Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal and statesperson who was the founder of the Republic of Turkey—after the fall of its predecessor, the Ottoman Empire—and served as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He led sweeping reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist, republican and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism. Atatürk's personality cult and the Kemalist historiography developed around it have had significant and ongoing influences on Turkey's political culture and historical narrative.
Born in Salonica in the Ottoman Empire, his early military career saw him involved in the Italo-Turkish and Balkan Wars. As a member of the Committee of Union and Progress and the Young Turks, he played an important part in political events of the late Ottoman Empire, such as the Young Turk Revolution and the 31 March Incident. He rose to prominence with his role in the Defence of Gallipoli during World War I. Following the defeat of the empire after the war, he led the Turkish National Movement, which resisted the empire's partition among the victorious Allied powers. Establishing the provisional "Ankara government", he defeated the forces sent by the Allies, thus emerging victorious from the Turkish War of Independence. During and after the war, the ethnic cleansing of Armenians and Greeks from Anatolia outside of Istanbul, including the Kars region invaded by the Kemalist armies, was largely completed via large-scale massacres, flight, expulsions, and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. His government subsequently proceeded to abolish the Ottoman sultanate in 1922 and proclaimed the Republic of Turkey in its place in 1923.
As the president of the newly formed Turkish Republic, Atatürk initiated political, economic, and cultural reforms to build a republican 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. Turkish women received equal civil and political rights during his presidency. His government carried out a policy of Turkification, trying to create a homogeneous, unified and above all secular nation under the Turkish banner. The Turkish Parliament granted him the surname Atatürk in 1934, which means "Father of the Turks", in recognition of the role he played in building the modern Turkish Republic. He died on 10 November 1938 at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, at the age of 57; he was succeeded as president by his long-time prime minister İsmet İnönü.
In 1981, the centennial of Atatürk's birth, his memory was honoured by the United Nations and UNESCO, which declared it The Atatürk Year in the World and adopted the Resolution on the Atatürk Centennial, describing him as "the leader of the first struggle given against colonialism and imperialism". Atatürk attempted rapprochement with the close countries such as Iran, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Greece, as well as the creation of the Balkan Pact that resisted the expansionist aggressions of Fascist Italy and Tsarist Bulgaria during the interwar period of the 1930s. Despite the positive memories and contributions, he was criticized for a number of atrocities committed under his government and was described as a dictator by his detractors.
Name
Atatürk was born Mustafa. His second name Kemal was given to him by his mathematics teacher, Captain Üsküplü Mustafa Efendi. According to Afet İnan, his teacher gave this name "in admiration of capability and maturity". According to other sources, his teacher wanted to distinguish Atatürk from another student who was also named Mustafa. Andrew Mango suggests that he may have chosen the name himself as a tribute to the nationalist poet Namık Kemal. According to Alkan, Atatürk seems to have embraced the name Kemal during his army years.After receiving the surname Atatürk on his first ID card in 1934, his name appeared as Kemal Atatürk, while the given name Mustafa had disappeared altogether. In February 1935, Atatürk began to use the Old Turkic name Kamâl. According to Tarama Dergisi, kamal meant 'fortification', 'fortress', 'army', or 'shield'. On 4 February 1935, the government's official news agency Anadolu Agency gave the following explanation:
However, Atatürk returned to the old spelling of Kemal from May 1937 and onwards. To make a soft transition, he avoided using the name as much as he could, either by not using it at all or by signing documents as 'K. Atatürk'. An official explanation was never given, but it is widely agreed that the issue with Atatürk's name was linked to the Turkish language reform.
Early life
Mustafa Kemal was born either in the Ahmet Subaşı neighbourhood or at a house in Islahhane Street in the Koca Kasım Pasha neighbourhood in Salonica, Ottoman Empire. His parents were Ali Rıza Efendi, a military officer originally from Kodžadžik, title deed clerk and lumber trader, and Zübeyde Hanım. Only one of Mustafa's siblings, a sister named Makbule survived childhood; she died in 1956. According to information obtained from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Makbule Atadan, other family members, and childhood friends who knew Atatürk's family, Ali Rıza Efendi was originally from Salonica, and his wife, Zübeyde Hanım, was born to a farming family in Langaza, west of Salonica, in 1857.Claims and theories about Mustafa Kemal's ancestry are strikingly varied and contrasting. According to Andrew Mango, his family was Muslim, Turkish-speaking and precariously middle-class. His father Ali Rıza is thought to have been of Albanian or Slavic origin by some authors; however, according to H. C. Armstrong, Falih Rıfkı Atay, Vamık D. Volkan, Norman Itzkowitz, Müjgân Cunbur, Numan Kartal and Hasan İzzettin Dinamo, Ali Rıza's ancestors were Turks, ultimately descending from Söke in Aydın Province of Anatolia. According to the claims by the Torbeš community, he descended from the Muslim Slavs: Pomaks or Torbeši. His mother Zübeyde is thought to have been of Turkish origin, and according to other sources, she was of Turkic Yörük ancestry. It was also claimed that she had Albanian or Macedonian ancestors. Due to the large Jewish community alongside Muslim, Greek, Bulgarian, and other communities of Salonica vilayet in the Ottoman period, many of his Islamist opponents who were disturbed by his reforms claimed that Mustafa Kemal had Jewish Dönme ancestors.
In his early years, his mother encouraged Mustafa Kemal to attend a religious school, something he did reluctantly and only briefly. Later, he attended the Şemsi Efendi School at the direction of his father. When he was seven years old, his father died. His mother wanted him to learn a trade, but without consulting them, Mustafa Kemal took the entrance exam for the Salonica Military School in 1893. In 1896, he enrolled in the Monastir Military High School where he excelled at mathematics. On 14 March 1899, he enrolled at the Ottoman Military Academy in the neighbourhood of Pangaltı within the Şişli district of the Ottoman capital city Constantinople and graduated in 1902. He later graduated from the Ottoman Military College in Constantinople on 11 January 1905.
Military career
Early years
Shortly after graduation, he was arrested by the police for his anti-monarchist activities. Following confinement for several months he was released only with the support of Rıza Pasha, his former school director. After his release, Mustafa Kemal was assigned to the Fifth Army based in Damascus as a Staff Captain in the company of Ali Fuat and Lütfi Müfit. He joined a small secret revolutionary society of reformist officers led by a merchant Mustafa Elvan called Vatan ve Hürriyet. On 20 June 1907, he was promoted to the rank of Senior Captain and on 13 October 1907, was assigned to the headquarters of the Third Army in Manastır. He joined the Committee of Union and Progress, with membership number 322, although in later years he became known for his opposition to, and frequent criticism of, the policies pursued by the CUP leadership. On 22 June 1908, he was appointed the Inspector of the Ottoman Railways in Eastern Rumelia, though this did not translate into a major role in the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.He proposed depoliticization in the army, a proposal which was disliked by the leaders of the CUP. As a result, he was sent away to Tripolitania Vilayet under the pretext of suppressing a tribal rebellion towards the end of 1908. According to Mikush however, he volunteered for this mission. He suppressed the revolt and returned to Constantinople in January 1909.
In April 1909 in Constantinople, a group of soldiers began a counter-revolution. Mustafa Kemal was instrumental in suppressing the revolt, and deposing Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
In 1910, he was called to the Ottoman provinces in Albania. At that time Isa Boletini was leading Albanian uprisings in Kosovo, and there were revolts in Albania as well. In 1910, Mustafa Kemal met with Eqrem Vlora, the Albanian lord, politician, writer, and one of the delegates of the Albanian Declaration of Independence.
Later, in the autumn of 1910, he was among the Ottoman military observers who attended the Picardie army manoeuvres in France, and in 1911, served at the Ministry of War in Constantinople for a short time.
Italo-Turkish War (1911–12)
In 1911, he volunteered to fight in the Italo-Turkish War in the Ottoman Tripolitania Vilayet. He served mainly in the areas near Derna and Tobruk. The invading Italian army had a strength of 150,000 men; it was opposed by 20,000 Bedouins and 8,000 Turks. A short time before Italy declared war, many of the Ottoman troops in Libya were sent to the Ottoman province of Yemen Vilayet to put down the rebellion there, so the Ottoman government was caught with inadequate resources to counter the Italians in Libya. Britain, which controlled the Ottoman provinces of Egypt and Sudan, did not allow additional Ottoman troops to reach Libya through Egypt. Ottoman soldiers like Mustafa Kemal went to Libya either dressed as Arabs or by the very few available ferries. However, despite all the hardships, Mustafa Kemal's forces in Libya managed to repel the Italians on a number of occasions, such as at the Battle of Tobruk on 22 December 1911.During the Battle of Derna on 16–17 January 1912, while Mustafa Kemal was assaulting the Italian-controlled fortress of Kasr-ı Harun, two Italian planes dropped bombs on the Ottoman forces; a limestone splinter from a damaged building's rubble struck Mustafa Kemal's left eye, causing permanent tissue damage, but not total loss of sight. He received medical treatment for nearly a month; he attempted to leave the Red Crescent's health facilities after only two weeks, but when his eye's situation worsened, he had to return and resume treatment. On 6 March 1912, Mustafa Kemal became the Commander of the Ottoman forces in Derna. He managed to defend and retain the city and its surrounding region until the end of the Italo-Turkish War on 18 October 1912. Mustafa Kemal, Enver Bey, Fethi Bey, and the other Ottoman military commanders in Libya had to return to Ottoman Europe following the outbreak of the Balkan Wars on 8 October 1912. Having lost the war, the Ottoman government had to surrender Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica to the Kingdom of Italy in the Treaty of Lausanne signed ten days later, on 18 October 1912. Since 1923, historians have preferred to name this treaty as the "Treaty of Ouchy", after the Château d'Ouchy in Lausanne where it was signed, to distinguish it from the later Treaty of Lausanne signed between the Allies of World War I and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara.