Turkey, Republic. An Etibank Armağan Issued Plaque Commemorating Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, The Founder Of The Turkish Republic, C.1965

In bronze,illustrating Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in uniform complete with his fez, binoculars and smoking a cigarette, walking over a pile of rocks, a raised bar below the rocks inscribed in running script "Etibank Armağani", measuring 44.5 mm (w) x 101.3 mm (h), very light contact, near extremely fine.

Footnote: 

1. This plaque was issued by Etibank Armağan, to commemorate Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Founder of the Turkish Republic. It was presented to particular employees of the bank in the 1960's.

2. Etibank A.Ş is a defunct Turkish bank. Founded in 1935 as a state bank focussed on financing the electricity sector, it launched commercial banking activities in 1955. The commercial banking division was separated out in 1993 (from what would become Eti Mine Works), and privatized on March 2, 1998 to Medya İpek Holding A.Ş., co-owned by Cavit Çağlar and Dinç Bilgin, for $155m. The bank was sold to Bilgin's Medya Sabah Holding A.Ş. in 2000. It was taken over by the government's TMSF in October 2000, and Eskişehir Bankası T.A.Ş. and İnterbank A.Ş. merged into it on July 2, 2001. It was merged into the TSMF's Bayındırbank on April 5, 2002. In 2011 Dinç Bilgin was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for financial irregularities relating to his ownership of Etibank. Others were also convicted for their roles.

3. Kemal Atatürk (or alternatively written as Kamâl Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal Pasha[a] until 1934, commonly referred to as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk; born c. 1881 - November 10, 1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressive reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism. Due to his military and political accomplishments, Atatürk is regarded as one of the most important political leaders of the twentieth century. Atatürk came to prominence for his role in securing the Ottoman Turkish victory at the Battle of Gallipoli (1915) during the First World War. Following the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, he led the Turkish National Movement, which resisted mainland Turkey's partition among the victorious Allied powers. Establishing a provisional government in the present-day Turkish capital Ankara (known in English at the time as Angora), he defeated the forces sent by the Allies, thus emerging victorious from what was later referred to as the Turkish War of Independence. He subsequently proceeded to abolish the decrepit Ottoman Empire and proclaimed the foundation of the Turkish Republic in its place. As the president of the newly formed Turkish Republic, Atatürk initiated a rigorous program of political, economic, and cultural reforms with the ultimate aim of building a modern, progressive and secular nation-state. He made primary education free and compulsory, opening thousands of new schools all over the country. He also introduced the Latin-based Turkish alphabet, replacing the old Ottoman Turkish alphabet. Turkish women received equal civil and political rights during Atatürk's presidency. In particular, women were given voting rights in local elections by Act no. 1580 on April 3, 1930 and a few years later, in 1934, full universal suffrage.