Here in Türkiye there's a lot of frightening nationalism, most of it centered around the first president, Atatürk. Some of it is valid and inspiring, a lot of it is very effective PR.

I could care less about the nationalism, but Atatürk gets some props for reforming the education system through replacing the Arabic script with a phonetic Roman alphabet to reduce illiteracy, and personally translating scientific/mathematic terms/concepts into the new language, and even translating a German geometry textbook.

Imagine if we followed-suit and hired education-oriented mathematicians for our leaders, instead of lawyers and businessmen.