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Article: Books: Self-made hero of Turkey Ataturk by Andrew Mango John Murray pounds 30
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 12, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Despite academic scepticism about "great men", there is no doubt
that in the 20th century single individuals have dominated the
history of nation states. One can cite Churchill in England, FDR in
the USA, Stalin in the USSR, Hitler in Germany, Franco in Spain,
Salazar in Portugal, Mussolini in Italy, Peron in Argentina and
Vargas in Brazil. In Turkey the dominant figure was a man named
Mustapha, born in 1880 to a lower- middle-class family in Salonica.
Since at that time only Muslim grandees had surnames, Mustapha
acquired his other monikers in curious ways. Kemal means perfection
and was a name ironically given to the bumptious boy at school by a
mathematics teacher whom Mustapha ...