Mustafa Kemal Ataturk documentary w/ subtitles - In Turkey

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk swept together the ruins of the Ottoman Empire and founded the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923. The reforms of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were a revolution in all respects: he replaced Sharia law with European laws, separating religion and state, exchanged the Arabic script for the Latin.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk made the big difference between Turkey and the Middle East. Ataturk's been dead 72 years and although Turks stubbornly stick to his ideas, his legacy is under pressure.

Original title: The Father of the Turks

In this seven-part series Bram Vermeulen travels through Turkey - From Istanbul to the sparsely populated mountains in the east; from the closed borders of Armenia to the open southern borders shared with neighboring Arab countries - observing the rapid changes in a country that has a renewed fresh confidence.

In Turkey, was awarded the Special Award Discourse and Politics at the Erasmus EuroMedia Awards 2011 in Vienna.Produced by VPRO, The Netherlands
Presentation: Bram Vermeulen
Direction/Editor in Chief: Stefanie de Brouwer, Doke Romeijn
Camera: Erik van Empel, Jackó van 't Hof
Sound: Bert van den Dungen, Rik Meier
Research: Yilmaz Akinci, Mahmut Kaya, Emran Küçük, Somnur Vardar
Production: Judith van den Berg
Editing: Matthieu Hes en Obbe Verwer
Colour correction: Gerhard van der Beek
Sound Mix: Rob Dul
Music: Wouter van Bemmel
translation: Emran Küçük, Halil Ozpamuk, Fatih Yüksel, Nian Bakal, Beriwan Khalil
Special thanks to: Alex Booy, Huibert Boon

© VPRO First publication: 27 march 2011

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English, French and Spanish subtitles by Ericsson and co-funded by the European Union.

[snipermagoo]

I wonder what he'd think of modern Turkey. Less than pleased, I suspect.

[sylviax]

Great documentary! I couldn't stop watching it. As a Turkish, of course what I've seen were very familiar. I really appreciate that you talked to people from a lot of different ideologies. That's a point which a lot of people are missing while investigating Turkey.We are not all Muslims and religious. We respect them, just like we respect Christians or members from any other religion/belief. On Atatürk... I personally love and admire him so much and am a Kemalist. That doesn't mean that I think him as a god or think everything that he did were a hundred percent true. He's the one who taught our great-grandparents who were washed with empty beliefs that believing something without researching it was wrong and that they shouldn't be blinded with religion or the beliefs and traditions their fathers had. As a follower of his ideology, I can't do that and even him wouldn't want that. Dictator was a wrong word for meaning that. You can't say dictator and expect people not to think about Hitler. But I understood what she meant, and I don't think she showed hate for him, even though she used wrong words. I respect the work and effort, and thanks for showing a different side of Turkey. :)

[tamerakyuz]

Kore Gazisi amcamızın eşiyle dans ettiği sahnede inanılmaz mutlu oldum. Günümü neşelendirdiniz. Teşekkür ederim.
I was incredibly happy when Korean War Veteran dancing with his wife. You made my day. Thank you.

[zainabakram]

, merhaba, benım hindistan'da.

It's a great story.. Çok Teşekkürler👍👍👍☝, 😍😍

[spanixtanspanixtan]

Mustafa Kemal was an outstanding figure. But you can't say it out loud in some countries, for example, in the UK, France...that is, the ones that believe they are the model and center of civilization and democracy. After the I WW finished in 1919 Turkey was being ruled by the UK in cahoots with the French empire, who cheated the Arabs and were thinking of sharing out Anatolia as well.Italians also occupied part of Anatolia, and Greeks stormed the villages seeking revenge, in retaliation for the cruel Ottoman rule in the past.
Kemal had to stop this, and also had put and end to internal traditional Ottoman culture. Of course the only way to do it was a dictatorship, but much in the early Roman sense of the concept: the country is overwhelmed by sudden danger, so the Senatus appoints a dictator, a man whose capabilities and integrity they trust, to take all decisions until the danger is over and the dictator is expected to give back the power. But the danger was never over in Turkey: the 1920s gave way to the Great Depression of the 30s and dictators were all over Europe. Then came the II WWar; and later the cold war. Now Turkey´s secular values are at at risk again, but there is no Kemal: R.T.Erdogan and others try to put Turkey back to Islamic and religious rule. Of course we must never forget the Armenian genocide in that war period when ethnicity still meant ''to be with us or with our enemy''.

This documentary shows the picture of M.Kemal everywhere, so he looks like a personality cult. A typical Western view. "Democracy can´t be imposed". Right. But why don´t you analyse one by one Kemal´s reforms?: political and social reforms; vote, speech; women´s rights stated, and curb of religious power opposed to sit; compulsory primary education..."of course you can´t compel a kid to go to school... can you?, or was it rather that the parents didn´t want their children to attend non religious schools?, especially if they are girls and had to share room with boys.

Western media wants to erase parts of history and make one of their own. Some countries have as a holiday the Napoleonic defeat and independence, and you are a weird person if you point out the law codes spread by him; or the Holy Alliance that ruled Europe after his defeat, struggling to erase the French Revolution ideas and the movements that followed in the XIX century, towards political and social rights.

In short: you fail to state in detail the laws imposed by Kemal, which were, of course, social rights and democracy ''imposed by force''. Just wait a couple of decades and see the involution that the ''will of God'' could cause in Turkey, surrounded by the eternal disputes in the Arab countries, which never reached the level of social and political development of Turkey.

[Amudajkon]

Gracias por el documental. Ayuda a hacerse una imagen de lo que es Turquía. Espero que hagan uno sobre la vida y obra de Kemal Ataturk.

[eliszeynep]

Actually yeah, calling a founder and reformer a "dictator" is insulting enough. It means she doesnt know anything about the history or she's not Turk.

[snakeySnakeybakey]

I wish my own country of Israel had a leader like Ataturk. one of the greatest men of his day.

[muratlokmanoglu]

In the spiritual presence of the great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, I bow with respect and reverence. Tengri biz menen.

[altarnoglu]

5:48 çektikçe ruhum çekildi yemin ediyorum

[suoksuzvatanm]

Nice documentary but nothing more than a classic, casual European documentary from a European point of view. You are missing lots of points.

[OlkanOraldag]

Dictator doesnt necessarily mean a bad thing, just because there have been bad dictators in the past. Im not saying dictatorship is the way, but there a also have been good examples of dictatorship such as that of Atatürk. He had to be one to introducr freedom and democracy to a nation that never felt its need before, waiting for it to feel it would be time consuming and end with disappearence of the nation from the books of histroy, which what Atatürk didint want. Atatürk’s world view and values is what we care about, decisions can of course be judged he wasnt a god, but we also have to be careful with the intentions of some of thr judgers, not the judgement itself.

[kibrisliboy]

This documentary disrespects Ataturk and Turkish people's love to him. A small European nation with no history of influential leaders cannot understand our pride...

[A_Temel]

Even though some of the reforms of Atatürk was a little bit extreme at todays standarts, i believe he did more than well considering the time period he lived in.A think after his death, in order to keep the country secular his successors basicly turned him to a god like figure.That way neither him nor his ideas could be criticized or abandoned.Long story short, in order to keep the religious fanatics at bay and keep the country secular we must keep Atatürks legacy alive in a almost cult like manner.


By the way all of the documenteries were excellent.Especially the one about Cyprus.I completed my military service there and that land is something to say the least

[marshallamb]

I really do not want foreigners to come to Turkey and and make a documentary about the things which they do not have any idea about.

[MuhammedhilmigulluBlogspot]

All the turks are which are from all over the world are soldiers of Ataturk. Wonderful work btw appreciated and subscribed.

[sacreadl]

iyi bir belgesel olmuş diyemem, ama elinize sağlık yinede.

[kemancash]

Why did you put indian music at backfront ? You still think that Turkey is a country of sands or camels.

[vj]

Censorship is part of a larger trend of the Turkish government quashing of freedom of speech. The Turkish press is totally restricted. Notoriously, Turkey currently has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world.  Article 301  of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish nation, or Turkish government institutions.
Is directly related to turkey"s
Inscurity about turkish identity and fear of Turkey"s past.

[turkbozkurt]

Ataturk liberated the country from occupying world powers, he worked nonstop for us, thats why we greatful to him and his work.