Atatürk Again

I reported last month from my visit to Turkey.

Let's see what a modernist might say:

[Atatürk] led his nation to full independence. He put an end to the antiquated Ottoman dynasty whose tale had lasted more than six centuries – and created the Republic of Turkey in 1923, establishing a new government truly representative of the nation's will.

What a load of modernist crap!

Also from the same “souvenir”:

As President for 15 years, until his death in 1938, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introduced [a broad] range of swift and sweeping reforms – in the political, social, legal, economic, and cultural spheres – virtually unparalleled in any other country.

Hmmm?!? Seems to me he poked his nose in virtually everything.

I was also told:

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic and its first President, face and name are seen and heard everywhere in Turkey: his portrait can be seen in all public buildings, in schools, in all kinds of school books, on all Turkish banknotes, and in the homes of many Turkish families. Even after so many years, on November 10, at 09:05 a.m. (the exact time of his death), almost all vehicles and people in the country's streets will pause for one minute in remembrance of Atatürk's memory.

And modern government was supposed to be of laws, not of men?

To credit my “souvenir,” it does have a “Did you know?” box, stating:

Jews expelled from Hungary in 1376, from Sicily early in the 15th century, from Bavaria in 1470, from Bohemia in 1542, and from Russia in 1881, 1891, 1897, and 1903 all took refuge in the Ottoman Empire.