Original subtitles

September 1938...

Atatürk is in critical condition...

He is lying in his room at Dolmabahçe Palace unconscious.

When he opens his eyes for an instant...

his gaze stops on the painting on the wall...

The painting called "The Four Seasons" reminds him of Rumeli where he grew up.

He whispers to Afet Ýnan keeping watch by his bed...

"Let's go there Afet"

"Let's leave everything behind, set up a simple house, with a fireplace."

"Once I get better, let's go into the woods..."

Actually, it would be wrong to say that...

...he had a happy childhood in those lands.

He lost his father when he was still at primary school...

...which forced him to cut his education short.

He had left their home behind, taking his mother and 2 sisters...

...when they could no longer make ends meet.

They took refuge in a farm near Salonica...

...where his maternal uncle worked as a steward.

His job on that farm was to chase away the crows...

...that were regularly feasting on the crops.

However, nothing could ever help chase away the sorrows of a child...

...who had lost his father, left school and moved out of his home.

He had built himself a hut by using large branches...

...and he sought comfort in the solitude of that small hut.

It was a house to substitute the home he had left behind...

Much smaller than the one in Salonica...

...but it was a place he could call his own.

A home to shelter him from all evil...

...in a time when it seemed that all was lost...

A dream of a home in exile...

Mustafa

The 19th century drawing to an end...

Freshly dug grave by the coast in Salonica...

A tiny child has been laid in the grave.

His name was Ahmet...

Zübeyde Haným and Ali Rýza Bey's three-year old child...

...who had just passed away...

This was the third child they lost...

The waves take tiny Ahmet out of that sandy grave at night.

Hyenas attack his tiny body.

Zübeyde Haným and Ali Rýza Bey lived with the pain of...

...that experience for years.

Then arrived a new baby, a new hope, at their home.

Mustafa grew up listening to the story of his unfortunate brother Ahmet...

...whom he had never seen.

He would never forget how helpless his brother had been...

...against life and the nature.

"That was his destiny", they said.

He could not accept that.

He was determined to forge his own destiny.

Mustafa Kemal, after getting a terrible flogging...

...from Kaymak Hafýz one of his secondary school teachers...

...he declared to his mother that he wouldn't "go to that school anymore"...

...adding, "Send me to a military academy".

His mother pleaded with him but he wouldn't listen to her.

He was upset with her anyway.

He could not come to terms with the fact that after his father's death...

...she had married another man, who had brought his children along.

He had taken the exam for the military academy secretly...

...and when the time came, he just slammed the door and left.

When he boarded the train for Manastýr from Salonica...

...on his way to military school, it was his first time away from the land he was born.

He was headed away from hearth and home.

When he arrived in Manastýr, the life where he was already defeated...

...without even starting had been left behind.

He was to lead a life "alone and independent"...

...and he would try to make the army his home.

Mustafa Kemal would spend his weekends by the pool...

...at the military school.

During his first term at the school, he had malaria...

...and the gold watch given to him by his father was stolen...

...by his bed side as he lay unconscious.

He was devasteted and lost a lot of weight.

The main agenda at the school in those days was the future of the...

...Ottoman Empire.

The gigantic empire reaching its apex in the time of Süleyman...

...the Magnificent, with lands stretching from the deserts of Arabia...

...to the steppes in Russia, and from Western Mediterranean into the...

...heart of Europe was now shrinking.

The new wave of nationalism had caught up the Serbians, Greeks...

...Rumanian and Bulgarians, and with one defeat another...

...the Ottoman Empire had retreated all the way back to Rumeli.

When a revolt broke out in Crete in 1897...

...which was shortly followed by Turco-Greek war...

...there was widespread panic among the cadets that the Empire was...

..."about to be lost".

Although the Ottomans came out victorious, they lost Crete...

...when politics started talking, yielding to the pressure from powerful nations.

Then, anger replaced anxiety.

Mustafa Kemal no longer felt like shouting "Long Live the Sultan!"...

...every morning with his schoolmates.

There was rebellion in his soul now.

He arrived in Istanbul in March 1899.

He was to study at the Military Academy.

He was 18 and it was the first time he had a chance to see the...

...Ottoman capital from the deck of a ship.

This spectacular city, and particularly Pera, which was the colourful...

..." downtown, attracted young Mustafa Kemal like a magnet; he was dazzled."

He went after youthful dreams in his first year.

He became familiar with alcohol and women, learned how to waltz...

...and skipped lessons.

After his 2nd year, thanks partly to his friend Ali Fuat's father's efforts...

...he managed to pull himself together.

This photograph taken during his military academy years shows...

...Mustafa Kemal, with his newly grown moustache, and his peers.

They did not carry swords yet, but they had books.

In the daytime, they had a modern education and in the evenings...

...they read hand-copied poems of liberty in their dorms.

They could hardly wait for their graduation to serve the Empire...

...which had been likened unto a sick man.

In the military academy, he started to have difficulty going to sleep.

He spent many nights writing in his diary.

The entries in his diary reflected the melancholic state of mind of...

...a young man trapped in a boarding school, not being able to...

heed the call of the streets because of financial problems:

"11th of March 1904... Friday...

7 o'clock...

It's been 3 months since I arrived from Salonica.

It had felt as if I started leading a regular life at first.

I had thought that the grief incapacitating me both physically...

...and psychologically was gone.

But alas! I weep once again, like the hundreds of times before...

...hearing the groans of my heart.

Like always, yet again..."

"21 March 1904... Monday...

6 A.M.

I checked my financial situation today.

I observed that my expenses were a lot higher than my income.

I had not calculated the money coming in and going out until now.

I feel both physically and emotionally depressed under the weight of...

...such inconsiderate behaviour.

However, the problem is not that the expenses are too high...

...it is that the income is too low."

In late 1904, he graduated as Staff Captain Mustafa Kemal.

He trimmed his Willhelm-style moustache sharply...

...and had his photograph taken in Pera.

He sent the photograph to his mother.

"I'll be in Salonica soon" he wrote in the back.

Like all the other young officers, he was expecting to be assigned to...

...Macedonia and start serving.

He wanted to defend the constitutional monarchy.

However, he was arrested.

An informant had told the secret police he had been operating a secret organisation.

He was put in a cell in Taþkýþla.

It seemed that all had come to an end.

They were either going to dismiss him from the army...

...or send him on exile.

He sang his rebellion through the window of his cell...

...in the officers' prison:

"I've had it with the worries of this world.

Oh, for death to have mercy on me! And liberate me..."

After his interrogation, it was decided that he and his best friend Ali Fuat...

...would " be posted where there are no facilities for travel to home".

Place of exile was: Damascus.

When Mustafa Kemal was told the verdict, he said...

"Poor Mother, she'll wait for me in vain".

Just then Zübeyde Haným was on her way to Istanbul to find her Mustafa...

...as she had not been able to contact him for weeks.

Their meeting was a sad occasion.

When Mustafa Kemal was brought to the port in Sirkeci to board...

...the steamer that was to take him to exile, the military police did not...

...allow the mother and son to say their good-byes.

Mustafa Kemal, left Istanbul on a snowy winter's day...

...without having had a chance to give one final embrace to his mother.

He was being sent to a distant land, on which he had no information...

...his comrade Fuat by his side.

He shrugged as he watched Istanbul disappear into the mist and said:

"Well. So be it. In that case, we'll go to that desert...

...and start a new life there."

Damascus looked nothing like Istanbul or Salonica.

It was a dark, conservative and dilapidated oriental town...

...for someone coming from Macedonia.

While Mustafa Kemal was hoping to go to Salonica and fight for the constitution...

...he was sent to that distant land.

He had a chance to have a good look at the back yard of the Empire.

It was poverty-stricken and miserable.

The army lacked discipline, the troops were scattered...

...and administration was ignorant.

Some old-school officers were favouring the Arabian soldiers...

...as they were from "the lineage of the Prophet".

Mustafa Kemal's anger and disappointment could be read...

...in his diary, which had become his only confidant:

"These officers have no notion of military knowledge and ideas.

Moreover, those ignorant and morose people are thieves.

I think the Ottoman army is the most unfortunate army in the world.

You cannot fight even a herd of geese with an army like this."

He would spend the rest of his days to revive that army.

He translated military books and participated in...

...military field exercises in Cumalý and Picardie.

He got to know German and French generals.

He was also in conflict with the Unionists...

...to keep the army away from politics.

He was alone, penniless, and had poor health.

He had also been very unfortunate up to that time.

He had been in the wrong places in the wrong times...

"and had missed lots of opportunities; But he was extremely ambitious..."

...he could not settle for defeat, even when he played backgammon.

Every time he was sent on exile he managed to learn new things...

...making the leader in him stronger.

One day in Salonica, as they were having dinner and discussing the...

...future, he assigned his comrades to jobs one by one...

...and when they asked him what his own position would be:

"I will be the person who assigns you to those positions" was his reply.

When Italy invaded Tripoli in September 1911...

...he volunteered to be sent to the front to fight his first war.

Before leaving, he met Ali Fuat in the garden of the White Tower.

Ali Fuat, would later recount that night:

"Mustafa Kemal seemed very sad.

"You're not yourself tonight' I said. "What's wrong? '

"It's not important. But I'm sad' he said.

"I wonder whether Salonica, this city where I was born...

...and brought up will remain Turkish.

If I manage to come back from Tripoli...

...will I be able to come back here again? '

As the moon disappeared behind the Mount Olympos, Mustafa Kemal sighed...

...and said "Oh Salonica, will I ever be...

...see you as Turkish soil again? '

"When I looked, he was weeping."

On a Russian ship, 17 October 1911.

"My Brother...

We have just set out from Istanbul.

We hope to start an eternal struggle.

May God make us successful.

Do not let anyone know my whereabouts.

Do not let my mother know, either, yet.

Show her letters from time to time as if they were sent from Istanbul.

More effort and sacrifice than ever are needed to save our country.

Remember me.

If God wishes, we will meet at the front.

Otherwise, we will meet in the after-life.

May God be with you my dear Fuat..."

In Tripoli, they had to fight against the Italian troops...

...whose numbers were 10 times greater.

One day, they were trapped in Kasr-ý Harun.

In close range combat, a bomb dropped by an Italian plane...

...exploded nearby.

Mustafa Kemal got a hit in his eye.

Headquarters, Ayn-Mansur, 22 May 1912.

"My Dear friend Kerim Bey...

My left eye, which was already in bad condition...

...became blood shot on the night of the 17th of January...

...and I could not see with it anymore.

Due to the intensity of the pain, I was not able to perform my duties.

I was taken to the Red Crescent Hospital.

After a month's therapy, I was discharged...

...but I did not recover my eyesight completely.

The specialist tells me that "it will be okay with time"...

...but I do not believe him.

After the conclusion of this war, how will I be able to leave...

...the military life and go into a corner to rest?

Mustafa Kemal, Mayor, The Commander for the Forces in Derne.

When Mustafa Kemal returned from Tripoli...

...he had still not completely recoverd.

He was to carry that memento of war in his left eye to the day he dies.

Balkan War had broken out, Macedonia was lost...

...and Salonica was abondoned without firing a single shot.

The Bulgarian army was at the gates of Istanbul.

Now there were thousands of refugees on Rumeli roads.

The peoples of the Balkans had to leave their homes...

...and lands behind and were walking in great numbers towards a land...

...which they regarded as their motherland...

...as uprooted trees in search of a new land.

Mustafa Kemal, rushed in pain to Istanbul.

He met Salih at Meserret Coffee House.

"How could you do it?" He asked in tears...

"How could you leave our beautiful homeland Salonica to the enemy?"

"How could you leave her and come back here?"

He had lost his homeland where he grew up.

He would never be able to see Salonica again.

When he finally returned to the Balkans...

...he was a military attaché for the Ottoman Empire.

21.November.1913.

"Dear Corinne...

I left Istanbul on Wednesday evening with the sweet memory...

...of the day I spent in your arms.

The train that took me away from you left the station at 5.20.

As I pretended to read the newspapers I bought at the station...

I relived those beautiful moments like a dream.

How kind and intelligent you are, Corinne...

You did not want to leave me alone on my trip.

Your letter kept me company during the trip.

Therefore, there was nothing else but you on my mind on the trip.

I'm sending you my kisses with all my heart, and am looking forward...

...to your letters that will be my only comfort here, dear Corinne...

Kemal.

Leaving back some broken hearts in Ýstanbul, Mustafa Kemal...

...embraced a new life in exile.

This time it was Sofia...

He visited the parliement, farms and the opera house.

"This was his first experience of a European life style..."

...but he had no circle of friends or money to get himself into one.

The opportunity to introduce himself to the high society...

...in Sofia presented itself 5 months after his arrival.

The 11th of May was a national holiday for the Bulgarians.

There was a fancy dress ball at the officers' club that evening.

Mustafa Kemal decided to attend the ball with a spectacular costume...

...which would remind the Bulgarians their past rulers.

He wrote and requested a janissary costume from a museum.

The costume was sent to him with all the accompanying accessories.

The military attaché attracted a lot of attention with his costume...

...which was chosen to be the best in the ball to which...

...King Ferdinand had also attended.

When the ball ended, Spanish chargé d'affairs invited Mustafa Kemal...

...to his house and photographed him with...

...the janissary costume in his oriental corner.

His body language was...

...heralding a man about to make his debut on the stage of history.

12. January 1914

"Dearest Corinne...

I have ambitions.

And big ones, to...

...but those ambitions are not for satisfying material goals...

...such as reaching high places or having great sums.

I am seeking the fulfillment of those ambitions in the success...

...of a great idea that will benefit my country greatly...

...and will give me the inner peace of a job performed with loyalty."

The first large-scale war in history broke out in the summer of 1914.

He suddenly found himself in one of the most crucial fronts...

...of the Great War in Dardanelles.

He was to make a name there as a brave, ambitious and offensive...

...commander willing to take risks, and would be promoted to colonel.

20 July 1915, Maydos.

"Dear Madam.

Life is not that quiet here.

You hear, night and day, every day, sounds of shrapnel...

...and all kinds of other bombs flying and exploding over your head.

You hear the sound of bullets, mixed into the sound of guns.

We are really experiencing a hellish life.

Thank God my soldiers are very brave...

...and more resilient than the enemy.

Their faith makes it easier for them to obey orders meaning certain death.

Do not forget me Corinne...

...even if I die in this war."

Colonel Mustafa Kemal.

"I was uneasy and cold not sleep on the night of 28th July.

I stood in front of my tent. I was able to see the troops preparing for the charge.

I was going to observe the execution of the attack.

The dark curtain of the night had disappeared completely.

It was time to attack now.

I looked at my watch.

It was about half past four.

In a few minutes, dawn was going to break and the enemy...

...would be able to see our troops.

I shouted:

"Soldiers! There is no doubt that we will defeat the enemy.

But do not hurry.

Let me go forward first.

You will all charge when I give you a sign with my riding crop'.

"Shrapnel and pieces of metal were coming down from the sky like rain.

Conkbayýrý was like hell, in intense smoke and flames.

There were wounded soldiers and blood everywhere you looked.

As I watched the progression of the battle...

I was hit on the left side of my chest by shrapnel.

It destroyed the watch in my pocket.

But it did penetrate into my body.

It only left a deep stain of blood."

They had managed to drive back to occupation forces, saved Istanbul...

...and changed the course of history.

By the time the sun rose, the ridges of Conkbayýrý...

...had been covered with dead bodies.

A high-ranking officer inspecting the troops asked Mustafa Kemal...

"where are your troops?"

Mustafa Kemal pointed at the field of dead bodies stretching...

...in front of them and said:

"Here they are. Those bodies are my troops."

15 March 1916.

Dearest Madam Corinne...

You would expect to have a moment of rest in a long and tiring journey...

...of two months from the West to the East, wouldn't you?

But alas! It seems that it would only be possible after death."

He was now on his way to the Eastern Front, to Diyarbakýr.

Istanbul was suffocating him.

He could see that the Unionists in the heels of Germans...

...were leading the country to disaster...

...but no one paid attention to his warnings.

He was upset that his achievements in the Dardanelle were played down...

...and his efforts to take a more significant role were dampened.

He felt he was being subjected to Byzantine conspiracies...

...and could hardly contain his rage.

Now he was going to Anatolia for the first time.

He would be refreshed and strengthened as he defied fire...

...and death with the people he cared for, with weary troops...

...and desperate masses.

He would also read philosophy and history books...

...would take notes and would be refreshed and strengthened.

When he got there, the Eastern part of the country...

...had been struck by the disaster in Sarýkamýþ first...

...then the forced emigration of the Armenians...

...and finally the Russian occupation.

From Muþ to Erzurum, from Trabzon to Bitlis, the region was occupied.

And now Mustafa Kemal was on his way to those troubled lands.

He would travel by train as far as the rail road went...

Then when the rail road ended, he would travel on dirt roads by car...

Then when the car gets stuck in mud, on horseback...

...and across rivers on rafts...

Sleeping in abandoned houses in mouldy mattresses infested with...

...scorpions, meeting disease-ridden, desperate people, and dead bodies...

He took notes as he travelled in that miserable land of disaster:

7 November 1916.

I set out from Silvan for Bitlis.

Immediately after crossing the bridge in Batman...

...there was a man lying on the road, half-dead with hunger...

...between the bridge and the office I saw two other men...

...in the same condition.

I was told they were refugees.

Between the Batman Bridge and Silvan...

...there were two horses that had died recently.

People and animals are just dying of hunger.

9 November 1916.

"We saw a lot of refugees on the roads; They were going back to Bitlis."

They were all hungry and miserable, destined to die...

...there was a 4 or 5-year-old child abandoned by parents.

The child was following 100 metres behind a husband and wife, crying.

I reprimanded them for not taking the child.

"That child is not ours', they said.

16 November 1916.

I met a 12-year old orphan, called Ömer. I took him with me.

When they saw what I did, they brought me three more orphans.

I had to content myself with giving them some money.

Mustafa Kemal adopted 8-year old Abdürrahim during that trip.

He met a diplomat and his wife on the night of 6 July 1918...

...at the imperial Hotel in Karlsbad where he was undergoing therapy...

...for a problem with his kidneys.

After dinner, they watched the couples dancing at the ballroom.

When the wife of the Turkish diplomat said " How difficult...

...it is for a life-style of this sort to become accepted in our country."

Mustafa Kemal was angry.

He wrote down what he had said in his diary the next morning...

...in his room at the Rudolfshof Hotel:

"If I have sufficient authority and power, I believe it will be possible...

...to bring about the revolution that is needed in our social life...

...at a single stroke.

Unlike others, I do not believe this can be achieved slowly...

...by getting the people used to those changes.

My soul rebels against an idea of that sort.

Why should I, after all that education, studying modern life...

...and society and devoting my life to obtaining my liberty...

...go down to the level of those ignorant people?

I will bring them up to mine instead.

I will not be like them, they should be like me."

On the front page of the daily Yenigün on 14 November 1918...

Mustafa Kemal's arrival in Istanbul was reported...

...just below the news of the occupation.

After the Mudros armistice, declaring the defeat of the Ottomans was signed...

...he returned from the Syrian front in a hurry...

...got off the train at Haydarpaþa and boarded the steamboat for Kartal.

As they passed by the steel forest of enemy warships anchored in the...

Bosphorus, he told his aide-de-camp:

"As they have come, so they shall go."

Istanbul was a city without hopes, a silent capital...

The Allied troops roamed in Beyoglu.

Mustafa Kemal tried every means possible to take authority.

He talked with the Grand Vizier and the Padishah with the hopes of...

...being appointed the minister of war; But to no avail.

He tried to encourage the Parliament to form a government...

...to oppose the occupation; it did not work. He invested in a newspaper; it failed.

He was swindled out of the remaining part of his savings by a money broker.

It was clear that he had to get out of Istanbul.

In those days, an army intelligence officer sent to their HQ in London...

...a black list of the people who had to be definetly removed from Istanbul.

Mustafa Kemal's name was included as well.

After some time, the Ministry of War gave him the duty of investigating...

...certain events in the Black Sea region in the capacity of an army inspector.

He accepted the assignment on condition that he would be given military...

...and administrative powers.

As he put it "the cage door was opened."

Now he was " like a bird flopping its wings towards the large world ahead.

On May the 15th, Thursday, Greek troops landed in lzmir.

That day Mustafa Kemal was at the Yýldýz Palace...

...on a farewell visit to Sultan Vahdettin.

This was a historical meeting of the predecessor and the successor.

They met in the Blue room on the ground floor of the Palace.

Atatürk would recount to the US ambassador that meeting years later...

...on a small plan he drew, in which he indicated himself with "Moi"...

...and the Sultan, sitting at a table next to him, with an "S".

Sultan Vahdettin put his hand on the book that was on the table and said...

"Pasha, you have already rendered great services to the state.

They are now part of this book, the history.

But the service you are about to render will be more important still.

Pasha... You can save the state."

They could see the enemy warships...

...anchored in the Bosphorus through the windows of the room.

He spent that last night at his mother's in Þiþli.

As they were having their diner sitting on the floor next to Zübeyde Haným's bed...

...he said " Mother, I am leaving.

Because there is a good chance that this part of the country will meet the...

...same fate as Salonica. Do not worry about me."

Zübeyde Haným was so nervous that she fainted.

They called in a doctor.

Then spoke until the first light of day.

In the morning, they said their good-byes, embracing each other.

When he boarded the Bandýrma, he was leaving Istanbul behind...

...in all its despair and was heading for Anatolia to look for a remedy.

He was at the crossroads of his life.

When he returned to Istanbul eight years later, he would be hailed...

...as the president of that newly established homeland.

When Mustafa Kemal arrived at the most significant crossroads...

...both for himself and his country, he was almost in his 40's.

As he was travelling inland in Anatolia in that convertible Benz...

...taken from a military warehouse in Samsun, he was aware of the fact...

...that he was headed for an unknown future.

He had left everything behind: His mother, his home, the Palace...

...and Istanbul where there was no way out.

But what was in store for him in the future, in Anatolia?

With his mind full of questions, as he set out

for that great walk that was to last 3 years...

...he was " alone and independent" once again.

On the way to Havza, they had a breakdown.

They had to walk to a nearby village.

Mustafa Kemal started humming a marching song that he knew...

...to distract his companions.

The marching song that no one in his company was familiar with...

...would turn out to be the battle call of the revolution:

"The sun is about to rise in the horizon

Let's march on comrades"

8 June 1919

From the British High Commissioner in Istanbul...

...to the British Foreign Secretary:

"I have received disturbing news regarding certain individuals with...

...malicious intentions creating upheaval in the province of Samsun.

It has been reported that Mustafa Kemal Pasha has been the leading...

...figure in such rebellious incidents.

The Ottoman War Ministry has been given instructions concerning the...

...dismissal of Mustafa Kemal from his current position.

Otherwise, most grave consequences may have to be faced."

On July the 8th, at night, Mustafa Kemal was informed to go to the...

...Post Office in Erzurum, to receive a telegram.

As it can be seen in this faded photograph taken at that very moment...

...he studied the telegram message he received carefully.

Sultan Vahdettin had summoned him to Istanbul urgently.

It was the moment of decision now.

Refusing to do so would mean being dismissed or even being arrested.

Regardless, he refused to comply with the orders and notified them...

...that he was submitting his "resignation from the military duty"...

...which he "loved and deemed sacred".

He had burnt his bridges now.

Now he was an ex-army officer, who had resigned.

He was a civilian with no title whatsoever.

How was he to command armies, make them obey his orders...

...make people listen to what he was saying?

Soon he was informed that the mighty commander of the East...

...who had been appointed to replace him, Kazým Karabekir was coming...

...accompanied by cavalry.

He was preoccupied.

He was ready for anything.

He may be arrested by those soldiers...

...he may be put to trial and he may be executed.

Karabekir entered.

He clacked his heels and saluted, saying:

"My officers, soldiers, my army corps, we are all at your command Pasha."

That was when he won his first victory.

17 September 1919.

From the British High Commissioner to the British Foreign Office:

"The movement initiated by Mustafa Kemal is leading towards...

...an independent Republic in Anatolia.

There seems no option but to re-engage in war...

...or completely retreat from Anatolia."

As the occupational forces and Sublime Porte...

...bombarded the country with orders for his immediate arrest...

...he was headed for Ankara to establish a new state, with a handful of...

...followers, " carrying a gun in his right hand and gallows in his left hand"...

...as he put it.

His agenda was already in his head.

He told Mazhar Müfit what he intended to do in 5 steps:

"It is going to be a republic.

We'll do what we'll have to do for the Sultan.

The women are going to stop coverin their heads.

The men are going to wear modern hats.

We are going to use Latin characters in our alphabet."

But added, " Don't show this notebook to anyone."

Not even his comrades were ready for that yet.

It was on 27th of December that Mustafa Kemal arrived in Ankara.

It was his first time in this city that would always have a special place...

...in his heart until the day he died.

While Unionist leaders like Enver, Talat and Cemal were being pushed into the wings...

...he had managed to bring the resistance organisations...

...in Anatolia together and was leading them.

Ankara was a poor Ottoman town of barely 30,000, located around a...

...citadel, and had nothing to offer except honey and goats.

It had been waiting anxiously for his arrival with all its gallant...

...young men its orders of dervishes, artisan guilds and students.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha set up his headquarters...

...at the Agricultural School.

He was going to direct the resistance, the war and...

...eventually the revolution from Ankara...

...and he would first make this small town into the headquarters of the revolution...

...and then create a capital city there.

When the news reached Ankara that the occupational army had officially...

...taken over Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal was stuck in that school building.

He lost no time in sending out a declaration that...

"700-year old life of the Ottoman state has come to an end" and...

...that he wanted all cities in Anatolia to send representatives...

...to the new Parliament that was going to assemble in Ankara.

However, he had no money, no staff and no army.

The Greek army was moving from the Aegean towards central Anatolia.

There was civil war in the country.

Rebels carrying the imperial verdict for Mustafa Kemal's execution...

...on the banners of the Caliphate had reached the gates of Ankara...

...following the call of the Sheikhulislam.

The whole world was against him.

The Caliph was against him.

In fact, as Colonel Ýsmet put it reluctantly...

...the people were against him.

Moreover, he was ill.

He had a kidney problem, which gave him pain...

...and kept him up night after night, with high fever.

Halide Edip would later comment, "I have never seen Mustafa Kemal...

...so tired and desperate as he was in those days".

He sat by a wood burning stove all night until the first light of day...

...writing the editorial for the National Sovereignty...

...reading and replying to the telegrams he received.

At night, the telegrams would stop and their connection to the world...

...would be lost, leaving them in an eerie darkness.

Sounds of guns could be heard from the hills surrounding the garden.

One sleepless night, expecting to be attacked and killed any minute...

...he went over to the window to look out as the day broke in the horizon...

...he saw a cloud of dust rising from the direction of the vineyards in Etlik.

The first thing that came to his mind was that...

...the rebel forces were about to attack them.

He summoned Ýsmail Hakký urgently and said:

"Quick, take my car and go over to the cloud of dust.

If it is the rebels then fire your gun twice towards this direction."

The car went off towards the cloud of dust.

After crossing Akköprü, they saw what was causing that cloud of dust.

Ýsmail Hakký came back and told his Pasha...

...who laughed when he heard...

...that it was a herd of cattle that made all that cloud.

He had to do something, he had to get out of that tangle he was in...

...and had to use this crisis to create an opportunity.

Just at that point, he decided to turn around the accusations that...

...had been made against him.

The Caliph had accused him of being an "infidel".

He moved the date of the inauguration ceremony for the...

Parliament from the 22nd of April to the 23rd...

...which happened to be a Friday.

He sent a message to all the cities: "The Parliament will be opened...

...on Friday, following the Friday prayers, by God's grace...

...and it will dedicate its efforts to save the Throne and the Caliphate."

"Prior to the inauguration, we will go to Hacý Bayram mosque for our...

...prayers, and seek enlightenment from prayer...

...and the reading of the Holy Koran...

There would be a procession with the holy relics to the Parliament building.

And after offering sacrifices at the gate, with prayers...

...a call would be given from the minarets...

...followed by the reading of the Holy Koran at the town hall.

So, it was.

The parliament was inaugurated with prayers...

...and Mustafa Kemal was elected as its Speaker.

The same man who had heralded that the " 700-year old Ottoman Empire...

...had reached the end of its life" was now declaring that they...

...were setting out "to save the Throne and the Caliphate".

Seven years later, in his historical address to the General Assembly...

...he would present that declaration as a testimony to how much they...

..." had to go along with the general sentiments and way of thinking in those days".

He was to settle accounts in the future with the forces...

...he had to put up with in those days.

The light of a single candle could be seen in the room where the new...

Parliament Speaker was staying.

The treasury was drained.

The few pieces of jewellery he had borrowed from his mother...

...were pawned at the Ottoman Bank.

It was difficult to find money even to buy candles.

They had to sleep in the dark.

The great commander preparing for a grand battle confessed to...

Sergeant Ali, his orderly, a weakness he had since he was a boy.

"I cannot sleep in the dark, lad" he confided, "...find a solution".

Sergeant Ali brought a gas lamp and placed it on his Pasha's bedside table.

The next morning, when he came in, he found both the room...

...and the Pasha covered in black soot.

Pasha had a minor poisoning case because of the fumes of the lamp.

"Mr Paul Williams located the secret headquarters of Mustafa Kemal...

...the leader of the Turkish nationalist forces in Anatolia and obtained the...

...first interview with the militant leader of the Moslem world.

When asked the possibility of the Turkish nationalist movement...

...aligning itself with the Bolsheviks of Russia, Mustafa Kemal turned his...

...piercing blue eyes to a map in his headquarters and indicated the...

...progress of the Bolsheviks, stating that...

"Turkey would be open to Bolsheviks."

That was a message to the western world.

Now he was playing his Soviet "card" and suggesting...

"If pushed into a corner, co-operation with Lenin would be a possibility."

In fact, on the same day he gave that interview, he wrote a letter to Lenin...

...and asked for " 5 million gold coins, ammunition and instruments of war...

...as the first instalment of aid towards defeating the...

...imperialistic occupational forces."

It did not take long for Bolsheviks to respond by sending 500 kg of gold...

...in 3 containers.

Then, the first shipment of arms reached the Black sea region.

Thanks to the aid, arriving at the darkest hour...

Ankara was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

The Greeks started moving inland in June 1920.

They took Bursa and Uþak.

The organized army of the General Assembly was battle-tested for the...

...first time against the Greeks at First Battle of Ýnönü in January...

...at Second Battle of Ýnönü and Battle of Dumlupýnar in April 1921.

However, Greeks, with their new wave of attacks in July...

...managed to take Eskiþehir and Afyon.

The Pasha ordered his forces that had been assembled with great difficulty...

...to retreat to the east of the Sakarya River, in order to avoid...

...losing them altogether.

The sound of artillery could be heard in Ankara now.

Mustafa Kemal, once again, put on his uniform...

...which he had taken off 2 years earlier.

He was the Commander-in-chief, at the age of 40.

It would be a matter a life and death both for his people and himself.

"My Moslem brothers, Communist comrades!

A terrible injustice is being committed.

Great nations are slaughtering a Moslem lamb yet again.

They are determined to exterminate it.

However, we, with our weapons in our hands, are of those who know...

...how to fight and die defending our homelands...

...and shouting out our rights.

As our countrymen become martyrs defending their fields, lands and...

...villages against the oppressors...

...they can have full assurance that in the...

...very near future the Islam world in league with the communism...

...will take their revenge.

Mustafa Kemal."

There is a fountain in the center of Manastýr

In the days when he put on his uniform to prepare for the great...

...battle, he moved into a house in a vineyard on the hill in Çankaya.

Finally he had a house of his own.

And a lady in the house: Fikriye.

Fikriye, the daughter of his step-uncle, had been living with...

Zübeyde Haným in Istanbul, but she had secretly left Istanbul...

...and reached Ankara.

After staying with Mustafa Kemal at the lodgings at the central station...

...she moved with him to the house in Çankaya and decorated it.

She would wait for the Pasha at the window every evening...

...and when he came home, she would play him songs of his youth...

...from Rumeli and Manastýr on the piano.

The Greek campaign that started on 26 August 1921 towards Ankara...

...was brought to a halt just in the east of the Sakarya River...

...in the plains of Haymana after 22 days and nights of bloody fighting.

The occupying forces were pushed back to the west of the Sakarya River.

The Greek army formed a new front between Eskiþehir and Afyon.

Mustafa Kemal, whose army had about 6 thousand casualties at...

Sakarya, was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal...

...and was also given the title of Gazi.

"27.September.1921

To my son Mustafa Kemal Pasha, Field Marshal and Gazi!

They have given me the good news that you have been given the...

...rank of "Field Marshal" and the title of "Gazi".

I and your sister congratulate you with our kisses...

...and embrace you warmly."

"29.September.1921

To my mother Zübeyde Haným c/o Saib Bey:

Your message of congratulations was the highest of all worldly honours for me...

...which made me very happy.

My desire to see you is beyond words.

I will try to have you come here at the earliest occasion."

February, 1922.

"My son, the apple of my eye!

May our longing come to an end.

May we meet again.

I cannot get rid of this illness.

I cannot get better as I worry about you day and night.

My Son!

If I can get a little better, find a way for me to come there."

The mother and son who had not been able to see one another for 3 years...

...finally met in a house near the station in Adapazarý on 14 June 1922.

They went to Ankara together.

Now they were going to share the same house.

The Commander-in-chief of the battleground was his mother's...

..."Mustafa" at home once again.

The high command of the army met in Akþehir on the night of 27 July.

The troops had been getting ready for 9 months.

The Commander-in-Chief had written in his diary when he was in the...

...military academy, " Those who demonstrate courage and...

...face danger always win.

A faint heart is destined to lose."

Now it was time to prove it.

He would put to good use all the military knowledge...

...and experience he had acquired in the military academy...

...Picardie, Sofia and from books in order to rescue his country.

The people in Anatolia, heeding his call, donated what little they had...

...from horse shoe to carts, from socks to oxen.

The date he established for his counterattack was the same day...

...the Greek campaign had started in the previous year:

26th of August.

The National Sovereignty reported on the 20 August 1922 that...

...the Pasha would be giving a tea party on 21 August in his residence.

The news was put out to divert the enemy.

When the news started circulating...

Mustafa Kemal had already left for the front...

Before setting out, he had dinner with his friends and as they lifted their...

...glasses for a toast he told them:

"It will take us 15 days to get to lzmir after we start our offensive."

The strongest point of the Greek front was in Afyon.

He was going to put his principle to test once again...

...and attack the enemy at its strongest point.

"Son... I waited for you.

But you did not come back.

You had told me that you were going to a tea party.

But I know, you went to the front.

Don't forget that I am praying for you.

Don't come back before winning the war! Your mother!"

When Gazi woke up in his tent at the early hours of 26 August...

...he was by a stream in Þuhut, near Afyon.

He moved on to Kocatepe accompanied by some riders.

With this top-secret operation, he planned on moving his troops...

...towards the southwest of Afyon to cut off the source of supply...

...from lzmir for the Greek troops.

Then, the cavalry was going to charge from the direction of Eskiþehir...

...surrounding and destroying the enemy.

This was the same strategy used by Hannibal of Carthage...

...when he defeated the Romans in the battle of Cannae.

The company arrived at a gorge.

In that deep darkness, there was a colossal army hiding.

There were soldiers everywhere on the skirts of Kocatepe.

The only sound coming was the whispered orders...

...and the breathing of horses.

Thousands of troops had walked over 50 kilometres and...

...were having a short rest, waiting for the final command to charge.

Fevzi Pasha was reading the Koran quietly.

Gazi checked his watch and said, "the time has come" and added:

"God willing, the victory will be ours."

The war was won in Dumlupýnar on the 30th of August...

...after a pitched battle.

The occupational forces started their retreat towards lzmir.

Gazi issued an army order on 1 September:

"The Mediterranean is your immediate objective. Forward!"

There are flowers blossoming in the hills of Izmir

Gold and silver cords are Rolling around.

Defeated enemy scatters like the wind

Long live Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

Your name will be engraved in precious stones...

Long live Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

Your name will be engraved in precious stones...

The army would reach Izmir in 14 days.

Commander-in-chief would apologize to his friends whom he had promised...

"to be in lzmir in 15 days after the attack."

He said, " It seems I have miscalculated by a day."

"And added; "But it is the enemy's fault, not mine..."

Mustafa Kemal Pasha celebrated the victory with his comrades in lzmir.

They raised their glasses to "salvation and foundation".

They sang songs from Rumeli.

Towards the end of the evening, Gazi danced the Zeybek...

...in honour of the war's conclusion.

That was the final victory dance of a long-suffering nation.

As they were looking for a place to set up their head quarters...

...during the great fire in lzmir, a young lady invited Gazi...

...and his company to the White Mansion, her house in Göztepe.

The young lady, Latife Haným, had Gazi's photograph...

...in a locket around her neck.

She was the daughter of Uþakizadeler, a wealthy family in lzmir.

Mustafa Kemal could see the Turkish woman of the future he dreamt of...

...in that young lady with western-style education and culture.

In his first stop after the great victory, where he was starting to catch his breath...

...he realised it was time for him to start a family.

Now he would set up both a country and a family.

As he was leaving lzmir on 29 September, he gave Latife Haným...

...an autographed photograph of himself in his Field Marshal's uniform.

He wrote "to Latif" and autographed it with a date.

On the back of the photograph, he had written...

"My beautiful, elegant Latife".

Those who were close to him could hear the wedding bells.

With her woman's intuition, it was Halide Edip...

...who asked him the difficult question:

"But what about Fikriye Haným?"

Gazi was planning on sending Fikriye Haným to Germany...

...for medical treatment as soon as possible...

...and his mother to lzmir to meet the bride.

When people asked him what he thought of marriage, he would say...

"I have to set an example of a new type of family life in our country."

When asked " Have you ever fallen in love?", he replied:

"To fall in love? Have I had the time for it?

Can one find time for love while living in tents and camps...

...on the hills and mountains?

But we are human beings as well.

We have a heart that beats, too.

Have you had doubts about that because we are soldiers?"

As he returned to Ankara, his friend Rauf accompanied him.

The war, which had wasted all their youthful years, was finally over.

He had rushed from one battle ground to another for 11 years...

...and now he was 41.

He told Rauf:

"I have completed my duty with this victory.

Now the only thing remaining to do is establishing peace.

As soon as that is taken care of, I want to settle in a village...

...found a farming cooperative, and start farming.

Why don't you join me as well?

We can set up an exemplary village.

It would be fine if we each invested two thousand liras.

Fields, vineyards, orchards, stallions, farming with agricultural machinery.

"Mustafa Kemal and Partners Exemplary Farming Enterprise! '

What do you think?"

That was to remain a dream...

He would see the fulfillment of those ambitions in farms set up throughout...

...the country but he would have to give his attention to transforming his...

...military victory to a political one.

On 14 January 1923, Mustafa Kemal took in the train from Ankara to Ýzmit.

Fresh from the battlefield, he was headed to Anatolia...

...to check the pulse of the nation, to tell them about the political party...

...the constitution and the political regime he wanted to set up.

He planned to give his messages to journalist from Istanbul...

...in his first trip after winning the war...

...and he wanted to get married in lzmir, his final stop.

He had become engaged on the day before he set out.

A coded message arrived on their second day in the journey.

Ali, his orderly, told him: "We have not been able to read it, yet."

"I know that my mother has passed away, lad", he said.

"I had a dream, I was walking in green fields with my mother.

Suddenly, a storm broke out.

Took mom away."

There was no one who would call him "Mustafa" any more...

He buried his sorrow and moved on.

To those presenting their condolences, he replied that...

...the immediate duty at hand was to...

"make sure that our great mother, the country, lives on".

He was frank in those nightlong chats he had with the journalists in Ýzmit.

However, he wanted the information to be off-the-record for the present.

He talked about the possibility of Ankara becoming the capital...

...and what a headache the Caliphate was.

He talked about the fact that there would be new liberties given to...

...Kurdish population, but added: "It would be destructive for Turkey...

...to start drawing separate borders for the Kurds".

In the last stop of his trip, he went directly to his mother's tomb in lzmir.

Later, when he saw the garish tomb that had been built for her he protested...

...and said, "just bring a large rock from the mountains...

...to be her tombstone and carve on it the following:

Here lies Zübeyde, Atatürk's mother."

After visiting his mother's tomb, he went to see his fiancée.

"My aide-de-camp" he said, "you have two hours to get ready...

...we're getting married right away. This is an order."

The 23-year-old bride and the 42-year-old groom got married...

...after a simple ceremony in which male and female guests...

...participated together for the first time.

They went to Ankara together.

The new bride moved into the residence in Çankaya...

...which was found and decorated by Fikriye Haným.

However, 15 days later, a telegram sent from Istanbul upset Gazi.

The previous resident of the house, Fikriye Haným...

...was about to come back to the house where another woman lived now.

Gazi protested but she managed to make her way to Ankara...

...and had to be welcomed as a guest in the house in Çankaya.

When the ex-lover wore out her welcome...

...the new hostess of the residence started to get irritated.

She was heard by all in the residence when she inquired of Ali Çavuþ...

"When is that lady leaving?"

Ali Çavuþ, later recounted that Gazi "although it was his bedtime, he did not retire.

He sat thinking in a different room until midnight.

He was clearly distressed."

Early next morning, Fikriye Haným said her goodbyes.

But she returned on a May morning.

The rest of the story can be read in the daily Vatan as follows:

"Fikriye Haným, upon her arrival in Ankara, went directly to the...

...residence of the President, and stated that she wanted to see the...

...President and the First Lady.

She was informed that it would not be possible to see Gazi and his wife.

Fikriye Haným had to go back in that hired carriage...

...which had been waiting for her at the gate.

It is understood that on the way back, she committed suicide...

...in the carriage by using a pistol in her possession."

Fikriye Haným was immediately taken to the Country Hospital...

...seriously wounded.

Gazi called the hospital and personally took charge of the case...

...but nothing could be done.

Ali Çavuþ would later write...

"after that event, Atatürk suffered silently for many days".

Gazi announced the termination of his marriage to Latife Haným...

...in an official statement, 14 months after Fikriye's death.

After almost 3 years of marriage, he confessed...

"getting married was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made"

Adding: " I have managed armies, but I was not able to manage a woman."

In late October in 1923, after the occupational forces left Istanbul...

...he invited his close friends to diner at the residence and gave them...

...the good news concerning the proclamation of the republic.

The next day, at the parliament, Turkey became a republic.

15 minutes later, Gazi was unanimously elected the first President.

As the artillery fired a gun salute, he delivered a short speech...

...to thank the general assembly.

Years later, he explained why he made such a short speech...

...on such an important occasion to Afet Ýnan:

"Because I had just had some dentures made.

They were still being tested.

When I opened my mouth either a whistling sound could be heard...

...or they simply fell out."

The orphan boy who had built himself a shelter 35 years ago in Langaza...

...when he lost his father and family hearth...

...was finally able to build a homeland for his people.

"A dilapidated country by a precipice...

Bloody battles with diverse enemies...

Wars lasting years...

Then, a new land commanding respect both at home and abroad...

...a new society, a new state.

This is the overall Turkish revolution..."

Gazi started implementing his agenda without wasting time...

...taking radical steps.

He declared Ankara the capital and finished with the...

...idea of the Empire once and for all.

After getting rid of a 600-year-old Empire...

...the Caliphate was abolished as well.

Schools with a religion-based curriculum were closed...

...and a secular educational system was established.

He had taken his revenge from Kaymak Hafýz, the imam-cum-teacher...

...who had flogged him when he was just a boy.

He had written in his diary 6 years ago in Karlsbad...

"If I have the power, I will bring about the revolution that is needed...

...in our social life at a single stroke"

And now he was doing just that, with authority.

His comrades of the national resistance, Rauf, Adnan, Ali Fuat...

...and Refet, were disturbed by the fact that he had not consulted them...

...about the reforms.

So, they established the Progressive Republican Party...

...presided by Kazým Karabekir, and started to make the voice of the...

...opposition heard in the country.

But there were other types of reactionaries as well.

During the winter of 1925, a rebellion, led by Þeyh Sait...

...broke out in the east.

The rebellion was crushed within three months...

...and its leaders were executed.

The opposition party was closed.

A new law passed to establish public order...

...silenced the opposition completely.

Now Gazi had absolute power.

It was time for his most symbolic, yet bravest steps.

Gazi went to Kastamonu, which was one of the strongholds of religious...

...fanaticism in those days, taking his Field Marshal's uniform along.

He put on a western-style hat, which had always been regarded...

...as a symbol of being an "infidel" in Anatolia.

He told them: " Put this headgear on. Let your women show their faces to the world."

And added: "The Turkish republic cannot be...

...a country of sheiks, dervishes and disciples."

Now, he would be able to wear the bowler hat proudly in his own country...

...which, 15 years ago, could only be possible when he left the Ottoman territories.

When he came across Mazhar Müfit upon his return from Kastamonu...

...Gazi reminded him that 5-item agenda he had dictated in 1919:

"Have you been checking your notes? What's next now?"

He had managed to achieve a large...

...part of the reforms he had planned 6 years earlier.

But it wasn't over yet.

He took steps one after another to eliminate the power of religion...

...from social life, while integrating Turkey with the Western world:

Dervish lodges, shrines and mauseolea...

...where religious thought had been passed on from one generation...

...to the next for centuries, were closed at a single blow.

Western-style time keeping and calendars were adopted.

The Swiss civil law, the most advanced of the time...

...was adopted to bring equal rights and emancipation for Turkish women.

Also, Gazi said goodbye to his moustache...

...which he had worn since military academy.

An assassination attempt targeting Gazi in the summer of 1926...

...marked the end of an era.

The heroes of the national independence war, his best friends...

...Ali Fuat, Refet, Adnan, Rauf and Kazým Karabekir were on trial.

Even Ýsmet Pasha, Kazým's brother-in-arms...

...narrowly missed being arrested himself.

Gazi declared amnesty for the pashas in the last minute.

But the rest were either executed or sent to prison.

An era had once again reached its conclusion with gallows...

...the opposition had been crushed...

...and revolution had annihilated her own children.

"I had left Istanbul that was weeping in despair 8 years ago...

...with a heavy heart.

There was no one to see me off.

Here I am, 8 years later, returning to joyful Istanbul with a happy heart."

The first glimpse he had of this city had been from a deck of a ship.

As Gazi waved to the people of Istanbul from the deck of...

...the Ertuðrul in the summer of 1927...

...Hamdullah Suphi came over...

...and said; "You must be very excited".

Gazi made him feel his heart beat and replied...

"There's no excitement there".

He went on: "Because I know very well that...

...the same crowd can just easily gather to lynch us one day."

Now he would go into seclusion for 3 months in the White Room...

...in Dolmabahçe to settle accounts and write his own story.

"I landed in Samsun on 19 May in the year 1919."

Even under these circumstances and conditions, it is your duty to defend...

...the Turkish Independence and Republic.

The strength that you will need is in the noble blood flowing in your veins.

In that period, Pietro Canonica, Mussolini's personal sculptor...

...was invited to Turkey.

He was commissioned to make large statues of Gazi.

Later, in a letter to Mussolini, Canonica talked about Gazi:

"Kemal Pasha speaks little but thinks a lot.

Sometimes he is domineering, yet sometimes he is in a sentimental...

...mood, both childish and sweet.

I feel that he must have gone through emotional disappointments.

Clearly he has suffered a great deal..."

Gazi had wiped out the reactionaries and had demonstrated clearly that...

...he had the supreme command of the country.

Now it was time to establish his authority...

...consolidate the revolution and make each citizen feel his presence.

He was becoming more and more a sacred omnipresent ruler...

...with absolute authority.

Gazi's word was law itself.

The newspapers were full of his praises.

He did not have a single opponent in the parliament.

This regime with a single ruler and single party was nothing less...

...than a dictatorship, as far as the European press was concerned:

3 November 1927.

"Gazi has become the only leader who has managed to establish...

...absolute and certain dictatorship with a national movement loyal...

...to his will in the post-war world.

There was no other way to accomplish what he managed to do in only 5 years.

He carried out the most radical revolution that can be imagined in...

...a traditional country where religious sentiments are deeply rooted.

He tried to change a people who had existed solely with religion and...

...he skipped all the steps of a natural evolution...

...and almost tried to use a magic wand to do so.

This can only be regarded as a crazy endeavour beyond the power of man."

The storm was over and the opposition had been destroyed...

...and large squares had been decorated with his statues...

...but Gazi was lonelier than ever now.

He had lost his mother his wife and his comrades one after another.

He found himself a new place of shelter...

...where he could find peace during that difficult time.

When he saw the wood in Söðütözü in Ankara...

...he had commented, "I wish I had a small hut here."

So, they built him one.

In those days, that small hut with a single room...

...was the only secret shelter of the man who could, without hesitating...

...for a second, send those who had been closest to him to death...

...for the good of the regime.

One evening, he summoned Zeki Üngör...

...the composer of the national anthem, and told him:

"We'll start using Latin characters. People need to get used to them.

If you can compose a song with those letters, they can learn much easier".

Üngör replied "why don't you help me with it, let's do it together"...

...and he started playing musical notes with the letters.

The song was ready soon.

Gazi immediately called the chef and the gardener of his residence...

...as well as his chauffeur.

He tested the song on them.

When he saw that it worked, he immediately sent his word for it...

...to be published in the papers the next day...

...and played by military brass bands.

So he had come to the last item of the list he had dictated to Mazhar Müfit...

...10 years ago on the way to Ankara.

Which would keep him busy to the end of his life.

By adopting Latin characters, he wanted to remove Arabic influence...

...from the Turkish language and culture and make education...

...easily accessable in a society that had only 10% literacy rate.

Now he was not the Commander-in-chief...

...but he was the Teacher-in-chief, with chalk in his hand...

...completing the transformation in just three months, and not "5 years"...

...as the experts thought.

In Turkey where the literacy rate barely reaching 10%...

...50 thousand teachers in 54 thousand establishments taught 2.5 million...

...people how to read and write by using the new alphabet.

When the national mobilization was over...

...one out of each four Turks could read and write.

A history of old characters had been erased.

He would write a new history and describe the ideal citizen himself.

In "Notes for a Civilized Life"...

...which he personally wrote to be used at schools as a text book...

...he pointed out that Turks had...

...always been a great nation even before adopting Islam.

Islam, rather than uniting Turks with the rest of the Islamic world...

...served the purpose of slacking their nationalistic ties...

...and numbing their nationalistic fervour.

We know that primitive people were afraid of all natural events, such as...

...the thunder, night, a river that burst its banks or wild animals...

...and they were even frightened of one another.

Fear of patriarch in groups of primitive men, which was then...

...replaced by fear of God in larger communities...

...resulted in incalculable prohibitions in men's minds and activities.

"Men rising to the position of a leader were able to lead...

...communities on behalf of God.

Individuals had no rights or liberties.

As man made progress in his thinking, it became clearer that...

...the nature was above all and was everything, and then man...

...the child of that nature, started to appreciate his own magnitude...

...and dignity.

Consequently, individuals started to fight for their right...

...against rulers and states."

This young lady is the first Miss Turkey.

Feriha Tevfik was the winner of the contest organized by Cumhuriyet...

...the daily newspaper, in 1929.

The pageant was probably Gazi's brainchild.

Turkish women, freshly broken free of their veils...

...were now competing for the crown.

Keriman Halis, who was crowned Miss Turkey three years later...

...won the title of Miss World in Belgium.

Gazi had reached his goal and as he stated in his celebratory note...

...he had made " The world to get to know the beauty of a Turk".

On conclusion, he told the girls competing for the crown to...

"Strive for world championship in high culture, more importantly."

"Against the difficulties of International economics we are taking measures as...

...the situation warrants to defend and improve ourselves.

We must carry on performing our essential duties without interruption."

Gazi set out to see the state of the nation in early 1930.

The world was going through the great depression.

So was Turkey.

In his three-week trip, citizens who saw him rushed to him...

...with petitions in their hands to complain.

People were deeply troubled: Taxes were high, officials were corrupt...

...and making a living was nigh on impossible.

Gazi had believed the newspapers with no negative reports...

...and the fair words of the sycophants surrounding him.

He had been under the impression that all was well...

...but he was sadly wrong.

He had run too fast and lost sight of the people he left behind.

By the time he got around to seeing them, complaints had replaced applauses.

His distress could clearly be seen in his expression.

As soon as he arrived in Antalya, he went to the house prepared for him...

...and shut the door.

He sank into a chair.

He was exhausted, angry and deeply troubled.

He told his personal assistant Hasan Rýza:

"I am distressed, lad, I am distressed in great pain.

You see that everywhere we go we hear people complaining.

They are destitute, they are miserable both physically and emotionally.

Unfortunately this is the real state of the nation.

Do you know what saddens me the most:

The fact that they expect me to solve all their problems when they...

...themselves are resigned and lethargic...

After all I am just a man, I don't have divine powers..."

"Today we celebrate the most important day...

...as our Republic completes its 10th year. Congratulations!

As a member of the great Turkish nation...

...I have the deepest satisfaction and excitement of being here.

My fellow Turks!

We have been able to accomplish great things in 10 years.

And the greatest of these accomplishments is the...

...Turkish Republic, founded on Turkish heroism and high Turkish culture."

As proclaimed in the march composed to commemorate...

...its 10th anniversary, the Republic had produced 15 million youths...

...in 10 years and clad the country with a network of steel.

Turkey had been born again in 10 years.

Gazi had still not been able to bring prosperity to that destitute nation...

...he had taken over, but he had managed to double per capita income.

He had managed to have a balanced budget with no foreign aid.

He may not have been able to establish the democracy...

...but its foundations had been laid.

There was a period when he had to consent to the inclusion in the...

...constitution the statement that said, "the religion of the state is Islam"...

...but later he had that statement removed...

...and made religion a matter of personal worship.

He had ensured the emancipation of women, removed their scarves...

...and offered modern education.

They had been given the vote before many of their contemporaries...

...in the West and they were about to become law makers.

Now, he ruled his country with a different regime...

...and different set of laws.

His people led their lives in different clothes, read and wrote with...

...a different alphabet and listened to a different sort of music on the radio.

Besides, he had managed to carry out all those dramatic changes that...

...had taken centuries in Europe in a matter of 10 years alone.

He would establish the peace Anatolia longed for...

...extended a friendly hand to yesterday's enemies...

...and be nominated for Nobel peace award by the Greek leader of the day.

He had created new life in the wilderness.

He was about to be given the name Atatürk.

When Çankaya was getting ready for the festivities to honour the 10th...

...anniversary of the republic, he said, "I don't feel anything".

He put in the following two sentences in his 10th year address:

"When all these things that I have talked about come to pass...

...there is one thing I wish from you and the rest of the civilized humanity:

Remember me!"

This was a farewell message.

The fear of being forgotten, which could be seen in many letters...

...written to friends, was back again.

Those around him managed to persuade him...

...to cross out those two sentences.

When he complained about his life, he would say...

"You chained me to the rocks in Çankaya...

and dark rooms in Dolmabahçe".

He was only 52 but he was leading the life of a retired person.

He read history books all day and edited stage plays...

...like "Mr Leader", written to glorify him.

He spent his days working on history and linguistics...

...coming up with Turkish equivalents for foreign origin words.

He was trying to prove a thesis that placed Turks in the centre of...

...civilisation, which proposed that Turkish language...

...was as old as humanity itself.

He tried to get over his loneliness by being a child again on board a yacht...

...sometimes swimming among the public...

...sometimes dancing at a ball until the first lights of day...

One day people from his hometown in Rumeli came to Istanbul...

...for the Balkan Festival.

He went to Beylerbeyi Palace half an hour past midnight to join in the fun.

He was thrilled to hear the tunes and songs of his youth.

He could hardly contain himself.

Soon, he found himself on the dance floor.

He was that old Macedonian once again.

As the records show, it was eight thirty in the morning...

...when he came back from the festival.

Now he slept all day long, woke up in the late afternoon had a short walk...

...and then went to the dinner table...

...where he stayed until the break of day.

The days spent between the bed and the table were captivating him...

...ever so tightly in a trap that he had set himself.

He had given all responsibility to Ýsmet Pasha.

In that mansion among trees, he had finally found the life...

...he had been longing for since he was a little boy.

He was "lonely and independent" as he had always been.

But he was unhappy.

As told in the memoirs of the people serving at his table...

...as soon as he woke up in the afternoon, he started smoking.

He consumed about 3 packs of cigarettes, 15 cups of coffee...

...and a large bottle of raký with his dinner every day.

"I drink because this body cannot carry this head any more.

My head goes way ahead of my body.

I drink to find a little bit of peace and quiet.

"I am leading the life of a prisoner here.

I am alone most days.

Everybody is at work.

I, on the other hand, most of the time do not have work to occupy me...

...even for an hour, never mind a whole day!

All I can do is sleep if I can manage to do so, or write.

Sometimes if I feel like a change or get some fresh air...

I have to go out in a car.

But what then?

Then I come back to this prison, where I play billiards by myself...

...as I wait for dinner.

Dinner does not bring variety, either!

Wherever they set this table, I see the same people, the same faces...

More or less... In short, I've had enough."

The dinner table sometimes functioned as a parliament...

...where matters of the state were discussed all night long...

...and sometimes it was a court for inquisition or making amends...

Sometimes it was the place where stories were told...

...dance lessons were given and songs were sung.

Sometimes it was a place of entertainment...

...where they watched the zeybek dance or wrestling...

It was both a shelter and a trap for him.

One of those evenings when there was live music performance...

...the players started to sing the song "Gel gitme kadýn"...

Atatürk's face clouded and tears welled up in his eyes.

When his guests saw his tears, they quietly retired.

The next morning his adopted daughter Sabiha Gökçen came over.

"Why did that song make you cry?", she enquired.

Atatürk responded in a sad voice:

"Gökçen, I love this land.

I love my country's land, mountains, rocks...

...air and people.

Some songs remind me that there will be a day when I will have to break...

...away from those people.

Then a fire falls in my heart.

Later, that fire goes out as tears.

Never forget, people like Mustafa Kemal are human too...

...and they want to cry too, sometimes."

Atatürk suddenly decided to leave Ýstanbul for Konya...

...on the night of 5 January 1937.

Hatay was the issue in question.

The French were withdrawing their forces...

...but Syrian Arabs were taking their place.

But as far as Turkey was concerned, Hatay had to be Turkish.

Ýnönü, the prime minister, wanted to find a solution through diplomacy.

But Atatürk was getting inpatient.

Hatay had become a personal issue for him and it had enlivened him.

This would be his last great battle.

He told Fahrettin Altay...

"I'll resign from Presidency and become a guerrilla leader for Hatay."

He asked Mustafa Muðlalý to start forming a...

...5 thousand-strong force in civilian clothes.

Ýnönü was the one to stop him once again.

He asked for 15 days to find a diplomatic solution.

But Atatürk was attacking the government 15 days later...

...in an article he had written with the pseudonym of Asým Us...

...in the daily Kurun:

"You asked us to wait for 15 days, and we did. Today is the 16th day.

What's happenning?

What's going to happen?

You have to inform the public."

The disease was gradually taking hold of his body.

Sometimes he was emotional, at other times he was very ill tempered.

One of those evenings, he had an unpleasant row...

...with one of his oldest friends, Ýnönü, the prime minister...

...in the presence of all the guests at his table.

The next day, they went to the History Congress...

...at Dolmabahçe Palace together.

On the way, Atatürk dismissed Ýnönü of his duties.

You could tell that they were both upset.

As they sat in their box, Ýsmet Pasha took a piece of paper and wrote on it:

"Would you be able to come with me this evening?"

When Atatürk replied affirmatively...

...he wrote on the same piece of paper again:

"So you are not very angry with me?"

Then he treasured the answer that came back from Atatürk for a lifetime:

"No... I've already forgotten it all.

As you know, you are my friend and brother."

"The main program we have for the administration of...

...the State is that of the Republican People's Party.

The principles contained in the program are our

guidelines both in administration and politics.

However, these principles should not be confused with the dogma found in the books...

...that are thought to have descended from the heavens.

We have not gotten our inspiration from the heaven or from an unknown dimension...

...but directly from life itself."

He concluded his last address to the Parliament.

His last message was probably his greatest victory:

Power to rule was brought down from heaven to earth...

A French daily, L'ere Nouvelle, inquired on 18 May 1938:

"Has Atatürk had a stroke?"

Atatürk was angry when he read it.

The news regarding his ill health could compromise...

...the outcome of the Hatay issue.

"Get the train ready. I am setting out tomorrow", he said:

"Let's show them if I am dead or alive."

In fact, he had just been diagnosed with a liver problem.

He had to stay in bed for 23 hours a day.

Despite all protests, he set out for Mersin-Adana...

...for a crazy tour de force.

He could hardly stand up.

He was both defying and embracing death.

When he had returned, he was exhausted.

The next day he set out for Istanbul.

Ankara was seeing him off for the last time.

The Savarona, 14 June 1938.

Afet, my condition is as follows:

I think because of the misdiagnosis on the part of the doctors...

...the disease has progressed.

Getting up and walking when I shouldn't have done so has...

...neutralized all the positive things that had been done.

Upon my arrival in Istanbul, the government had doctor Fissenje...

...come here, without even consulting me.

The doctor thinks that rest is essential.

And I need to have bed rest.

My general condition is good.

The hopes and promises for complete recovery are strong."

The government had purchased the yacht for 1 million 250 thousand dollars...

...for him and he had anxiously waited for its arrival, like a child...

...expecting a toy.

But this palace at sea would be nothing more than a hospital for him.

There were only few of his old comrades with him...

...in the most distressful stages of his illness.

He invited an old friend to the yacht in that lonely period.

Ali Fuat had been with him in his early years but later he had been...

...accused of being involved in the attempted assassination.

He said, "I'll be in bed for a long time.

Fuat Pasha, come and keep me company."

His guest on 21 June was Sabiha Gökçen.

She had just completed a tour of the Balkans on her plane...

...and also had the chance to visit the house where Atatürk was born...

...in Salonica, which had been given to him as a present.

Atatürk was excited about it and made Gökçen talk about the house...

...and Salonica in detail.

He looked at the photographs.

He sighed, "Ah, Salonica!"

"When people die, they leave behind houses...

...rooms and photographs.

After you, they live on.

They get old a little, change a little, and fade away a little.

Nevertheless, they live on...

Then, generations that come after you hear memories about you."

"You should also write your memoirs" ventured Sabiha Gökçen.

Atatürk gazed at his own hands for a while and replied:

"I don't have time left to write my memoirs, child."

"Now I want to sleep."

55 days later he left the Savarona in a chair.

He had said, " Let's go to our home, to Ankara for the 29th of October"...

...but he couldn't.

Instead, those who loved him came to Dolmabahçe Palace.

They all sang a march, which was an old favourite.

That was how Atatürk celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Republic.

17 October 1938.

"Atatürk, one of the most powerful and extraordinary men of our era...

...is suffering from a liver condition.

It has been reported that he cannot tolerate any noise or commotion.

What a strange and unbearable twist of fate for a man of action...

...whose life has been spent in activity.

And Kemal Atatürk is not even 60.

He loved dancing, drinking and nightlife.

But his love for pleasure could not stop him from creating...

...a colossal masterpiece and realise an extraordinary revolution...

...and create a nation that commands respect."

Dolmabahçe Palace was waiting for the inevitable conclusion.

Few of the characters he shared a life with were at Atatürk's bedside.

Hasan Rýza was writing Atatürk's last will and testament...

...following his dictation.

Kýlýç Ali was rubbing his wrists and forehead with the special rose...

...vinegar that his mother had sent.

Salih was in the bathroom marking the place on his heart...

...where he planned to put a bullet through, if Atatürk died.

Ýsmet was in Ankara, trying to get the latest news from Salih.

Latife, in hospital in Switzerland...

...was looking for news about him in the papers.

He, on the other hand, was lying in his bed, unconscious.

He opened his eyes for an instant...

...and his gaze stopped on the painting on the wall.

The painting called "The Four Seasons" reminded him of Rumeli...

...where he had spent his childhood.

He whispered to Afet Ýnan keeping watch by his bed...

"Let's go there, Afet."

"Let's leave everything behind, set up a simple house, with a fireplace."

"Once I get better, let's go into the woods..."

Lonely child

Remember me. Remember me.

If you are alone, desperate and orphaned, remember me.

If you are feeble, unsure, impatient impossible, all alone and desolate

Think about me!

Stand your ground, like a proud flag...

Lonely child

Remember me

Remember me.

If you are null and void, defenseless and exiled, remember me.

Hopeless, strengthless, drained besieged and silent

Come on now!

This is a home for the homeless.

I, too, was alone I had no home to call my own

I believed in man

I did not surrender

You, too, can do the same

You, too, can do the same...

After Atatürk's death, of the hundreds of personal effects in Dolmabahçe...

only three were registered as "His Own"...

One was the painting on the wall, "The Four Seasons".