Mustafa Kemal "Ataturk" (father of the Turks) was one of the greatest statesmen/worriers of modern time.  If you ever travel to Turkiye, you will see his picture on just about every street corner, every office and every home. Not because they have to, as in dictatorships but because he is so loved. He is the Turkish version of George Washington.

  Durring the first world war Turkey was known as the Ottoman Empire and was on the side with Germany. But when Germany lost and the Allies came to divide up Turkey this general said "sachma" which is the Turkish equivelent to BS.  He drove out the would be conquerers and the Ottoman leaders instituted the modern parlimentary democracy that is still in place today.  He gave women the right to vote, changed to western style roman script for writing and did everything possible to bring Turkey into the 20th century. Even though the country is mostly Muslim freedom of religion is the law.  Unfortunately, Christianity is not very welcomed among the masses since the only christians they remember were the crusaders and people in the middle east have long long memories. Even so, they are light years ahead of other mideastern countries when it comes to tolerance. Of course I couldn't stop there without saying this.  I was Treated like royalty and some of my best friends in the world are Turks. You wont find more hospitable people any where in the world. Ataturk's vision is still alive in Turkey and the people still love him.  Many Americans make it their  mission in life to discredit our founding fathers and I guess that's freedom of speech. But if you have any thing negative to say about Ataturk, it's best to keep it to yourself while in Turkiye. We have a saying in our country, "they make better friends than enemies".  That fits the Turks like a glove.

 Attaturk video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-poJk-VVsjg

It turns out that America and Turkiye have more in common than just diplomatic ties. The origianal Turks were not the mediterranian looking people that we think of today.They were people like Gengis Khan and Attila the Hun, with a more asian look than Greek or Italian. There is a Turkish legend that says some were trapped between the mountains and were led out by a wolf.  These same people migrated north and across the "land bridge" where the Bering Strait is now. Remember that from high school social studies? Its very likely that these same people continued south and became what we refer to as Native Americans That could explain the Asian appearance of American Indians , their infatuation with the wolf as well as fighting styles and weapons such as bow and arrow which were very common in ancient Turkiye.

   If thats not enough there is another group of people who began in Turkiye. They arrived in a boat called the Ark on top of Mount Ararat (turkiye)  Are we learning yet?