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The mayor-elect of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, on Friday announced plans to build a monument to the movement headed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Yiannis Boutaris, the city’s first Socialist-backed mayor in 24 years, said he intended to build the monument on a square associated with the Young Turks, the movement that created the Turkish Republic in the early 20th century.
A monument to the man who established Turkey; a modern, progressive and secular Muslim country, who taught us the values of freedom, republicanism and positivism. A leader who used authoritarian modernism to establish the cultural identity of our modern day country folk and successfully implemented a parliamentary European model of rule.
Today it enjoyes continuing democratic and economic freedoms. And moreso, this reflects the increasingly important diplomatic and political ties between two historically hostile nations.
Greek mayor to build Turkish memorial in Thessaloniki - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review