First president of Turkey from 1923 to 1938 who was a winning strategist in the war for Turkey’s independence and helped found the Republic of Turkey in its aftermath. He transformed Turkey into a secular democratic nation-state, established new schools, and gave women equal civil rights.
He enforced the new Turkish alphabet in 1928. It was one of the biggest changes in any alphabet (Turkish was previously written in Arab script, know as Ottoman). The letter o-umlaut allegedly came from Swedish, u-umlaut from German, s-cedilla from Romanian, c-cedilla from French, and the g-breve was introduced with the new alphabet.
His second name, Kemal, means “Perfection of Maturity” and his surname “Ataturk” means “Father of the Turks.”.
Quotes :
“The cornerstone of education is an easy system of reading and writing. The key to this is the new Turkish alphabet based on the Latin script.”
“Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.”
“The government’s most creative and significant duty is education.”
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