Greatest Turk ever?!?

The snow has been falling here in Istanbul for over four days now, covering the whole city in a blanket of white. It has given a certain magic to an already beautiful city. The snow could not stop me from wandering the steep, slippery sidewalks for the first couple of days, but as the snow continued to fall I started to look for activities to do inside! With some persuasion from my friend and the owner of the hostel, Kanber, we headed to the military museum. To my surprise it was an educational and interesting experience.
Upon arrival, a concert was underway by Mehter, a Ottoman military band with international recognition. Along with a small crowd, we sat and listened to the drumming fill the auditorium with sounds of the battlefields of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans definitely held the mustache in high regards, as all of the men in the Mehter band sported them, a few looking ridiculous wearing thick fake ones.
After the concert, we marched through the halls of what was once the Ottoman military college, looking at old artillery, paintings of sultans, and a classroom of were the first President Ataturk once was a student. This room alone with its creepy looking mannequins all positioned facing the front of the classroom, raised many questions for me. Who was this Ataturk with the crazy eyebrows? Here is what I found out... The Ottoman Empire came to an end in 1922. As an undefeated Ottoman general, he quickly rose to power, as the founder of the Republic of Turkey. Now here comes some interesting information. Before this time people in this area never had surnames, they simply had their first name and then their father's name. Some people had several first names, but never a surname. Ataturk required all Turks to go and file for surnames at the government offices (sometimes the choice of the President himself), but first, he wanted a suiting surname for himself... Ataturk, translates into "greatest Turk ever!!" In addition, the man also changed the country's language (to rid it of foreign influence), their alphabet, and dismantled the entire Islamic court system. Any questions about todays history lesson?!