SAUL MEZAN ABOUT MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK
SAUL MEZAN ABOUT MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK

Summary/Abstract: Saul or Shaul Yeroham Mezan was a physician specializing in surgery and urology, a Doctor of Medicine, military officer, public figure, Zionist, anti-fascist, publicist, journalist, poet, historian, and folklorist – a researcher of Sephardism, political scientist and analyst of contemporary politics. The article describes and analyzes S. Mezan’s point of view on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his life-work reflected in the nowadays forgotten essay of political, historical and philosophical nature under the title “Messages to Tomorrow’s Unknown Dictator”, published in French in Sofia in 1939 as well as his articles for “Le Moment”, a French-language newspaper in Bucharest (1935 – 1940). The reforms and the republican regime in Turkey are juxtaposed in the book by the Bulgarian intellectual of Jewish origin with the dictators and dictatorships of the contemporary era immediately before the outbreak of the sanguinary World War II. S. Mezan characterized the founder of the Turkish Republic as a thoroughly military man. For this reason, the reforms across various spheres – carried out in the name of national independence and the country‘s socio-economic prosperity – are seen as entirely derived from and subordinate to the military-strategic considerations of the distinguished Turkish statesman.

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