Ataturk and Our School
When Atatürk arrived in Sivas for the last time on November 13, 1937, we, the Kızılırmak tribe scouts from Sivas High School, welcomed him at the station. Accompanied by Minister of Culture Saffet Arkan, Minister of the Interior Şükrü Kaya, Sabi Gökçan, İsmail Hakkı Tekçe, and his aide Naşit Mengü, were the Minister of Culture.
Atatürk, accompanied by the high school principal, mathematics teacher Ömer Beykoz, his assistant, philosophy teacher Faik Dranaz, and other relevant officials, went directly to the high school. Here, they first toured the Congress Hall and private rooms where the historical congress had been held on September 4, 1919, and were deeply moved. Then, as a group, they attended the geometry (then known as Geometry) course in the 9-A class of the high school. During this class, they took a female student to the blackboard. The student was having difficulty pronouncing the Arabic names of the angles formed by the intersection of the parallel lines she had drawn on the blackboard, and was making mistakes. Affected by this situation, Atatürk reacted by saying, "Students cannot be taught with these incomprehensible Arabic terms. These lessons must be explained with new Turkish terms." He then took up the chalk and, drawing on the blackboard, explained a number of geometry topics, including Pythagorean theory, using new Turkish terms like "angle" for "zaviyenin," "edge" for "dılı," and "triangle" for "müselles."
Atatürk explained the origin of the term "parallel," which he used instead of the word "muvazi," which today corresponds to "koşut" in our language. He explained that the Turks in Central Asia called the position of an oxcart's two wheels attached to an axle "para."
During this lesson, our great leader Atatürk also ordered the Minister of Culture to have the textbooks rewritten with Turkish terms and distributed to all schools within a few months.
Witnessing this historic event as a student at Sivas High School is a happy and unforgettable memory for me.
Ömer L. Örnekol
