Mustafa Kemal Ataturk became the first President of the Turkish Republic in 1923. After heroically defeating The Allies in World War 1 at Galipoli, he subsequently won the Turkish war of independence, saving Turkey from being divided into pieces by the Western powers to which the despotic Sultan had surrendered. His genius was not restricted to the battlefield though, nor was his vision to the present.

He had developed an idea and strategy to deliver the Turkish Nation into the 20th century, which called for a replication of the progressive societies of Western Europe while maintaining a Turkish national identity.

In fact much of modern Turkey's success as a secular democracy is owed in large part to Ataturk's courageous brilliance. He instilled a proud national identity through reforms like changing several city names to Turkish names like Angora to Ankara, while he westernized the country, through progressive amendments like granting suffrage to women, changing the alphabet from Ottoman to Latin, implementation of the Metric system, legalization of alcohol and most importantly changing the country from backward Islamic polices to a secular Democracy.

Today Turkey continues the struggle that Ataturk began nearly a century ago. Recently Turkey has taken brave steps that will allow it full candidate membership status of the European Union while maintaining its unique national identity as a country straddling two worlds.

The controversial ban on the Kurdish language has been lifted and Capital Punishment banned, bringing the nation parity with its European counterparts and the promise of future prosperity with European Union membership status upon the horizon.