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Was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk a Muslim?

Pakistan and Turkey are two Muslim countries which in addition to sharing a common religion also have common business, political, bilateral and foreign relation interests. Both nations also have a fixation, undying love and devotion to their founding father. Muhammad Ali Jinnah is affectionately called Quaid-i-Azam (The Greatest Leader) by the Pakistanees and Mustafa Kemal is affectionately called Atatürk (Father of the Turks).The lineage, origins and family history of both of these leaders is suspect. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was an Ismaili Rafidhi (Shia), secular in his outlook who some Islamic Scholars state later accepted Islam.Both the Pakistanees and Turks refuse to ever acknowledge or admit these historical facts and you will even see religious Muslims often adorn their pictures with Islamic headgear etc. In the case of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, speeches during the later part of his life do advocate Islam (specifically mentioning Qur’aan and Sunnah) and his funeral prayer was performed by Allamah Shabbir Ahmed Usmani (RA) so there is some credible evidence that he accepted Islam or at least drastically changed his views towards the later part of his life.Mustafa Kemal’s parentage and origins has no less than 4 separate accounts and most importantly he remained staunchly secular and opposed Islam until the very end. He said and others quoted regarding him:We do not need take the principles for our party from a book that supposingly was revealed from the heaven. [Ataturk, Soylev ve Demecleri (Istanbul 1945) 389]There is no religion, only the people. [Wrote on the cover of the book of Ruseni Barkin]Respected people, every man should move his religion on the side if he wants to strive towards a civilized society.[Diary notes, Mustafa Kemal, Nutuk, 460.]His close friends like Reza Nur, an atheist and Kazim Karabekir Pasa all claim he was an enemy to Islam and an atheist. He removed the shariah courts.The great Ottoman scholar Shaykh al-Islam Mustafa Sabri called him kaafir and a British puppet. [Mustafa Sabri Efendi, Hilafetin ilgasinin arka plani (Istanbul)]His words, statements and most importantly actions cannot be taken as those of a Muslim. However in the last two decades evidence has been unearthed that Mustafa Kemal was actually a Dönmeh i.e. a crypto Jew a group of individuals who publicly converted to Islam but secretly held on to their own beliefs.What we present below is the research from Jewish sources on the origins and heritage of Mustafa Kemal.When Ataturk Recited the Jewish "Shema Yisrael" (1994)Hillel HalkinWhen Kemal Ataturk Recited Shema Yisrael: 'It's My Secret Prayer, Too,'. He ConfessedZICHRON YAAKOV -- There were two questions I wanted to ask, I said over the phone to Batya Keinan, spokeswoman for Israeli president Ezer Weizman, who was about to leave the next day, Monday, Jan. 24, on the first visit ever made to Turkey by a Jewish chief of state. One was whether Mr. Weizman would be taking part in an official ceremony commemorating Kemal Ataturk.Ms. Kenan checked the president's itinerary, according to which he and his wife would lay a wreath on Ataturk's ...Excited and DistressedI thanked her and hung up. A few minutes later it occurred to me to call back and ask whether President Weizman intended to make any reference while in Turkey to Ataturk's Jewish antecedents. "I'm so glad you called again," said Ms. Kenan, who now sounded excited and a bit distressed. "Exactly where did you get your information from?"Why was she asking, I countered, if the president's office had it too?Because it did not, she confessed. She had only assumed that it must because I had sounded so matter-of-fact myself. "After you hung up," she said, "I mentioned what you told me and nobody here knows anything about it. Could you please fax us what you know?"I faxed her a short version of it. Here is a longer one.Stories about the Jewishness of Ataturk, whose statue stands in the main square of every town and city in Turkey, already circulated in his lifetime but were denied by him and his family and never taken seriously by biographers. Of six biographies of him that I consulted this week, none even mentions such a speculation. The only scholarly reference to it in print that I could find was in the entry on Ataturk in the Israeli Entsiklopedya ha-Ivrit, which begins:"Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - (1881-1938), Turkish general and statesman and founder of the modern Turkish state."Mustafa Kemal was born to the family of a minor customs clerk in Salonika and lost his father when he was young. There is no proof of the belief, widespread among both Jews and Muslims in Turkey, that his family came from the Doenme. As a boy he rebelled against his mother's desire to give him a traditional religious education, and at the age of 12 he was sent at his demand to study in a military academy."Secular FatherThe Doenme were an underground sect of Sabbetaians, Turkish Jews who took Muslim names and outwardly behaved like Muslims but secretly believed in Sabbetai Zevi, the 17th-century false messiah, and conducted carefully guarded prayers and rituals in his name. The encyclopedia's version of Ataturk's education, however, is somewhat at variance with his own. Here is his account of it as quoted by his biographers:"My father was a man of liberal views, rather hostile to religion, and a partisan of Western ideas. He would have preferred to see me go to a lay school, which did not found its teaching on the Koran but on modern science."In this battle of consciences, my father managed to gain the victory after a small maneuver; he pretended to give in to my mother's wishes, and arranged that I should enter the (Islamic) school of Fatma Molla Kadin with the traditional ceremony. ..."Six months later, more or less, my father quietly withdrew me from the school and took me to that of old Shemsi Effendi who directed a free preparatory school according to European methods. My mother made no objection, since her desires had been complied with and her conventions respected. It was the ceremony above all which had satisfied her."Who was Mustafa Kemal's father, who behaved here in typical Doenme fashion, outwardly observing Muslim ceremonies while inwardly scoffing at them? Ataturk's mother Zubeyde came from the mountains west of Salonika, close to the current Albanian frontier; of the origins of his father, Ali Riza, little is known. Different writers have given them as Albanian, Anatolian and Salonikan, and Lord Kinross' compendious 1964 "Ataturk" calls Ali Riza a "shadowy personality" and adds cryptically regarding Ataturk's reluctance to disclose more about his family background: "To the child of so mixed an environment it would seldom occur, wherever his racial loyalties lay, to inquire too exactly into his personal origins beyond that of his parentage."Learning HebrewDid Kinross suspect more than he was admitting? I would never have asked had I not recently come across a remarkable chapter while browsing in the out-of-print Hebrew autobiography of Itamar Ben-Avi, son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the leading promoter of the revival of spoken Hebrew in late 19th-century Palestine. Ben-Avi, the first child to be raised in Hebrew since ancient times and later a Hebrew journalist and newspaper publisher, writes in this book of walking into the Kamenitz Hotel in Jerusalem one autumn night in 1911 and being asked by its proprietor:'Do you see that Turkish officer sitting there in the corner, the one with the bottle of arrack?' "'Yes.' "'He's one of the most important officers in the Turkish army.' "'What's his name?' "'Mustafa Kemal.' "'I'd like to meet him,' I said, because the minute I looked at him I was startled by his piercing green eyes."Ben-Avi describes two meetings with Mustafa Kemal, who had not yet taken the name of Ataturk, 'Father of the Turks.' Both were conducted in French, were largely devoted to Ottoman politics, and were doused with large amounts of arrack. In the first of these, Kemal confided:"I'm a descendant of Sabbetai Zevi - not indeed a Jew any more, but an ardent admirer of this prophet of yours. My opinion is that every Jew in this country would do well to join his camp."During their second meeting, held 10 days later in the same hotel, Mustafa Kemal said at one point:" 'I have at home a Hebrew Bible printed in Venice. It's rather old, and I remember my father bringing me to a Karaite teacher who taught me to read it. I can still remember a few words of it, such as --' "And Ben-Avi continues:"He paused for a moment, his eyes searching for something in space. Then he recalled:" 'Shema Yisra'el, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Ehad!'" 'That's our most important prayer, Captain.'" 'And my secret prayer too, cher monsieur,' he replied, refilling our glasses."Although Itamar Ben-Avi could not have known it, Ataturk no doubt meant "secret prayer" quite literally. Among the esoteric prayers of the Doenme, first made known to the scholarly world when a book of them reached the National Library in Jerusalem in 1935, is one containing the confession of faith:"Sabbetai Zevi and none other is the true Messiah. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."It was undoubtedly from this credo, rather than from the Bible, that Ataturk remembered the words of the Shema, which to the best of my knowledge he confessed knowing but once in his adult life: to a young Hebrew journalist whom he engaged in two tipsily animated conversations in Jerusalem nearly a decade before he took control of the Turkish army after its disastrous defeat in World War I, beat back the invading Greeks and founded a secular Turkish republic in which Islam was banished - once and for all, so he thought - to the mosques.Ataturk would have had good reasons for concealing his Doenme origins. Not only were the Doenmes (who married only among themselves and numbered close to 15,000, largely concentrated in Salonika, on the eve of World War I) looked down on as heretics by both Muslims and Jews, they had a reputation for sexual profligacy that could hardly have been flattering to their offspring. This license, which was theologically justified by the claim that it reflected the faithful's freedom from the biblical commandments under the new dispensation of Sabbetai Zevi, is described by Ezer Weizman's predecessor, Israel's second president, Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, in his book on lost Jewish communities, "The Exiled and the Redeemed":'Saintly Offspring'"Once a year (during the Doenmes' annual 'Sheep holiday') the candles are put out in the course of a dinner which is attended by orgies and the ceremony of the exchange of wives. ... The rite is practiced on the night of Sabbetai Zevi's traditional birthday. ... It is believed that children born of such unions are regarded as saintly."Although Ben-Zvi, writing in the 1950s, thought that "There is reason to believe that this ceremony has not been entirely abandoned and continues to this day," little is known about whether any of the Doenmes' traditional practices or social structures still survive in modern Turkey. The community abandoned Salonika along with the city's other Turkish residents during the Greco-Turkish war of 1920-21, and its descendants, many of whom are said to be wealthy businessmen and merchants in Istanbul, are generally thought to have assimilated totally into Turkish life.After sending my fax to Batya Keinan, I phoned to check that she had received it. She had indeed, she said, and would see to it that the president was given it to read on his flight to Ankara. It is doubtful, however, whether Mr. Weizman will allude to it during his visit: The Turkish government, which for years has been fending off Muslim fundamentalist assaults on its legitimacy and on the secular reforms of Ataturk, has little reason to welcome the news that the father of the 'Father of the Turks' was a crypto-Jew who passed on his anti-Muslim sentiments to his son. Mustafa Kemal's secret is no doubt one that it would prefer to continue to be kept.Awakenedgoyim : All the so called "Young Turks" That led the revolution against the Sultan were Jewish. The Genocide against the Armenians was also led by these Jewish rulers of Turkey. The Muslim Turks have been used as pawns just as Americans and Europeans today are being used as pawns.Jewish involvement in Turkish life continues to date through it's military, since many of it's Generals are of Jewish descent,and through the media and finance, biggest daily newspapers and many large industrial companies and banks are Jewish owned.The Turkish – Israeli Connection and Its Jewish History (1999)Joseph Hantman“One of the most significant developments in recent Middle East affairs is the close relationship which now exists between Turkey and Israel in military, political, economic and intelligence matters. This change in the power structure is usually attributable to the old Arab maxim “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Since both Turkey and Israel count Syria and Iraq as their strongest threats, the close ties between Turkey and Israel are quite logical.However, there is good evidence of a less widely known but absolutely fascinating story behind this relationship. Turkey, which has a population almost exclusively Muslim, has a government which by law is committed to being totally secular. This goes back to modern Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), 1881-1938, leader of the Young Turk Movement which took over after World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.Ataturk and his followers moved rapidly to end religious domination and many religious practices in the daily life of the country. They decreed a change from the Arabic alphabet to the Roman, and they outlawed the fez and the veil. They opened schools to both boys and girls, and their main goal was to Westernize Turkey and secularize its practices. The Turkish army has been the main enforcement agent of this secular policy in times of rising fundamentalism among some groups.Some Background Data:In the 18th and early 19th century Salonika (now Thesalonika), under Turkish rule in Greece, was the unofficial capital of Sephardic Jewry. Of the three groups in the city, the Jews were larger than the combined Greek Orthodox and Muslim population.The Jews dominated the commerce of the city and controlled the docks of this major seaport. There were great synagogues and academies of rabbinic study. Moslem shops closed on Friday, Greek Orthodox on Sunday, and most shops and businesses were closed on Shabbat. Ladino, the beautiful mix of Spanish and Hebrew, was the lingua franca of the city and “Shabbat Shalom” was the universal Saturday greeting among all. In the late 19th and early 20th century the city declined as a result of conflict between Greek Orthodox and Muslims, and Jewish dominance of the city decreased.Fall of the Ottoman Empire:With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the decision at the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 to create an independent Greek state, the decision was made to transfer populations. All Muslims in Greece had to move to Turkey and all Orthodox Greeks in Turkey had to move to Greece. In all, about 350,000 Muslims and one million Greeks were involved in the move. Jews were permitted to remain wherever they lived.At this time a group of Muslims went to the authorities supervising the population shift and explained that they were not really Muslims but were in fact really Jews posing as Muslims . The authorities would not entertain such a claim so the group then went to the Chief Rabbi, Saul Amarillo, to verify their Jewish status. Rabbi Amarillo states, “Yes, I know who you are. You are momzarim (very loosely translated as [Edited Out]s) and as such not acceptable in the Jewish community.” These people were the Doenmeh, the Turkish word for converts, and their existence had been known for over 200 years. They were called momzarim because of the bizarre sexual practices that were part of their religious rituals, which made it impossible to trace parentage and lineage. The Doenmeh were forced to leave Salonika for Turkey, which, considering the tragic fate of Salonika’s Jews during the Holocaust 20 years later, undoubtedly saved their lives.Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's JewishAtatürk’s Jewish Family - Who Were the Doenmeh? (Dönme):One of the best known names but least known historical figures in Jewish history is Shabbtai Zvi, the “false messiah” (1626-1687). Born in Smyrna, Turkey, of a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, he was a brilliant child and Talmudic student, and an ordained rabbi in his mid teens. He went on to study and became a master in Kabbalah and other Jewish mysticism. His oratory was captivating and he soon acquired a following. However, he exhibited odd characteristics, including periods of illumination where he was believed to be communicating with God and periods of darkness when he was wrestling with evil. Soon he began to hint that he was the Messiah. This blasphemy caused him to be expelled from a number of congregations. He took up a pilgrim’s staff and with some followers roamed the Middle East, gathering many to his messianic preaching, especially during his periods of light. In Gaza he was welcomed by Rabbi Nathan, who had for years been preaching that the arrival of the Messiah was imminent. This combination led to a great outpouring of belief in Shabbtai Zvi as the Messiah. Word spread throughout the Jewish world, from Poland, Amsterdam, Germany, London, Persia, and Turkey to Yemen. Multitudes joined his ranks – educated rabbis, illiterates, rich and poor alike were swept up in the mass hysteria.Among his inner core, they accepted his theory that all religious restrictions were reversed. The forbidden was encouraged and the commandments of the Torah were replaced by Shabbtai’s 18 (chai) commandments. This led to feasting on fast days, sexual relations with others than one’s spouse, and many more. The high point was in 1665-66, when Shabbtai, with his followers, marched on the Sultan’s palace expecting to be greeted as the Messiah. This of course did not happen. To shorten this story, Shabbtai was given the choice “convert to Islam or die.” To the consternation of his followers, he chose conversion. Most of his followers return to their homelands where, after penitence and sometimes flagellation, they were received into the congregations. However, some hundreds of families of his inner circle considered his apostasy as part of his overall plan of reaching the depth before attaining redemption. They too converted to Islam, although for about 200 years they lived as Muslims but secretly passed on their secret quasi-Jewish Shabbatean beliefs and practices to their children. They continued learning and praying in Hebrew and Ladino. As the generations passed, the knowledge of Hebrew was reduced to reciting certain prayers and expressions by memory in a barely understood Hebrew. They were known in Turkish as Doenmeh, meaning “converts”; to the Jews they were Minim, meaning “heretics.” They referred to themselves as Ma’aminim, the “believers.” They were never really accepted by the Turks nor by the Jews.As we get into the middle and late 1800′s and education and enlightened thinking spread through parts of the region, young Doenmeh men who were dissatisfied with their status as “neither-nor” turned to secular nationalism to establish their identity. They neglected all forms of religious belonging and saw in the “Young Turk movement” their emancipation.Atatürk’s Jewish Roots:In 1911 in the Hotel Kamenetz in Jerusalem, Itamar Ben Avi, a newspaperman and writer who was the son of Eleazer Ben Yehudah (credited as the main proponent of the establishment of Modern Hebrew) met with a young Turkish Army officer. After enjoying a good quantity of Arak, the officer, Col. Mustafa Kemal, turned to his drinking partner and recited the “Shema” in fluent Hebrew and indicated that he came from a Doenmeh family. They met again on a few occasions and Kemal filled in more of his background. This man was of course to become General Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey.Remnants of Doenmeh still exist. There is an unidentifiable building known as the Jewish Mosque where Doenmeh still meet. During World War II, when Turkey was close to Germany, there were separate tax lists for different religious categories, and the “D” list was for Doenmeh. During his lifetime and continuing today, there have been whispered rumors among Islamic activists that Kemal Ataturk and other Young Turks were of Jewish origin.However, there is little doubt that 300 years after the death of Shabbtai Zvi, his influence and twists and turns of his Doenmeh followers provided the activist secular basis which is one of the underlying principles of modern Turkey – without which the Turkish-Israeli connection would have been most unlikely.To bring this story up to date and possibly complete the circle, we now learn that some Doenmeh living in Turkey have made inquiry of American Jewish religious organizations about the possible re-entry of Doenmeh into today’s Jewish world.”Mustafa Kemal and Jewish History: QuotesMustafa Kemal, (the Turkish nationalist leader) whom the great vizier presents as a Jew, was born a Turk and his parents were from Saloniki and were Deonmes, that is converts, as were the parents of Talat and Djavid [The Associated Press news agency, citing the Grand Vizier of Turkey, mentions in an item of the 3rd of July, 1920]Among the leaders of the revolution which resulted in a more modern government in Turkey were Djavid Bey and Mustafa Kemal. Both were ardent doenmehs. Djavid Bey became minister of finance; Mustafa Kemal became the leader of the new regime and had adopted the name of Ataturk. His opponents tried to use his doenmeh background to unseat him, but without success. Too many of the Young Turks in the newly formed revolutionary Cabinet prayed to Allah, but had as their real prophet Shabtai Zvi, the Messiah of Smyrna. [Joachim Prinze (1902-1988), who was president of the American Jewish Congress from 1958 to 1966, writes]Scholars have firstly pointed out the fact that Mustafa was born and raised in a city, Salonika, the majority of the population of which was Jewish in the mid-nineteenth century. Actually, Salonika was the only city in the world at the time (until Tel-Aviv was founded in 1909) with a majority Jewish population. If we add to the city’s Jews the dönmeh population, who were traditionally counted among the Muslims, then the Jews and converted Jews (the dönmeh) would make up an absolute majority of the population. This is why Salonika was called the Jerusalem of the Balkans then. [Vivendi Centre Publications, 2011.Ataturk's Turkey Overturned (2007)Hillel HalkinSome 12 or 13 years ago, when I was reporting from Israel for the New York weekly, the Forward, I wrote a piece on Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern secular Turkey, that I submitted to the newspaper with some trepidation.In it, I presented evidence for the likelihood of Ataturk's having had a Jewish — or more precisely, a Doenmeh — father.The Doenmeh were a heretical Jewish sect formed, after the conversion to Islam in the 17th century of the Turkish-Jewish messianic pretender Sabbetai Zevi, by those of his followers who continued to believe in him.Conducting themselves outwardly as Muslims in imitation of him, they lived secretly as Jews and continued to exist as a distinct, if shadowy, group well into the 20th century.In the many biographies of Ataturk there were three or four different versions of his father's background, and although none identified him as a Jew, their very multiplicity suggested that he had been covering up his family origins.This evidence, though limited, was intriguing. Its strongest item was a chapter in a long-forgotten autobiography of the Hebrew journalist, Itamar Ben-Avi, who described in his book a chance meeting on a rainy night in the late winter of 1911 in the bar of a Jerusalem hotel with a young Turkish captain.Tipsy from too much arak, the captain confided to Ben-Avi that he was Jewish and recited the opening Hebrew words of the Shema Yisra'el or "Hear O Israel" prayer, which almost any Jew or Doenmeh — but no Turkish Muslim — would have known. Ten years later, Ben-Avi wrote, he opened a newspaper, saw a headline about a military coup in Turkey, and in a photograph recognized the leader that the young officer he had met the other night.At the time, Islamic political opposition to Ataturk-style secularism was gaining strength in Turkey. What would happen, I wondered, when a Jewish newspaper in New York broke the news that the revered founder of modern Turkey was half-Jewish? I pictured riots, statues of Ataturk toppling to the ground, the secular state he had created tottering with them.I could have spared myself the anxiety. The piece was run in the Forward, there was hardly any reaction to it anywhere, and life in Turkey went on as before. As far as I knew, not a single Turk even read what I wrote. And then, a few months ago, I received an e-mail from someone who had. I won't mention his name. He lives in a European country, is well-educated, works in the financial industry, is a staunchly secular Kemalist, and was writing to tell me that he had come across my article in the Forward and had decided to do some historical research in regard to it.One thing he discovered, he wrote, was that Ataturk indeed traveled in the late winter of 1911 to Egypt from Damascus on his way to join the Turkish forces fighting an Italian army in Libya, a route that would have taken him through Jerusalem just when Ben-Avi claimed to have met him there.Moreover, in 1911 he was indeed a captain, and his fondness of alcohol, which Ben-Avi could not have known about when he wrote his autobiography, is well-documented.And here's something else that was turned up by my Turkish e-mail correspondent: Ataturk, who was born and raised in Thessaloniki, a heavily Jewish city in his day that had a large Doenmeh population, attended a grade school, known as the "Semsi Effendi School," that was run by a religious leader of the Doenmeh community named Simon Zvi. The email concluded with the sentence: "I now know — know (and I haven't a shred of doubt) — that Ataturk's father's family was indeed of Jewish stock."I haven't a shred of doubt either. I just have, this time, less trepidation, not only because I no longer suffer from delusions of grandeur regarding the possible effects of my columns, but because there's no need to fear toppling the secular establishment of Kemalist Turkey.It toppled for good in the Turkish elections two days ago when the Islamic Justice and Development Party was returned to power with so overwhelming a victory over its rivals that it seems safe to say that secular Turkey, at least as Ataturk envisioned it, is a thing of the past.Actually, Ataturk's Jewishness, which he systematically sought to conceal, explains a great deal about him, above all, his fierce hostility toward Islam, the religion in which nearly every Turk of his day had been raised, and his iron-willed determination to create a strictly secular Turkish nationalism from which the Islamic component would be banished.Who but a member of a religious minority would want so badly to eliminate religion from the identity of a Muslim majority that, after the genocide of Turkey's Christian Armenians in World War I and the expulsion of nearly all of its Christian Greeks in the early 1920s, was 99% of Turkey's population? The same motivation caused the banner of secular Arab nationalism to be first raised in the Arab world by Christian intellectuals.Ataturk seems never to have been ashamed of his Jewish background. He hid it because it would have been political suicide not to, and the secular Turkish state that was his legacy hid it too, and with it, his personal diary, which was never published and has for all intents and purposes been kept a state secret all these years. There's no need to hide it any longer. The Islamic counterrevolution has won the day in Turkey even without its exposure.(https://central-mosque.com/index.php/History/mustafa-kemal-atatuerk-jew-muslim-or-non-muslim.html)

What was National Security adviser John Bolton like at Yale?

Q. What was National Security adviser John Bolton like at Yale?Bolton’s conservative ideology has roots in Yale experienceROSS GOLDBERG & SAM KAHNAPR 28, 2005When John Bolton ’70 LAW ’74 took the podium for his commencement speech at the height of campus demonstrations against the Vietnam War, he was not out to please the crowd. Calling the event “an exercise in ideological self-congratulation,” Bolton laid out the future of American politics for his left-leaning classmates.“The conservative underground is alive and well here,” he said. “If we do not make our influence felt, rest assured we will in the real world.”Thirty-five years later, Bolton, who mocked audience hecklers in his speech, still displays a conservatism that is no less controversial. Currently President George Bush’s ’68 nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton’s confirmation has been delayed after three Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unexpectedly declared last Thursday that they needed more time to consider Bolton’s credentials. Despite the administration’s repeated declarations of support, Bolton’s nomination remains in jeopardy.While Bolton’s supporters in the White House have argued that he would bring the experience and passion needed to reform to the United Nations, Democrats have assailed his hard-right political views and his often inflammatory criticisms of the United Nations. Further criticism has come from several former co-workers, who reported that Bolton routinely bullied subordinates.But while several of Bolton’s Yale classmates said they remember him as intensely conservative, they do not recall that he was abrasive as some of his current detractors portray him.“Compared to the persona you see on the news, he was very much a subdued, thoughtful, cordial sort of guy,” Bruce Krueger ’70, one of Bolton’s roommates in Calhoun College, said. “The kind of behavior I’m reading about, doing the work of the administration’s bulldog, that’s out of character for him.”Bolton arrived at Yale via an unusual trajectory for that time. The son of a fireman, Bolton was raised in a working class Baltimore neighborhood. He won a scholarship to McDonogh, a prestigious Maryland prep school, where he excelled and began his political career as a conservative, running the school’s Students for Goldwater campaign in 1964.In 1966, Bolton enrolled at Yale and, over the next four years, experienced drastic changes in campus culture. He entered the all-male University as a stalwart supporter of the political status quo, and graduated from a co-ed school embroiled in turmoil. During Bolton’s junior year, 47 students seized control of a building to protest a firing they claimed was discriminatory. During his senior year, indignation over the trial of Black Panther party Chairman Bobby Seale led to demonstrations, clashes with the police and the suspension of two months of classes.Confronted with a loud liberal majority on campus, Bolton stuck by his conservative beliefs. At the height of the civil rights movement, Bolton questioned the constitutionality of open workplace laws, though he supported desegregation from a public policy standpoint, classmate Charles Jefferson ’70 said. An advocate of engaging in Vietnam, Bolton combined hawkish foreign policy with a critique of big government verging on libertarianism — an ideological stance he has held with little variation throughout his political career.Though classmates said Bolton did not show the bullying personality his contemporary detractors accuse him of, he did establish himself as a passionate Republican who forcefully promoted his views. A political science major who graduated summa cum laude, his undergraduate career at Yale was immersed in conservatism. Bolton was editor in chief of the Yale Conservative, executive emeritus of the Conservative Party of the Yale Political Union, and a member of the Yale Young Republicans.With liberal sentiment against the Vietnam War dominating campus discussion, he had no shortage of opponents, said Burtis Dougherty ’70, a friend of Bolton’s.“[Conservatives] were nowhere near as vocal and certainly nowhere near as listened to as they would have liked to have been,” Dougherty said.Bolton’s classmates, liberal and conservative alike, described him as smart, polite and intense in his political beliefs. John Jeffries ’70, who was chairman of the Conservative Party, said Bolton had a blunt debating style, “distinct from schmoozing,” that reflected his current diplomatic approach.“Some people are more oriented toward getting along with every point of view expressed, and John Bolton has always been more interested in substance,” Jeffries said. “That’s probably why he rubs some people the wrong way.”Robert Batey ’70, who served as a delegate on the Connecticut Intercollegiate Student Legislature with Bolton, said Bolton’s strength as a debater lay in his forcefulness. Batey recalled that Bolton’s drive made him the most effective member of the delegation during a lobbying period preceding the organization’s officer elections.Despite Bolton’s forceful personality, Jefferson said he was polite and respectful of other people’s opinions.“I’d call him a good guy at 19, but who knows at 57,” Jefferson said. “He had opinions, but he wasn’t a bully.”Though Bolton supported the Vietnam War, he declined to enter combat duty, instead enlisting in the National Guard and attending law school after his 1970 graduation. “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy,” Bolton wrote of his decision in the 25th reunion book. “I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.”Bolton entered politics in 1972 as a White House intern for Spiro Agnew and received a political appointment with Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980. The posting started a long political career that spanned three presidential administrations and culminated in the controversial appointment as UN Ambassador.Bob Stein ’70, a fellow political science major at Yale, said that while Bolton’s style may have changed since college, his provocative political positions remain the same.“I don’t believe his political views have changed in 35 years,” Stein said. “To the extent that consistency is a virtue, he’s a very virtuous person.”John R. Bolton - WikipediaJohn R. Bolton at CPAC 2017 February 24th 2017John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American diplomat, attorney and the National Security Advisor-designate of the United States.A nationalist and conservative, Bolton served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 as a recess appointee by President George W. Bush.He resigned in December 2006, when the recess appointment would have otherwise ended, because he was unlikely to win confirmation from the Senate in which a newly elected Democratic Party majority would be taking control in January 2007.On March 22, 2018, President Donald Trump announced his appointment as National Security Advisor, to take office on April 9, 2018.Bolton is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute(AEI), senior advisor for Freedom Capital Investment Management, a Fox News Channel commentator, and of counsel to the Washington, D.C. law firm Kirkland & Ellis.He was a foreign policy adviser to 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.Bolton is also involved with a number of politically conservative think tanks, policy institutes and special interest groups, including the Institute of East-West Dynamics, the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Project for the New American Century, Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf, the Council for National Policy, and the Gatestone Institute, where he serves as the organization Chairman.Bolton has been called a "war hawk" and is an advocate for regime change in Iran and North Korea and has repeatedly called for the termination of the Iran deal.Bolton attended Yale University, earning a B.A., graduating summa cum laude in 1970. He was a member of the Yale Political Union. He earned a J.D. in 1974 at Yale Law School, where he shared classes with his friend Clarence Thomasand was a contemporary of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham.During the 1969 Vietnam War draft lottery, Bolton drew number 185. (Draft numbers corresponded to birth dates.) As a result of the Johnson and Nixon administrations' decisions to rely largely on the draft rather than on the reserve forces, joining a Guard or Reserve unit became a way to avoid service in the Vietnam War. Bolton enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard in 1970 rather than wait to find out if his draft number would be called. (The highest number called to military service was 195.)After serving in the National Guard for four years, he served in the United States Army Reserve until the end of his enlistment two years later. He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."In an interview, Bolton discussed his comment in the reunion book, explaining that he decided to avoid service in Vietnam because "by the time I was about to graduate in 1970, it was clear to me that opponents of the Vietnam War had made it certain we could not prevail, and that I had no great interest in going there to have Teddy Kennedy give it back to the people I might die to take it away from."Never Shy, Bolton Brings a Zeal to the TableWASHINGTON, April 30 - In the tumultuous days before John R. Bolton graduated from Yale University in 1970, he and his roommates leaned mattresses against the windows to keep out stray tear gas shells.The trial of a top Black Panther in New Haven had ignited riots and set off a national uproar. The National Guard patrolled the campus in tanks. A bomb went off at the hockey rink.At commencement, student speakers compared the United States to pre-Nazi Germany and called for an immediate end to the war in Vietnam.But one student sounded a contrarian theme."The conservative underground is alive and well here," Mr. Bolton told his classmates and their parents, scorning a handful of hecklers. "If we do not make our influence felt, rest assured we will in the real world."Mr. Bolton's prediction would prove true, and for no one more than for this brainy son of a Baltimore firefighter whose nomination as ambassador to the United Nations is now bitterly contested. Ten years after graduation, he would join the Reagan administration to begin what would become nearly two decades of service in Republican administrations.Seemingly untroubled by self doubt, Mr. Bolton, whom former Senator Jesse Helms once called "the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon," has never shied from a dispute nor hesitated to shatter a consensus. In his office he displays a grenade designating him as "Truest Reaganaut," a telling gift from former colleagues at the United States Agency for International Development.From his battle, as a Justice Department official, for the doomed Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork to his dramatic declaration to poll workers tabulating presidential ballots in Florida in 2000 -- "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team and I'm here to stop the count" -- Mr. Bolton has proved himself a fighter, fiercely committed to a bedrock American nationalism.But now his brash performance as under secretary of state threatens his nomination, as government officials high and low who have clashed with Mr. Bolton strike back. Complaints that he bullied intelligence analysts who rejected his views have particular weight with Congressional critics, who are still fuming that administration claims about Iraq's arsenal and Al Qaeda turned out to be wildly inaccurate.But as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee extends its consideration of Mr. Bolton's candidacy, President Bush has shown no sign of wavering in his determination to win confirmation for this least diplomatic of diplomats."See, the U.N. needs reform," Mr. Bush said at a news conference on Thursday night. "If you're interested in reform in the U.N. like I'm interested in reform in the U.N., it makes sense to put somebody who's skilled and who's not afraid to speak his mind at the United Nations."Mr. Bolton, 56, has won loyalty from other bosses, too. They include former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, whom he served at the White House and the State Department and who summoned him to Florida for the recount, and Vice President Dick Cheney, who told an American Enterprise Institute audience after the 2000 election that Mr. Bolton deserved "anything he wants" in the new administration.He wins such plaudits partly because of an extreme work style that sometimes has him firing off e-mail messages to subordinates from home at 4 a.m. before arriving at the office at 6. In his current job, he has required staff members to stand -- along with him -- at morning meetings, to discourage long-winded discussions."When you go in to brief John Bolton, as I found out early, you better be prepared," said Thomas M. Boyd, who was Mr. Bolton's deputy when he was assistant attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department and who remains a friend. "He's kind of like an appellate judge. He will read everything. If you have holes in your argument, he won't work with you."He has also impressed superiors with his dogged pursuit of goals he believes in. As assistant secretary of state in the administration of the elder George Bush, he took on the task of repealing a United Nations General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism, long resented by Israel and its American supporters.For several weeks in 1991, Mr. Bolton devoted himself to what he called the "ZR campaign," according to one person who worked on it. Countries were singled out one by one, with Mr. Bolton systematically pursuing their ambassadors and tracking the results on charts until the vote -- an unexpectedly lopsided 111 to 25."He's tough and he's relentless and he's very logical," said Frank J. Donatelli, a Republican consultant who has worked with Mr. Bolton both in government and party operations. "But I've never observed any kind of abusive behavior."What really puts off Mr. Bolton's critics, Mr. Donatelli said, are his firm views. "Even in the Reagan administration, John would usually be the most conservative person in the room," he said.The drive and ideological certainty that admirers believe make Mr. Bolton effective strike his critics as excessive. Avis T. Bohlen, who worked under Mr. Bolton as assistant secretary of state for arms control, said she agreed with several of his initiatives, including scuttling a protocol to the international ban on biological weapons. But she thought the United States should work with European allies to find a better approach to preventing biological weapons. Mr. Bolton did not."He was absolutely clear that he didn't want any more arms control agreements," Ms. Bohlen said. "He didn't want any negotiating bodies. He just cut it off. It was one more area where we lost support and respect in the world."In handling disagreements, too, Ms. Bohlen said, Mr. Bolton sometimes went over the line. "What I find unfortunate is that he had a tendency to go after the little guys," she said. "I think Bolton is a bully."The same traits, and the same divided views of them, go all the way back to Baltimore's McDonogh School, where Mr. Bolton discovered his intellectual gifts and his fascination with politics.Raised in a working-class row house neighborhood in southwest Baltimore called Yale Heights -- a far cry from the university where he would earn undergraduate and law degrees -- Mr. Bolton won a scholarship to McDonogh, then an all-male military school.That modest background is a key to his personality, some associates say. "He didn't come from money," said Mr. Boyd, his former subordinate. "Sometimes when you push the rock up the hill, you're hungrier. You have more of a drive to succeed."From seventh grade on, he boarded at McDonogh, returning home on weekends to his father, Jack, who had been wounded in Normandy on D-Day, and his mother, Virginia, a homemaker. They also had a daughter, Joni, who is nine years younger and now works as a nurse near Baltimore."He had the same attitudes and beliefs then and now," said Marty McKibbin, 77, who taught at McDonogh for 46 years but still recalls clearly his debates with John Bolton about the Vietnam War in Asian history class and at lunch. "It's kind of surprising that Yale and Yale Law School and Washington, D.C., didn't change him much."In 1966, Mr. Bolton, who has said he privately called the liberal teacher "Mao McKibbin," wrote an editorial for the school paper titled "No Peace in Vietnam," warning against "spurious" hopes for a settlement. When he stepped down as associate editor after his senior year, an unsigned notice of thanks said: "John Bolton has attacked his duties with the fervor of a political fanatic. His efficient, if sometimes controversial, management of the editorial page deserves more than conservative applause."Ed Wroe, another McDonogh scholarship student, recalls John Bolton's fervor for the 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater. "When you hear people describe him as abrasive, you think, 'That sounds like John Bolton,"' said Mr. Wroe, an attorney in Idaho. "He didn't worry about what people thought of him."But Dr. Bruce K. Krueger, his Yale roommate for five years and now a physiologist at the University of Maryland medical school, recalls Mr. Bolton as a far more pleasant character. "He might say something provocative -- everyone else in the room might disagree with it -- but he'd have something solid and well-reasoned to back it up."Dr. Krueger said Mr. Bolton was the only conservative in their six-member suite and one of a shrinking minority of such students on campus. Yet Mr. Bolton seemed to enjoy his status as David versus the campus's liberal Goliath, Dr. Krueger said. "I thought he kind of liked that role -- the loner, the sole counterpoint in the room."Mr. Bolton joined the National Guard, in which he served for six years, before graduation. "I confess that I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asia rice paddy," he wrote in a recollection for his 25-year Yale reunion, in part because he felt that the war in Vietnam was "already lost" because of antiwar sentiment among Americans.Today, associates describe Mr. Bolton as an avid reader, particularly of history and biography, and a political junkie. They describe him as a very private person who is devoted to his wife, Gretchen, a financial planner, and their daughter, Jennifer, who now attends Yale. When mother and daughter head off on ski trips, he stays behind."He can appear to be very stern," said Mr. Boyd, his former Justice Department colleague. "I think that's a product of his reserve. He's got a great sense of humor, a great cackle of a laugh -- but he has to trust you."In the loose shorthand of the news media, Mr. Bolton has sometimes been described as a neoconservative. That's wrong, said Gary Schmitt, executive director of the Project for a New American Century, a conservative strategy group.The neoconservatives believe in spreading democracy; Mr. Bolton, with a less idealistic view of other countries' potential, prefers to focus on threats to the United States, Mr. Schmitt said. "He's a straightforward, traditional, national security conservative," he said.On the Balkans, for instance, "John's view was that we didn't have a dog in that fight," Mr. Schmitt said. In Iraq, Mr. Bolton favored overthrowing Saddam Hussein. But, Mr. Schmitt said, "I think he would say we should not be in the business of transforming Iraq."In a recent interview with the McDonogh School magazine headlined "The Patriot," Mr. Bolton, who is not talking to reporters during the confirmation period, defined his job as keeping American interests clearly in sight."Frequently you hear diplomacy described as a skill of keeping things calm and stable and so on, and there's an element of that," he said. "But basically, American diplomats should be advocates of the United States. That's the style I pursue."Correction: May 3, 2005, Tuesday A picture caption on Sunday with an article about the background and career of John R. Bolton misidentified the Senate committee before which he was testifying about his nomination as ambassador to the United Nations. It was the Foreign Relations Committee, not Armed Services.John Bolton, Trump’s ultra-hawkish new national security adviser, explainedKirkland & Ellis LLP > Bolton, John R.John R. [email protected] V-CardWashington, D.C.Phone: +1 202-879-5983Fax: +1 202-879-5200CorporateLitigationAntitrust & Competition1975, District of ColumbiaYale Law School, J.D., 1974Editor, Yale Law JournalYale University, B.A., 1970 Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laudeInterview: John Bolton, From Blue Collar To Yale, United Nations, and The White HouseAt my interview with former U.N. Ambassador Bolton, initially considered for Secretary of State and now National Security Advisor for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet, I asked him to share insights into geopolitics, labor unions, media, United Nations, and the boardroom.President George W. Bush appointed John R. Bolton the 25th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 2005. Now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on foreign policy, Bolton also serves as a director of EMS Technology and Diamond Offshore Drilling. The experienced litigator was described by The Washington Post as skilled in the art of “bare-knuckle diplomacy and skepticism.”You are an Ivy League trained lawyer and geopolitical thought leader. What part of your background was most important to your career success?The Boltons were a blue-collar family, and our virtue was modesty. My father was a firefighter and my mother was a housewife. I was the first person in my family to go to college. Those would have to be among my proudest credentials.You are a natural contrarian. Even during your Yale years, you were pro-Vietnam War.I read Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and the effect was to push me into the conservative camp, more accurately libertarian, and I became involved in the Barry Goldwater campaign in 1964 as a result. [note: former U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also campaigned for Goldwater.] This course led me to my beliefs, contrarian as they were then, when I arrived at Yale.How well informed is the Washington media circuit?If you like to arrive at a conclusion about complex matters using facts and logic, there is going to be frustration in working with the media in Washington. As a group, Capitol Hill reporters look at everything through a political lens. For instance, when they saw something as portentous as the outcome of the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision, they largely ignored the huge implication for our Constitution, and mainly focused on a very superficial political analysis of the decision. And I think that’s very unfortunate.Speaking of the confluence of politics and business, what do you make of the Keystone pipeline issue?Given a genuine opportunity to understand the real facts behind Keystone, most voters would be in favor. In the last century, the Progressive movement recognized that the world was becoming more complex, but their remedy was to look to government for answers. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. When we rely entirely on government to establish the actual facts of the matter, the result is often what certain constituents desire whether or not they are to the benefit or detriment of society at large.Which party has the better rhetorical argument?Simply put, fairness, equality and justice resonate today, even more than abstract questions of liberty and individual freedom and responsibility. Some of this is a reflection of economic circumstances, while some of it could be chalked up to the aging American demographic. If one party frames issues in a way that plays to these desires, I think that almost invariably makes a stronger political statement. And that’s why I think this election was consequential.The world is forever in crisis. Is the United Nations the most effective means of dealing with global policy issues?I could say many great things about the United Nations. There are less-known aspects that are very important and very helpful internationally, but they tend to be the obscure, specialized agencies of the U.N. system — the universal postal union, the international maritime organization and other organizations that are largely behind the scenes. There are some others that I think are helpful in a humanitarian sense — the High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program. But some of the political decision-making bodies, such as the Security Council and the Human Rights Council, for instance, are just hopelessly ineffective because of their politicization. It’s nearly impossible to accomplish anything through those bodies.What is the major flaw in the way Americans handle geopolitics?There is a well-known but unfortunate temptation — whether it’s for the State Department or even in American multinational business dealings — that when working with international counterparts you look at the guy on the other side of the table and say, “Well, I’m a rational, reasonable person and I think that guy is too,” when in fact he might be just the opposite. It’s a fallacy we call “mirror imaging,” and frankly we are guilty of this time and time again.Turning our attention to regulation are you concerned about overreach?Regulation creep is something that is taking over business behavior, and it’s certainly become worse with Dodd-Frank under the Obama administration, but I think it extends back to Sarbanes- Oxley. It’s very hard these days for small and midsize companies to be public or to go public. Then you’ve got the EPA just about out of control in the recent dust-up in which a regional director was videotaped saying, “We should do what the Romans did and crucify the oil companies.” What the Obama administration and others fail to realize is not just the effect of each regulation but the cumulative crushing burden.What about the influence of politics?The most isolationist constituency in America today is the labor unions. They’re the ones most against free trade. They’re the ones most in favor of tilting regulatory and tax structures to create disincentives for American companies to engage in international business. They have enormous political clout — you can see it in case after case that is brought before the National Labor Relations Board.What should business be doing to improve its reputation?In the political process, the landscape is already littered with a bias that business is a big conspiracy of a few wealthy individuals against the great majority. So I think it’s important that companies are equally prepared to participate in the political process.Many activists decry executive compensation. Do you agree?Compensation committees of boards have perhaps the most difficult job of all because they’ve got to weigh so many competing factors. They’ve got to make sure that their compensation is sufficient to reward the CEO and the other top officers and make sure they’re not poached by a competitor. But explaining those factors in a very direct and quantitative way in terms of the company’s performance can be difficult. I have watched compensation committees repeatedly struggle to make these decisions, yet they are portrayed often by activists as back-scratching colleagues who are not paying attention to shareholders. In my experience, that’s the furthest thing from the truth.Does business have to be more balanced in how it looks at risk?Risk and return are two sides of the same coin, and if boards are adequately overseeing management, they’re worried about their risks, and they’re worried about missed opportunities, too. When companies fail badly, you can say that a board has not carried through on its responsibilities, but by the same token there are companies that are over cautious, with the consequence they can get left behind, and that’s the nature of capitalism.https://www.aei.org/scholar/john-r-bolton/ExperienceU.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States Mission to the United Nations, 2005-2006Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, 2001-2005; Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, 1989-93, Department of StateSenior Vice President, AEI, 1997-2001Attorney, Lerner, Reed, Bolton & McManus, 1993-99Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, 1985-89Attorney, Covington & Burling, 1983-85, 1974-81Assistant Administrator for Program and Policy Coordination, 1982-83; General Counsel, 1981-82, U.S. Agency for International DevelopmentEducationJ.D., Yale University Law SchoolB.A., Yale Universityimage sourceJohn Bolton Bio, Wiki, Wife, Children, Family, FactsPOLITICIANSWhen you have served your country well in various capacities, then you are certainly someone people will like to know about. One of America’s finest politicians is John Bolton who has served in several Republican administrations as well as represented the United States of America at the United Nations. He is an accomplished lawyer, former policy adviser to 2012 presidential aspirant Mitt Romney, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Fox News channel commentator, senior adviser to Freedom Capital Investment Management and counsel to Washington D.C law firm Kirkland & Ellis.He is actively involved with the Institute of East-West Dynamics, the National Rifle Association, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and a host of other political organizations championing different courses. John Bolton has been active in a lot of neoconservative groups which earned him the title of a neo-conservative. He strongly rejects this but still holds membership to groups like the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), and the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf (CPSG).John Bolton’s Bio, WikiJohn Bolton was born on November 20, 1948, to Virginia Clara, a housewife and her husband Jack Bolton, a fireman in Baltimore, Maryland. He did much of his growing up in Yale Heights, a working-class neighbourhood. As a brilliant young child, he won a scholarship to the prestigious McDonough School in Owings Mills Maryland. This saw him attending the school and while he was there, he ran the school’s Students For Goldwater campaign from 1964 till he graduated in 1966.Read Also: Abraham Lincoln’s Height, Weight And Body MeasurementsJohn Bolton trained at Yale University where he shared classes with the likes of Clarence Thomas his friend, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton at Yale Law School. He subscribed membership to the Yale Political Union during his time there and earned a B.A summa cum laude in the year 1970 and a J.D. in the year 1974.At the time Bolton left the University, the Vietnam Civil War was still ongoing and precisely in the year 1969. Bolton enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard in 1970 where he served for 4 years, sequel to this; he served 2 years in the United State Army where he was until the end of his enlistment. Bolton would later write in the Yale 25th reunion book that he had no desire to fight in the Vietnam war as he considered the war already lost by the time he was due to be enlisted in the army.John Bolton finally began practising his legal career after leaving the military and from 1974 to 1976 he was an associate at the Washington office of Covington & Burling. He left for a while after 1976 but was soon to return in 1983 and stayed till 1985. From 1993 to 1985 he worked in the capacity of a partner in the law firm of Lerner, Reed, Bolton & McManus where he was indispensable as always. Currently, he is a counsel in the famous Washington office of Kirkland & Ellis.While pursuing his legal career, his political career was as well gaining momentum as he held several appointed political posts at various times. Notable among them was his serving as the United States Assistant Attorney General from 1988 to 1989, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1989 to 1993 and United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006.Having gathered all these experiences in representing and serving the USA, in 2007 he released his book entitled Surrender is not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Aboard.John Bolton’s Family – Wife, Children,In marriage, John Bolton has a record of divorce. He married his first wife Christine Bolton in 1972 and divorced her in 1983 under allegations of involvement in a group sex activity at Plato’s Retreat. This was a popular swingers club that held sway in New York City in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Their marriage didn’t produce any child though.John Bolton remarried and this time around to Gretchen Smith Bolton and they both have a daughter named Jennifer Sarah Bolton. Both parents live in Bethesda, Maryland. Details of when he married his second wife officially as well as when their daughter was born are not publicly known. There have been no controversies following this marriage as the two have been together for a long time.Facts about John BoltonHe enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard but didn’t serve in VietnamJohn Bolton was a nominee for the 2006 Nobel Peace PrizeHe is the father of a daughter named Jennifer Sarah BoltonHe is a Republican and a member of the Lutheran ChurchJohn Bolton resigned as America’s ambassador to the United Nations in 2006, a post he was appointed to by former President Bush in 2005.

Who was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk?

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Jew, Muslim or Non-Muslim?[33:70] O you who believe, fear Allah, and speak in straightforward words.Introduction:Pakistan and Turkey are two Muslim countries which in addition to sharing a common religion also have common business, political, bilateral and foreign relation interests. Both nations also have a fixation, undying love and devotion to their founding father. Muhammad Ali Jinnah is affectionately called Quaid-i-Azam (The Greatest Leader) by the Pakistanees and Mustafa Kemal is affectionately called Atatürk (Father of the Turks).The lineage, origins and family history of both of these leaders is suspect. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was an Ismaili Rafidhi (Shia), secular in his outlook who some Islamic Scholars state later accepted Islam.Both the Pakistanees and Turks refuse to ever acknowledge or admit these historical facts and you will even see religious Muslims often adorn their pictures with Islamic headgear etc. In the case of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, speeches during the later part of his life do advocate Islam (specifically mentioning Qur’aan and Sunnah) and his funeral prayer was performed by Allamah Shabbir Ahmed Usmani (RA) so there is some credible evidence that he accepted Islam or at least drastically changed his views towards the later part of his life.Mustafa Kemal’s parentage and origins has no less than 4 separate accounts and most importantly he remained staunchly secular and opposed Islam until the very end. He said and others quoted regarding him:We do not need take the principles for our party from a book that supposingly was revealed from the heaven. [Ataturk, Soylev ve Demecleri (Istanbul 1945) 389]There is no religion, only the people. [Wrote on the cover of the book of Ruseni Barkin]Respected people, every man should move his religion on the side if he wants to strive towards a civilized society.[Diary notes, Mustafa Kemal, Nutuk, 460.]His close friends like Reza Nur, an atheist and Kazim Karabekir Pasa all claim he was an enemy to Islam and an atheist. He removed the shariah courts.The great Ottoman scholar Shaykh al-Islam Mustafa Sabri called him kaafir and a British puppet. [Mustafa Sabri Efendi, Hilafetin ilgasinin arka plani (Istanbul)]His words, statements and most importantly actions cannot be taken as those of a Muslim. However in the last two decades evidence has been unearthed that Mustafa Kemal was actually a Dönmeh i.e. a crypto Jew a group of individuals who publicly converted to Islam but secretly held on to their own beliefs.What we present below is the research from Jewish sources on the origins and heritage of Mustafa Kemal.When Ataturk Recited the Jewish "Shema Yisrael" (1994)Hillel HalkinWhen Kemal Ataturk Recited Shema Yisrael: 'It's My Secret Prayer, Too,'. He ConfessedZICHRON YAAKOV -- There were two questions I wanted to ask, I said over the phone to Batya Keinan, spokeswoman for Israeli president Ezer Weizman, who was about to leave the next day, Monday, Jan. 24, on the first visit ever made to Turkey by a Jewish chief of state. One was whether Mr. Weizman would be taking part in an official ceremony commemorating Kemal Ataturk.Ms. Kenan checked the president's itinerary, according to which he and his wife would lay a wreath on Ataturk's ...Excited and DistressedI thanked her and hung up. A few minutes later it occurred to me to call back and ask whether President Weizman intended to make any reference while in Turkey to Ataturk's Jewish antecedents. "I'm so glad you called again," said Ms. Kenan, who now sounded excited and a bit distressed. "Exactly where did you get your information from?"Why was she asking, I countered, if the president's office had it too?Because it did not, she confessed. She had only assumed that it must because I had sounded so matter-of-fact myself. "After you hung up," she said, "I mentioned what you told me and nobody here knows anything about it. Could you please fax us what you know?"I faxed her a short version of it. Here is a longer one.Stories about the Jewishness of Ataturk, whose statue stands in the main square of every town and city in Turkey, already circulated in his lifetime but were denied by him and his family and never taken seriously by biographers. Of six biographies of him that I consulted this week, none even mentions such a speculation. The only scholarly reference to it in print that I could find was in the entry on Ataturk in the Israeli Entsiklopedya ha-Ivrit, which begins:"Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - (1881-1938), Turkish general and statesman and founder of the modern Turkish state."Mustafa Kemal was born to the family of a minor customs clerk in Salonika and lost his father when he was young. There is no proof of the belief, widespread among both Jews and Muslims in Turkey, that his family came from the Doenme. As a boy he rebelled against his mother's desire to give him a traditional religious education, and at the age of 12 he was sent at his demand to study in a military academy."Secular FatherThe Doenme were an underground sect of Sabbetaians, Turkish Jews who took Muslim names and outwardly behaved like Muslims but secretly believed in Sabbetai Zevi, the 17th-century false messiah, and conducted carefully guarded prayers and rituals in his name. The encyclopedia's version of Ataturk's education, however, is somewhat at variance with his own. Here is his account of it as quoted by his biographers:"My father was a man of liberal views, rather hostile to religion, and a partisan of Western ideas. He would have preferred to see me go to a lay school, which did not found its teaching on the Koran but on modern science."In this battle of consciences, my father managed to gain the victory after a small maneuver; he pretended to give in to my mother's wishes, and arranged that I should enter the (Islamic) school of Fatma Molla Kadin with the traditional ceremony. ..."Six months later, more or less, my father quietly withdrew me from the school and took me to that of old Shemsi Effendi who directed a free preparatory school according to European methods. My mother made no objection, since her desires had been complied with and her conventions respected. It was the ceremony above all which had satisfied her."Who was Mustafa Kemal's father, who behaved here in typical Doenme fashion, outwardly observing Muslim ceremonies while inwardly scoffing at them? Ataturk's mother Zubeyde came from the mountains west of Salonika, close to the current Albanian frontier; of the origins of his father, Ali Riza, little is known. Different writers have given them as Albanian, Anatolian and Salonikan, and Lord Kinross' compendious 1964 "Ataturk" calls Ali Riza a "shadowy personality" and adds cryptically regarding Ataturk's reluctance to disclose more about his family background: "To the child of so mixed an environment it would seldom occur, wherever his racial loyalties lay, to inquire too exactly into his personal origins beyond that of his parentage."Learning HebrewDid Kinross suspect more than he was admitting? I would never have asked had I not recently come across a remarkable chapter while browsing in the out-of-print Hebrew autobiography of Itamar Ben-Avi, son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the leading promoter of the revival of spoken Hebrew in late 19th-century Palestine. Ben-Avi, the first child to be raised in Hebrew since ancient times and later a Hebrew journalist and newspaper publisher, writes in this book of walking into the Kamenitz Hotel in Jerusalem one autumn night in 1911 and being asked by its proprietor:'Do you see that Turkish officer sitting there in the corner, the one with the bottle of arrack?' "'Yes.' "'He's one of the most important officers in the Turkish army.' "'What's his name?' "'Mustafa Kemal.' "'I'd like to meet him,' I said, because the minute I looked at him I was startled by his piercing green eyes."Ben-Avi describes two meetings with Mustafa Kemal, who had not yet taken the name of Ataturk, 'Father of the Turks.' Both were conducted in French, were largely devoted to Ottoman politics, and were doused with large amounts of arrack. In the first of these, Kemal confided:"I'm a descendant of Sabbetai Zevi - not indeed a Jew any more, but an ardent admirer of this prophet of yours. My opinion is that every Jew in this country would do well to join his camp."During their second meeting, held 10 days later in the same hotel, Mustafa Kemal said at one point:" 'I have at home a Hebrew Bible printed in Venice. It's rather old, and I remember my father bringing me to a Karaite teacher who taught me to read it. I can still remember a few words of it, such as --' "And Ben-Avi continues:"He paused for a moment, his eyes searching for something in space. Then he recalled:" 'Shema Yisra'el, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Ehad!'" 'That's our most important prayer, Captain.'" 'And my secret prayer too, cher monsieur,' he replied, refilling our glasses."Although Itamar Ben-Avi could not have known it, Ataturk no doubt meant "secret prayer" quite literally. Among the esoteric prayers of the Doenme, first made known to the scholarly world when a book of them reached the National Library in Jerusalem in 1935, is one containing the confession of faith:"Sabbetai Zevi and none other is the true Messiah. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."It was undoubtedly from this credo, rather than from the Bible, that Ataturk remembered the words of the Shema, which to the best of my knowledge he confessed knowing but once in his adult life: to a young Hebrew journalist whom he engaged in two tipsily animated conversations in Jerusalem nearly a decade before he took control of the Turkish army after its disastrous defeat in World War I, beat back the invading Greeks and founded a secular Turkish republic in which Islam was banished - once and for all, so he thought - to the mosques.Ataturk would have had good reasons for concealing his Doenme origins. Not only were the Doenmes (who married only among themselves and numbered close to 15,000, largely concentrated in Salonika, on the eve of World War I) looked down on as heretics by both Muslims and Jews, they had a reputation for sexual profligacy that could hardly have been flattering to their offspring. This license, which was theologically justified by the claim that it reflected the faithful's freedom from the biblical commandments under the new dispensation of Sabbetai Zevi, is described by Ezer Weizman's predecessor, Israel's second president, Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, in his book on lost Jewish communities, "The Exiled and the Redeemed":'Saintly Offspring'"Once a year (during the Doenmes' annual 'Sheep holiday') the candles are put out in the course of a dinner which is attended by orgies and the ceremony of the exchange of wives. ... The rite is practiced on the night of Sabbetai Zevi's traditional birthday. ... It is believed that children born of such unions are regarded as saintly."Although Ben-Zvi, writing in the 1950s, thought that "There is reason to believe that this ceremony has not been entirely abandoned and continues to this day," little is known about whether any of the Doenmes' traditional practices or social structures still survive in modern Turkey. The community abandoned Salonika along with the city's other Turkish residents during the Greco-Turkish war of 1920-21, and its descendants, many of whom are said to be wealthy businessmen and merchants in Istanbul, are generally thought to have assimilated totally into Turkish life.After sending my fax to Batya Keinan, I phoned to check that she had received it. She had indeed, she said, and would see to it that the president was given it to read on his flight to Ankara. It is doubtful, however, whether Mr. Weizman will allude to it during his visit: The Turkish government, which for years has been fending off Muslim fundamentalist assaults on its legitimacy and on the secular reforms of Ataturk, has little reason to welcome the news that the father of the 'Father of the Turks' was a crypto-Jew who passed on his anti-Muslim sentiments to his son. Mustafa Kemal's secret is no doubt one that it would prefer to continue to be kept.Awakenedgoyim : All the so called "Young Turks" That led the revolution against the Sultan were Jewish. The Genocide against the Armenians was also led by these Jewish rulers of Turkey. The Muslim Turks have been used as pawns just as Americans and Europeans today are being used as pawns.Jewish involvement in Turkish life continues to date through it's military, since many of it's Generals are of Jewish descent,and through the media and finance, biggest daily newspapers and many large industrial companies and banks are Jewish owned.The Turkish – Israeli Connection and Its Jewish History (1999)Joseph Hantman“One of the most significant developments in recent Middle East affairs is the close relationship which now exists between Turkey and Israel in military, political, economic and intelligence matters. This change in the power structure is usually attributable to the old Arab maxim “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Since both Turkey and Israel count Syria and Iraq as their strongest threats, the close ties between Turkey and Israel are quite logical.However, there is good evidence of a less widely known but absolutely fascinating story behind this relationship. Turkey, which has a population almost exclusively Muslim, has a government which by law is committed to being totally secular. This goes back to modern Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), 1881-1938, leader of the Young Turk Movement which took over after World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.Ataturk and his followers moved rapidly to end religious domination and many religious practices in the daily life of the country. They decreed a change from the Arabic alphabet to the Roman, and they outlawed the fez and the veil. They opened schools to both boys and girls, and their main goal was to Westernize Turkey and secularize its practices. The Turkish army has been the main enforcement agent of this secular policy in times of rising fundamentalism among some groups.Some Background Data:In the 18th and early 19th century Salonika (now Thesalonika), under Turkish rule in Greece, was the unofficial capital of Sephardic Jewry. Of the three groups in the city, the Jews were larger than the combined Greek Orthodox and Muslim population.The Jews dominated the commerce of the city and controlled the docks of this major seaport. There were great synagogues and academies of rabbinic study. Moslem shops closed on Friday, Greek Orthodox on Sunday, and most shops and businesses were closed on Shabbat. Ladino, the beautiful mix of Spanish and Hebrew, was the lingua franca of the city and “Shabbat Shalom” was the universal Saturday greeting among all. In the late 19th and early 20th century the city declined as a result of conflict between Greek Orthodox and Muslims, and Jewish dominance of the city decreased.Fall of the Ottoman Empire:With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the decision at the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 to create an independent Greek state, the decision was made to transfer populations. All Muslims in Greece had to move to Turkey and all Orthodox Greeks in Turkey had to move to Greece. In all, about 350,000 Muslims and one million Greeks were involved in the move. Jews were permitted to remain wherever they lived.At this time a group of Muslims went to the authorities supervising the population shift and explained that they were not really Muslims but were in fact really Jews posing as Muslims . The authorities would not entertain such a claim so the group then went to the Chief Rabbi, Saul Amarillo, to verify their Jewish status. Rabbi Amarillo states, “Yes, I know who you are. You are momzarim (very loosely translated as [Edited Out]s) and as such not acceptable in the Jewish community.” These people were the Doenmeh, the Turkish word for converts, and their existence had been known for over 200 years. They were called momzarim because of the bizarre sexual practices that were part of their religious rituals, which made it impossible to trace parentage and lineage. The Doenmeh were forced to leave Salonika for Turkey, which, considering the tragic fate of Salonika’s Jews during the Holocaust 20 years later, undoubtedly saved their lives.Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's Jewish Atatürk's JewishAtatürk’s Jewish Family - Who Were the Doenmeh? (Dönme):One of the best known names but least known historical figures in Jewish history is Shabbtai Zvi, the “false messiah” (1626-1687). Born in Smyrna, Turkey, of a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, he was a brilliant child and Talmudic student, and an ordained rabbi in his mid teens. He went on to study and became a master in Kabbalah and other Jewish mysticism. His oratory was captivating and he soon acquired a following. However, he exhibited odd characteristics, including periods of illumination where he was believed to be communicating with God and periods of darkness when he was wrestling with evil. Soon he began to hint that he was the Messiah. This blasphemy caused him to be expelled from a number of congregations. He took up a pilgrim’s staff and with some followers roamed the Middle East, gathering many to his messianic preaching, especially during his periods of light. In Gaza he was welcomed by Rabbi Nathan, who had for years been preaching that the arrival of the Messiah was imminent. This combination led to a great outpouring of belief in Shabbtai Zvi as the Messiah. Word spread throughout the Jewish world, from Poland, Amsterdam, Germany, London, Persia, and Turkey to Yemen. Multitudes joined his ranks – educated rabbis, illiterates, rich and poor alike were swept up in the mass hysteria.Among his inner core, they accepted his theory that all religious restrictions were reversed. The forbidden was encouraged and the commandments of the Torah were replaced by Shabbtai’s 18 (chai) commandments. This led to feasting on fast days, sexual relations with others than one’s spouse, and many more. The high point was in 1665-66, when Shabbtai, with his followers, marched on the Sultan’s palace expecting to be greeted as the Messiah. This of course did not happen. To shorten this story, Shabbtai was given the choice “convert to Islam or die.” To the consternation of his followers, he chose conversion. Most of his followers return to their homelands where, after penitence and sometimes flagellation, they were received into the congregations. However, some hundreds of families of his inner circle considered his apostasy as part of his overall plan of reaching the depth before attaining redemption. They too converted to Islam, although for about 200 years they lived as Muslims but secretly passed on their secret quasi-Jewish Shabbatean beliefs and practices to their children. They continued learning and praying in Hebrew and Ladino. As the generations passed, the knowledge of Hebrew was reduced to reciting certain prayers and expressions by memory in a barely understood Hebrew. They were known in Turkish as Doenmeh, meaning “converts”; to the Jews they were Minim, meaning “heretics.” They referred to themselves as Ma’aminim, the “believers.” They were never really accepted by the Turks nor by the Jews.As we get into the middle and late 1800′s and education and enlightened thinking spread through parts of the region, young Doenmeh men who were dissatisfied with their status as “neither-nor” turned to secular nationalism to establish their identity. They neglected all forms of religious belonging and saw in the “Young Turk movement” their emancipation.Atatürk’s Jewish Roots:In 1911 in the Hotel Kamenetz in Jerusalem, Itamar Ben Avi, a newspaperman and writer who was the son of Eleazer Ben Yehudah (credited as the main proponent of the establishment of Modern Hebrew) met with a young Turkish Army officer. After enjoying a good quantity of Arak, the officer, Col. Mustafa Kemal, turned to his drinking partner and recited the “Shema” in fluent Hebrew and indicated that he came from a Doenmeh family. They met again on a few occasions and Kemal filled in more of his background. This man was of course to become General Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey.Remnants of Doenmeh still exist. There is an unidentifiable building known as the Jewish Mosque where Doenmeh still meet. During World War II, when Turkey was close to Germany, there were separate tax lists for different religious categories, and the “D” list was for Doenmeh. During his lifetime and continuing today, there have been whispered rumors among Islamic activists that Kemal Ataturk and other Young Turks were of Jewish origin.However, there is little doubt that 300 years after the death of Shabbtai Zvi, his influence and twists and turns of his Doenmeh followers provided the activist secular basis which is one of the underlying principles of modern Turkey – without which the Turkish-Israeli connection would have been most unlikely.To bring this story up to date and possibly complete the circle, we now learn that some Doenmeh living in Turkey have made inquiry of American Jewish religious organizations about the possible re-entry of Doenmeh into today’s Jewish world.”Mustafa Kemal and Jewish History: QuotesMustafa Kemal, (the Turkish nationalist leader) whom the great vizier presents as a Jew, was born a Turk and his parents were from Saloniki and were Deonmes, that is converts, as were the parents of Talat and Djavid [The Associated Press news agency, citing the Grand Vizier of Turkey, mentions in an item of the 3rd of July, 1920]Among the leaders of the revolution which resulted in a more modern government in Turkey were Djavid Bey and Mustafa Kemal. Both were ardent doenmehs. Djavid Bey became minister of finance; Mustafa Kemal became the leader of the new regime and had adopted the name of Ataturk. His opponents tried to use his doenmeh background to unseat him, but without success. Too many of the Young Turks in the newly formed revolutionary Cabinet prayed to Allah, but had as their real prophet Shabtai Zvi, the Messiah of Smyrna. [Joachim Prinze (1902-1988), who was president of the American Jewish Congress from 1958 to 1966, writes]Scholars have firstly pointed out the fact that Mustafa was born and raised in a city, Salonika, the majority of the population of which was Jewish in the mid-nineteenth century. Actually, Salonika was the only city in the world at the time (until Tel-Aviv was founded in 1909) with a majority Jewish population. If we add to the city’s Jews the dönmeh population, who were traditionally counted among the Muslims, then the Jews and converted Jews (the dönmeh) would make up an absolute majority of the population. This is why Salonika was called the Jerusalem of the Balkans then. [Vivendi Centre Publications, 2011.Ataturk's Turkey Overturned (2007)Hillel HalkinSome 12 or 13 years ago, when I was reporting from Israel for the New York weekly, the Forward, I wrote a piece on Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern secular Turkey, that I submitted to the newspaper with some trepidation.In it, I presented evidence for the likelihood of Ataturk's having had a Jewish — or more precisely, a Doenmeh — father.The Doenmeh were a heretical Jewish sect formed, after the conversion to Islam in the 17th century of the Turkish-Jewish messianic pretender Sabbetai Zevi, by those of his followers who continued to believe in him.Conducting themselves outwardly as Muslims in imitation of him, they lived secretly as Jews and continued to exist as a distinct, if shadowy, group well into the 20th century.In the many biographies of Ataturk there were three or four different versions of his father's background, and although none identified him as a Jew, their very multiplicity suggested that he had been covering up his family origins.This evidence, though limited, was intriguing. Its strongest item was a chapter in a long-forgotten autobiography of the Hebrew journalist, Itamar Ben-Avi, who described in his book a chance meeting on a rainy night in the late winter of 1911 in the bar of a Jerusalem hotel with a young Turkish captain.Tipsy from too much arak, the captain confided to Ben-Avi that he was Jewish and recited the opening Hebrew words of the Shema Yisra'el or "Hear O Israel" prayer, which almost any Jew or Doenmeh — but no Turkish Muslim — would have known. Ten years later, Ben-Avi wrote, he opened a newspaper, saw a headline about a military coup in Turkey, and in a photograph recognized the leader that the young officer he had met the other night.At the time, Islamic political opposition to Ataturk-style secularism was gaining strength in Turkey. What would happen, I wondered, when a Jewish newspaper in New York broke the news that the revered founder of modern Turkey was half-Jewish? I pictured riots, statues of Ataturk toppling to the ground, the secular state he had created tottering with them.I could have spared myself the anxiety. The piece was run in the Forward, there was hardly any reaction to it anywhere, and life in Turkey went on as before. As far as I knew, not a single Turk even read what I wrote. And then, a few months ago, I received an e-mail from someone who had. I won't mention his name. He lives in a European country, is well-educated, works in the financial industry, is a staunchly secular Kemalist, and was writing to tell me that he had come across my article in the Forward and had decided to do some historical research in regard to it.One thing he discovered, he wrote, was that Ataturk indeed traveled in the late winter of 1911 to Egypt from Damascus on his way to join the Turkish forces fighting an Italian army in Libya, a route that would have taken him through Jerusalem just when Ben-Avi claimed to have met him there.Moreover, in 1911 he was indeed a captain, and his fondness of alcohol, which Ben-Avi could not have known about when he wrote his autobiography, is well-documented.And here's something else that was turned up by my Turkish e-mail correspondent: Ataturk, who was born and raised in Thessaloniki, a heavily Jewish city in his day that had a large Doenmeh population, attended a grade school, known as the "Semsi Effendi School," that was run by a religious leader of the Doenmeh community named Simon Zvi. The email concluded with the sentence: "I now know — know (and I haven't a shred of doubt) — that Ataturk's father's family was indeed of Jewish stock."I haven't a shred of doubt either. I just have, this time, less trepidation, not only because I no longer suffer from delusions of grandeur regarding the possible effects of my columns, but because there's no need to fear toppling the secular establishment of Kemalist Turkey.It toppled for good in the Turkish elections two days ago when the Islamic Justice and Development Party was returned to power with so overwhelming a victory over its rivals that it seems safe to say that secular Turkey, at least as Ataturk envisioned it, is a thing of the past.Actually, Ataturk's Jewishness, which he systematically sought to conceal, explains a great deal about him, above all, his fierce hostility toward Islam, the religion in which nearly every Turk of his day had been raised, and his iron-willed determination to create a strictly secular Turkish nationalism from which the Islamic component would be banished.Who but a member of a religious minority would want so badly to eliminate religion from the identity of a Muslim majority that, after the genocide of Turkey's Christian Armenians in World War I and the expulsion of nearly all of its Christian Greeks in the early 1920s, was 99% of Turkey's population? The same motivation caused the banner of secular Arab nationalism to be first raised in the Arab world by Christian intellectuals.Ataturk seems never to have been ashamed of his Jewish background. He hid it because it would have been political suicide not to, and the secular Turkish state that was his legacy hid it too, and with it, his personal diary, which was never published and has for all intents and purposes been kept a state secret all these years. There's no need to hide it any longer. The Islamic counterrevolution has won the day in Turkey even without its exposure.https://central-mosque.com/index.php/History/mustafa-kemal-atatuerk-jew-muslim-or-non-muslim.html

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