Finally! or As previously mentioned.....

Ok, as previously promised, and I will keep this little history lesson brief.  There may be a quiz afterwards though.  Lol.
I would like to introduce Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, first president of the Republic of Turkey.  He is revered in this country with a capital R.  I will bet that almost every home and business in Turkey has a picture of this respected leader as well as every town or city having at least one statue somewhere.  There are several unofficial national flags with his picture on it.  It is against the law to publicly disrespect him in any way, shape or form, and you may be promptly arrested.

Mustafa was born in 1881in a small town in what is now modern day Greece but was part of the Ottoman Empire at that time.  His second name Kemal was given to him by a school teacher although some believe he gave it to himself as a tribute to a poet.  Mustafa attended military school and was in the military through World War I, during which the Ottoman Empire allied through the Central Powers.  After World War 1, Turkey was invaded by Greece, which led to the Turkish War of Independence in 1920 led by Mustafa Kemal.

Mustafa the soldier 

On 29 October 1923, the Turkish Assembly declared Turkey a Republic (ending 623 years of Ottoman rule) and unanimously voted Mustafa as the first President.  As President, Mustafa laid the foundation for a modern Turkey and began to quickly making sweeping social, political, and economic reforms, particularly leading Turkey away from Arabian influences and leaning more towards Europe.  Reforms included:

• the adoption of the international calendar and time system
• the adoption of a Turkish alphabet (using letters similar to German)
• moved the capital from Istanbul (formally Constantinople) to Ankara
• establishment of the Turkish language for business and govt affairs
• the legal position of women was greatly improved - eventually including voting rights
• free public education for all citizens
• encouraging women to remove veils
• freedom of religion - with no official state religion and separate from politics and judicial system. 

He was briefly married and adopted several children.  He enjoyed a good game of backgammon and billiards and was very fond of his horse, Sakarya, and his dog, Fox.

In 1934, the General Assembly granted Mustafa Kemal the surname of Atatürk -meaning "Father of the Turks", in accordance with the new surname law.
One of Atatürk's famous sayings:

Even though he was a career soldier, he came to believe that war was not the answer.
Sadly for Turkey, on 30 November 1938 at 9:05am, near the end of his fourth term as President, Atatürk died of liver disease at the age of 57.  Every year on this date the entire country STOPS to honor him with a minute of silence at the time of his death.
Fifteen years later his body was interred in the Anikabir - a magnificent mausoleum and associated museum on a hill that overlooks Ankara.

Road of Lions, a 262 m (860') long pedestrian walkway with 12 pairs of stone lions representing Anatolia.  The lions are in pairs to simultaneously represent power and peace.  

Changing of the guard at Ataturk's tomb. 

Atatürk statue in Eskisehir 

I need to once again thank Wikipedia for the top two pictures of the Anitkabir.  We did visit there in January I swear, but somehow mysteriously have lost those pictures.  It's what we get for becoming proud of what-we-thought-was-our super organized digital library.  Truly pride goeth before the fall.