Ataturk was a national hero afaik.
The Turks of the Otooman empire were serfs, below practically everybody in 'rank' and 'stature'. The Ottoman hierarchy at its end period being as follows:
* Royal family - blueblood mongols...
* Janissaries - christian soldiers
* Greek beureacrats
* Kurds
* Slavic
* Pan-Slavic
* Egyptian, Syrian
* Turks
* Arabs
* Africans
Ataturk revived Turkish nationalism, kicked out the cleptocratic, corrupt Greek bureacracy, liberated the Turks and made them equal with all other cultures and nationalities of a Turkish national state. Ended war. And prevented/saved the Turks from being ruled by the pan-slavic Empire.
The Young Turks were revolutionary socialists, seeking the overwthrow of the Ottoman Sultanate to be replaced by Turkish rule. They were guerilla syndicalists, much like any other left-revolutionary organizations of the time, not only in Turkey, but in the rest of the world.
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