Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (19 May 1881-10 November 1938) was President of Turkey from 29 October 1923 to 10 November 1938, preceding Ismet Inonu. Born Mustafa Kemal, he led the Turkish nationalist resistance against the Allied Powers' occupation of Asia Minor following World War I, defeating Greece and the other foreign armies. He was given the epithet "Ataturk", meaning "father of the Turks", for establishing the secular republic that became Turkey. Ataturk served as president until his death in 1938, and his Republican People's Party (MHP) would remain a major party for decades to come.
Biography[]
The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal was originally a career officer in the army of the Ottoman Empire. He saw action in Libya and the Balkans before Turkey's entry into World War I as an ally of Germany in October 1914. Commanding the Turkish 19th Division, Kemal led resistance to the Allied landings at Gallipoli from April 1915. His determination to hold ground regardless of cost turned Kemal into a national hero.
The remaining years of the war gave him few chances to shine, but he emerged from defeats in both the Caucasus and Palestine with more credit than other Turkish generals. In 1919, Kemal emerged as the leader of nationalist opposition to punitive peace terms and the occupation of parts of Turkey by Greek and other foreign armies. Heading a revolutionary government based in Ankara, in the summer of 1921, he successfully resisted a Greek offensive on the line of the Sakarya River.
The following year, advancing on Greek-occupied Smyrna (now İzmir), he routed the Greek armies at the battle of Dumlupinar, driving them out of Anatolia. The Ottoman sultan was deposed and Kemal became the first president of the Turkish Republic. He took the title Atatürk (father of the Turks) in 1934 and remained in office until his death in 1938.