Historical Figure
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
1881–1938
Founder of Turkey (c. 1881–1938)
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Key Dates
Birth
1881 May 19, 1881 →Death
1938 November 10, 1938 →Biography
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal and statesperson who was the founder of the Republic of Turkey and served as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He led sweeping reforms, turning Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist, republican and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism. Atatürk's personality cult and the Kemalist historiography developed around it have had significant and ongoing influences on Turkey's political culture and historical narrative.
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Timeline
İzmir Independence Day, celebrates Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's capture of Izmir, Turkey, from Greece in 1922. (Turkey)
September 9 →Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey, gathers a congress in Sivas to make decisions as to the future of Anatolia and Thrace.
September 4 →Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.
May 19 →Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what was later termed the Turkish War of Independence. The anniversary of this event is the official date of commemoration of the Pontic Greek Genocide in Greece and Cyprus.
May 19 →Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, founds the Republican People's Party.
September 9 →More from the Victorian Era
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