Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) was an Ottoman field marshal, revolutionary statesman, and the founding father and first president of the modern Republic of Türkiye. During World War I, he achieved international renown as the undefeated Ottoman commander who thwarted the Allied landings in the Gallipoli Campaign.

Early Military Career in a Declining Empire

Born as Mustafa in the Ottoman port city of Salonica (modern Thessaloniki, Greece), he earned the second name 'Kemal' ('Perfection') from his mathematics teacher at military school for his academic brilliance. Graduating from the Ottoman Imperial War College in 1905 as a staff captain, he joined reformist officers frustrated by the empire's decay. Before World War I, he gained combat experience fighting Italian forces in Libya (1911–1912) and serving in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), where he witnessed firsthand the strategic vulnerability of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Hero of Gallipoli: 'I Order You to Die'

When the Ottoman Empire entered World War I alongside the Central Powers, Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal was appointed to command the 19th Division in reserve on the Gallipoli Peninsula. On April 25, 1915, British, French, and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand) troops landed at Ari Burnu with the goal of seizing the heights and opening the Dardanelles to Constantinople. Without waiting for orders from higher command, Mustafa Kemal rode to the front and committed his entire division to the critical high ground at Chunuk Bair. Encountering retreating Ottoman soldiers who had run out of ammunition, he ordered them to fix bayonets and lie down, issuing his immortal command: 'I do not order you to attack, I order you to die.'

In August 1915, while leading a counterattack at Conk Bayırı, a piece of shrapnel struck him directly in the chest, but his life was saved when the metal shattered against the pocket watch in his breast pocket. After the Allied evacuation in January 1916, he went on to command Ottoman armies on the Caucasus and Syrian fronts, ending the war as one of the empire's few undefeated generals.

Founding the Republic of Türkiye

After the Ottoman defeat in 1918 and the Allied occupation of Constantinople, plans to partition the Turkish heartland under the Treaty of Sèvres sparked national resistance. Landing at Samsun on the Black Sea coast in May 1919, Mustafa Kemal organized the Turkish National Movement and led the War of Independence (1919–1922) to expel occupying forces. Following the internationally recognized Treaty of Lausanne, he proclaimed the Republic of Türkiye on October 29, 1923, with Ankara as its new capital. As first president until his death in 1938, he abolished the Ottoman Sultanate and Caliphate, separated religion from state, granted women full voting rights, and replaced the Arabic script with a new Latin-based Turkish alphabet. In 1934, the Turkish Parliament bestowed upon him the surname Atatürk, meaning 'Father of the Turks.'