ATATURK Mustafa Kemal (Atatrk Mustafa Kemal)

(1881-1938)
Born in Thessaloniki, March 12, 1881. At birth was given the name Mustafa. Nickname Kemal ( 'Maturity and Perfection') was in military school of mathematical abilities. The name Ataturk ( "Father Turk ') conferred upon him the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1933. He was educated in Salonika, then in the Military Academy and the General Staff Academy in Istanbul and was promoted to captain and assigned to Damascus. Used his position in the army for political agitation. Between 1904 and 1908 organized several secret societies to combat corruption in the government and the army. During the revolution of 1908 broke in the views from the Young Turk leader Enver Bey and withdrew from political activity. Took part in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912 and the Second Balkan War in 1913. During the First World War, commanded the Ottoman troops defending the Dardanelles. After the war, did not recognize the surrender, and the partition of the Ottoman Empire by Treaty of Sц?vres. After the landing of Greek troops in Izmir Ataturk in 1919 organized a national movement of resistance throughout Anatolia. Relations between Anatolia and the sultan's government in Istanbul had been interrupted. In 1920, in Ankara Atatц?rk was elected chairman of the new Grand National Assembly. Atatц?rk reconstituted army, drove the Greeks from Asia Minor, the Entente forced to sign a more equitable Treaty of Lausanne (1923), abolished the sultanate and the caliphate and founded the republic (1923). Atatц?rk was elected the first president of Turkey in 1923 and reelected in 1927, 1931 and 1935. Pursued a policy of modernization of the Turkish state and society along Western lines, reformed the education system and abolished the institutions of Islamic law. After several attempts at mutiny was forced to dissolve the opposition of the Progressive Republican Party (in 1930 and its successor the Free Republican Party) and move to more authoritarian methods of government, . necessary for the effective implementation of reforms in the traditional Turkish society,
. Thanks to Ataturk in 1928 in Turkey was proclaimed the equality of the sexes, women were enfranchised. In the same year, instead of the Arabic had been introduced the Latin alphabet, and in 1933 - the family name on the Western model. In economics, a policy of nationalization and reliance on domestic capital. Atatц?rk's foreign policy was aimed at achieving full independence. Turkey joined the League of Nations and has established friendly relations with its neighbors, particularly Greece and the USSR. Ataturk died in Istanbul on November 10, 1938.