A Turkish diplomat will speak at SIUC tonight, honoring one of his country’s heroes at a conference Turkish Student Association members say they hope will introduce their country’s culture to the University.

Aydin Nurhan, Turkish Deputy Consul General in Chicago, speak in commemoration of the death of the country’s first president, Kemal Ataturk, and discuss Turkey’s international role as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East,

Nurhan said Ataturk, a Turkish war hero, revolutionized the country’s culture after World War I, bringing Turkey into the modern world.

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Turkish culture can be divided into three phases, Nurhan said. The Turkish people first were a shamanic culture in Central Asia. Then they adopted Islam 1,000 years ago. The third phase of Turkish culture came about when it became a western civilization under Ataturk’s leadership.

The Turkish cultural revolution, though not as well known in the U.S. as the Russian and Chinese revolutions, brought sweeping changes to the country that once ruled much of the Near East during the Ottoman Empire, Nurhan said.

The culture was changed completely, something that did not happen in Russia or China after their revolutions, he said. Nurhan is a former lawyer educated in Turkey and has served as consul in the U.S. for one year. He has worked as a diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Holland and Germany.

Turkish Student Association President Berk Berkmen said the conference will attempt to dispel any misunderstandings some at SIUC may have about Turkey.

This takes the program to a more educational level, Berkmen said. There is much wrong information about Turkish culture we want to clear up.

Although over 90 percent of Turkey’s citizens are Muslim, Berkmen said only about 20 percent are fundamentalists, and the country’s constitution keeps the government free of religious influences.

There is more religion in the U.S. government than there is in Turkey, Berkmen said. Despite what some may think because of the number of Muslims in Turkey, we have a secular democracy. Turkey provides a cultural bridge between Europe and the Middle East

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Berkmen, who has been president of the Turkish Student Association for three years, said he plans to make the conference an annual event commemorating the death of Ataturk, of one of his country’s greatest heroes.

We have been organizing traditional Turkish dinners every other semester to introduce our culture to SIUC, he said. The conference will be an annual event held on Nov. 10, the date Ataturk died.

Sedat Sami, a Turkish-American SIUC civil engineering professor, also will speak at the conference, discussing the history of modern Turkey.

Sami said Ataturk made many changes in Turkish society while in office, making it possible for the Muslim country to achieve the economic success necessary to become a western-style, developed nation.

Ataturk westernized Turkey, he said. He changed the alphabet from Arabic to Latin, abolished the fez (a small hat worn by men) and veil (worn by women) and established a western-style system of family names. Ataturk led the country to a modern way of life.

For more information on the conference and the Turkish Stiudent Association contact http://www.siu.edu/~tsa.