The Great Leader: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Have you ever loved someone without seeing them? Or did you feel his voice without ever hearing it? "I loved you without seeing you, I felt you without hearing your voice." says for that great leader in the song. Everyone born in this generation loved him that way. The ancestor and father of those Turks: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. If I am writing this article here today, I owe it to him. Shall we get to know him a little better?
“Peace at home, peace in the world!”
His exact birthday is unknown, but we knew that he was born in 1881, in Thessaloniki, Greece. His dad was Ali Rıza Efendi, and his mom was Zübeyde Hanım. He has only one sister, Makbule who died in 1956. When he started primary school, he went first to the religious school and then to the private school of those times. It is said that he always wanted to be a soldier. Rumor has it that when he was a baby, his father hung a sword on the wall where his crib was, and he was also affected by it. In 1893 he went against his mother and enrolled in the military secondary school in Thessaloniki. Although his birth name was Mustafa, the mathematics teacher he loved at this school was also named Mustafa, and because people confused the two, his teacher named him Kemal, which means perfection. All his life he went to military schools and lastly in 1905 he graduated military college as staff captain. In 1911, he volunteered to fight in the Italo-Turkish War and in, he was appointed the Ottoman military attaché to all Balkan states and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 1 March 1914. In 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the European and Middle Eastern theatres of World War I allied with the Central Powers. Atatürk was given the task of organizing and commanding the army during the Battle of Gallipoli. He became the front-line commander after correctly anticipating where the Allies would attack and held his position until they retreated. The smart decisions taken by Atatürk and his comrades in this war changed Turkish history and prevented the enemy from entering the country.
“Victory is for those who can say “Victory is mine”. Success is for those who can begin saying “I will succeed.” and say, “I have succeeded.” in the end.”
After World War I, everything went bad. The Ottoman Empire was destroyed, there were enemies in every land of the country. The patriotic nation decided to fight to save their country. Their leader was Atatürk. On May 19, 1919, in our city in the north of the country he arrived in Samsun and the Turkish War of Independence began. Atatürk, who traveled the country and called people to war, arrived in Ankara, our current capital, on 27 December 1919. A few months after his arrival in Ankara, on April 23, 1920, our assembly, which established the foundations of the Turkish Republic, was opened. We have been celebrating the opening of our assembly since 1921. In addition, Atatürk gifted 23 April to children as a children's day in 1929. We did not have weapons and our army did not consist of very talented soldiers, even most of them consisted of farmers and shopkeepers. Everyone, young, old, male, or female, joined the war. After 5 wars and many events, the war was won on August 30, 1922. And one year later, on October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Since then, Republic Day has been celebrated as a national holiday on that date. “Oh, rising new generation! You are the future. We built the republic; you are the ones who raise it and keep it alive.” With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, efforts to modernize the country started. The new government analyzed the institutions and constitutions of Western states such as France, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland and adapted them to the needs and characteristics of the Turkish nation. He spent the following years, up until his death in 1938, instituting political, economic, and social reforms. In doing so, he transformed Turkish society from perceiving itself as a Muslim part of a vast Empire into a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state.
His innovations were to establish schools based on science and science, to change the Arabic alphabet and replace it with the Latin alphabet and to ensure that only Turkish is spoken, the hat-clothing revolution, the use of the Gregorian calendar, the changing of the measuring units, the creation of new laws by taking the example from the West, and the introduction of the surname law. In the Ottoman Empire, people did not have surnames, people knew each other by nicknames. In accordance with the surname law, he was given the surname Atatürk, which means the father of the Turks. This surname cannot be used by anyone as specified in the law. In addition, Atatürk gave women the right to choose and be elected to Turkish women before most countries. In addition to these innovations, he wrote the book "Geometry", which tells the Turks about mathematics with new mathematical units, and the book "Nutuk (The Speech)", in which he summarizes the activities of his life from 1919 to 1927.
He married once and divorced after that. He never had a child, but he adopted 13 kids. The famous child that he adopts is Sabiha Gökçen, Turkey's first female pilot and the world's first female fighter pilot.
“My humble body will certainly become soil one day. However, the Republic of Turkey will last forever.”
During 1937, indications that Atatürk's health was worsening started to appear. In early 1938, while on a trip to Yalova, he suffered from a serious illness. He went to Istanbul for treatment, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis. During his stay in Istanbul, he tried to keep up with his regular lifestyle, but eventually succumbed to his illness. He died on 10 November 1938, at the age of 57, in the Dolmabahçe Palace. He was the first president of Turkey to die in office. The clock in the bedroom where he died is still set to the time of his death, 9:05 in the morning. At 9:05 am on every 10 November, at the exact time of Atatürk's death, most vehicles and people in the country's streets pause for one minute in remembrance. Atatürk's remains were originally laid to rest in the Ethnography Museum of Ankara, but they were transferred on 10 November 1953 (15 years after his death) in a 42-ton sarcophagus to a mausoleum overlooking Ankara, Anıtkabir.
His legacy is not only living in Turkey. In 1981, the centennial of Atatürk's birth, his memory was honored by the United Nations and UNESCO, which declared it The Atatürk Year in the World and adopted the Resolution on the Atatürk Centennial. In so many countries there are his monuments, his statues, and a lot of places named after him. He has given hope of independence not only to us but to many 3rds World Countries. Once again, I thank him for allowing me to do so many things in this life. I feel very lucky to be walking in his footsteps.