For Gov. Mark Sanford, the past week was full of procedure, pomp and controversy.

• Procedure -- He hired a communications staff and got his first Cabinet appointment confirmed by the Senate.

• Pomp -- He gave his first State of the State address before a joint session of the General Assembly and a statewide television audience.

• Controversy -- His reference to Ataturk in his speech brought protests from people of Greek and Armenian descent who believe the founder of the Republic of Turkey to have been a mass murderer on the level of Hitler.

It was not a quiet week.

Sanford, a Republican inaugurated Jan. 15, added one familiar face and two new ones to his staff on Tuesday.

Will Folks, Sanford's spokesman throughout the campaign, returned to the fold after an absence of just over a month. Folks will become the administration's press secretary.

Folks, 28, was best known during the campaign for wearing a ratty ballcap, ratty shorts and, on some days, shoes. He also was highly accessible to the media and did a great imitation of his boss.

Now, he's in the governor's office and he's cleaned up considerably, and earns $42,500 a year. Unlike Sanford, Folks actually wears a suit to work now.

Folks left the Sanford team in December under vague circumstances. He had moved to Columbia from his home in Charleston to work on the Sanford transition. Days later, Folks quit.

At the time, Folks wouldn't comment on why he left, other than to say it was a personal decision.

On Friday, Folks said he spent his time away from the Sanford team starting his own consulting business. Those plans are now on hold.

He returned, Folks said, because Sanford asked.

Folks will report to 42-year-old Chris Drummond, a former television producer who owns a limousine service in Charleston. Drummond had been active with the campaign in Charleston, organizing events to maximize and control media exposure. Drummond will earn $70,000 a year as communications director.

Also joining the team was Joel Sawyer, 26, to be speech writer. Sawyer covered Sanford's campaign as a reporter for The (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal. He'll be paid $37,500.

Sawyer is the second political reporter to leave the Herald-Journal for a political post. Rob Hainer covered the State House for several years for the paper and left in April 2001 to be spokesman for the House Republican Caucus.

Sawyer was not involved in the writing of Sanford's State of the State address. The governor wrote it himself.

The 50-minute speech garnered generally positive reviews from Republicans and Democrats alike, although some supporters of increasing the state cigarette tax to pay for Medicaid were disappointed. Sanford left the door open -- a crack -- for a cigarette tax, but said it must come with a decrease in the income tax.

The State of the State is one of the highlights of the political season and was even more so this year for many reasons.

First, it was Sanford's first and there is always more excitement and anticipation for the first of anything.

Second, Sanford is the first Lowcountry governor since James Edwards in 1979. All of the Charleston crowd, from lawmakers to lobbyists to media, were especially excited.

Third, the House and Senate are controlled by fellow Republicans, who were delighted to have one of their own back in the governor's office after a four-year absence.

Those who were not excited about Sanford's speech included many of Armenian and Greek descent. Sanford praised the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Ataturk, as a role model for reforming government.

Ataturk is widely praised for modernizing Turkey from the theocratic dynasties of the Ottoman Empire into a secular Republic. But he is also considered to have been a despot who targeted Armenian and Greek Christians for death or forced relocation.

In December, the state of South Carolina, the S.C. Senate and the city of Columbia all adopted resolutions honoring the survivors of what is known as the Greek genocide. One survivor, a woman named Sano Halo, was in Columbia with her daughter, author Thea Halo, as guests of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.

Sano Halo survived the Ataturk-ordered forced march of Greeks from the Black Sea region of Turkey. Her daughter wrote an award-winning book about the ordeal and both were in Columbia in December.

When contacted last week for a reaction to Sanford's reference to Ataturk, Thea Halo said Ataturk certainly did bring changes to Turkey.

"But can one call these changes positive, when they involve the slaughter and displacement of millions of ... Greeks, Armenians and the Assyrians?" Halo said. "Personally, I don't think so."