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An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died and others were expelled during the war and its aftermath, but Mustafa Kemal has not been linked to the perpetration of the genocide. He was soon promoted from colonel to brigadier-general and sent to fight in eastern Turkey, Syria and Palestine. In 1915 Mustafa Kemal distinguished himself throughout the nearly yearlong Gallipoli Peninsula campaign, in which he helped stop a large force of British and French troops from taking Istanbul. Moreover, the so-called Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had stripped autocratic powers from the sultan and ushered in an era of parliamentary government. By this time, the aging empire had lost almost all of its territory in Europe and Africa. Though he claimed to be descended from Turkish nomads, some historians believe he was at least partly of Balkan ancestry.ĭuring World War I (1914-18), the Ottoman Empire allied itself with Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 19, the hard-drinking Mustafa Kemal fought against the Italians in Libya.ĭid you know? The Turkish leader known as Atatürk had blue eyes and fair hair. He was then stationed in Syria and Palestine for a few years before securing a post back in Salonica.
Mustafa ataturk series#
A good student, Mustafa Kemal attended a series of military schools, including the War College in Istanbul. His family was middle-class, Turkish-speaking and Muslim. Mustafa, who became Mustafa Kemal as a teenager and then Mustafa Kemal Atatürk late in life, was born around 1881 in the city of Salonica (now Thessaloniki, Greece), which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire. But although the country was nominally democratic, Atatürk at times stifled opposition with an authoritarian hand.
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Under his leadership, the role of Islam in public life shrank drastically, European-style law codes came into being, the office of the sultan was abolished and new language and dress requirements were mandated. He then served as Turkey’s first president from 1923 until his death in 1938, implementing reforms that rapidly secularized and westernized the country. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was an army officer who founded an independent Republic of Turkey out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.