Under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s leadership, Turkey became a republic. Eighty-five years later, students and faculty gathered in Taylor Auditorium in McCool Hall to commemorate the event.
The Turkish Student Association invited historian and engineer Arnold Reisman who recently wrote the book Turkey’s Modernization to shed light on a segment of history that few historians know anything about.
Americans need to know more about world history, Reisman said.
“Turkey has gotten no credit for saving 190 intellectuals from imminent death,” he said. “Turkey is a bridge between Christianity, Judaism and Islam between developing nations and we know nothing about it.”
Reisman said he thought he knew about the Holocaust, yet an owner of a book store informed him about a particular aspect of it.
“I thought I knew about the Holocaust, so the more I looked into it, the more I realized Turkey’s role was a blind spot,” he said. “It indeed is my honor to speak about a part of Turkish history which English historians know nothing about.”
In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was founded as a secular one dedicated to having an educated populace, Reisman said.
“Literacy was 9 percent at that time,” he said. “Ataturk and colleagues went about making many reforms and they switched the language from Arabic to a Latin-based alphabet, since Arabic was not sympathetic to some of the Turkish sounds.”
As many professors were expelled from German universities in 1933, the Turkish government went about creating universities that included many Jewish professors, he said.
“The invitation saved the lives of 190 intellectuals, their families and some staff members,” he said. “Turkey had a history as a safe haven to those who were persecuted.”
Ernest Reuter was a city planner and economist who, when he arrived in Turkey, performed much of the city planning for Ankara, Reisman said.
“Reuter was the first mayor of post-war Berlin and was incarcerated by three different regimes,” he said. “His son became CEO of the company that makes Mercedes-Benz.”
Cultural tourism is a major industry in Turkey, Reisman said.
“Iran is similarly situated, rich in archeology and rich in geography but its tourism is zip while Turkey’s is $18 billion,” he said. “In 2010, Istanbul is going to be named the cultural capital of Europe.”
Landscape architecture department head Sadik Artunc said he believes it is important to discuss and share with the rest of the world what the Turkish people and Turkey have been able to accomplish.
“Many Americans, like myself, trace their heritage to Turkey and Turks have contributed greatly to the life in the USA,” he said. “I am honored to be a dual citizen of Turkey and the USA where I uphold great traditions of two great nations.”
Having successfully led the war of independence, Ataturk was asked to take over the newly-founded state as its monarch, Artunc said.
“This is very similar to the event that took place in the history of the USA where her founder George Washington was presented the opportunity to take over as the president,” he said. “I am happy that both of these great founding leaders had more foresight than people surrounded them, otherwise, we would have been living a totally different world.”
Aytug Gencoglu, vice president for the Turkish Student Association, said the presentation was a unique opportunity.
“People do not know Turkey very well and some of the impressions could be misleading,” he said. “This specific topic is not known in Turkey, and I guess this was the only place to learn about this.”
Ercan Unlu, genetics graduate student and the TSA’s treasurer said people need to know how important it is to be free.
“I found this [presentation] informative for people who did not know the specifics of Turkish history,” he said.
For more information about the Turkish Student Association and future events, visit its Web site at tsa.org.msstate.edu.