Book Review: Ataturk by Patrick Kinross

Ataturk has been written by a British writer, Patrick Kinross, and is a voluminous tome detailing each and every aspect of life of the great Turkish Leader, Mustafa Kemal. 

Kinross has put much effort into researching details about the personal life and interactions with people of Kemal, which is evident from the numerous footnotes and references cited in the book. This makes for great reading, and since the time of Kemal was an important time, of great political and economic upheaval, therefore the footnotes are a real delight for the curious reader thirsty for history and politics. 

Kinross has kept his tone very professional, portraying Kemal as is, venturing deep into his praise as well as critique, and the book gives a broad view of how the modern day Turkey was conceived. 

As the cover details, the Turkey we know was the creation of one man, literally one man, since the last vestiges of Ottoman Empire were rampant with corruption and political ineptness of the royalty people knew as Caliph, and so was the case with all governmental offices and officers. 

Stepping into the WW1, the biggest event in that time, the majority of the Turkish nation didn’t even realize the horrific mental caliber of their leadership, and it was only through the efforts of a small cadre of Nationalists and Reformists (my own terms for the Young Turks ; who were a collection of highly educated youth with mostly foreign exposure, who realized that the Caliphate and Caliph were incapable of caring for the sprawling Empire, and therefore the internal upheavals began from late 19^th century. It was a continuum of these upheavals and political turmoil in which Kemal grew up and moulded by these events, started his personal struggle for the emancipation of the Turk Nation.

What the common people know now, what the layman Muslim knows is mostly that Kemal abolished most of the Islamic obligations and customs that we hold dear and without which Islam looks deformed. 

But what we don’t know, and can’t know unless we read a few history books, is that Kemal, his character and actions in later Turkey notwithstanding, did more for the Turkish Muslims than all the rest of the religious and moderate leadership and nation combined.

For the Ottoman Empire in WW1 was like a cow carcass (Turkey) with a flock of carrion (Europe, Balkan nations, Russia and Arabs) looking for the opportune moment to carve off their share from the sprawling sick man (Ottoman Empire). It was through single minded determination and obstinate forceful leadership and efforts of Kemal, complimented by the good-natured efforts of a handful of his best colleagues, that saved the Turkish Muslims from falling prey to the European nations and Russia. 

If not for Kemal, the situation would have been very pitiable for the Muslims in Turkey region and Balkans (still is, there).

I invite all my history interested fellows to read the history of the last years of the Ottoman Republic, for it is the precursor to understanding the current Muslim political situation in the ME as well as the Muslim religious leadership. I would go even so far as to say that not reading history independent of the routine curriculum in educational institutions is criminal, and history has not been nice to such people who forget their history. For our part, we don’t even know our history, so what talk of our future?