AtatÜRk, Mustafa Kemal

(born 1881, Salonika, Greece, Ottoman Empire—died Nov. 10, 1938, Istanbul, Tur.) Founder of modern Turkey. Dedicated by his father to military service, he graduated near the top of his class in military school.

As a young officer, he was critical of the government of the Ottoman Empire and became involved with the Turkish nationalist Committee of Union and Progress. He nevertheless fought for the government during World War I (1914–18), achieving great success against Allied forces during the Dardanelles Campaign. The eventual Allied victory brought British, French, and Italian troops to Anatolia; appointed to restore order there, he used the opportunity to incite the people against the Allied occupation. Greece and Armenia, territorial beneficiaries of the Ottoman defeat, opposed the Turkish nationalists, but Mustafa Kemal overcame all opposition, and the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923. He was given the name Atatürk (“Father of the Turks”) in 1934. He pursued a policy of Westernization and secularization, in which Western styles of dress and appellation were made mandatory, seclusion of women was abolished, and the legal and educational system was overhauled. &Seealso; Enver Pasha; Young Turks.

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