Soviet, Russian and American filmmaker and screenwriter, public and political figure, People's Artist of Russia Andrey Konchalovski shared his thoughts on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.
Eurasia Diary presents the interview in English for readers:
"Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the first president of Turkey, a reformer, a dictator, a man who turned Turkey into a European country. It is almost like Peter I of Turkey. He was the one who allowed the women to walk without their chadaree. It was he who moved the Turkish capital to Ankara. He launched the trams, set up parliament, introduced the Latin alphabet instead of the Arabic script. In my opinion, the most important thing he did was to create a modern Turkish Army. He created an institution of officer corps, a new form of government where the army is a guarantor of democracy. The Turks love him very much."
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We can say that there is an adoration of Ataturk in the country, and I think he deserves it, because no one else in Turkey has ever done what he did for his country. Ataturk's statues and pictures are everywhere: Ataturk constructed 2 statues for Soviet military commanders, he launched construction of monuments for Voroshilov and Fronze for their help in the war against the Greeks. By the way, while defeating the Greek troops, he expressed an interesting ideological approach:
"This is revenge! This is the revenge of the Turks for the destruction of Trojan in the Trojan War." When Ataturk entered the liberated Izmir after the defeat of the Greek army, someone threw a Greek flag under the wheels. He parked his car, fell to the ground, raised the Greek flag and addressed the public: "The flag is a symbol of the sovereignty of the nation and should not be insulted." There was silence.
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In my opinion, Ataturk was a talented person. First he was able to shave very clean. This was not a custom for Muslims. He wore a spectacular tailcoat, smoking suit and he was drinking alcohol. It was all a call. There were many enemies. He was predicting his death, and fundamentalists could kill him every second, but he survived. He was either very brave or chanceful. Ataturk did what almost no Muslim ruler could do that.
He made Turkey a secular, democratic, almost European state. At the end of his life, he was tired and suffering. He was suffering from lethargy and by the way he died of liver cirrhosis, not boredom. He drank too much, but that did not diminish the great leader in the views of the Turks. On the contrary, they remember with pleasure and honor the first presidents and the founder of the Turkish state."
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