ABSTRACT Since the late 1990s Turkish consumers have purchased pictures of Atatu ¨rk, the founder of modern Turkey and the most potent symbol of the Turkish state, as popular commodities, displaying them in homes and private businesses. In this article, I argue that these consumer citizens seek to reconcile the memory of Atatu ¨ rk’s state-led modernity of the 1930s with recent international pressure to achieve a market-based modernity. As citizens try to mask the authority of secularist state institutions with consumer choice, the market carries state symbolism into new, private spheres, which it previously had not been able to infiltrate. [state, market, privatization, secularism, Islam, Atatu ¨rk, Turkey‘] V isitors to Turkey are immediately greeted with images and reminders of Mustafa Kemal Atatu ¨ rk, the founding father of the country. When travelers land at the Atatu ¨rk Airport in Istanbul, two gigantic pictures of the leader welcome them. The shuttle from the airport drops travelers in Taksim Square, across from the Atatu ¨ rk Library. When they tour the city, visitors pass by the Atatu ¨rk Culture Center, notice the Atatu ¨rk Monument, and cross the Atatu ¨ rk Bridge. They encounter the numerous statues, portraits, and say- ings of the leader that encumber every available public space. Proliferation of Atatu ¨ rk images is noticeable not only to newcomers; since the late 1990s Turkish natives have also observed an exponential increase in the already ubiquitous images of Atatu ¨rk. Although I grew up under the penetrating gaze of the founding father, on my return to the country after several years’ absence, I was astonished by the omnipresence of Atatu ¨ rk images. What startled me most was not the multiplication of his image, but its appearance in strange, new places and in new poses, its very commodification. Kemalist entrepreneurs and consumers had creatively adopted the leader into their personal lives and ventures. Suddenly, it seemed, there was an appropriate picture of Atatu ¨ rk for every trade: Atatu ¨rk seated at a table for use in restaurants and bars, several poses of Atatu ¨rk drinking coffee for coffee shops, a dancing Atatu ¨ rk for nightclubs, and even Atatu ¨ rk with cats and dogs for veterinarians. Posters of Atatu ¨ rk and inscrip- tions of his image in unusual contexts, such as on T-shirts, mugs, and crystal spheres, had became popular as birthday gifts and wedding favors. In the 1990s Kemalist politicians and intellectuals frequently reflected on the meaning of this new Atatu ¨ rk imagery. They contrasted the interest in the Turkish leader with the hatred people elsewhere were displaying toward other state leaders at the time and took the difference as a sign of the strength of Atatu ¨ rk’s principles. Several years ago, for example, the then ex- and future Prime Minister Bu ¨ lent Ecevit said proudly, ‘‘[Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin] have been buried in the dark pages of history. But Atatu ¨ rk is still alive in our hearts sixty years after his death’’ (Sarıdog ˇan 1998:15). Many politicians and intellectuals describe the recent interest in Atatu ¨rk as a ESRA O ¨ ZYU ¨ REK University of California, San Diego Miniaturizing Atatu ¨rk Privatization of state imagery and ideology in Turkey American Ethnologist, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 374 – 391, ISSN 0094-0496. A 2004 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center Street, Suite 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223.