HOW OLD ARE YOU?

Youth, as I understand it to be, is the group of individuals who will adopt the concepts and the ideology of the Turkish Revolution and pass them on to future generations. In my opinion a twenty-year-old fanatic is old-aged, but a seventy-year-old idealist is a fresh youth. This is the Turkish youth that I understand.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
(Tanver, Vehbi. Atatürk ve Türk Gençliği, Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Dergisi, Vol. 6. No. 8, P. 704. Ankara, Mayis 1985.  


Could it be expected that prudent, reasonable people and patriots would be content with remaining spectators of the stupid, inexperienced, and disgraceful proceedings of a gang of obstinate men, among whom were traitors and others devoid of feeling and conscience, who had tried to stifle an outburst of indignation on the part of the nation, like "Down with the Occupation?
 
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
The Great Speech (NUTUK) , Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Dergisi, 2005, p. 197.
 

Cem Ryan, Ph.D.
Istanbul
4 May 2009