What is the Significance of Einstein's Letter to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey in 1933?

Sometimes I wonder, are we living too much in the past?

Of course it is important to know your history!

Mete Khan, Atilla, Bilge Kagan, Alptekin, Osman Bey and many more. Even the Ottoman history alone is full of glorious achievements.

Atatürk and the modern Republic of Turkey have already opened a very important era in world history.

Although one of the misconceptions is that Mahatma Gandhi said "I thought God was British until Mustafa Kemal defeated the British" is false, the establishment of modern Turkey, especially in Muslim cultures, attracted a lot of attention at the beginning as a model for Muslim cultures to follow.

Today, however, I do not think that anyone takes Turkey as an example.

If it is an example, it can be considered as a bad example.

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Yes, we Turks are proud of our history. However, no matter how glorious our history is, the future is much more important for today's people.

What are Turkey's plans for the future?

Turkey's century! It has been a hundred years since the foundation of the republic. But a mentality that produces a thousand and one excuses for not even celebrating the foundation of the republic is in power these days.

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But were yesterday's cadres so good?

"My humble body will surely one day turn to dust, but the Republic of Turkey will remain forever."

On 16 June 1926, when those who planned to assassinate Atatürk were caught in Izmir, Atatürk said this in a circular he issued. 

Can you imagine, some people from this nation planned to assassinate even Atatürk?

Apart from the details and reasons for the assassination plans, Atatürk is one of the most valuable leaders this nation has raised. 

Unfortunately, I have to say that the cadres who came after him were not even close.

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Do you think that the future goal set by Atatürk with this statement is a sufficient goal?

In other words, is it enough for the republic to last forever?

"We will raise our country to the level of the most prosperous and civilised countries of the world. We will provide our nation with the widest welfare, means and resources. We will raise our national culture above the level of contemporary civilisation."

This is what Atatürk said on 29 October 1933 at the Ankara Hippodrome while reading his tenth year speech.

But is this a plan for the future? 

Yes, what he said could be a valid future plan for those days. 

We can even call these thoughts a valid plan for today. 

Unfortunately, those who came after him could not realise his dreams, because a leader like him is unfortunately very rare in history.

It is a mystery whether what he would have done to achieve this goal would have been sufficient in today's world conjuncture. 

Considering the problems we are facing today, I think we are all sure that we would be in a much better situation, but the world civilisations are really advancing at a great speed. Even if he had been there, it might not have been so easy to keep up with this speed. 

Moreover, since there were those who opposed his views even in those days, and there were even those who had the stupidity to even attempt to assassinate him in those days, who knows what would have happened to him in today's mentality.

"The truest guide for everything in the world, for materialism, for spirituality, for success is knowledge and science. To seek guidance outside of science and science is heedlessness, ignorance and delusion. It is only necessary to understand the development of the stages of science and science in every minute we live and to follow them in time."

He said these words in a speech he delivered on 22 September 1924.

In other words, he himself said in those days that it was necessary to follow the developments minute by minute.

Since the aim is to rise above the level of contemporary civilisation, the road map to achieve this goal is to closely follow the world of science. 

Since he himself was aware of the situation, were his efforts in this regard sufficient?

In order to understand this, let's take a look back to those days.

In addition to all the factories, cultural centres, agricultural and livestock reforms and forest farms established in the early years of the Republic, what do you think has been done about science in the new universities established with the revolutions made for education?

In fact, the first university established in the Republican period was Istanbul University, which was opened in 1933. 

That was in the form of converting the existing Dar-ül Fünun into a university. In other words, unfortunately, there is no university established from scratch in the republican period.

The researches expected from a university in the field of science were not even carried out within this university. 

The university was only recognised as an educational institution.

Apart from Istanbul University, the rest of the universities established were educational institutions opened at the faculty level, and most of them, except for the Faculty of Agriculture, which was opened in 1933, were open educational institutions on social issues.

Again, I say educational institutions, none of them worked on research and development.

For example, the Faculty of Law was opened in 1925, followed by the Ankara Conservatory in 1927. 

In 1932, Halkevleri (People's Houses) were opened, which, although not at the level of faculties, offered a wide range of education opportunities. Because there was a huge mass that needed to be educated. 

Yet republican Turkey is still too young for a real university level. Human resources are quite scarce.

In 1934, the Academy of Fine Arts was opened and the Mülkiye School was transformed into the Faculty of Political Sciences.

The Faculty of Language, History and Geography was opened in 1936 and the Museums of Painting and Sculpture were opened in 1937, completing the cultural and artistic revolution along with the first social faculties that the republic needed.

In other words, it seems that the opportunities of those days were enough for this much, and science and science remained only a goal for the following years.

However, Europe was engaged in splitting the atom in those years! 

Not in Europe, but in the years to come, the Americans would succeed in splitting the atom and an event that I think was a disgrace for humanity would take place. 

In other words, hundreds of thousands of Japanese will lose their lives with the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

Nevertheless, until this stage, the progress of technology, especially in Europe, was quite rapid. Unfortunately, we have not been able to establish educational and research institutions in time to keep up with these technological developments.

Even today, our universities do not carry out sufficient research and development other than being educational institutions. In other words, we have a mentality error in this regard!

If a technical university had been opened, could the Republic of Turkey, albeit young and war-weary, have caught up with the industrial revolution of Europe in those days?

For example, why didn't Atatürk think of establishing a Technical University? 

Even if not at the level of a university, I wonder if organisations that could have carried out some research on industry could not have been established?

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On 17 September 1933, Albert Einstein wrote a letter addressed to the Prime Minister's Office for 40 Jewish scientists to take refuge in young Turkey because of the oppression they faced in Germany.

Did you know that Albert Einstein wrote such a letter at that time?

The prime minister at that time was İsmet İnönü, and without Atatürk's knowledge, İnönü rejected Einstein's letter!

Although Atatürk would later become aware of the letter and informed Einstein that he would gladly host these Jewish scientists. 

Afterwards, many Jewish scientists would come to Turkey. Many of them would become important steps in the educational reform until the establishment of Israel.

However, with this rejection, Albert Einstein probably erased the young Turkey from his mind, which he might have considered for himself.

Can you imagine how different Atatürk's and his closest ones' views on science were!

Even İnönü, to whom he entrusted the state administration in those days, was unaware of what he had done!

Not to mention the fact that İsmet İnönü wrote in his rejection reply that the salaries of these scientists were too large to be covered by young Turkey. 

This excuse sounds quite meaningless. Perhaps he really put forward this excuse just for the sake of excuse. 

The real reason may be that he was afraid of the deterioration of relations with Germany.

Nevertheless, I think this was a very big mistake made in those years!

İsmet İnönü is a man of duty, and his farsightedness is as much as his success in not taking Turkey into the second world war.

He is not Atatürk!

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In some sources, it is written that the source of Atatürk's later awareness of the matter was his dentist. 

Indeed, the person who informed Atatürk about the letter may have been his dentist. Because Atatürk's dentist was also someone Albert Einstein was acquainted with.

I think Atatürk must have argued with İsmet İnönü about not consulting him before writing such a reply. Anyway, in his last years, they would disagree on other issues and they would have a falling out with Atatürk.

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If only Atatürk had been able to convince Albert Einstein.

In a conversation with Münir Ülgür, a student of his at Princeton University in 1949, Einstein confirmed the matter: "In the 1930s, I received an invitation from Atatürk to teach at a university in Turkey. Unfortunately, it was not destined."

He explains his travelling from Germany to America to Princeton University as follows: "When I was choosing between Oxford, Caltech and Princeton universities, which were the three universities I was offered in those days, I chose Princeton because it was the first university to accept relativity."

In other words, Einstein's selection criteria for his destination was not that complicated! 

Can you now understand what it costs to offend someone like him by writing him a rejection letter?

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Yes, if young Turkey had been ruled by more forward-thinking administrators when it was still at the beginning, that is, when it was not too late, if at least cadres closer to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's view of life had been in charge, perhaps we would not be so far behind in terms of technology today.

Still, I guess it is not too late. 

Although we need to work much harder for the future, I think we should continue on our way without giving up.

For this, we need to change the state's mentality towards education and science.

Is it possible to do this with the current staff?

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Hasan Emmi, what are you going to do next year?

If I can sell these apples at a good price, I plan to go to town to buy winter clothes for my wife and children. 

Next year, what are you going to do next year?

Next year, God forbid. If we buy good apples, we'll see.

The boy is also growing up, I will definitely send him to school, it is not possible with this field and garden work, I want him to study and become a great man!

So what will you do in the future?

Let the boy grow up and he will take care of us! I'll probably sell the fields and gardens. 

The girls will soon fly out of the nest anyway.

The boy will take care of us, he will be a great man!

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Yesterday, reading meant being a great man. 

Is this opinion valid today?

Is it only possible to become a great man by studying?

For example, so many universities have been opened, can everyone who studies find a job?

Do you think the institutions they call universities develop something for the future? What do they research and develop?

What do you understand by the future?

Atatürk was a great man!

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow