Prelude
"What men call sovereignty is a worldly strife and constant war"
- Suleiman the Magnificent
Mustafa Kemal, founder of the Turkish Republic
It came to him in a series of dreams, visions. Memories from his childhood blurred into scenes of battles, bloody, brutal, desperate. Amid the sounds of the clash of iron and the boom of cannons were voices, human voices. They yelled out contradictory terms - despotism, democracy; tradition, modernity; weakness, strength; stagnation, progress; war, peace; freedom, slavery; submission, defiance.
Suddenly he was back at Gallipoli, at that scene of slaughter. Then he saw himself at Megiddo, leading his troops - outnumbered, outgunned - against the Allied forces in the Levantine deserts. The scene shifts, to battlefields of eras long gone - Kosovo, Constantinople, Varna, Belgrade, Chaldiran, Aleppo, Mohacs, Rhodes, Mohacs, Prevaza, Malta, Vienna, Lepanto.
Lastly he saw modern Izmir, in flames. The red flag with the white star and crescent flew triumphantly above the ruins of the city as the Greek invasion force sailed away.
And he was back in Ankara. From here, he noticed that, somehow, he had a clear view of the entire country. The rapid change and industrialization of his country of the past 12 years flashed before him. He saw the growth of numerous modern factories, schools, hospitals, harbors, farms. He saw the countryside rich with grain, saw the cities transform from slums and rubble to glittering bustling metropolises. He noticed there was a large tree growing in the middle of the capital city. It grew bigger, taller, its foliage spreading ever outward, towards and beyond the horizon. Suddenly, a strong wind blew, and the leaves flew outwards, beyond the horizon, beyond Turkey's borders, like little arrows...
