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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (c. 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism.
Born in Salonica in the Ottoman Empire, his early military career saw him involved in the Italo-Turkish and Balkan Wars, but 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.
Atatürk was born Mustafa. His second name Kemal (meaning 'perfection' or 'maturity' in Arabic) was given to him by his mathematics teacher, Captain Üsküplü Mustafa Efendi. According to Afet İnan, his teacher gave this name "in admiration of [Atatürk's] 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 (1934), kamal meant 'fortification', 'fortress', 'army', or 'shield'. On 4 February 1935, the government's official news agency Anadolu Agency gave the following explanation:
According to our intelligence, the name 'Kamâl' that Atatürk bears is not an Arabic word, nor does it have the meaning by the Arabic word kemal ['maturity', 'perfection']. Atatürk's given name, which is being retained, is 'Kamâl', the Turkish meaning of which is army and fortress. As the circumflex accent on the final 'â' softens the 'l' the pronunciation closely approximates that of the Arabic 'Kemal'.
— Anadolu Agency
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (c. 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism.
Born in Salonica in the Ottoman Empire, his early military career saw him involved in the Italo-Turkish and Balkan Wars, but 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.
Atatürk was born Mustafa. His second name Kemal (meaning 'perfection' or 'maturity' in Arabic) was given to him by his mathematics teacher, Captain Üsküplü Mustafa Efendi. According to Afet İnan, his teacher gave this name "in admiration of [Atatürk's] 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 (1934), kamal meant 'fortification', 'fortress', 'army', or 'shield'. On 4 February 1935, the government's official news agency Anadolu Agency gave the following explanation:
According to our intelligence, the name 'Kamâl' that Atatürk bears is not an Arabic word, nor does it have the meaning by the Arabic word kemal ['maturity', 'perfection']. Atatürk's given name, which is being retained, is 'Kamâl', the Turkish meaning of which is army and fortress. As the circumflex accent on the final 'â' softens the 'l' the pronunciation closely approximates that of the Arabic 'Kemal'.
— Anadolu Agency
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