Turks remember former president

Selected readings from the works of legendary Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, celebrating the Turkish independence in 1923, were read aloud to commemorate Ataturk's efforts in the war and the creation of the Republic of Turkey.\nAbbas Karakaya, assistant instructor of Turkish, said the day should not be seen only as a time of mourning.\n"It is a day people, including journalists, scholars and students, discuss and reflect on Ataturk's legacy and Turkey's national purpose," Karakaya said.\nHe said Turkey observed a moment of silence at 9:05 a.m. Monday, as cars and boats blew their horns to mourn the hour when their leader died.\nRetired IU Professor Emeritus Ilhan Basgoz recited passages from Nazim Hikmet's "The Epic of the Liberation War" at the event, which he had memorized as a student in Turkey in the early 1940s. \nBasgoz recounted how, at that time, Hikmet was serving a prison sentence in Turkey for his communist and revolutionist writings. He said Hikmet smuggled underground manuscripts, which had to be memorized so physical evidence of the writings could be destroyed. \nAlthough both Ataturk and Hikmet were nationalists, the newly created Turkish government felt Hikmet's writings were too revolutionary for the fragile new nation. Hikmet was imprisoned repeatedly and eventually forced into exile and had his citizenship revoked. \nDespite this setback, Hikmet remained a committed nationalist and supportive of Ataturk's progressive policies.\nYesem Kurt, a Ph.D. candidate in math, described the significance of the Turkish revolution.\n"The fight against the Entente (foreign alliance) powers was particularly important for the fact that it was one of the early struggles against Western colonial powers," he said, "and it resonated in the countries of Africa and Asia in their anti-colonialist movements."\nAtaturk ruled as president of the newly independent nation of Turkey for 15 years before his death in 1938. His determination to make Turkey a progressive secular nation and the reforms he initiated underlay the foundations of Turkey's unique social and political structure in the Muslim world.\nThe commemoration at the International Center drew a small, diverse crowd of faculty members and students. \nBanu Alfar, a second-year language education Ph.D. candidate, said she participated in organizing and performing the poetry readings because she felt the event carried importance.\n"This event is very important because Ataturk was the founder of modern Turkey and we are very happy to be a secular nation," Alfar said.\n"I wish we would have more participants at such events, world peace is shattering, and such events bring people of all nations together," she said, lamenting the low attendance at the event.