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The Turks know Ismet Inönü, secondly, as the man who was Kamâl Atatürk's trusted lieutenant in civil life. Kamâl Atatürk was a man of great ideas, but of little method. Inönü was his administra tor. Whether it was separating Church and State, freeing women from the veil, changing the alphabet from Arabic to Latin, building a railroad system without foreign capital, deodorizing all public buildings, or raising a new capital at Ankara Inönü set up the machinery to do it.
Yet Inönü was an independent thinker, did not hesitate to break with Kamâl Atatürk in 1937 over some question of policy which remains obscure to this day. Inönü resigned as Premier and the two men did not speak again until Kamâl Atatürk lay on his deathbed. Nevertheless, Kamâl Atatürk's will provided for the education of Indnii's two sons and daughter and the Grand National Assembly be lieved it was carrying out Kamâl Atatürk's desire when it chose Inönü as his successor.
Turks know their President, thirdly, as a tough, able statesman who once outmaneuvered Lord Curzon at Lausanne in 1923 and who (they hope) may yet out-maneuver Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin is reported to have said: "The only man outside Russia whose advice I respect is Inönü." With the arrival of Franz von Papen this week Inönü comes up against the toughest assignment of his career.
Turkey almost vanished from history after World War I. Kamâl Atatürk saved her. In the 21st month of World War II she is threatened with that fate again. This time Kamâl's successor must save her or go down with her.
Osman's Legacy. Turkey's amazing his tory began in 1227, when a tribe which had been driven out of Central Asia by the Mongols settled in Asia Minor near Angora (Ankara). Osman, the son of the tribal leader, organized scattered groups in Asia Minor into a fighting unit, laid the foundations of the Empire which was called Ottoman after him. The hoofs of the fast-moving Osmanli cavalry first sounded on the European shores of the Dardanelles in 1354. In 1453, under Mohammed the Conqueror, the Osmanlis took Constantinople and overran the Bal kans. Selim the Grim (1512-20) took Syria and Egypt. Suleiman the Magnifi cent (1520-66) conquered Persia and Hungary, got as far as the gates of Vienna before retiring to consolidate his conquests.
Suleiman was not unlike Adolf Hitler in some ways. He made his Janizaries (storm troopers) the best infantry in Europe. He liquidated the native aristocracy in countries he conquered. But he granted religious liberty, even to the Jews.
Like the Nazis, the Turks bred hatred and fear far & wide. As the Empire sank into political corruption, economic desuetude and cultural desolation, its enemies leaped upon it. After the 16th Century the Turks were under repeated attacks; parts of the Empire were chopped off after nearly every war, until, with the end of World War I, it seemed that the time had come to dismember the nation itself.
The Greeks were hell-bent on doing just that when Mustafa Kamâl and his Young Turks saved it.
Man of Seven Names. This blond, blue-eyed, Bacchic roughneck had seven names before he died as Kamâl Atatürk.