Mustafa Kemal Atatürk echoes..(3)
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.
Giving Importance to Public Opinion
Atatürk was set his mind to remove caliphate. He requested big 7 journalists to meet and asked about their opinions on caliphate and listened. They do not talked about removing the caliphate because this idea even did not come to their minds. After hours of discussion he said “Gentleman you think mistakenly. Caliphate must be removed, ask me anything about removing and I will answer your questions.” Discussions made for 1 day. After end of discussions, journalists was convinced and will write against the caliphate. Current politicians does not care about people opinion and they think that they know everything. However, this attitude leads to tyranny.
Promoting Merit
Atatürk likes dinners. Mostly, he gather his 8–10 friends to dinner and talk with them. Sometimes, in order to test them about their merit, he gave some case studies and listens to their answers. Actually, this is very good way to understand people around us. You can understand and learn so much about a person from his treatment to other people. He said “I am a lover of merit”. He said in one evening, “Nuri Conker can be everything but no commander.” After this, Nuri Conker was furious and said “This person cannot be satisfied…didn’t I give ice cream in deserts like Karbala?…” Atatürk said “Listen, Mr. Nuri thinks he fulfilled his mission by giving ice cream to his superiors”.
Knowing Thyself
“A nation, people, folk cannot make a step with only one man’s work”
“Nations independence will be secured by nations tenacity and judgment”
“I cannot make comments about this issue because I am not an expert on this issue.” [1]
These sentences do not say by any people let alone politicians.
We must know our weak spots and strong spots. Atatürk knows that one man cannot create a new nation. The nation must be created by the people inside it. Atatürk knew that. He knew that people must be educated and nations must be created by the folk. He tried to educate people.
Atatürk was talking with Yahya Kemal who was a Turkish poet. Atatürk said that “Poet, you are writing well however, why you are not writing in syllabic teller?” Yahya Kemal responded “Pasha, why has Aruz teller not become our national teller? “Kutadgu Bilig” which is the oldest Turkish literature was in “Aruz teller, which means we are using teller for 1000 years.” After confirming the argument, he said, “Write then poet, write as you like it.” He was quick to learn and can change his ideas when they are not the truth. He was always chasing the truth and following science.
References
[1] A. N. Baykal, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ün Liderlik Sırları, İstanbul: Humanist Yayınları, 2022.
