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ing, meant that the old order had to be abandoned. That decisions, he alsorealized, must be made by more than one man and that responsibilityeventually must be shouldered by both the rulers and the ruled. However,he had no illusions about the need for leadership from above: a traditionwhich he introduced to the politics of the region. Like himself, Today'sguardians of the revolution, come from the military establishment.Religious political, social, cultural, linguistic, legal and even changesin dress and style, introduced by him were an expression of his belief intheir importance and in the absolute necessity to detach Turkey from onecentury and place it into another.In historical terms, very few persons, prophets or otherwise, challengedthe totality of their society the way Atatürk did. He was indeedone of the few such rebels who succeeded in making his dream a reality.The dream is stili an ongoing process, at some times accelerated andat other times challenged. This dialectic will certainly go on well into thefuture and however it may be assessed today, it has already changed theintellectual landscape not only of Turkey itself but way beyond its frontiers.Shaking the very fabric of the social order as well as its belief systemthe way Atatürk did, has already happened. What the outcome willbe may ne ver be known in our life time.Again, had I been writing from the perspective of the 24th or 25thcentury I may have reached firmer conclusions. Yet I cannot help butmarvel at this lone man who dared to stand outside the circle whose parameterswere drawn by an existing social order and shake it to its veryroots. His belief in the possibilities of social and spiritual engineering isindeed a rare occurrence in history.As we remember Kemal Atatürk today, we remember a man of courage,and vision; A man whose very name sheds light on his greatress. Asif Mustafa, the chosen, was not enough, he was given the title of Kemal,the perfect, by his teacher, and that of Atatürk, father of the Turks by hiscountry. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is surely a national symbol, and will remainan icon in Turkey and the region at large.SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHYBozkurt Güvenç, "Secular Trends And Turkish Identity", Perceptions, December 1997-February 1998.Brockelmann, Cari, History of The Islamic Peoples, London, 1944.Daniel Pipes, "The Birth of A New Middle East Alliance", Washington Times, January 2,1998.89