WORLD LEADERS PRAISE ATATÜRK
(FROM TURKISH TIMES JUNE 2003)
History has seen many great people. It has seen Alexander the Great's, Napoleon's, Washington's. However, in the twentieth century the record for greatness was broken by Atatürk, this Turkish son of a Turk."
L'IIIustration Newspaper, France
"I obtained information concerning Mustafa Kemal from someone who knows him very well. When talking with Foreign Minister Litvinov of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, he said that in his opinion, the most valuable and interesting statesman in all of Europe does not live in Europe today, but beyond the Bosphorus, he lives in Ankara, and that this was the President of the Turkish Republic, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America
"Atatürk's death is not only a loss for the country, but for Europe is the greatest loss, he who saved Turkey in the war and who revived a new the Turkish nation after the war. The sincere tears shed after him by all classes of people is nothing other than an appropriate manifestation to this great hero and modern Turkey's Ata."
Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
"Mustafa Kemal was not a socialist. But it can be perceived that he is a good organizer, with great understanding, progressive, with good thoughts and an intelligent leader. He is carrying out a war of independence against those plunderers. I am believing that he will break the pride of the imperialists and that he will beat the Sultan together with his friends. (1921 )"
Vladimir llyich Lenin, Leader of the Russian Revolution
"In connection with the permanent memorial facility for Kemal Atatürk, I take pride in presenting my congratulations to Turkey. Your great country that is advancing on the course that he demonstrated has obtained very significant successes. This ceremony that is being held to commemorate the memory of Atatürk, the architect of progress and Turkish unity, is a very appropriate respect to a person who became a source of inspiration to free peoples throughout the world."
Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America
"The name of Atatürk reminds people of the historical successes of one of the great individuals of this century, the leadership that gave inspiration to the Turkish nation, farsightedness in the understanding of the modern world and courage and power as a military leader. It is without a doubt that another example can't be shown indicating greater successes than the birth of the Turkish Republic and ever since then Atatürk's and Turkey's broad and deep reforms undertaken as well as the confidence of a nation in itself."
John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America
"Kemal Atatürk or Kemal Pasha by which name we knew him in those times, was my hero during my youth. I was very moved when I read about his great reforms. I met with great praise the general efforts made by Atatürk on the course of modernizing Turkey. His dynamism, undauntedness and unawareness of fatigue created a great effect on people. He was one of the builders of the modern age in the orient. I continue to be among his greatest admirers."
Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
"We feel a great admiration for Atatürk in his efforts towards ensuring the modernization of Turkish society by separating religion and politics from each other and by carrying out the Turkish Language Reforms."
Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan
"In our times, it is Atatürk who brought Turkey to its current status as a modern republic with his farsighted and courageous political, social and economic reforms. At the same time, it was also he that prepared the foundation of the modern economy that will ensure today Turkey's attaining the strength to be able to enter the European Economic Community."
Joseph Luns, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands
"He was a military-statesman, one of the greatest leaders of our era. He ensured that Turkey got its rightful place among the most advanced nations. Also, he gave the feeling of support and self-confidence to the Turks, that forms the foundation stone of a nation's greatness. I take great pride in being one of Atatürk's loyal friends."
General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Forces, U.S.A.
"The West and the East came face to face at the second class coastal town of Mudanya on a crooked road covered with dust on the hot Marmara coast. Despite the English flag ship "Iron-Duke's" ash-colored deathly turrets that transported the Allied generals for negotiations with Ismet Pasha, the Westerners had come here to beg for peace, not to ask for peace or to dictate the conditions... These negotiations demonstrate the end of Europe's dominance over Asia, because as everyone knows, Mustafa Kemal got rid of all the Greeks."
Ernest Hemingway, American Journalist and Novelist
"The world, by no means and at no time, has witnessed such an exciting event as the re-founding of Turkey with a Western point of view and belief."
Social Demokraten Newspaper, Sweden
"In no other country have women advanced this rapidly. It is truly an unique event in history for a nation to change to this degree."
Daily Telegraph Newspaper, England
"The Sakarya Battle, the Sakarya Victory became the strongest recollection when I was twenty.
At that time I said to myself, I wonder whether or not I can mobilize my country like this? Can I not instill in his spirit this delivering attack, this unreined passion?"
Habib ben Ali Bourguiba, President of Tunisia
"In 1918...Turkey was a defeated nation seemingly in irreparable collapse.
Today, twenty years later, we see a nation on the borders of Europe and Asia, economically and culturally prosperous, once again important internationally, and profiting from peaceful relations with all its neighbors."
Gyulaa Kornis, Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament
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