Happy 79^th birth­day, Turkey! You look weeks younger!
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded by the mod­ern Turk­ish state Oct. 29, 79 years ago. For all of Turkey’s prob­lems today, no one should under­es­ti­mate the deter­mi­na­tion and accom­plish­ment of Atatürk. In the face of hos­tile ene­mies, a skep­ti­cal world and a col­lec­tion of peo­ples with no rea­son to band together, he forged a mod­ern and Western-facing nation out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Regard­less of how peo­ple view the mod­ern Turkey, it’s a damn sight bet­ter than what might have been had he failed. And for that I tip my hat to Father Turk.
I also think that were he alive today, he would have brought the same energy, deter­mi­na­tion (and, frankly, author­i­tar­i­an­ism) to the prob­lems of the Repub­lic. But he’s not, and Turkey needs to step out of the great man’s shadow and move on. Atatürk was able to accom­plish what he did because he didn’t worry about the demo­c­ra­tic process. And his approach was exactly right for what was needed at the time. But today, Turkey must embrace a full democ­racy and remove the mil­i­tary from the deci­sion mak­ing process. The slo­gan that adorns the steps lead­ing up to Atatürk’s mau­soleum in Ankara should be amended. Instead of “Sov­er­eignty rests with the Nation,” it should instead derive from the peo­ple — all of them, Turks and Kurds alike. His admo­ni­tion to the army to pro­tect the nation from all ene­mies for­eign and domes­tic should come with the appen­dix the peo­ple are not the enemy; they are cit­i­zens.
I’d like to think that Atatürk would rec­og­nize this. Turkey no longer needs a Great Man. It needs a great people.