Atatürk towards November 10

Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK lived with the dreams of his youth until his final breath. In his difficult days, his successes, and his moments of contemplation and hesitation, he could never escape his youthful sentimentality. For him, life was “a movement towards the future.”

In the progress of society, he acted more with his natural, innate intuition than by delving deep. Intuition was Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK’s most powerful weapon. What he achieved was, for him, merely a meager consolation, and his gaze was always turned forward. He would say:

“Do not speak to me of what I have done, but of what I must do… The revolution must develop and be extraordinary…”

He embarked on military offensives by considering all risks alongside his deep contemplation. He secured both authority and fame; yet, he did not build impenetrable fortresses around himself. He accepted that he was an important figure; however, he was greatly saddened by being viewed as a god. The example of the sultans before him disturbed him.

It is not captivity, but free thought that can save this nation from the abyss. Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK started all his revolutions from the bottom up. For him, his relationship with the people was like winding a clock.

Today’s person may find some missing aspects or less-than-perfect sides in the Kemalist revolution; they may even see the contradictions of its creator. But to view the life and cause of this powerful spirit from the perspective of the present would be, at the very least, an injustice. Anything further would be betrayal.

Mustafa Kemal was a child of his own reality. His strength lay in rising above the ruins. He knew how to look out from the blurred glass of Ottomanism; as a person of a collapsing empire, he was able to grasp the strong, liberating lines of the Republic without getting caught up in the thoughts of the Committee of Union and Progress.

In Mustafa Kemal, utopia and militancy merged, becoming inseparable parts of him. These two feelings within him were of equal strength. Thus, he was equally successful at both extremes. The value of his foresight can be summarized in practice as follows:

“I am happy because I succeeded.”

He could have been a sultan. But the mindset of Bayezid I was foreign to him. His mastery in war gave him enthusiasm until he drove out the imperialist invaders. For Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, the uniform was not an end, but a means. For this reason, he took off his marshal’s uniform with great ease and was able to state his great philosophy:

“Peace at home, peace in the world.”

He wanted to be the first spark of every new beginning. The idea of opening new horizons drew him in with an indescribable power.

His hatred for the old was so strong that the idea of seeing the Republic of Turkey at the highest level of the age of civilization became his main principle.

Time was not enough for him in his fight for the new. For the tireless warrior of the days, the nights were his greatest helper.

Atatürk was always young; that is why he entrusted his cause to the youth with faith.

On the fifteenth anniversary of the Great Victory, young people held a demonstration in front of the Savarona in Istanbul. Atatürk, with the help of his friends, sat in a chair to watch the demonstration. As he whispered, “These holidays and the future are yours, goodbye,” his eyes filled with tears.

One day, he told his close associate Afet İnan that he wanted to live in a remote corner of the country, in a simple village, far from all his fame:

“Let us leave everything and go,” he would say.

He let himself be carried away by these feelings:

“Let it be a simple house. There must definitely be a hearth in the room.”

The government ordered a house to be prepared in a wooded area so that Atatürk could go there after recovering. But it was all in vain. A few days after this conversation, he fell into a coma. After being unconscious for three days, he came to. The doctor brought from Europe said the following with joy and astonishment:

“I am not telling you a fairy tale. No, I am speaking as a man who knows the power of twentieth-century medicine. Death was afraid of him.”

Atatürk’s emergence from the coma was such an unexpected event that those around him acted as if nothing had happened. But Atatürk kept asking for the time to check his consciousness. The fluid accumulating in his abdomen again was suffocating Atatürk. In the midst of his pain, he shouted:

“I want you to drain the fluid!”

Despite the danger, it was decided to drain the fluid with a syringe; but a few hours later, the coma returned. He wrestled with death for thirty-six hours. Thirty-six hours later, on the morning of November 10, 1938, he closed his eyes.

Mustafa Kemal’s life passed like a flickering dream. He shone like a meteor in the dark sky of the Ottoman Empire, shattering conservatism and burning with his own fire to give life to a new beginning. This is the Republic of Turkey.

Youth! You are the present, the tomorrow, and the future of the life of the great genius and mastermind Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was always young; that is why he entrusted his cause and his beliefs to the youth.