterior motives for their interests in the region (a continuation of self-interest and Imperialism). Ataturk had a huge job on his hands. He wanted to modernize and secularize the remnants of the old Ottoman Empire and to fight off the interference of foreign powers at the same time. Through some brief regional skirmishes and mostly through his diplomatic genius, he divided the bickering Allies (the former enemies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire during WWI) and led his country into the modern world. I think that his greatest achievement was to provide for a separation of church and state, much like that which was accomplished by the founding Fathers of the United States Constitution. Ataturk was a devout Muslim, but he didn’t want a modern day theocracy. Ataturk was a complex and controversial man in a complex part of the world with ancient roots and his legacy is a much revered one in Turkey today.

My late mother-in-law, a very seasoned world traveler, visited Turkey in the early 1990s and it was her favorite trip that she ever had. She was so fascinated with her tour that she told my mother about it and my mother went to Turkey a few years later. What impressed my mother the most about her tour of Turkey was Ataturk. She visited Gallipoli, the site of Winston Churchill’s disastrous campaign to attack the “soft underbelly” of Europe in WWI (Churchill was First Lord of the British Admiralty at the time). The ANZAC troops (Australian and New Zealand) had to bear the brunt of this bloody campaign for the British army. Hundreds of thousands of Turks and ANZACs lost their lives in the brutal and bloody battles that raged here.

In 1934 Ataturk gave a very moving speech of reconciliation at the ANZAC cemetery at Gallipoli. This is his speech. “Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side. Here in this country of ours, 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.”