Atatürk's vision for space

The 1930s and 40s.

Think about those years. New inventions were emerging, but there was confusion about the future of these inventions.

For example, the radio had just been invented, but the Scottish physicist Lord Kelvin said, "The radio has no future."

Also in those years, the talking film had just been invented, and the famous film producer Harry M. Warner stated, "Who wants to hear actors talk?"

Television had been invented, and Twentieth Century Fox President Darryl F. Zanuck said, "Television will not be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."

But a man from Turkey stood up in 1936 at the Eskişehir Air Regiment and said these bold words:

"The greatest guarantee for the future of the country is a winged youth. If Western feet are to leave a mark on the Moon one day, Turkish footprints must also be among them," he said.

He did not stop there; he continued with these words:

"Humanity will one day walk in the skies without airplanes, will go to the planets, and perhaps send us messages from the Moon. There will be no need to wait for the year 2000 for this miracle to come true. Developing technology is already heralding this to us. Our duty is to ensure that we do not fall behind the West in this regard," he said.

The man who said this was my leader, M. Kemal Atatürk.

While even the world's most famous scientists and experts were failing in their predictions, Atatürk accurately predicted that humanity would set foot on the Moon before the year 2000. And what he said came true. The US spacecraft Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969, and Neil Armstrong took his first step on the Moon. Humanity left its mark on the Moon before the year 2000. In the following years, other countries and nations followed suit.

And now, receiving messages from the Moon has become as simple as receiving messages from home.

Atatürk did not stop there; he said, "Humanity will one day go to the planets, and perhaps send us messages from the Moon." In 1997, the space exploration vehicle named Pathfinder landed on the surface of Mars. In February 2021, the spacecraft named Perseverance conducted a 7-month exploration on the surface of Mars. Now, three spacecraft named Odyssey, Express, and Reconnaissance Orbiter are in orbit around Mars, conducting explorations and sending us messages and images from Mars.

It sounds like a joke, but in 2009, the first space collision even occurred. US and Russian spacecraft collided. It's like two vehicles having an accident in traffic, isn't it?

We are still busy bickering and colliding among ourselves.

Space technology has developed so much that today, others are on the verge of turning light into matter. This means that in the near future, it will be possible to travel at the speed of light in space. And humanity will be able to solve the problem of time in this way. And then, it will be able to delve into the depths of space.

Atatürk predicted back in 1936 that Westerners would be roaming the planet, but he also said something else that day. He wanted "Turkish footprints to be among the footprints left on the Moon."

But we, even though Atatürk opened a Glider school in 1925 and laid the foundations of aviation science, have not progressed an inch. Even though our planes were produced and exported to foreign countries during the Atatürk era, we have not moved a step forward since then.

Atatürk also said in those years: "Nations that try to live in the Middle Ages or even older periods with primitive and empty beliefs will certainly perish. If they do not perish, they will be enslaved and humiliated."

But we did not understand this.

We chose ignorance. We chose primitive, empty-believing, and medieval-product cult and sect mentalities. How far can one go with these mentalities?

And as a result, Westerners realized what Atatürk predicted about space. Not us. We couldn't even see what was in front of us, let alone the 2000s. They left their mark on the Moon long before the year 2000. Atatürk would have very much liked for Turkish footprints to be among those marks, but it did not happen. The counter-revolution movement after 1950 and the subsequent detachment from the race of civilization caused science and technology to be pushed into the background in our country.

Otherwise, the Turkish Nation would have gone to the Moon long ago.

Oh, by the way, we sent a man to space. Of course, with money. For 55 million dollars. We sent Turkish pilot Alper Gezeravcı to the space station through the state.

But the spaceship is theirs,

The space base is theirs,

The technology is theirs.

Everything is theirs, belonging to others.

If you are going to do this, my friend, you will do it with your own space equipment. Not with someone else's tool.

Therefore, do not rejoice because we went to space; that success does not belong to you.

It belongs to someone else.

If you go to space with someone else's tool, the result is fixed.