Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

In reading the few books I have by Pamuk the name Ataturk comes up often especially in reference to many statues that exist all across Turkey as representations of him. I became intrested in just who he was and looked it up on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataturk#Turkey to find out that he was a revolutionary leader who was responsible for much of the founding of modern day Turkey. He could be compared to George Washington in the United State's history except it seems that he is viewed with even more reverence than our first president. In fact, and this is the part I found the most interesting, it was recently made illegal to defame either his legacy or any of the many physical representations (statues and such) that exist across the country. Also at the time of his death, November 10 9:05am, all of Turkey generally pauses for one minute in rememberence of him.