I would argue (and believe me, I never thought I'd defend Kemal but... life is full of surprises...) that the Ottoman tradition was too deep rooted in the multinational society that was the predesessor for modern Turkey to be removed by half-cooked attempts and semi-effective measures. He did the only thing he know would work: introduce a full-fledged nationalism, one that was fitting with the international environment (at least the side of it that produced the Italian, German, Japanese neo-ultra-nationalism) and one that would leave no opportunity for the old Ottoman tradition to survive. A radical approach, nevertheless, but it's not his fault that it survives up to day and in most instances even enhanced. It's the fault of the subsequent generations of Turkish politicians and especially the Army that were unable to understand how times have changed and how what was a great idea in the 20s is a living relic in the 2000s.

Kemal was fixed on modernizing his states and under that light the current citizen of Turkey should be eternal gratefull to him. He had several shortcomings, as I said, and I think we'll have the opportunity to talk about those too.