ATATÜRK “ Growing up in Salonika ”

ATATÜRK“Growing up in Salonika”

Retold by;GilchristMade by;

Utku DEMİR9/A - 228

This is a house in Salonika. Salonika is a big, busy city. Many kinds of people live there. Mr. Ali Rıza and Mrs. Zübeyde live in this house. It is a spring day in 1881.

Mr. Ali Rıza and Mrs. Zübeyde have a new baby. The Hodja is here. He is saying ‘Mustafa’ into the baby’s ear. The baby has fair hair and blue eyes. Mr. Ali Rıza is the son of a soldier.

“Mustafa is going to be a soldier, too,” he says.“ No, he isn’t,” Mrs. Zübeyde says. “He’s going to be a Hodja.”First Mr. Ali Rıza works in the Customs. He doesn’t get much money. It isn’t enough for his family. So now he sellls timber.

Mustafa’s home is comfortable. He has two brothers. They are called Ahmet and Ömer. They play with Mustafa.Their grondmother lives in the country. She brings them yoghurt, cheese, milk and eggs.

In 1883, Mustafa’s brothers are ill. They have got a fever. Their mother puts cool cloths on their foreheads. The doctor looks at the two boys carefully. He says one word: ‘Diphtheria’. Three days after this Mustafa’s brother die.

Mustafa is looking out of the window. He is watching the bun-sellers, the water-sellers and the street cleaners. Mustafa loves birds.He often gives them food on the balcony.

One day, Mrs. Zübeyde visits her friends. Mustafa is with her. But she can’t Mustafa. Then she sees him in the market. He wants to buy two birds. He is talking to the bird-seller. “Why are you buying thode birds?” his mother ask him. “Because they must be free!”

That night Ali Rıza hears about Mustafa and the birds. “You’re right, Mustafa,” he says. “Birds need freedom.” He also says, “Now you can buy and sell things. You can help me in my business.”

Mustafa says, “I don’t want to be a businessman. I want to be a soldier.” His father smiles and says, “Yes, my son. But first you must go to school.”

Mustafa is 5 years old. Ali Rıza is talking to his son. He is telling him about Arabia. The people in Arabia are fighting. This is a difficult time for the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa listens carefully.

Mustafa never plays with the other boys. He only watches them. One day they shout to him, “Come and play leapfrog with us!” “No,” Mustafa says. “I can’t do that. Nobody must jump over me!”

Now Mustafa is seven. He can go to school.There are two kinds of school. One kind of schoolis the religious school. Here the children learn the Arabic alphabet. They memorise the Koran. Mustafa’s mother likes this kind of school.

After a short time, Mustafa starts at Şemsi Efendi’s school. The teacher saysto his father, “Mustafa always listens carefully. He asks a lot of questions. I’m pleased with him.” Mustafa’s father is pleased, too.

Mutafa’s father and mother talk about the two kinds of school. His mother wants to send Mustafa to a religious school. His father wants to send him to Şemsi Efendi’s school. So first they are going to send him to a religious school. After that he can go to Şemsi Efendi’s school.

Mustafa starts at the religious school. Mustafa isn’t happy at this school. His father says, “Don’t worry, my son! Then you can go to Şemsi Efendi’s school.

Mustafa is still going to the religious school. Ali Rıza says to Mustafa’s teacher, “Mustafa’s flesh is yours and his bones are mine.” Every day the boys knell on the floor. They learn Arabic.

One day Mustafa says, “All the boys knell at this school. I don’t want to knell. It is uncomfortable. They don’t knell at Şemsi Efendi’s school. I don’t want to go to the religious school.”

After a short time, Mustafa starts at Şemsi Efendi’s school. The teacher says to his father, “Mustafa always listens carefully. He asks a lot of questions. I’m pleased with him.” Mustafa’s father is pleased, too.

One day Mustafa watches a carpenter. Hasan Usta is repairing a door. Suddenly the door falls on Hasan Usta. He cuts his hand. Mustafa calls to his mother. They look after the carpenter’s hand.

Ali Rıza is very sad. His business isn’t going to well. He is ill. And now they have got two children. They have baby daughter, Makbule.

Mustafa’s father is very ill, but Mustafa doen’t know. One day his father dies. Mustafa and his sister doesn’t have father now.

Mustafa finishes at Şemsi Efendi’s school. The family doesn’t have enough money. So Mustafa’s family go and live Hüseyin’s (Zübeyde’s brother) farm.

Mustafa is ten. He lives in the country now. There are animals, birds, trees and green fields around him. Mustafa works on the farm.

His mother says, “Look at him. He’s a peasant now.” But his uncle says, “ Don’t worry. He is a learning about new things All this is an education for him.”

Zübeyde is worried about her son’s education. He isn’t going to school. At last they take Mustafa to the Greek school. The teacher there is a priest.

His teacher and his classmates are talking Greek. Mustafa doesn’t understand. He says to his uncles, “That school is just like the religious school in Salonika. I don’t want to go a Muslim religious school and I don’t want to go to a Greek one, either.”

Mustafa reads books and thinks about his future. One day his uncle gives him a gun. “Learn how to shoot,” he says. “It’s important. Every man must know how to shoot.”

One evening Mustafa goes to his room. He wants to clean his gun. Bang! Suddenly there is a loud noise and lots of smoke. Zübeyde thinks, “Mustafa’s hurt!” She runs into his room. He is smiling at her. He is all right.

Mustafa’s uncle teaches him about the gun. One day Mustafa shouts a hawk. The bird is dead. Mustafa knows how to shoot and he can shoot well!

Mustafa goes with his uncle. They are carrying guns. They are going to shoot crows. Mustafa kills six crows in one day.

Mustafa shoots the crows because they eat the crops. But now he is sorry for them. They aren’t really bad birds.

In one field a crop of beans is growing. There is a hut in this field. Mustafa and his sister spend a lot of time there. They make loud noises and shout. The crows hear the loud noises and fly away. But one day a lot of crows come into the roof of the hurt. Crash! The roof falls down.

Mustafa likes to make things. One day he makes a musical instrument. “Play a folk song,” says his uncle. “I don’t want to play folk songs. I want to play the March of Osman Pasha,” he says.

Another time Mustafa builds a small hut for his sister. There are shelves inside it. In front of it there are two steps. His sister thinks it is wonderful.

Winter comes and the children stay inside the farmhouse. One day Mustafa says, “I’m going to the hut.” He goes out of the door. Mustafa doesn’t put his shoes and his feet. He stays at the hut a long time.

Mustafa comes home. He calls his mother. His mother comes and sees Mustafa outside. He is very dirty. “Don’t worry mum,” he says. “My shoes are here, on the step.

Their grandmother tells stories. “Tell about our father,” Mustafa says. So his grandmother tells them a wonderful story about their father. “What a brave man!” Mustafa says. “You are his son. You are going to be a brave man, too,” she says.

At last the rain stops. The children go outside.They are going to the hut. On the way they meet their friend, İsmail. “Can I make a fire in your hut?” he asks. “I’m very cold.” “Yes, you can,” they say.

Now there is a big fire. But the hut is burning! Their mother is angry. Their uncle says, “The fire is İsmail’s fault.” “Mustafa sister is crying becauseshe hasn’t got a hut now. So he builds another one for her.

It’s sad day for Mustafa. Today he is going away. Mustafa and his sister are going to the barn. They are going to see Hadji. He lives in a little room nex to the barn. The window of Hadji’s room is broken.

They are shout, “Hadji, Hadji!” but they can’t hear the noise of Hadji’s wings. They go to the hut. The wind is blowing. The feathers are moving along the ground. Then they see Hadji.

They find out the whole story. A bull breaks the window. A big dog kills him. They burry Hadji in the ground.

Now Mustafa lives in Salonika. He is going to school again. Zübeyde thinks, “Perhaps he doesn’t like Salonika.” She talks to Hüseyin.

Hüseyin visits Hatice. Zübeyde is right. Mustafa is very unhappy. It is raining. Mustafa buys a bun and comes back. The bun is little wet. Hatice throws it away. What a difficult person!

Hüseyin goes back to Rapla and tells Zübeyde about Hatice and Mustafa. Mustafa isn’t happy at school, either. One teacher, Kaymak Hafız, doesn’t like Mustafa.

One day Mustafa has a fight with another boy. Kaymak Hafız beats Mustafa very hard. Zübeyde thinks “I must take Makbule and go to Salonika. Then Mustafa can live with us.” The family are together again.

In Salonika there is a military school. The boys at this school ear smart uniforms. Mustafa wants to go to this school.

Mustafa often talks to his mother about the military school. “I want to go to the military school, mother, please, mother!” “No,Mustafa,” she says. One day Mustafa isn’t in the house. His mother can’t find him.

Then Mustafa comes home. “Where were you?” she asks. “I was at school, mother . I passed the examination for the third class of the military school.” Zübeyde stops and thinks for a moment. Then she says, “May Allah always be with you.” And so a new life begins.