Tom, would you say that Egypt once had a similar movement in the 1952 Revolution led by the Free Officers?
Although there are parallels, the rise of Ataturk in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire; his military record against the Allies--especially at Gallipoli; his defeat of the Greeks as they attempted to carve up Turkey; his will power in divorcing Turkish civil authority from the clerics; and his imprint on the Turkish military that they are the guarantors of his legacy are without peer in the Arab World.

There is no doubt that Nasser sought to become the Arab Ataturk; and in some ways he achieved it and failed miserably in others. He successfully thumbed his nose at the Brits and French in 56 when he took over the Suez Canal. That he needed US support along with Soviet threats to make the Brits, French, and Israelis abandon the scheme of the 56 War suggested he was not an Ataturk. His dismal failure in 67 only confirmed it.

I guess if I was looking for an Arab "Ataturk" I would have to say Salah ad-Din--and he was a Kurd.

Best

Tom