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Fall 2010, Issue#24
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-BROCHURE (inside)
ATATURK's WORLD VIEW:
Ataturk and his ideas do not belong only to Turkey and the young people of Turkey, but to the world as a whole.
Photos by: Sirin Cengizalp, Lightmillennium.org

by Robert P. FINN, Ph.D.
Former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
Associate Research Scholar in the Liechtenstein Institute of the Woodrow
Wilson School of International Affairs, Princeton University


Ataturk expressed his world view very clearly in a welcoming address in 1937 to the Romanian Foreign Minister:
"Today all of the nations of the world, more or less, are relatives and are occupied with that. For this reason, as much as a person thinks of the material well-being and happiness of the nation of which he is a member, so must he think of the peace and prosperity of all of the nations of the world, and as much value as he places on the happiness of his own nation, so must he work as hard as he can for the happiness of the nations of the world. Because working for the happiness of the nations of the world is another way working to obtain one’s own peace and happiness. If there is not tranquility, transparency and good relations in the world and among the nations of the world, a nation will be deprived of peace of mind no matter what it does for itself. For this reason, this is what I advise those for whom I have affection: Leaders of nations will first of all always want to bring about the prosperity and happiness of their own nations. However, at the same time they must want the same things for all nations. We cannot know that an event that takes place in the most remote distance will not one day affect us. This is why we must consider all of mankind as one body and one nation as one of its limbs. The pain on the tip of one fingertip of the body is felt by all the organs of the body."

First of all, let me thank the Turkish Mission, Ambassador [Ertugrul] Apakan, Mehves [Sonmez] Hanim and the Young Turks Cultural Association and Istanbul University Alumni Association for the kind invitation to speak here today. Although I’m much honored to speak to you today, I’m just as nervous to speak about Ataturk before an audience that probably knows him much better than I do. When I spoke to a Turkish lady friend who lived for a long time in a country where the freedoms that exist in contemporary Turkey do not exist, she said to me: You know, I grew up in Turkey and I thought I knew everything about Ataturk. I’m a sensible, mature woman. But when I lived abroad I realized what Ataturk had brought about in my country and I started to understand Ataturk. In other words, we didn’t really understand Ataturk. That’s what Turks need to realize.” Those of you who are Turks or know Turkey and have travelled to other countries, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, understand what my friend meant.

Unfortunately, as in my country, people tend to accept their freedom as natural and don’t stop to think what would take its place if it were no longer there. Sometimes it helps to have others point out to us what it is we have that we have overlooked because it is so natural to us. Ataturk is a hero and great leader for the Turks, who saved the Turkish nation and founded the Turkish Republic, but at the same time, the lessons he taught are valid for all peoples. And for this reason, the Turkish Republic he began has served as a model and example for all of us and, as it changes and develops, will continue to be.

One of the valid criticisms of the American school system is that American students know very little about the rest of the world. Unfortunately this is correct. Nevertheless, they do learn certain things about people in other countries and one of the things I learned is the story of Ataturk, the leader, and modern for his day, which took the backward Ottoman Empire and made it into a modern country. We perhaps did not know exactly where Turkey was, but we learned what had happened there and who did it. In addition to this, in other countries, such as Pakistan, an individual who seeks to enter government service and does not know about Ataturk and the reforms he implemented in Turkey is definitely going to be at a disadvantage. In many nations, from Nigeria to Japan, students learn about Ataturk, Ataturk the reformer, Ataturk the first real leader of the Twentieth Century, Ataturk who lifted his nation up from defeat and the ashes of war, who took what the poet Tevfik Fikret called “Köhne Bizans” “Decrepit Byzantium” and turned it into a modern nation.

"Who are these Europeans?”

The reason for this is very clear. Ataturk and his ideas do not belong only to Turkey and the young people of Turkey, but to the world as a whole. Ataturk’s thoughts transcended the borders of Turkey: at a time when very few people could see beyond their own national frontiers because of the limitations imposed by race, language and religion, he took as a goal the participation of Turks in the civilization that had its sources in Europe but had been altered by contact with many different nations, the civilization that he specifically called “contemporary civilization.” His implementation at that was so successful that today, when people traveling in many nations see Turks in planes, hotels and restaurants, they ask the question,” Who are these Europeans?” Long before technology allowed us to be in immediate and continuous contact with another globally, it was possible to see that these modalities would be possible and that civilized nations would draw closer together and become more like one another.

Ataturk realized that this would not however, mean that individuals would give up their own personalities and with his famous remark “biz bize benzeriz”, (we resemble ourselves) underlined the fact that individuality would be preserved, that universal communication would not eliminate personal pride and national self-sufficiency, but that in fact national pride would contribute to universal communication. By explaining ourselves better, understanding ourselves better we would arrive at a better comprehension of others and work together with the more harmoniously.

The years Ataturk spent in Salonica provided him with the opportunity to learn about the nationalist struggles of the Balkan states and their efforts to understand themselves. In this second city of the Empire political and intellectual currents were living through a very active period. Thus, during his childhood years, the foundations of Turkish and Greek literature were being laid. The book of romantic poems called “The Grave”, which is considered as one of the pillars of modern Greek literature, was published in Thessalonica in 1885, coincidentally the same year as Abdul Hamit Tarhan’s book of poetry with the same name, itself one of the bases of modern Turkish literature, was published in the city then still called Constantinople. In the decade following the Genç Kalemler –(Young Pens)- movement which was the leader in the modernization and simplification of Turkish prose started, and this was again in Salonica.

Along with this, the presence of the Jewish community in Salonica provided an opportunity for the young Mustafa Kemal to experience the religious tolerance of the Ottoman Empire, which melded together many different religions and peoples. This milieu was a very exciting environment for a young person: the developing nationalist currents, the komitacis, or partisans who set up sovereign zones in the mountains, the horror of the wars that announced the collapse of the empire -- all worked to impel Mustafa Kemal to select the military as a career. The teacher who taught his classes on the French Revolution and European intellectual movements, as he said “opened a new horizon for him.” Ataturk began to learn French during this period, not stopping his studies even during the school holidays and learned this language sufficiently well to read the books banned by Abdul Hamit’s censors. Mustafa Kemal did not limit himself only to learning French; he became a faithful reader of the nationalist poets Namik Kemal as well as Tevfik Fikret and later Mehmet Emin Yurdakul.

The events that colored Mustafa Kemal’s youth led to Salonica’s being broken off from the Empire and also led young Mustafa Kemal to obtaining nationalist and humanist ideas from idealistic writers. During these bitter years, his family, like millions of others, was forced to emigrate. Nevertheless, Ataturk was able to prize out the necessary qualities for a new nation from the witches’ cauldron that signaled the empire’s collapse and the ashes of the past. He made a situational analysis to arrive at the correct decisions and evaluations not just for fighting with the nation’s enemies but so that, when the time came, there would be no repetition of mistakes.

Living in Salonica gave Ataturk the opportunity, beyond learning his military profession and the French language, to observe at first hand the particular factors that brought people together and separated the people from different nations who roamed through the streets of this colorful port city and to understand the shared concept of civilization which unified them. At the same, he learned that the things which make a people a nation are religion, language and a common culture. As Mustafa Kemal matured, his opinions on these subjects matured as well, and in the future when the time came to take difficult decisions for the establishment of the Turkish State, his views on the subjects of what, why and what its relations with other nations would be began to crystallize as well.


"A high culture does not remain restricted to the nation which owns it, but will show its influence on others as well."

Ataturk arrived at the conclusion that there was a world civilization composed of all civilized countries. You may not call this a civilization as your children look at international fashion magazines, eat Italian pizza and torture you with American music on their Japanese music sets, but you have to admit that a universal communality has developed. Of course, the world that Ataturk knew was not as mixed up as the one we know. The age of communication had just begun and people still had not adjusted to these changes. Ataturk was aware of the connection between the kind of civilization and culture. As he said, “Civilization’s principal of logic, which is foremost for the Turkish nation, has once again established the unifying cultural ties which have been of benefit in the past in many different situations.” He also said, ”We are the children of a race and nation that has established countless civilizations in the past.” Nevertheless, for Ataturk, civilizations were evanescent, rising and falling. Observing the cultural values of ancient India and Mesopotamia, he pointed out many times in his writings the responsibility of Turks to arrive at the culture located in Europe, the culture which dominates the present age. The branching out and spreading of this civilization is limited by neither time nor place, but its area of influence will spread as long as it maintains its cultural, aesthetic and moral values. On this subject Ataturk said:
"A high culture does not remain restricted to the nation which owns it, but will show its influence on others as well. It will include every continent. Perhaps for this quality, some peoples refer to high and inclusive culture as civilization. Such as European civilization, contemporary civilization."

He did not suffer from the inferiority complex of Ziya Pasha, the famous nineteenth century poet who wrote:
"I visited the infidel land, I saw its towns and mansions
I roamed the land of Islam, I saw that all was ruin."

For Ataturk world culture was a synthesis in which each nation had its place and the more powerful and lively had a more dominant position. Ataturk’s goal was for Turkey to take its place in this culture, to leave off skulking around the edges of European civilization, to unite with it, to take part in it and to become a leader of the world culture which would be erected in time on the ruins of the past. His expectation was that: “Turkish civilization would in the shortest time appear like a new sun above the plane of contemporary civilization.”


In Ataturk’s view, nations and cultures resemble one another like stars in the sky...

Ataturk had a specific expectation. In Ataturk’s view, nations and cultures resemble one another like stars in the sky but their relations are separate; sometimes one shines more brightly than the others. The point of view that all civilizations were unitary and could be joined in them was a very new idea for Turkey, and its most salient point was that world culture was something that could be arrived at, something which was approachable. Cultural superiority was one of the cultural failings of the Ottoman Empire. Ataturk’s goal was to persuade Turks that the time had come for this nation and people which had been the cradle of so many civilizations and individuals to leave off the insistence on superiority and adopt a civilization that was more a synthesis.

The response to the issue was for the Turks to come into world civilization not to take over or to dominate, but as a participant, and for the Turkish people to take their justifiable position in this mission as disseminators of culture. Ataturk said many times that the Turks had always gone towards the West and that it was time to look again to the West. In his view, it had been a mistake for the Ottomans to turn their backs to the West. He said:
"The silence of the Ottoman Empire began the day that it cut its ties to the peoples of Europe, more out of pride than because of the victories it had won against the West. This was an error which we shall not repeat.”

This should not be interpreted as meaning that Ataturk turned his back to the east or to the Islamic nations. On the contrary, those nations whom we now think of as the Third World considered him as a leader. As the first and undoubtedly the most successful leader of the Third World, Ataturk is still considered as a model and there is an avenue or school named for him in probably every capital city in Asia and Africa. In this region, Turkey serves as a bridge between Europe and Asia, a connector between the First and the Third worlds.

Perhaps Ataturk was the first to perceive this role as a bridge, as he pursued relations to developing countries at the same as he continued his efforts to his country to take its place among the developed nations.

Ataturk saw the world as possessing one civilization and this was the basis of his world view.

robert_p_finn ataturk

He saw Turkey as a country with a unique responsibility in the development of this civilization. He wrote about it like this:
"Our nation’s goal, our nation’s ideal is to have a civilized social network in every sense in all the world.”

Ataturk expressed his world view very clearly in a welcoming address in 1937 to the Romanian Foreign Minister:
"Today all of the nations of the world, more or less, are relatives and are occupied with that. For this reason, as much as a person thinks of the material well-being and happiness of the nation of which he is a member, so must he think of the peace and prosperity of all of the nations of the world, and as much value as he places on the happiness of his own nation, so must he work as hard as he can for the happiness of the nations of the world. Because working for the happiness of the nations of the world is another way working to obtain one’s own peace and happiness. If there is not tranquility, transparency and good relations in the world and among the nations of the world, a nation will be deprived of peace of mind no matter what it does for itself. For this reason, this is what I advise those for whom I have affection: Leaders of nations will first of all always want to bring about the prosperity and happiness of their own nations. However, at the same time they must want the same things for all nations. We cannot know that an event that takes place in the most remote distance will not one day affect us. This is why we must consider all of mankind as one body and one nation as one of its limbs. The pain on the tip of one fingertip of the body is felt by all the organs of the body."

As an ideal we can perhaps all agree on this as a common point. For Ataturk and for us today, the problem is how to bring about all people and all nations living together in peace? According to a few carefully laid out basic principles of Ataturk’s foreign policy, the Turkish nation would be strong enough to carry out all of its responsibilities as well as mature enough to deal with the problems created by others. Before the War of Independence began, when the Allies occupied Istanbul, Ataturk condemned the occupation with words referring to the very principles the Allies had used to defend themselves. In his telegraph he spoke about the occupation of the Ottoman capital as follows:
This is a matter concerned with all of the bases considered sacred by the civilization of the twentieth century and humanity, such as freedom, nationality, patriotism, all of the principles that are the basis of human society today, and for the conscience of humanity that these principles call into being.

He [Ataturk] refused to step on the Greek flag...


For the European nations to show the respect owed to a sovereign nation to Turkey would take Ataturk a few more years of effort. But the pain he felt while making these efforts did not sever his allegiance to the concept of mutual respect and even immediately after the victory, he refused to step on the Greek flag which, was, as he noted, the symbol of national sovereignty. He lifted it from the ground and directed that it be carefully protected.

“We obtain our inspiration not from the heavens, but directly from life itself.”

In later years, Ataturk worked with great intelligence and care to establish the security of the new Turkish Republic. The pragmatic analyses that defined his international meetings impelled Ataturk towards clear decisions that determined the form of the new Turkish nation and its relations with the world. Ataturk was a realist, an experienced soldier capable of making immediate definitive decisions to overcome the difficult conditions the situation presented. Even more, he abandoned rigid political traditions in favor of an approach suited to the requirements of the situation. And he explained it like this: “We obtain our inspiration not from the heavens, but directly from life itself.”

This pragmatic approach distanced Ataturk from the militarist political understandings of the period. He rejected communism, because communism and the other authoritarian regimes deluded the people. In Ataturk’s view only democracy in a nation’s administration could bring together the necessary strength to protect the people from domestic and external pressures. The Ottoman Empire was the spokesman for the all Moslems, but at the same time, even though international political realities had weakened its position for a long time, developments led the Ottoman Empire to continue to make efforts to defend its power and prestige.

For this very reason, Ataturk refused to get involved in idealistic policies that would place Turkey in troublesome positions beyond its borders and its physical capabilities. Ataturk quickly reached an agreement with Greece, to overcome the kind of international demands that lead to war. He so succeeded in winning the neighbor’s sympathy and confidence as a great leader and man of state that the Municipal Council of Salonica gave the house where Ataturk was born to Turkey.

The second element in Ataturk’s approach to the world was to proceed from a position of national strength. His war experiences had taught him the inescapable necessity of being completely self-sufficient at times when the situation necessitated this and for this reason, Ataturk implemented a whole series of radical changes in the new country to make it self-sufficient. At the same time, these innovations changed the way of life and cultural values of millions of Turks at the same time. Perhaps the most radical reform in the cultural field was the alphabet reform which took Turkey from being a country that looked to the East and made it a nation that looked to the West. Along with this, Ataturk was aware that this was not the first time in the lives of Turks that a new alphabet had been adopted and the fact that the new alphabet was truly more suitable to the sounds of Turkish than the old one quickly became apparent. Other reforms in dress, music and social customs strengthened the reforms that had been ongoing since the 19th century and confirmed a European appearance for Turkey.

More significant than the physical changes in Turkey’s appearance was the trust in a new military force to protect the new national borders of Turkey. Ataturk, trusting in the devotion the people had to him and the fact that they truly saw him as a savior to utilize their enthusiasm and capabilities in making new reforms. Even a half century after Ataturk’s efforts were completed the effects were clearly visible. Turkey is a castle of the Western alliance and in a region with increasing problems remains a major military power and island of stability.

Ataturk delineated these principles as early as his speech at the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1928:
Gentlemen, honesty and the preservation of our nation’s security and development will be the guide for the nature of our action in our foreign relations. For a country that is involved in serious reforms and development, nothing could be more easily explained than a position of desiring peace domestically and in its surroundings. The power suggested by this sincere desire to defend ourselves from an attack on the inviolability of the country, its security and the rights of its citizens is something we keep especially aware of all times. For this reason we place great importance on maintaining our land, sea and air forces at a strength sufficient to ensure the inviolability of peace and security in the country. The Republican government is making a special effort to sign security agreements internationally. With the same sincerity of intent, we approved joining the Kellogg pact which was presented to us.

According to Ataturk, “For the development of international political security, the first and the last important condition is that nations at a minimum sincerely unite in the idea of preserving peace.”

The principles that Ataturk spoke about in his “Great Speech” are being followed in the foreign policy of the present day. The powerful Armed forces at the command of the Republic of Turkey established their role during the Second World War as the greatest factor in preventing the nation from becoming a battlefield. The principle of world unity and attachment to peace that Ataturk made the basis of his foreign policy, was a main factor in Turkey’s sending forces in the command of the United Nations to Korea and in this manner Turkey established powerful ties with other members of the Western alliance. All of these are extensions of Ataturk’s foreign policy, a national inheritance of the genius that determined Turkey’s future.

"Peace at home, Peace Abroad" & "Reconcilation"

Quite clearly, the corner stone of Ataturk’s policy was “Peace at home, Peace Abroad,” but another basic element that clarified his view towards the world was that of “reconciliation.” According to Ataturk’s belief, nations teach their people mutual understanding and respect as a lasting inheritance, but governments are also the causes of hatred and malice. The relations that he established with Greece were a magnificent example of brotherhood on a high level, one that led toward the peak of the ideal of human kindness. Ataturk worked tirelessly throughout his life to turn the former enemy into a brother and his efforts were generally successful within his lifetime. Along with this, Ataturk also worked to develop lasting ties with the other neighbors with whom Turkey had shared historical values. In spite of not believing that Communism was a good form of government, he developed friendly relations with the Soviet Union.


“The truest guide in life is science."

In the new Turkey that Ataturk planned, science would show the way. Long before Marshall McLuhan developed his theory of the universal village, Ataturk developed his own opinions. In his view, the definitive quality of contemporary civilization would be knowledge and science. The phrase written on many Turkish schools “The truest guide in life is science –Hayatta en hakiki mürşit ilimdir” confirms this dramatically. Ataturk expressed his belief and determination that he often expressed that knowledge and science would be the basis of mankind’s development as follows:
"My moral inheritance is knowledge and reason. What I have wanted and tried to do for the Turkish nation is apparent. Those who come after me and want to be like me, if they only accept the guidance of reason and knowledge along this axis will be my moral inheritors."

Ataturk’s goal was to rescue Turkey from being the Sick Man of Europe and make it into a full member of contemporary civilization. As Toynbee pointed out, Ataturk wanted to make the Renaissance, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution all take place in the life of one generation. The striking thing is not whether or not Ataturk’s reforms were one hundred percent effective on every level of society or not, but that they were successful over a great range and changed Turkish society in a lasting way. Ataturk concentrated on one point and this was that Turkey be a member of modern civilization. He said:
“The aim of the revolutions that we made and are making is to bring the people of the Turkish Republic to the state of a community that is completely modern and civilized in every sense and view of the word. That is the basic principle of our revolutions.”


Ataturk was someone who saw the truth that the old divisions between knowledge and the necessary requisites for development were meaningless, and perceived that they would unite nations in way which had never been seen before. Ataturk, with the goal of saving his nation and guaranteeing its security, realized that the best way to protect Turkey’s sovereignty passed though the obligation for Turkey to become a leader nation in the world community of nations. He said:
"We cannot think that we can close our eyes and live alone. We cannot enclose our nation in ball and live without reference to the world. On the country, we will live above the level of civilization as an advanced, progressive nation. This life can only come about from knowledge and science. Where there is knowledge we shall take it and place it in the minds of every individual on the nation.”


From the very beginning, Ataturk was conscious that he was not just working for the Turkish people but that he was struggling for a basic change in the world order. During the war of Liberation he expressed this openly:
I would like to repeat once again that this war of Turkey’s does not just belong to Turkey. If Turkey’s war were just for its own name and on its own account, perhaps it would be less bloody and end more quickly. Turkey is making an extreme and important effort. Because what it is defending is the cause of all oppressed nations, especially all of the Orient and Turkey is confident that the nations who are with it will march along until it reaches its final conclusion.


Ataturk’s Turkey would be a model for oppressed nations. Ataturk waited with eagerness “the day there would be a social life that was appropriate for a humanistic ideal.” He said; "At that time our nation will take pride as a leader among those nations who had achieved their goals.” The success he achieved in the national struggle and the many works necessary to build the new Turkey did not distract him from his services for humanity. In 1933, as the movements of fascism and racism colored the politics of Europe, Ataturk stressed that one day a new harmony and cooperativeness that paid no attention to color, religion or race would rule international relations.


Ataturk was a symbol of hope

The world responded to the warm, strong feelings Ataturk nurtured for humanity. Ataturk was a symbol of hope for those who believed that the new age would ring a new spirit to mankind and that a new solution would be found for the problems that had plagued mankind for centuries. The determination that Ataturk exhibited as struggled to bring his nation to independence under the most adverse conditions and to modernize a country located on the most ancient soil of the world encouraged those who witnessed it and gave them the inspiration to hope for the same awakening in their own countries. In the same way, he won the affection of those who wished to see the benefits of modern age spread to all people. Pakistan’s founder Jinnah said that Ataturk was ”a shining star gleaming in the mists and showing the path to a new destiny,” and used Ataturk as a symbol of inspiration for Indian Muslims. In the same way, Nehru evaluated Ataturk as ”one of the creators of the modern age in the east.”
According to Nobel Prize winner Tagore, “Ataturk offered to us a new Asia where the inhabitants remember the victories of those who lived there in the past. He gave us hope for a new life in the East.”

Ataturk’s fame was not limited only to leaders and men of state. Ataturk’s name was one of the most famous in the world and Ataturk himself became a source of inspiration. I have seen his picture in homes and shops in the farthest corners of the world and heard the name of Ataturk from the mouths of peoples who know very little outside the boundaries of their villages. In every place where people have struggled against ignorance and injustice, Ataturk merges as an example of how to move towards their goals and as a symbol.

One may say that Ataturk is one of the peerless faces of the twentieth century. He was trained as a soldier, but he later concentrated on being a politician and man of state. He accepted defeat and disaster as an invitation to arrive at the best and within a few years brought about an unparalleled miracle. Pledging himself completely to his nation and people, he inspired his people who had lost all hope with the will power to take on a struggle against the victorious nations of Europe and later told them of the necessity of becoming more European than the Europeans, of being Western in spite of the Westerners, and to take their place in the civilized world not because of good heartedness or tolerance, but because their level of knowledge gave them the right. This was an incredible achievement and provides a model for children all over the world of what one determined person can do.

His ability to understand the significance of every nation’s share in the development of mankind.

Ataturk’s’ most striking characteristic is neither his patriotism nor his powerful personality; because these qualities exist to lesser or greater degree in all people. In my opinion, Ataturk’s greatest legacy, beyond that of his view of his beloved country, was his ability to understand the significance of every nation’s share in the development of mankind. Realizing the positive qualities of his enemy even before the enemy himself realized it, he then persuaded his nation to understand the importance of these values.

He was a remarkable leader who truly understood the words of the Old Testament, “There is a time for war and a time for peace.” His realistic beliefs such as his desire for peace not only came from within, they were also internalized. In addition to this, these beliefs not only motivated him, they provided inspiration for others as well.

The world has seen many great soldiers and sterling men of state, peacemakers of great conviction, but rarely has it seen a person in whom all of these qualities are combined. The Twentieth Century is fortunate to have had as a model a person whose life and sanctions provided it with such a model. Those of you who are Turks are even more fortunate to have had him as your leader. However, all of us have a responsibility to take his life and successes and apply them as a model for our benefit, as he said “not in a remote past, but in a near future.” We are only as civilized as we take part in civilization. Unfortunately, none of us is born civilized. Ataturk understood this personal responsibility and tried to inculcate this sense of responsibility in his own nation. At the same time, he believed that it wasn’t sufficient just to be civilized and live in a civilized way, but that it was each person’s obligation to try to be a leader of civilization.

Ataturk was well aware that the innovations he had made would completely change the old world order and that the reverberations would spread far beyond Turkey’s border. With him the sun of a new age had risen. As he said to the people in Istanbul,”
“The whole world is with us now.”


About: Robert P. FINN, Ph.D.
robert_p_finn3
Former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
Associate Research Scholar in the Liechtenstein Institute of the Woodrow
Wilson School of International Affairs, Princeton University

Ambassador Finn is currently Senior Research Scholar in the Liechtenstein Institute of the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs and Lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School. Prior to this,he was the Ertegun Visiting Professor of Turcology at Princeton University, 2003-2005. He served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan in 20 years, from March 2002 until August 2003. (His predecessor was killed in Kabul in 1979). Previously, he had also been the Ertegun Professor at Princeton, after serving as U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan, 1998-2001. His other diplomatic postings include Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, Turkey; Lahore, Pakistan; and Zagreb,Croatia. He opened the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan in 1992. He has received numerous awards from the USG, including two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards and one for heroism.

Ambassador Finn is the author of the book The Early Turkish Novel, which ha been published both in English and Turkish. His poems and translations have appeared in the United States, Turkey, France and Pakistan. The University of Texas Press published his translation of the Turkish author Nazli Eray's novel, Orpheus in 2006. Syracuse University Press will publish his translation of Eray's The Emperor Tea Garden in 2011. He is working on a translation of Orhan Pamuk's "The Silent House". He co-edited Building State and Security in Afghanistan. (LISD-WWW 2007, reissued by Lynne Rienner Press in 2010). Ambassador Finn holds a B.A. in American Literature and European History from St. John's University, an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from New York University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey and a Fulbright scholar at Istanbul University. He reads in more than ten languages.

This speech was presented during the Second Annual Ataturk Symposium entitled, "ATATURK: LEADER OF A NATION" at the United Nations, New York City on December 7, 2010. We would like to thank to Ambassador Robert P. FINN for sharing his speech with The Light Millennium. We also thank to the organizers and sponsors of the Second Annual Ataturk Symposium. B.U.

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