LETTER REVOLUTION DAYS

This photograph was published on the cover of L'Illustration magazine dated October 13, 1928.

  The cover of L'illustration magazine, October 13, 1928

Letter revolution days:

When I took the first forms of the New Turkish Alphabet to him, I said that the commission was considering a transition period of at least five years. Newspapers would first allocate one of their columns to new letters, gradually the number of these columns would increase, and eventually all newspapers would come out with new letters. We thought of similar cascading methods for schools.

After listening carefully, he asked again:

- "So you thought five years?"

- "Yes!"

- "Three months!" Said.

I'm donated. Three months! Within three months, the whole country broadcast would change to Latin letters. He added:

- "We can either implement it in three months, or we can't apply it at all. Don't you have columns that you will leave in Arabic letters, if their number is even one, everyone will read that column only and we will force it to start five years later, just as if it starts tomorrow. If it does, we will take back the steps we have taken."

Falih Rıfkı Atay

Source: Atatürk’ten Anılar, Kemal Arıburnu, İnkılap Kitapevi 1998. ISBN: 975-10-1392-5. Sayfa:287 (Falih Rıfkı Atay, 19 Mayıs 1944, Page: 38)