Mustafa Kemal Atatürk echoes..(2)
“He (Hitler) doesn’t know what war is. War is disaster…”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a great commander and politician with great knowledge and vision. He created the Turkey as we know now and established the republic. On the 21th century, we need people like him on Turkey and World now more than ever. I loved his saying “When my sayings conflict with current science, follow science.” He was never a selfish person and follow the ways of science. We can learn from him very much with examples below.
Being Tolerant
“I want to rule with winning hearts, not breaking them.”
“We did not come here to investigate old accounts, for us, the past is buried.”
“Mistake becomes a crime when repeated.”[1]
Atatürk was tolerant to his fellow fighters, people and Turkish folk. One example of this is;
A peasant was prosecuted because of swearing at Atatürk. Atatürk asked them what the peasant said about him. When the peasant was smoking with a newspaper, the paper was aflame and he swore to Atatürk. Atatürk said;
-Did you ever smoke with newspaper?
-No.
-I was, when in Tripoli. It sucks. Peasant swears even less. You must give them good cigarettes rather than prosecuting him.
Now, politicians prosecute their folk even for the slightest words. Humans are not rational people, we act with our emotions most of the time. When we have great pain inflicted upon us with the economy, way of life, and future concerns this burdens everyone. Politicians must understand the causes of behaviors and try to fix them.
Being Pioneer
He was a pioneer when creating the Turkish Republic. He lead every reform by becoming a pioneer.
During World War I, Kireçtepe’s location was very important. However, when Turk soldiers try to go to Kireçtepe, they encountered artillery fire. This led to confusion and frustration among soldiers. Atatürk came to the trenches and asked
“Why you are not passing?”
“Enemy scatters death, it cannot be passed.”
Atatürk said “This is how to get from there” and moved forward. Soldiers, seeing their commander goes without hesitation to reach the hill and keep it.
We can learn very much from Atatürk. He was a great commander at 20th century and his ideas echoes even now. His science orientation behavior, his ideas must be implemented to democracies even now. Maybe, Democracy is not the best way to rule, but it is best way to improve ruling.
References
[1] A. N. Baykal, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ün Liderlik Sırları, İstanbul: Humanist Yayınları, 2022.
