Famous author and  academician Emre Kongar, came together with Maltepe residents  at a  chat show on the second day of the Republic Festival  organized by Maltepe Municipality  and which will last for one full month. Kongar  noted “Ataturk was a perfect leader both  as a military and a political leader with his general knowledge of history  of humanity and its development, but he was a miracle. Why was he miracle?  He was  in contradiction to both Anatolia and Anatolian people and the Ottomans.  He was able to successfully establish the Republic in spite  of that and that Republic is still alive”.
Famous author and  academician Emre Kongar was hosted on the second day of the “I am the Republic”  Festival  organized by Maltepe Municipality  and which will last for one full month. Taking an individual interest  in the participants and  having his photograph taken with them, Kongar held a pleasant chat show with the public after the screening of the 1998  first episode of   “The Republic” series, starring  Rutkay Aziz, Savaş Dinçel, Hülya Aksular, Dolunay Soysert ve Macide Tanır, whose script was written by Turgut Özakman and was directed by Ziya Öztan.

“REPUBLIC IS DOUBLE MIRACLE”

The chat show that was a question and answer session, Kongar said that there two aspects to the Republic and went onto say: “The road  leading to the Republic was paved both with military and political success. They say you didn’t fight the whole world just the  Greeks. Let’s get some facts straight. In those days Mustafa Kemal and his comrades in arms fought against  many nations and cross sections  of society including,  the British, Italians, Greeks, French, Armenians and internal traitors. The Republic is in fact a miracle. In the series the  Republic, the first part of this miracle is told. Let me give you some information on that period. For example  population is 11 million and 10%  only  is literate. And half of those are Greek, Armenian and Jewish. The remainder can only write their names and surnames. Over half of this population is disease ridden, Tuberculosis, trachoma and malaria. Sociological structure is based on powerful land lords. Rich notable people, landed gentry, and the peasants. In other words the remnants of a religious-agricultural society. Because even the land owning lords don’t  have  money. If we take into consideration that elsewhere the transformation from religious-agricultural society to and  industrial society took 200 years, then this was accomplished in 15-20 years  in Turkey. This is a great miracle.”

HE SIGNED HIS BOOKS 

Kongar asked the  public what they attributed  Ataturk’s military and political success to and went  onto say , “Ataturk was a perfect leader both  as a military and a political leader with his general knowledge of history  of humanity and its development. The war  of independence and  Ataturk’s reforms were in accordance with humanity’s accumulation of knowledge but  it was a miracle. Why was it a miracle?  It was in contradiction to Anatolia, Anatolians and the Ottomans. Why did the Ottomans collapse ? They  collapsed because it couldn’t match the progress of humanity and the industrial revolution. Ataturk was able to establish the Republic under these conditions and that Republic is still alive today”. After the chat Kongar, signed his books, “Manifesto For Democracy, Resist” and “History of the Revolution and Ataturk from a Sociological Perspective”. Kongar was presented with a plate made by women of Maltepe by Deputy Mayor Melih Morsünbül. 

Kaynak: Maltepe Belediyesi