ISBN: 9781585670116

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was virtually unknown until 1919, when he took the lead in thwarting the victorious Allies' plan to partition the Turkish core of the Ottoman Empire. He divided the … Mehr…

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was virtually unknown until 1919, when he took the lead in thwarting the victorious Allies' plan to partition the Turkish core of the Ottoman Empire. He divided the Allies, defeated the last Sultan and secured the territory of the Turkish national state, becoming the first president of the new republic in 1923. He fast created his own legend and his own cult, along with much controversy. In Turkey today he is invoked at every turn in domestic politics and a law protects his memory from insult, while foreign visitors find the Ataturk cult unappealing and blame him for his country's ills.In this definitive new biography Andrew Mango shows the real omplexities of Turkey's first president -- his high ideals and ruthless tactics, his championship of women's rights and his inability to sustain an equal relationship with women, his nationalism and his belief in a single universal civilization, his regular drinking bouts and the strange theories they produced. Through Mango's balanced treatment, he reveals a man who, while responsible for some of his country's ills, also transformed the republic from a battle-scarred ruin into a regional power. Mango's biography throws light on matters of great topical interest -- resurgent nationalism, religious fundamentalism and the reality of democracy. Media ><

ISBN: 9781585670116

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