Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and General Charles de Gaulle: a Comparison between the « Gazi » and « the Man of the 18th of June »

Passengers travelling from Paris to Istanbul may not realise that their aircraft will take off from Paris Charles de Gaulle and three hours later will land in Atatürk International Airport. That is not of course the only similitude between these two heroes of the 20th century, who, by chance, disappeared almost on the same day. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died in Istanbul on the 10th November 1938 and General Charles de Gaulle disappeared in Colombey les deux Eglises on the 9th November 1970.

A lot of avenues, places or schools in France received the name of General de Gaulle, President of the French Republic between 1958 and 1969. In Turkey also a lot of buildings bare Atatürk’s name in commemoration of the first President of the Turkish Republic (1923‐ 1938). The most famous one, Anitkabir in Ankara, was finished in 1938 and received in 1953, for the 15th anniversary of Atatürk’s death, the ashes of the Gazi. Every year around 100 000 people visit General de Gaulle’s house in a small French village called Colombey les deux Eglises. This is far less than the 4 to 5 million (expected in 2015) yearly visitors to Anitkabir, the museum dedicated to Atatürk in Ankara…