Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a Turkish military leader, founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey.
He was born on May 19, 1881 in Thessaloniki, in a working class family. His mother was a housewife, and his father left his job in the police, and engaged in the timber trade. The mother wanted Mustafa to be educated in a madrasa, a Muslim school, and the father to finish a private school, and, like him, to become a merchant. He, on the other hand, wanted something third, so he passed the entrance exam without his parents' knowledge and enrolled in a military school in Thessaloniki. In March 1899, he enrolled at the Military Academy in Pangalta, a suburb of Constantinople (today's Istanbul). He graduated in 1905. Shortly after finishing school, he was arrested for anachististic ideas. After a few months, he was released from prison at the urging of Riza Pasha, the former principal of the school he attended. After his release from prison, he joined the Fifth Army, stationed in Damascus. He spent five years in Syria and Palestine before returning to Thessaloniki. In 1918, the newly elected Sultan Mehmed VI appointed him commander of the Seventh Army in Palestine and Syria. The British almost completely destroyed the Seventh Army at the Battle of Megiddo, but Mustafa managed to form a strong defensive line and save Aleppo.
He fought in the Italian-Turkish War during 1911 and 1912, and in the Balkan Wars from 1912 to 1913. In World War I, the Ottoman Empire joined Germany and Austro-Hungary in the fight against the Entente. By then, the Empire had lost almost all of its territory in Europe and Africa, and in 1908 the revolution abolished the autocratic powers of the sultan and established the era of parliamentary government. Mustafa Kemal distinguished himself in 1915 in the battle of Gallipoli, in which British and French troops were prevented from taking over Istanbul. He soon replaced the rank of colonel with the rank of general. After Gallipoli, he moved to other battlefields, in eastern Turkey, Syria and Palestine.
Scottish historian Lord Kinross says Mustafa Kemal is the only Turkish general who has never been defeated. In November 1918, he returned to occupied Constantinople. The Allies then took over Izmir, the second largest city of the former Ottoman Empire. They hand it over to the Greeks. It was the trigger for the creation of the Turkish National Movement, and later the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence. Mustafa Kemal organized the independence movement based in Ankara. The goal was to stop the occupation of Turkish-speaking territories, and to stop the division of those territories. Istanbul had a second plan, and the sultan's government sentenced Mustafa to death in absentia. However, that did not stop the people from supporting the new leader, so his troops, with the help of Russian weapons, defeated the Armenians in the east and forced the French and Italians to withdraw from the south.
The next problem was the Greeks who almost marched in Ankara. However, in 1921, the Turks, led by Mustafa Kemal, stopped their further progress, and a year later launched an offensive that forced the Greeks to retreat to Sakarya in the Mediterranean. Turkish soldiers committed bloodshed in Smyrna. Thousands of Greeks and Armenians were killed, about 200,000 were expelled, and villages were looted and set on fire. It was a great revenge of Mustafa Kemal. His next target was Istanbul when it was occupied by British and other allied forces. Instead of fighting, the British agreed that peace talks were a better option, so they sent proposals to the Sultan's government in Istanbul and the government of Mustafa Kemal in Ankara. However, before the start of the peace conference, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara passed a resolution stating that the sultan's rule was officially over. Frightened for his life, the last Ottoman sultan fled his palace and sought protection at the British embassy. In July 1923, a new peace treaty was signed recognizing the independent Turkish state. In October, the Grand National Assembly proclaims the Republic of Turkey and Kemal Mustafa its first president. July 24 is still celebrated in Turkey today as Republic Day.
Creation of the Republic
He managed to build a modern and powerful state on the ruins of the weakened Ottoman Empire with unpopular but consistent reforms. Under his rule, the role of faith in decision-making declined drastically. He introduced free schooling, opened thousands of schools across the country, abolished discrimination against women and the function of sultan. Although Turkey was formally a democratic state during Kemal Ataturk's rule, his firm hand did not give much freedom to political opponents. He got the name Kemal in his youth. Some historians claim that the mathematician gave it another name because of its meaning - "perfect" or "mature". Others claim that Mustafa added Kemal to his name, following the example of the great poet Namik Kemal. The nickname Ataturk came a little later.
Mustafa Kemal carried out radical political, social and economic reforms. He believed that a powerful state could be built on the basis of sovereignty. At all costs, they wanted to get rid of the Ottoman heritage, so instead of Istanbul, Ankara became the capital. Political reform was reflected in the vision of the representative democratis also of parliamentary sovereignty, where the National Assembly has the greatest power.
Economic development
During the reign of Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish economy experienced a revival. In order to encourage the development of the industry, he opened new and modernized the existing factories in the field of agriculture, machine and textile industries. He took over cigarette factories from French companies. In 1924 he founded the Turkish Bank, and in 1927 the Turkish State Railways. In the midst of the Great Depression (1929-1931), he founded the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. In addition to the textile and food industries, Ataturk has invested in the automotive and aviation industries. He wanted Turkey to become the leading power in the car industry in the region. By 1935, an industrial society based on the Western European model had been established, and Turkey had a relatively stable economy.
Private life
The love life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is connected to four women: Elena Karinet, Fikrija Hanim, Dimintrina Kovačeva and Latifa Usakligil.
During his lifetime, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk adopted thirteen children, one boy and twelve girls. The most famous is Sabiha Gökçen, the first female fighter pilot in Turkey.
Ataturk discovered in 1937 that he was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, and he died on November 10, 1938 in the Dolmabača Palace. The clock in the room where he spent his last days was stopped at 9:05, at the moment of his death. His remains were buried in the Ethnographic Museum in Ankara, to be transferred to a mausoleum on a hill above Ankara 15 years after his death. Its mausoleum is still one of the most attractive tourist attractions in this city.
