Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman, who helped establish the Republic of Turkey. He was Turkey's first president, and his reforms modernized the country.
Background
Atatürk was born in 1881 in Salonika, then a thriving port of the Ottoman Empire, and was given the name Mustafa. His father, Ali Riza, had been a lieutenant in a local militia unit during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 - 1878, indicating that his origins were within the Ottoman ruling class, if only marginally. Mustafa’s mother, Zübeyde Hanım, came from a farming community west of Salonika.
Only one of Mustafa's siblings, a sister named Makbule (Atadan) survived childhood. Ali Riza died when Mustafa was seven years old, but he nevertheless had a significant influence on the development of his son’s personality.
Education
Atatürk refused to go to religious school and was sent to a modern, secular (non-religious) school; there he began to wear western clothes like pants and a shirt, instead of his traditional clothes. In 1893, he entered a military school, where he was very successful. He had been given only the name Mustafa because common people generally had no last names, but his mathematics teacher added the name Kemal, which means "perfection."
In 1896 he progressed to the military school in Monastir (now Bitola, North Macedonia). Having completed his education at Monastir, Mustafa Kemal entered the Ottoman Military Academy (now Turkish Military Academy) in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in March 1899. Graduating as a second lieutenant in 1902 and ranking in the top 10 of his class of more than 450 students, he entered the Ottoman Military College, graduating in 1905 as a captain and ranking fifth out of a class of 57; he was one of the empire’s leading young officers.
Career
Mustafa Kemal’s career almost ended soon after his graduation when it was discovered that he and several friends were meeting to read about and discuss political abuses within the empire. The group was broken up and its members assigned to remote areas of the empire. Mustafa Kemal and Ali Faut were sent to the Fifth Army in Damascus, where Mustafa Kemal was angered by the way corrupt officials were treating the local people. Becoming involved again in antigovernment activities, he helped found a short-lived secret group called the Society for Fatherland and Freedom.
Nevertheless, in September 1907 Mustafa Kemal was declared loyal and reassigned to Salonika, which was awash with subversive activity. He joined the dominant antigovernment group, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which had ties to the nationalist and reformist Young Turk movement.
In July 1908 an insurrection broke out in Macedonia. The sultan was forced to reinstate the constitution of 1876, which limited his powers and reestablished a representative government. The hero of this "Young Turk Revolution" was Enver (Enver Paşa), who later became Mustafa Kemal’s greatest rival; the two men came to dislike each other thoroughly.
In 1909 two elements within the revolutionary movement came to the fore. One group favoured decentralization, with harmony and cooperation between the Muslims and the non-Muslims. The other, headed by the CUP, advocated centralization and Turkish control. An insurrection spearheaded by reactionary troops broke out on the night of April 12 - 13, 1909. The revolution that had restored the constitution in 1908 was in danger. Military officers and troops from Salonika, among whom Enver played a leading role, marched on Istanbul. They arrived at the capital on April 23, and by the next day they had the situation well in hand. The CUP took control and forced Abdülhamid II to abdicate.
Enver was thus in the ascendancy. Mustafa Kemal felt that the military, having gained its political ends, should refrain from interfering in politics. He urged those officers who wanted political careers to resign their commissions. This served only to increase the hostility of Enver and other CUP leaders toward him. Mustafa Kemal turned his attention from politics to military matters. He translated German infantry training manuals into Turkish. From his staff position he criticized the state of the army’s training. His reputation among serious military officers was growing. This activity also brought him into contact with many of the rising young officers. A feeling of mutual respect developed between Mustafa Kemal and some of these officers, who were later to flock to his support in the creation of the Turkish nation.
The CUP, however, was fed up with him, and he was transferred to field command and then sent to observe French army maneuvers in Picardy. Although consistently denied promotion, Mustafa Kemal did not lose faith in himself. In late 1911 the Italians attacked Libya, then an Ottoman province, and Mustafa Kemal went there immediately to fight. Malaria and trouble with his eyes required him to leave the front for treatment in Vienna.
In October 1912, while Mustafa Kemal was in Vienna, the First Balkan War broke out. He was assigned to the defense of the Gallipoli Peninsula, an area of strategic importance with respect to the Dardanelles. Within two months the Ottoman Empire lost most of its territory in Europe, including Monastir and Salonika, places for which Mustafa Kemal had special affection. Among the refugees who poured into Istanbul were his mother, sister, and stepfather.
The Second Balkan War, of short duration (June - July 1913), saw the Ottomans regain part of their lost territory. Relations were renewed with Bulgaria. Mustafa Kemal’s former schoolmate Ali Fethi was named ambassador, and Mustafa Kemal accompanied him to Sofia as military attaché. There he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
Mustafa Kemal complained of Enver’s close ties to Germany and predicted German defeat in an international conflict. Once World War I broke out, however, and the Ottoman Empire entered on the side of the Central Powers, he sought a military command. Enver made him cool his heels in Sofia but finally gave him command of the 19th Division, which was being organized in the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was here that the Allies attempted their ill-fated landings, giving Mustafa Kemal the opportunity to throw them back and thwart their attempt to force the Dardanelles (February 1915 - January 1916). During the battle, Mustafa Kemal was hit by a piece of shrapnel, which lodged in the watch he carried in his breast pocket and thus failed to cause him serious injury. His success at Gallipoli thrust Mustafa Kemal onto the world scene. He was hailed as the "Saviour of Istanbul" and was promoted to colonel on June 1, 1915.
In 1916 Mustafa Kemal was assigned to the Russian front and promoted to general, acquiring the title of pasha. He was the only Turkish general to win any victories over the Russians on the Eastern Front. Later that year, he took over the command of the Second Army in southeastern Anatolia. There he met Colonel İsmet (İnönü), who would become his closest ally in building the Turkish republic.
The outbreak of the Russian Revolution in March 1917 made Mustafa Kemal available for service in the Ottoman provinces of Syria and Iraq, on which the British were advancing from their base in Egypt. He was appointed to the command of the Seventh Army in Syria, but he was appalled by the sad state of the army. Resigning his post, he returned without permission to Istanbul. He was placed on leave for three months and then assigned to accompany Crown Prince Mehmed Vahideddin on a state visit to Germany.
On his return to Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal fell ill with kidney problems. He went to Vienna for treatment and then to Carlsbad to recuperate. While he was in Carlsbad, Sultan Mehmed V died, and Vahideddin assumed the throne as Mehmed VI. Mustafa Kemal was recalled to Istanbul in June 1918.
Through Enver’s machinations, the sultan assigned Mustafa Kemal to command the collapsing Ottoman forces in Syria. He found the situation there worse than he had imagined and withdrew northward to save the lives of as many of his soldiers as possible.
Fighting was halted by the Armistice of Mudros (October 30, 1918). Shortly afterward, Enver and other leaders of the CUP fled to Germany, leaving the sultan to lead the government. To ensure the continuation of his rule, Mehmed VI was willing to cooperate with the Allies, who assumed control of the government.
The Allies did not wait for a peace treaty to begin claiming Ottoman territory. Early in December 1918, Allied troops occupied sections of Istanbul and set up an Allied military administration. On February 8, 1919, the French general Franchet d’Espèrey entered the city in a spectacle compared to the entrance of Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453 - but this time signifying that Ottoman sovereignty over the imperial city was over. The Allies made plans to incorporate the provinces of eastern Anatolia into an independent Armenian state. French troops advanced into Cilicia in the southeast. Greece and Italy put forward competing claims for southwestern Anatolia. The Italians occupied Marmaris, Antalya, and Burdur, and on May 15, 1919, Greek troops landed at Izmir and began a drive into the interior of Anatolia, killing Turkish inhabitants and ravaging the countryside. Allied statesmen seemed to be abandoning Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points in favour of the old imperialist views set down in the secret treaties and contained in their own secret ambitions.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Kemal’s armies had been disbanded. He returned to Istanbul on November 13, 1919, just as ships of the Allied fleet sailed up the Bosporus. This scene, as well as the city’s occupation by British, French, and Italian troops, left a lasting impression on Mustafa Kemal. He was determined to oust them. He began meeting with selected friends to formulate a policy to save Turkey. Among these friends were Ali Fuat and Rauf (Orbay), the Ottoman naval hero. Ali Fuat was stationed in Anatolia and knew the situation there intimately. He and Mustafa Kemal developed a plan for an Anatolian national movement centred on Ankara.
In various parts of Anatolia, Turks had already taken matters into their own hands, calling themselves associations for the defense of rights and organizing paramilitary units. They began to come into armed conflict with local non-Muslims, and it appeared that they might soon do so against the occupying forces as well.
Fearing anarchy, the Allies urged the sultan to restore order in Anatolia. The grand vizier recommended Mustafa Kemal as a loyal officer who could be sent to Anatolia as inspector general of the Third Army. Mustafa Kemal contrived to get his orders written in such a way as to give him extraordinarily extensive powers. These included the authority to issue orders throughout Anatolia and to command obedience from provincial governors.
Modern Turkish history may be said to begin on the morning of May 19, 1919, with Mustafa Kemal’s landing at Samsun, on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. Abandoning his official reason for being in Anatolia - to restore order - he headed inland for Amasya. There he told a cheering crowd that the sultan was the prisoner of the Allies and that he had come to prevent the nation from slipping through the fingers of its people. This became his message to the Turks of Anatolia.
The Allies pressured the sultan to recall Mustafa Kemal, who ignored all communications from Istanbul. The sultan dismissed him and telegraphed all provincial governors, instructing them to ignore Mustafa Kemal’s orders. Imperial orders for his arrest were circulated.
Mustafa Kemal avoided dismissal from the army by officially resigning late on the evening of July 7. As a civilian, he pressed on with his retinue from Sivas to Erzurum, where General Kâzim Karabekir, commander of the XV Army Corps of 18,000 men, was headquartered. At this critical moment, when Mustafa Kemal had no military support or official status, Kâzim threw in his lot with Mustafa Kemal, placing his troops at Mustafa Kemal’s disposal. This was a crucial turning point in the struggle for independence.
Kâzim had called for a congress of all defense-of-rights associations to be held in Erzurum on July 23, 1919. Mustafa Kemal was elected head of the Erzurum Congress and thereby gained an official status. The congress drafted a document covering the six eastern provinces of the empire. Later known as the National Pact, it affirmed the inviolability of the Ottoman "frontiers" - that is, all the Ottoman lands inhabited by Turks when the Armistice of Mudros was signed. It also created a provisional government, revoked the special status arrangements for the minorities of the Ottoman Empire (the capitulations), and set up a steering committee, which then elected Mustafa Kemal as head.
Mustafa Kemal sought to extend the National Pact to the entire Ottoman-Muslim population of the empire. To that end, he called a national congress that met in Sivas and ratified the pact. He exposed attempts by the sultan’s government to arrest him and to disrupt the Sivas Congress. The grand vizier in Istanbul was driven from office. The new government, which was sympathetic to the nationalist movement, restored Mustafa Kemal’s military rank and decorations.
Unconvinced of the sultan’s ability to rid the country of the Allied occupation, Mustafa Kemal established the seat of his provisional government in Ankara, 300 miles (480 km) from Istanbul. There he would be safer from both the sultan and the Allies. This proved a wise decision. On March 16, 1920, in Istanbul, the Allies arrested leading nationalist sympathizers, including Rauf, and sent them to Malta.
The conciliatory Istanbul government fell and was replaced by reactionaries who dissolved the parliament and pressured the religious dignitaries into declaring Mustafa Kemal and his associates infidels worthy of being shot on sight. The die was cast - it would be the sultan’s government or Mustafa Kemal’s.
Many prominent Turks escaped from Istanbul to Ankara, including İsmet and, after him, Fevzi (Çakmak), the sultan’s war minister. Fevzi became Mustafa Kemal’s chief of the general staff. New elections were held, and a parliament, called the Grand National Assembly (GNA), met in Ankara on April 23, 1920. The assembly elected Mustafa Kemal as its president.
In June 1920 the Allies handed the sultan the Treaty of Sèvres, which he signed on August 10, 1920. By the provisions of this treaty, the Ottoman state was greatly reduced in size, with Greece one of the major beneficiaries. Armenia was declared independent. Mustafa Kemal repudiated the treaty. Having received military aid from the Soviet Union, he set out to drive the Greeks from Anatolia and Thrace and to subdue the new Armenian state.
As the war against the Greeks started to go well for Mustafa Kemal’s forces, France and Italy negotiated with the nationalist government in Ankara. They withdrew their troops from Anatolia. This left the Armenians in southeastern Anatolia without the protection of the French troops. With the French and Italians out of the picture, Kâzim then moved against the Armenian state. He was assisted by the Bolsheviks, who had established relations with the government of the GNA. Deserting their Armenian protégés, the Russians supplied the nationalists with weapons and ammunition and joined the assault on the Armenian Socialist Republic, which had been their own creation. This combined attack was too much for the Armenians, who were crushed in October and November 1920; they surrendered early in November. By the Treaty of Alexandropol (December 3, 1920) and the Treaty of Moscow (March 16, 1921), the nationalists regained the eastern provinces, as well as the cities of Kars and Ardahan, and the Soviet Union became the first nation to recognize the nationalist government in Ankara. Turkey’s eastern borders were fixed at the Arpa and Aras rivers.
The Greeks were more difficult to overcome, as they continued the advance toward Ankara which had begun in June 1920. By the end of July they had taken Bursa and were pushing on toward Ankara. Ali Fuat was relieved as commander on this front and replaced by İsmet. The Turkish army stood its ground at the İnönü River, north of Kütahya. They threw the Greeks back on January 10, 1921, at the First Battle of the İnönü.
The Greeks did not resume their offensive until March 1921. İsmet again met them at the İnönü River, in a battle that raged from March 27 to April 1. On the evening of April 6 - 7, 1921, the Greeks broke off the engagement and retreated. In 1934, when the Turks were required by law to take last names, İsmet assumed the surname İnönü in memory of these important victories.
Undaunted, the Greeks launched another offensive on July 13, 1921. İsmet fell back to the Sakarya River, so close to Ankara that the artillery fire could be heard there. Opposition to Mustafa Kemal developed in the GNA, led by Kâzim, who had grown jealous. The opposition demanded that Mustafa Kemal’s powers be curtailed so that a new policy could be developed. In addition they sought to have Mustafa Kemal assume personal direction of the war against the Greeks, anticipating a Greek victory that would result in the destruction of Mustafa Kemal’s stature and charisma. On August 4, Mustafa Kemal agreed, on the condition, which was accepted, that he be granted all the powers assigned to the GNA. He then assumed the role of commander in chief with total authority. He defeated the Greeks at the Battle of the Sakarya (August 23 - September 13, 1921) and initiated an offensive (August 26 - September 9, 1922) that pushed the Greeks to the sea at Izmir.
With Anatolia rid of most of the Allies, the GNA, at the behest of Mustafa Kemal, voted on November 1, 1922, to abolish the sultanate. This was soon followed by the flight into exile of Sultan Mehmed VI on November 17. The Allies then invited the Ankara government to discussions that resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923. This treaty fixed the European border of Turkey at the Maritsa River in eastern Thrace.
The nationalists occupied Istanbul on October 2. Ankara was named the capital, and on October 29 the Turkish republic was proclaimed. Turkey was now in complete control of its territory and sovereignty.
Mustafa Kemal's first order of business was to modernize and secularize the country, which he did by studying Western governments and adapting their structure for the people of Turkey. He believed that modernization necessarily entailed Westernization, and he established a policy of state secularism, with a constitution that separated the government from religion.
Social and economic reforms were a crucial part of his strategy as well. He replaced the Arabic alphabet with a Latin one, introduced the Gregorian calendar and urged people to dress in Western clothes. Mustafa industrialized the nation, establishing state-owned factories around the country as well as a railway network. And a multitude of new laws established legal equality between the sexes. Mustafa removed women’s veiling laws and gave women the right to vote.
Although he believed he was advancing the country, not all of Mustafa Kemal’s reforms were warmly received. His policy of state secularism was particularly controversial, and he was accused of decimating important cultural traditions.
In his later years Atatürk grew more remote from the Turkish people. He had the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, formerly a main residence of the sultans, refurbished and spent more time there.
Politics
As president, Mustafa Kemal embarked upon the reform of his country, his goal being to bring it into the 20th century. His instrument was the Republican People’s Party, formed on August 9, 1923, to replace the defense-of-rights associations. His program was embodied in the party’s "Six Arrows": republicanism, nationalism, populism, statism (state-owned and state-operated industrialization aimed at making Turkey self-sufficient as a 20th-century industrialized state), secularism, and revolution. The guiding principle was the existence of a permanent state of revolution, meaning continuing change in the state and society.
During the fifteen years of his presidency, from 1923 to 1938, Atatürk worked to modernize and westernize his country. He abolished Islam as the state's religion and replaced Turkey's legal system, which was based on Islamic law, with a secular legal system. Religious leaders were stripped of much of their power. The veil worn by women and the fez, or brimless hat, worn by most Turkish men were symbols of the religious state and were therefore outlawed, to be replaced by western-style clothing. They also adopted the western calendar, which took as its reference point the birth of Jesus Christ. The Turkish language would no longer be written in Arabic script, but in the Latin alphabet used by most western nations. Atatürk himself traveled throughout the country with a blackboard to teach people how to pronounce the unfamiliar letters. He believed that a good education system was the key to a free and powerful nation, and he worked hard to improve Turkish schools.
The status of women also was improved by Atatürk's sweeping reforms. Girls were allowed to attend school, and women were given the right to vote and hold office. Atatürk also required the use of last names for everyone and founded the Institutes of Turkish History and Turkish Language.
After having settled Turkey firmly within its national borders and set it on the path of modernization, Atatürk sought to develop his country’s foreign policy in similar fashion. First and foremost, he decided that Turkey would not pursue any irredentist claims except for the eventual incorporation of the Alexandretta region, which he felt was included within the boundaries set by the National Pact. He settled matters with Great Britain in a treaty signed on June 5, 1926. It called for Turkey to renounce its claims to Mosul in return for a 10 percent interest in the oil produced there. Atatürk also sought reconciliation with Greece; this was achieved through a treaty of friendship signed on December 30, 1930. Minority populations were exchanged on both sides, borders were set, and military problems such as naval equality in the eastern Mediterranean were ironed out.
Not everyone welcomed the changes that Atatürk brought to Turkey, however. Many Turks were devout Muslims (the followers of Islam) who clung to the religious state and still honored the old traditions and the local religious leaders whose power Atatürk had removed. Others in Turkey resented Atatürk's intense nationalism. For example, the Kurds, a large ethnic minority living within Turkey and other nearby countries, felt that by concentrating on a Turkish identity within Turkey, Atatürk would smother the Kurdish culture. During his presidency, Atatürk defeated two Kurdish rebellions against his authority.
Though Atatürk had a great desire to make Turkey a democratic nation, he held onto a dictator's power until the end of his life. His political party, the Kemalists or People's Republican Party, was the only political party allowed. Atatürk passed and enforced his new laws not only with the strength of his powerful personality, but also with the strength of his military. However, he looked forward to a time when dictators would no longer rule in Turkey, and he had a great respect for the common people. He did not hold himself apart from the peasants and even worked side by side with other farmers on a government farm he set up on his estate near Ankara.
Views
Atatürk's spiritual and intellectual philosophy was the thought of universal peace and although the biggest part of his life was taken up by war, he always considered it a crime.
According to Atatürk war can only be just or justified if it is fought out of sheer necessity or for reasons of national defence, or pursued by a people awaiting their sovereignty, their very lives depending on it. To live freely and be independent is both a holy right of the individual and of the nation, this right is stronger than power itself. Only by his own personal conviction he was able to frame the all inspiring guiding principle of the Republic of Turkey - "Peace in the country, peace in the world."
Atatürk convinced people that culture and civilisation were synonymous. He was able to counter Ziya Gokalp who was a Turkish ideologist on nationalism. Gokalp believed that there was a distinction between culture, which he thought was born out of religion, and civilisation, which he felt was a product of global universal science. Atatürk valued civilisation a great deal, and the only way Turkey could survive its process was through acquiring knowledge. Atatürk believed that acquiring knowledge was the main recipe for survival. He also believed that civilisation would drive away what he referred to as a "dark cloud of general ignorance."
Quotations:
"Religion is a matter of conscience. One is always free to act according to the will of one's conscience. We (as a nation) are respectful of religion. It is not our intention to curtail freedom of worship, but rather to ensure that matters of religion and those of the state do not become intertwined."
"Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women."
"My people are going to learn the principles of democracy the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will, every man can follow his own conscience provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him act against the liberty of his fellow men."
"Teachers are the one and only people who save nations."
"Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight."
"To see me does not necessarily mean to see my face. To understand my thoughts is to have seen me."
"Human kind is made up of two sexes, women and men. Is it possible that a mass is improved by the improvement of only one part and the other part is ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains and the other half can soar into skies?"
"Peace at Home, Peace in the World."
"Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder."
"Sovereignty is not given, it is taken."
"Science is the most reliable guide in life."
"Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say "What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?" If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness."
"Victory is for those who can say "Victory is mine". Success is for those who can begin saying "I will succeed" and say "I have succeeded" in the end."
"Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation."
Personality
Atatürk was a skilful military and political leader. His broad thinking is evident from some of his accomplishments in the military, like anticipating the position where his enemies would attack. He also got entrusted with challenging assignments where he performed well, getting many promotions as a result. Being the first President of Turkey during a period of significant transformation required him to be a critical leader. Throughout his life, he was a results-oriented person who had ambitions of enabling his country to reach the highest level of modernisation. Not only was he smart, but also determined, reformist, fearless, and curious.
When making important decisions, he consulted other leaders. Atatürk successfully shared his religious beliefs, goals, and amendments with his followers. For instance, when making decisions about religious reforms, he had a meeting with some of the most influential spiritual leaders of the time at the Râşid Efendi Manuscript Library. He even got them all to agree on national unity over everything else, regardless of any future disagreements or policies.
Atatürk was able to convince his followers and his close friends to support him in achieving his objectives. He could create hope, confidence, and courage so that his followers could fight alongside him, even if some of them opposed his ideas. Through his power of convincing people, he was able to achieve what most people thought was impossible.
One could observe Atatürk’s steady nature through the endless energy he committed into his career. He consistently fought against political forces that led to the crumbling of the empire. He also worked tirelessly in all assignments entrusted to him. As a result, he served successfully in every chain of command, operation and defensive battle assigned to him.
Atatürk trusted and cherished his associates. His close friends respected and were outright loyal to him in every significant step of his life. Some of them included Fevzi Cakmak, who was the Chief of Staff, Ismet Inonu, who was the Prime Minister, and Kâzım Fikri Özalp, who was the Minister of Defence. These friends supported his leadership ideologies, while Atatürk supported them and carried out common ideals so that they could realise their potential.
Physical Characteristics:
Always a heavy drinker who ate little, Atatürk began to decline in health in his later years. His illness, cirrhosis of the liver, was not diagnosed until too late. He bore the pain of the last few months of his life with great character and dignity, and on November 10, 1938, he died at 9:05 AM in Dolmabahçe.
Quotes from others about the person
Adolf Hitler: "The rapidity with which Mustapha Kemal Ataturk rid himself of his parsons makes one of the most remarkable chapters in history. He hanged thirty-nine of them out of hand, the rest he flung out, and St. Sophia in Constantinople is now a museum!"
John F. Kennedy: "The name of Atatürk brings to mind the historic accomplishments of one of the great men of this century, his inspired leadership of the Turkish people, his perceptive understanding of the modern world and his boldness as a military leader."
Bill Clinton: "Shakespeare wrote, Einstein thought, Atatürk built."