Atatürk's rare French exchange with a US ambassador surfaces after 96 years

Just a few seconds of film, and a 96-year-old moment suddenly sounds new. In a freshly assembled video, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Türkiye, is heard asking in French for permission to speak.

What happened?

The footage was recorded on 11 November 1930 at the Gazi Forest Farm in Ankara, eight years before Atatürk's death. He was meeting Joseph Grew, the US ambassador to Türkiye, and addressed the American people on camera.

History researcher Ali Taner Tümer pulled the pieces together and published the result on the YouTube channel Kronik Doküman. Parts of the footage came from the archive of Türkiye's Directorate General of Cinema and from the University of South Carolina. Tümer also used newspapers of the period and the photos he could find.

The new bit comes right after Grew finishes speaking. Atatürk asks in French, roughly, "May I say a few things?" Grew answers, also in French, "Please, Excellency." Atatürk then starts his address in Turkish.

Why is everyone talking about it?

Other clips of Atatürk speaking French with Grew while touring the farm had already been published. This exchange just before the address had not. Tümer calls it a rare, filmed proof of how well Atatürk spoke French.

The speech itself is worth a listen too. Atatürk said the Turkish nation is "democratic by nature", spoke about the role of American democracy in building national unity, and stressed friendship between the two peoples. He argued that closeness can wipe out old prejudices, and he spoke about world peace.

Tümer says the footage was only colourised. No AI was used, and nothing was sharpened, zoomed or restored, because he wanted to protect the originality of the images. He also stresses that this was a team effort, drawing on several archives and institutions.

What's next?

Tümer found six or seven photos of the meeting, but none from the moment of the speech. He thinks more pictures may have been taken then and could still sit in other archives.

The video comes back into the spotlight just before the 88th anniversary of Atatürk's death on 10 November. He died in 1938 at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul.