Ayşe suddenly realised Mrs. T, was reading a book and asked what it might be.

“Nutuk,” replied Mrs. T, “the 36 hour speech by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk delivered between 15-20 October 1927; well, if he could be bothered to talk for 36 hours, I can be bothered to read it in less. Since we were uncovered, I wanted to understand where we are and what the implications might be. It seems we have been unearthed into the nation state of the Republic of Turkey. Since this chap Mustafa was the founding leader, I thought I’d do a spot of homework. They sacrificed much to secure this land territory, children and adults. Lives were given to fend off multiple invading foreign forces. Once the necessary territory was secured Atatürk declared they wanted nothing more and nothing less.”

Arther piped up, “Turks are made up of various factions, but there’s a quote by ex President Ahmet Necdet Sezer from November 2004 whereby he said ‘Everyone bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship is a Turk.”

Ayşe knew Arther had some useful tit-bits about Turkey, “Does that mean the T’s are Turks?”

One of the little T’s waved a flag.

p.059