Turkey is, from a historical perspective, a young country. Founded by a group of revolutionary reformers in 1923, this is a country coming into its adolescence, and is not without the drama that all teenagers go through. This is nothing new to the history of the world. Indeed, when it was a teenager, four score and seven years after the Declaration of Independence, the United States was in the midst of it’s own rather serious coming of age. Yet, even in an identity crisis making worldwide headlines, Turkey is an amazing anomaly. It is a modern Islamic country, which is almost an oxymoron in the world today. It is the ying to the notoriously conservative Islam yang of Saudi Arabia.

But yet, here is Turkey, where the people hear the wailing call to prayer in its many mosques as they walk past racy ads of woman in bikinis at the bus stops. The woman dress here as any western woman would, legs and arms uncovered. There is a whiff of misongyny, but scarcely anything more that what we see in the U.S. today. There are Burger Kings, Oreos, and, thank god, Diet Coke. Tradition is important here, but to the Turks, their tradition is a modern one, not one of the ornate robes, fezzes, and flying carpets of the Ottoman Empire.

The man most responsible for this miracle of Islamic modernism is Kemal Mustafa Ataturk. Ataturk, whose surname was given to him by the Turkish parliament, meaning, “Father of The Turks” was, in every sense of the term, a badass. A warrior, a visionary, and evidently astute politician, he was an Ottoman Empire army officer on the losing side of World War One when Allied forces (the side the U.S. fought on) tried to occupy Turkish land. Ataturk and his men fought them and drove them out of Turkey in what is now called The Turkish War of Independence. With a victorious army and no government, Ataturk looked around and said “let’s do this our way. We live in a modern world, we need a modern country.” He and his allies then set about implementing radical ideas in government the overturned centuries of Islamic tradition and dogma. Imagine if George Washington not only fought off the British but also said we are going to free all the slaves, mandate gender equality, re-do the education system, institute a new alphabet, establish a banking system, enact a radically new modern penal and civil code, legislate what you could wear, and so on. In short, Ataturk did for Turkey what the Tea Party claims Obama is trying to do to the United States. If there was a Fox News in Turkey in Ataturk’s time, I’m sure at some point the various talking heads would’ve eventually committed suicide on the air.

Ataturk’s reforms had a central component: We are not mixing government and religion, he said. Turkey has a secular (i.e. non-religious) government in a country whose religion can be, shall we say, a bit syrupy. The ancient systems of autonomous government fiefdoms tinged with religious based policy became a thing of the past under Ataturk. “There will be one government, and you shall have your religion, but not together, doing the same thing” is my paraphrased interpretation. Things like this get my attention.

And for this vision and political leadership in its implementation, Ataturk remains a much-loved icon amongst the Turkish people. Icon is perhaps too weak a word. He’s everywhere. There are pictures of him in barber shops, restaurants, and there are even bumper stickers depicting his signature. Stately statues of him are in every town I have visited. Souvenir shops sell Ataturk clocks and cigarette lighters (the latter of which will end up in a certain Smoking Room). We went to a concert in an open amphitheater and behind the performers were two flags: The Turkish flag, and an equally big, almost creepy depiction of Ataturk staring right back at us, as if saying, “I am here, and I approve of this concert”. The conductor of the orchestra gave an open salute to the Ataturk banner before commencing the concert. On the date of his death, at the exact moment of his passing, everything (traffic, markets, government, etc) stops for a one moment of silence in his honor. The Admans, my generous hosts here, themselves have a picture of Ataturk in their china cabinet. In it, he is impeccably dressed, seated in white slacks, morning coat, cigarette in hand, the absolute picture of genteelity.  It is an obviously staged press photo, but to achieve an iconic political image such as the one Ataturk established, the visual must equal the theoretical.

These days, many Turkish people feel, Ataturk’s legacy of secularism is under attack from the present Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is a conservative ruler, who is trying to implement many policies and laws rooted in Islamic tradition, like no alcohol after midnight, nor can women cannot wear certain forms of nail polish. Because Turkey is experiencing favorable economic growth, he continues to hold power and he sees it as a mandate to go against some of the most core of Ataturk’s beliefs. He rules with an arrogance and heavy hand that reads right out of the Islamic playbook. Although the recent riots started as a protest against the development of a park, it really escalated once the police were ordered in, a bit like burning down the house to get the flies out. The resentment against his non-secular social policies began to hemmorage out, and then the protests made worldwide news. People are seething here at the Prime Minister, who is angling to become president of the republic once his term ends in a year or so from now. Considering Vladimir Putin did the same thing, this should be troubling for the Turkish people.

Is this a coming of age for the Turkish people? Time will tell. In the meantime, the power does rest with the people, and democracy, though not perfect, works more often than it doesn’t.

Ataturk Statue.

Bust of Ataturk in Cunda. 

Ataturk watching Tamer getting a shave. 

The immense Ataturk banner at the concert.