The Founder of Modern Turkey

Are you looking at a picture of Atatürk right now? Have you seen a portrait of Atatürk in the last three to five minutes? Can you think of more than three places you could go to right now to be in sight of Atatürk's likeness?



If you answered "no" to any of those questions, then you are not in Turkey. For fun last night I counted as many Turkish flags as I could see from my balcony. The answer: around twenty three. This is not merely because Ankara is the governmental center of Turkey's secular republic, this is just how it is here. Nationalism is kind of a big deal.