Erdogan's claim on Ataturk legacy is bizarre political reach
Despite his policies in polar opposition to those of founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has touted him as a brother whose memory is only served by his own ruling party.
“He was Dictator in order that it may be impossible ever again there should be in Turkey a Dictator,” concluded the benign interpretation of H.C. Armstrong, who was among Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s first biographers, in his short and controversial account of the founder of modern Turkey, “Grey Wolf.”
Even a casual observer of contemporary Turkey would glean that if this truly was Ataturk’s goal, he has failed. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is regarded as one of the most dictatorial leaders to guide the country since the great man himself. What's more, after a career spent in an Islamist movement erected in opposition to Ataturk’s steamrolling push to secularize Turkey and turn its back on its former Muslim dominions, Erdogan, a professionally trained Muslim cleric, has set about making Ataturk all his.
