Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Dear Colleen,
Mustafa Kemal was the first president of the Turkish republic. He was president for 15 years. He got the name Ataturk when he removed the sultanate and replaced it with a republic. Attaturk means father of the Turks. Ataturk said we are not allowed to wear vails and that the men can’t wear their fezzes. Which I think is not good at all because our religion is Islam and our religion says we should wear vails and fezzes.
I think he has something against the Islam religion but he did give us the right to vote and go to school outside home. He also gave us the right to take jobs which is the only good thing that he did. Some of the men refused to wear a hat because Ataturk ordered everyone to wear modern clothes. Some men wore bandages around their head as if they were in great pain. So they didn’t have to wear his hat. I said we were allowed to vote but only one political party is allowed to vote so we are pretty much just voting or him. I also said that it is so we can hide our faces. The custom of wearing Fezzes came from an ottaman sultant ordering his soldiers and officials to where fezzes. Turkey is now a republic. Attaturk insists to more than change to Turkeys’ government but he wanted to modernize Turkey. Attaturk also thought that changing what men wore on there heads would change what went on in their heads. He also changed the capital of Turkey from Istanbul to Ankara. This was a big change!! One thing that he did that I never thought he would do was change the alphabet based on the Roman alphabet. I guess he expected us to learn it in 3 months because he was going to have every sign, books and newspaper printed in that alphabet.
Source: http://www.turkishnews.com
http://www.turkishnews.com/discoverTurkey/who/ataturk
http://lexicorient.com/e.o/ataturk.htm
