When Turks Civilized the World

Mustafa Kemal, or Atatürk as he became known, the undisputed ruler of Turkey from 1923 to 1938, was very fond of young ladies – to such an extent that he adopted four of them. One, named Afet, was an eighteen-year-old history student whose family Kemal had known in his native Salonica. Like the other girls, he encouraged Afet to pursue her studies, so that she eventually got a doctorate and rose high in the Turkish historical establishment. According to her own account, one day in 1929, she came to the Gazi (a favourite title, Victor over Infidels) with a problem. She had read in a French geography book that the Turks were a yellow race, generally considered second-class human beings. This provoked a reaction in Kemal, who had light hair and blue eyes. ‘No, that can’t be’ he said, ‘let’s get busy about it’.