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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.
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 19:  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to speak to world leaders at the 72nd United Nations (UN) General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York on September 19, 2017 in New York City. Topics to be discussed at this year's gathering include Iran, North Korea and global warming.  (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“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.

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