Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - the founder of the new Turkey
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Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - the founder of the new Turkey
19.99 €
Kemal Ataturk is the world's most famous Turkish politician. Winston Churchill called Mustafa Kemal "a man of destiny". It was he who created modern Turkey. Kemal was an outstanding military leader. The Turkish victory in the Battle of the Dardanelles is primarily associated with his name. Kemal Pasha was one of the few Turkish commanders who successfully fought against all of Turkey's opponents in World War I - against the British and French on the Gallipoli Peninsula, in Palestine and Syria, and against the Russians in the Caucasus. His military career had notable upsurges, usually when Turkey was in a critical position, but often after the upsurges he was pushed to marginal positions, only to rise again. After Turkey's surrender, he was one of the few who did not surrender. Kemal brilliantly won what seemed to be a hopelessly lost war with Greece, secured Turkey's independence and laid the foundation for the rise that the country has experienced in recent decades. He accomplished what seemed impossible - he transformed the medieval, Asian Ottoman Empire into a modern European Turkey (although geographically the bulk of the country remains in Asia). He made Turks wear hats instead of fezzes, adopt Latin instead of Arabic, live by European judicial codes, and engage in industry and commerce. Ataturk liked the hard soldier's life. He was smart and fearless. He was a patriot, he wanted to modernize his country and bring European cultural values to it, to make it a secular state. But on the way to his goal, he sometimes used Asian means in dealing with his opponents. Also the European way of life, which Kemal followed, he adopted with all excesses, which shortened his life considerably. But in the memory of his descendants, he has been remembered for building a new Turkey.
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- All books in the series Best Biographies