Ataturk and some other historical notes

If you live outside of Turkey, chances are you've never heard of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. If you live in Turkey, there's no chance you haven't heard of him. His face is on all the paper currency, his statue graces every school, street corner, and building in Ankara, and his name is revered here in a way that might rival American admiration for Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. combined. He is the national hero.

Okay, before I get into Ataturk, let's quickly review some Turkish history, just for fun. Here's a brief timeline of Turkey's impressive roster of occupants:

Bronze Age (2500 BC- 700 BC)--> Anatolia was inhabited at various points by Hattians, Hittities, Akkadians, Assyrians, Phrygians, Lydians, Trojans, and probably a bunch of other groups. Greeks were around and influential.
The Romans (133 BC-330 AD, aka the era of places you'd recognize from the Bible)--> Veni, vidi, vici, Augustus took over in 14 AD, Turkey became the province of Asia Minor, home to many of St. Paul's travels, the council of Nicea, and Santa Claus (St. Nicholas-- true story!)
Byzantines (330-1453) --> History teachers taught you that the Roman Empire fell and caused the Middle Ages, but that's only half true. The Byzantines kept Roman tradition and power going for another millennium. Meanwhile, the Seljuk Turks were there too, and Ottoman power rose, waiting for the weakening Byzantine empire to crumble.
Ottoman Empire (1453-1922) --> Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's now Istanbul, not Constantinople. The Ottomans took over the whole Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans, and even got close enough to Germany that Martin Luther wrote nasty things about them. They sided with Kaiser Wilhelm in World War I, but lost. After that the empire was divided up. (That is far too little about the Ottomans. I leave it to you to find out more.)
Republic of Turkey (1922-now) --> Western powers occupied former Ottoman lands after World War I. The Turks fought them off and started an independent, democratic, secular republic. We can credit this to one man: Ataturk.

Yes, Ataturk pretty much created modern Turkey. A military officer, statesman, linguist, writer, and modernist, Ataturk gained prominence during World War I for his leadership in the Ottoman Army. Later he led the Turkish War of Independence, founded the current government, and became the first President of the Turkish Republic.

He was also hugely influential in his ideas, which he developed by studying Western cultures, particularly governments and Enlightenment-era philosophy. Ataturk implemented huge reforms in politics, law, language, culture, education, and pretty much any other aspect of society you can think of. His goal was to modernize Turkey, bringing Western influences in to help Turkey become a competitive world power. The man did everything.

Some of his reforms:

• Moved the political capital from Istanbul to Ankara
• Established a secular government
• Set up the military as the defender of the Republic, guarding against threats both domestic and international (there have been several military coups since then, when Islamist parties have threatened Ataturk's vision of a secular government)
  
• Created a representative democracy
• Instituted women's suffrage
  
• Reformed the Turkish language to use the Roman alphabet instead of Arabic, and also purging the language of Persian and Arabic words
  
• Banned traditional religious garments and promoted Western clothing
  
• Replaced Islamic courts with a legal code based on Switzerland's
• Encouraged the study of science and technology in schools and standardized education
• Encouraged reevaluation of history, claiming that the Ottomans taught only religious history and ignored the glorious past of other Anatolian civilizations
  
• Developed a national rail network

Pretty impressive list. To get an idea of how Turks feel about him, simply consider the name they gave him: Ataturk means "Father of the Turks."

Ataturk's mausoleum in Ankara

Last week we visited Ataturk's mausoleum, which includes a huge museum of modern Turkish history. It's really fascinating stuff, if you're into history at all. I highly recommend learning more about Ataturk.

And if you're not into history....well, you're probably not reading this anymore, so we'll leave it at that.