Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and statesman who was the founder of the Republic of Turkey and served as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He led sweeping reforms, turning Turkey into an industrialising nation. Ideologically a republican, secularist, 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, Atatürk was early on persecuted for agitating against Sultan Abdul Hamid II's autocracy, joining opposition movements like the Committee of Union and Progress and the Young Turks. He participated in the Young Turk Revolution and the 31 March Incident. Atatürk denounced CUP leadership for encouraging a politicised military –and was subsequently sidelined– as they established a new authoritarian regime. His early military career saw him involved in the Italo-Turkish and Balkan Wars. He rose to prominence with his role in the Defence of Gallipoli during World War I. Following his country's defeat after the war, in the Turkish War of Independence he directed the Turkish National Movement in a nationalist resistance against Turkey's partition among the victorious Allied powers. Establishing the provisional "Ankara government", he achieved a Turkish victory against Greece, Armenia, France, and the United Kingdom, confirmed in the Treaty of Lausanne. 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 1923.
As the president of the newly formed Turkish Republic, Atatürk introduced far reaching reforms to build a republican and secular nation-state with a modern, Western facing society. By the mid-1920s, opponents to Atatürk's rule were suppressed as a one-party regime was cemented around him. This included abolishing the Ottoman Caliphate and curtailing religion as part of a larger secularist campaign. The semi-secular Mecelle was replaced by a fully secular civil code. Western cultural mores were encouraged: such as the banning of the fez and certain men's clothing. State-owned enterprises were established, foreign industrial assets were nationalised, and the first five-year plan was implemented. He opened thousands of schools and 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. Atatürk attempted rapprochement with Iran, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Romania, and Greece, as well as the creation of the Balkan Pact that resisted the expansionist aggressions of Italy and Bulgaria during the interwar period of the 1930s. 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.
Atatürk has been praised for his military accomplishments, nation-building efforts, social and economic reforms, and diplomatic successes, serving as an inspiration to anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements. He has been condemned for instituting a dictatorship, introducing assimilationist policies that targeted minorities like the Kurds, and continuing a persecution of Christian minorities started by the CUP, while conservative Muslims have criticised his secular agenda. The Turkish Parliament granted him the surname Atatürk in 1934, meaning "Father of the Turks" or "Turk like his ancestors", in recognition of the role he played in building the Turkish Republic.
Early life
Mustafa Kemal was born 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 (Atadan) 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.
Name
Atatürk was born Mustafa. The origin of his second name Kemal (meaning 'perfection' or 'maturity' in Arabic) is speculated; some claim that this name was given to him by his mathematics teacher, possibly "in admiration of [Atatürk's] capability and maturity";Afet İnan, Atatürk hakkında hâtıralar ve belgeler, Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1959, p. 8. while some others claim that his teacher gave him this name to distinguish him from himself, since his name was also Mustafa.Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Sınıf arkadaşım Atatürk: okul ve genç subaylık hâtıraları, İnkılâp ve Aka Kitabevleri, 1967, p. 6. Benim adım Mustafa. Senin adın da Mustafa. Arada bir fark olmalı, ne dersin, senin adının sonuna bir de Kemal koyalım. Andrew Mango suggests that he may have chosen the name himself as a tribute to the nationalist poet Namık Kemal.Mango, Atatürk, p. 37.
After receiving the surname Atatürk on his ID in 1934, he appeared as Kemal Atatürk, while the given name Mustafa had disappeared altogether. He used the Old Turkic name Kamâl from 1935 to 1937, which means 'fortification', 'fortress', 'army', or 'shield'.Tarama Dergisi (1934), volume 2, p. 1064 Murat Belge, Tanıl Bora, Murat Gültekingil. Milliyetçilik (2002), İletişim Yayınları, p. 254 Niyazi Ahmet Banoğlu, Atatürk'ün İstanbul'daki Hayatı, volume 2, Millî Eğitim Matbaası, 1974, p. 131.Enis Dinç, Atatürk on Screen: Documentary Film and the Making of a Leader (2020), p. 180.
Ancestry 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.Andrew Mango Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey, Overlook Press, 2002, , pp. 25–27 , pp. 27ff. – "Feyzullah's family is said to have come from the country near Vodina (now Edhessa in western Greek Macedonia). The surname Sofuzade, meaning 'son of a pious man', suggests that the ancestors of Zübeyde and Ali Rıza had a similar background. Cemil Bozok, son of Salih Bozok, who was a distant cousin of Mustafa Kemal and, later, his ADC, claims to have been related to both Ali Rıza's and Zübeyde's families. This would mean that the families of Mustafa Kemal's parents were interrelated. Cemil Bozok also notes that his paternal grandfather, Safer Efendi, was of Albanian origin. This may have a bearing on the vexed question of Mustafa Kemal's ethnic origin. Mustafa Kemal's parents and relatives all used Turkish as their mother tongue. This suggests that some at least of their ancestors had originally come from Turkey, since local Muslims of Albanian and Slav origin who had no ethnic connection with Turkey spoke Albanian, Serbo-Croat or Bulgarian, at least so long as they remained in their native land. But in looks Atatürk resembled local Albanians and Slavs.[...] But there is no evidence that either Ali Riza or Zübeyde was descended from such Turkish nomads." page 28; "It is much more likely that Atatürk inherited his looks from his Balkan ancestors.[...] But Albanians and Slavs are likely to have figured among his ancestors." 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 (Bulgarian Muslims) or Torbeši (Macedonian Muslims). His mother Zübeyde is thought to have been of Turkish origin, and according to other sources, she was of Turkic Yörük ancestry.Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Tek Adam: Mustafa Kemal, Birinci Cilt (1st vol.): 1881–1919, 14th ed., Remzi Kitabevi, 1997, , p. 31. It was also claimed that she had Albanian or Macedonian ancestors. Due to the large Jewish community alongside Muslim (mainly Turks), 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.Gershom Scholem, "Doenmeh", Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed.; Volume 5: Coh-Doz, Macmillan Reference US, Thomson Gale, 2007, , p. 732.
Education 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 (a private school with a more secular curriculum) at the direction of his father. When he was seven years old, his father died.Bernd Rill: Kemal Atatürk. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1985 His mother wanted him to learn a trade, but without consulting them, Mustafa Kemal took the entrance exam for the Salonica Military School (Selanik Askeri Rüştiyesi) in 1893. In 1896, he enrolled in the Monastir Military High School (in modern Bitola, North Macedonia) where he excelled at mathematics. On 14 March 1899,T. C. Genelkurmay Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı Yayınları, Türk İstiklâl Harbine Katılan Tümen ve Daha Üst Kademelerdeki Komutanların Biyografileri, Ankara: Genkurmay Başkanlığı Basımevi, 1972, p. 1. he enrolled at the Ottoman Military Academy and graduated in 1902. He later graduated from the Ottoman Military College in Constantinople on 11 January 1905.Falih Rıfkı Atay, Çankaya: Atatürk'ün doğumundan ölümüne kadar, İstanbul: Betaş, 1984, p. 29.
Military career
Early years
Shortly after graduation, he was arrested by the police for his activities against Abdul Hamid II's regime. Following confinement for several months he was released only with the support of Rıza Pasha, his former school director.Falih Rıfkı Atay: Çankaya, Pozitif Yayınları, İstanbul, 2004 After his release, Mustafa Kemal was assigned to the Fifth Army based in Damascus as a Staff Captain in the company of Ali Fuat (Cebesoy) and Lütfi Müfit (Özdeş).Mango, ibid, p. 37. He joined a small secret revolutionary society of reformist officers led by a merchant Mustafa Elvan (Cantekin) called ('Motherland and Liberty'). On 20 June 1907, he was promoted to the rank of Senior Captain (Kolağası) and on 13 October 1907, was assigned to the headquarters of the Third Army in Manastır.T.C. Genelkurmay Başkanlığı Yayınları, ibid, p. 2. 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 (Doğu Rumeli Bölgesi Demiryolları Müfettişi), 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 (present Libya, then an Ottoman territory) under the pretext of suppressing a tribal rebellion towards the end of 1908. According to Mikush however, he volunteered for this mission.D.V.Mikusch: Zwichen Europe und Asien (translation Esat Mermi Erendor), İkarus Yayınları, İstanbul, 1981 p. 67 He suppressed the revolt and returned to Constantinople in January 1909.