Ataturk & the Kid from Elmira, New York

[hasan.b.mutlu]

by Nadir Ergin Telci

The Turkish Times is proud to present two unique letters
exchanged between a 10-year-old boy from Elmira, NY, Curtis
Lafrance, and the founder of the modern Turkish Republic,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in October and November 1923.

The time was the year following the successful conclusion
of the Turkish National War of Liberation. The new Turkish
state was announced a Republic on October 29, 1923. Ataturk
was tired with the intensity of the national struggle he just
left behind. The young republic had many needs to be taken
care of. Many institutions needed to be created from scratch.
Despite his busy schedule, Ataturk took the time to write a
personal reply to Curtis' request for a signed picture. The
innocent tone of his letter reflects the spirit of Ataturk's
motto "Peace in the Nation, Peace in the World."

From Curtis Lafrance to Mustafa Kemal:

Elmira, New York
October 28, 1923

To Mustafa Kemal Pasa, Ankara

Dear Sir,

I am an American boy ten years old. I am very much interested in
Turkey and the new government. I have been reading an interview
with you published a few days ago.

I have started a collection on Turkey and already have a number of
articles and letters, including you, Mustafa Kemal.

Please send short message to this American boy, together with an
autographed photograph. I hope some day to visit Turkey.

Respectfully yours,
(signed)
Curtis Lafrance

-----------------

From Mustafa Kemal to Curtis Lafrance:

Ankara
November 27, 1923

Dear Mr. Curtis Lafrance,

I received your letter. Thank you for your interest in Turkey. I
am sending you an autographed picture as requested.

The only request I have of smart and hard-working American boys like
yourself is this: Do not believe in everything you hear about Turks
and do insist grounding your opinions on scientific and historical
researches.

I wish you much success and happiness.

Gazi Mustafa Kemal
President, Turkish Republic

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Kill Turks and Kurds wherever you find them and in whatever
circumstances you find them. Turkish children also should be
killed as they form a danger to the Armenian nation."
(Slogan of the Armenian Committees in 1914)

"We closed the roads and mountain passes that might serve as
ways of escape for the Tartars and then proceeded in the work
of extermination. Our troops surrounded village after village.
Little resistance was offered. Our artillery knocked the huts
into heaps of stone and dust and when the villages became untenable
and inhabitants fled from them into fields, bullets and bayonets
completed the work. Some of the Tartars escaped of course. They
found refuge in the mountains or succeeded in crossing the border
into Turkey. The rest were killed. And so it is that the whole
length of the borderland of Russian Armenia from Nakhitchevan to
Akhalkalaki from the hot plains of Ararat to the cold mountain
plateau of the North were dotted with mute mournful ruins of
Tartar villages. They are quiet now, those villages, except for
howling of wolves and jackals that visit them to paw over the
scattered bones of the dead."
(An Armenian officer who participated in "The Armenian Genocide of
the Muslims")

Hasan B-) Mutlu