A Passion for Killing (36 page)

However in spite of these reverses a modern state, the Republic of Turkey, did eventually rise from the ashes of what had been the Ottoman Empire. Under the leadership of Atatürk the country known as Turkey was born in 1923 as a secular republic committed to its own peaceful development and progress. During the course of the madness that once again engulfed Europe from 1939 to 1945, the Republic of Turkey remained neutral.

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‘Mehmet is an affectionate generic name for the ‘average’ Turkish soldier. Like the British ‘Tommy’.