Kemal Ataturk Biography Quotes 4 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born in 1881 in Salonika (today Thessaloniki), then a cosmopolitan port of the Ottoman Empire. His father, Ali Riza Efendi, worked in civil service and trade, and his mother, Zubeyde Hanim, was known for her piety and resolve. After early schooling in Salonika, he entered the Monastir (Bitola) Military High School, where discipline and mathematics drew his interest and where he acquired the second name Kemal, meaning perfection, from a teacher. He continued to the Ottoman War College in Istanbul, graduating as a lieutenant in 1902, and completed the Staff College in 1905 as a general staff captain. The professional standards and meritocratic ethos of the staff schools shaped his outlook and supplied him with a cohort of career officers who would later figure prominently in his life, including Ismet Inonu, Fevzi Cakmak, and Ali Fuat Cebesoy.

Young Officer and the Ottoman Empire's Crises
His first postings took him to Damascus and then Salonika with the 5th Army. In these years he helped form the clandestine group Vatan ve Hurriyet (Fatherland and Freedom), reflecting his concern for constitutional government. Although he interacted with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), led by figures such as Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha, and Cemal Pasha, he remained independent-minded and often critical of their methods. After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution restored the constitution, he served in staff roles during the 1909 countercoup and the Action Army's suppression of unrest.

He saw combat in the Italo-Turkish War (1911, 1912), assisting in the defense of Tobruk and Derna in Libya. During the Balkan Wars (1912, 1913), he served on the Chatalca front and in Gallipoli, witnessing the empire's dramatic losses in Europe. These experiences reinforced his belief in professional command, national mobilization, and strategic restraint.

World War I and Rise to Prominence
At the outbreak of World War I, he commanded the 19th Division at the Dardanelles under the overall authority of the Ottoman command and the German adviser General Liman von Sanders. In the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, his initiative at critical moments on the peninsula made him a national figure; he gained a reputation for composure, operational clarity, and personal courage. Promoted thereafter, he was transferred to the Caucasus front in 1916, where he helped retake Mus and Bitlis from Russian forces and attained the rank of pasha (brigadier general).

In 1917, 1918 he led the 7th Army in Palestine and Syria, clashing at times with German strategic priorities under commanders such as Erich von Falkenhayn. He argued for orderly withdrawal and preservation of forces as the front deteriorated. When the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918 effectively ended the Ottoman war effort, he was one of the few senior officers with intact prestige and a determination to resist partition.

From Samsun to the Grand National Assembly
In May 1919, appointed Inspector of the Ninth Army to restore order in Anatolia, he landed at Samsun on 19 May, a date he later adopted as his birthday in symbolic fashion. Breaking with the Istanbul government of Sultan Mehmed VI, he issued the Amasya Circular that called for national sovereignty and convened the Erzurum (July, August 1919) and Sivas (September 1919) congresses. Regional commanders such as Kazim Karabekir, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, and Refet Bele, along with civilian figures including Rauf Orbay and the writer Halide Edib Adivar, became key allies. When the Sultan's government dismissed him and later condemned him, the nationalist movement consolidated in Ankara, forming the Grand National Assembly (GNA) on 23 April 1920, with Mustafa Kemal as its speaker.

War of Independence and Founding of the Republic
The nationalist forces faced multiple fronts: occupying Greek, French, and Italian detachments in western and southern Anatolia; Armenian forces in the east; and the threat of internal uprisings. After stabilizing the eastern frontier through agreements and campaigns led by commanders like Kazim Karabekir, attention shifted westward. Ismet Inonu halted and then reversed Greek advances at the First and Second Battles of Inonu (1921). In August, September 1921, as Commander-in-Chief appointed by the GNA, Mustafa Kemal directed the Anatolian army in the decisive Battle of Sakarya, fighting a defensive-offensive campaign that pushed Greek forces back. A year later, the Great Offensive culminated at Dumlupinar (August 1922), with Fevzi Cakmak as Chief of the General Staff coordinating the final pursuit to the Aegean.

Diplomatic resolution followed. The Mudanya Armistice (October 1922) opened the way to negotiations, and the GNA abolished the sultanate in November, prompting Mehmed VI to depart. At Lausanne, Ismet Inonu led the Turkish delegation against British, French, Italian, and other representatives, including Lord Curzon. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne recognized the sovereignty of the new state within most of its present borders and ended the capitulations. On 29 October 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, and Mustafa Kemal became its first president.

Reform and Nation-Building
As president, he prioritized building modern state institutions and a civic national identity. He founded the People's Party, later the Republican People's Party (CHP), working with prime ministers including Ismet Inonu and Ali Fethi (Fethi Okyar). The government abolished the caliphate in March 1924 and unified education under the Law on the Unification of Education, closing the dual track of religious and secular schools. Religious lodges and brotherhoods were closed in 1925, and the Hat Law symbolized dress reforms. A new civil code based on the Swiss model (1926) replaced sharia-based family law, enshrining equality before the law and reforming marriage and inheritance. Penal and commercial codes were modernized, and the university reform of 1933 reorganized higher education.

In 1928, the adoption of the Latin-based Turkish alphabet accelerated literacy campaigns. The Turkish Historical Society (1931) and the Turkish Language Association (1932) encouraged scholarship and linguistic reform. The People's Houses (Halkevleri) spread civic education and culture. Women's rights advanced markedly: women gained municipal suffrage in 1930 and full national voting rights and eligibility for parliament in 1934. That same year, the Surname Law required fixed family names; parliament granted him the surname Ataturk, meaning Father of the Turks.

Politics, Opposition, and Society
Republican transformation provoked resistance. The Progressive Republican Party, formed in 1924 by veterans such as Kazim Karabekir, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, and Rauf Orbay, was closed in 1925 after the Sheikh Said rebellion prompted emergency measures, including Independence Tribunals. In 1930, with his encouragement, Fethi Okyar briefly led the Free Republican Party to test multiparty life, but unrest, including the Menemen incident, led to its dissolution. Throughout, Ataturk relied on trusted colleagues such as Ismet Inonu and Fevzi Cakmak to maintain stability while pursuing rapid change. The press and intellectuals like Halide Edib Adivar sometimes supported and sometimes criticized the pace and methods of reform, reflecting the tensions of state-led modernization.

Economically, he adopted a mixed approach known as statism. The state prioritized railways, mining, and textile plants, and launched an industrial plan in the mid-1930s. Foreign concessions were reduced, and national institutions like the Central Bank were established to manage currency and credit.

Foreign Policy and Regional Balance
Ataturk's maxim, Peace at home, peace in the world, guided a policy of prudent engagement. Turkey normalized relations with former adversaries; rapprochement with Greece culminated in treaties and reciprocal visits, and Greek leader Eleftherios Venizelos and Turkish leaders fostered a climate of reconciliation. Regionally, the Balkan Pact of 1934 with Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia aimed at mutual security, while the Saadabad Pact of 1937 with Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan reinforced non-aggression in the Middle East. The Montreux Convention of 1936 restored Turkish control over the Straits regime, a key strategic objective. In the late 1930s, he pressed for a settlement of the Sanjak of Alexandretta (Hatay) question; the creation of the Hatay State in 1938 and its subsequent union with Turkey after his death reflected this diplomacy.

Private Life and Character
Ataturk married Latife Hanim of the Ussaki family in 1923; the couple divorced in 1925. He had no biological children, but he adopted several, including the aviator Sabiha Gokcen and the historian Afet Inan, whom he encouraged in education and public life. His sister Makbule lived in Ankara for long periods, and his close aide Salih Bozok served by his side for years. He made the Cankaya residence a center of state affairs and informal salons, bringing together soldiers, administrators, and intellectuals. His personal habits included heavy work routines and, notoriously, heavy smoking and drinking. He was known for concise orders, an analytical cast of mind, and an ability to communicate purpose to soldiers and citizens alike.

Final Years and Legacy
In the mid-1930s, amid successes in foreign policy and consolidation at home, his health waned due to cirrhosis of the liver. He spent long periods at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul under medical care. On 10 November 1938, he died there, and the nation observed a state funeral that drew vast crowds. His remains were moved temporarily to the Ethnography Museum in Ankara and interred in 1953 at Anitkabir, the mausoleum built in his honor. The Grand National Assembly elected Ismet Inonu to the presidency, ensuring constitutional continuity.

Ataturk's legacy lies in establishing a sovereign republic from the wreckage of empire and institutionalizing reforms that recast law, education, language, and civic identity. The generation of leaders around him, Ismet Inonu, Fevzi Cakmak, Kazim Karabekir, Rauf Orbay, Fethi Okyar, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, and many others, shaped the republic's trajectory, sometimes in alliance and sometimes in opposition. His policies and ideas continue to frame debates about secularism, democracy, and national development in Turkey. For many, he symbolizes disciplined leadership joined to pragmatic statecraft; for others, his assertive methods and one-party rule invite critique. Both views testify to the enduring centrality of his life and work in the modern history of Turkey.

Our collection contains 4 quotes who is written by Kemal, under the main topics: Justice - Freedom - Art.

Other people realated to Kemal: Humayun Ahmed (Author), Muammar al-Gaddafi (Leader)