When the new alphabet was introduced in the twenties of the 20th century Atatürk went out and taught it himself to people in the street, or at least in the classrooms. The Ottoman language was a complicated mixture of both the grammars and the vocabularies of the Turkish, Arab and Persian languages, written in Arab script. The language reform changed all that, a very interesting story that I cannot go into here.

This monument is near Kadiköy harbour.