"Martyr of a new Religion: Murder of a Bahá’í". In November 1927 Forel wrote to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey, including in it the Bahá’í Principles which he and the first Bahá’í community of Lausanne had published in 1922. He began his letter by praising Atatürk for his six-day speech, before informing him of an article which he had written for a German publication about the Bahá’ís, and which had been translated into Turkish and published in a progressive newspaper in Istanbul. Drawing his attention to the Bahá’í Principles, Forel suggested that should Atatürk declare the Bahá’í Faith to be an official religion of Turkey, "in addition to Islam", not only would he be contributing to progress, but he would also offer an example to the whole of Europe and all nations of the world. Several months later the Turkish government ordered the police in Smyrna to investigate the activities of the local Bahá’ís, and when the chairman of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Constantinople travelled to Smyrna in order to offer his support, he and the other members of the LSA were arrested, with all Bahá’í literature confiscated from their houses. Whether or not Forel's letter to Atatürk had any bearing on what took place following this incident is not known, but thankfully not only were the books returned but publicity in several newspapers lead to the government relaxing it's harsh ban on the Bahá’í community in Turkey. Funeral oration Forel died on 27 July 1931. He had written his own funeral oration in 1912, adding a Codicil in 1921 following his allegiance to the Bahá’í Faith, which was included by the editor in Forel's memoir, Out of My Life and Work. At his funeral on 29 July 1931, in front of the hundreds of friends and colleagues gathered, his son read the oration, which included Forel's affirmation that in 1920, at Karlsruhe, he first made acquaintance with the “supraconfessional world-religion of the Bahá’ís —“, and further stating, “this is the true religion of human social good, without dogmas or priests, uniting all men on this small terrestrial globe of ours. I have become a Bahá’í. May this religion live and prosper for the good of mankind, this is my most ardent wish.“ References External Links A letter written by ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá in 1921 in reply to a letter from Professor Auguste Forel Bahá'í Faith