There are two Mustafa Kemals: One is me, the flesh-and-blood, mortal Mustafa Kemal … The second Mustafa Kemal,… I can not express it with the word me, it is not me, it is we. That is an intellectual and challenging society, struggling in every corner of the homeland for new ideas, new life and the great ideal. I represent their dream. My attempts are to satisfy the things they long. That Mustafa Kemal is you, all of you. That is the non provisonal Mustafa Kemal that must live and succeed.

As quoted in Ataturk: First President and Founder of the Turkish Republic (2002) by Yuksel Atillasoy, p. 19