Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in the Kocakasim neighborhood of Thessaloniki in 1881. His father is Ali Rıza Efendi and his mother is Zübeyde Hanım. His paternal grandfather, Hafız Ahmet Efendi, was one of the Kocacık nomads settled in Macedonia from Konya and Aydın in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. His mother, Zübeyde Hanım, is the daughter of an old Turkish family settled in the town of Langaza, near Thessaloniki. Four of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's five siblings died at a young age. Only Makbule Hanım lived until 1956.

When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk reached the age of education, he went to the neighborhood school of Hafız Mehmet Efendi at the request of his mother. After studying there for a while, at the request of his father, he transferred to the Şemsi Efendi School, which provided modern education according to the conditions of his time. He lost his father while he was studying at Şemsi Efendi School. After staying with his uncle at Rapla Farm for a while, he returned to Thessaloniki and completed his schooling. After completing his education at Şemsi Efendi School, he enrolled in Thessaloniki Civil High School. After a short while, he transferred from Thessaloniki Civil High School to Thessaloniki Military High School. He took the name "Kemal" from Captain Mustafa Efendi, the teacher of his favorite mathematics lesson. Thus, his name became "Mustafa Kemal". After graduating from Thessaloniki Military High School, he started to study at the Manastır Military High School in 1896. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's interest in literature laid the foundations for his future mastery of rhetoric and written expression. Kolağası Mehmet Tevfik Bey, the history teacher at the Manastır Military High School, was the main factor in Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's interest in history and especially Turkish history. He completed his education at the Manastır Military High School in 1896-1899. After finishing his education at the Manastır Military High School, he was enrolled in the infantry class of the Military Academy in Istanbul. During his student life at this school, he secretly published a hand-printed newspaper in order to spread the ideas of freedom. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk graduated from the Military Academy with the rank of Lieutenant in 1902. After graduation, he entered the Military Academy. In 1903, he moved to the second class and was promoted to first lieutenant. He graduated from the Military Academy with the rank of captain on January 11, 1905.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was closely interested in the problems of the country and the nation during his studentship at the Military Academy and the Military Academy. Therefore, following his graduation from the Military Academy, he was detained for a short time due to his anti-government ideas. In 1905 he was appointed to the command of the 5th Army in Damascus. In the same year, together with some of his friends, he secretly founded the Vatan ve Hürriyet Cemiyeti. Branches of this society were opened in Beirut, Jaffa and Jerusalem. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk went to Thessaloniki secretly in 1906 and returned after opening a branch of the same society. The branch in Thessaloniki joined the Ottoman Freedom Society in the same year. This society, which operated in secret in Thessaloniki, merged with the Ottoman Union and Progress Society in 1907. In 1907, he received the rank of Kolağası (Senior Captain). Later, he was assigned to the 3rd Army headquarters in Manastır. He started to work in the staff branch of the headquarters in Thessaloniki. In addition to his duty in Thessaloniki, he was given the duty of Eastern Railway Inspector between Skopje and Thessaloniki. He was sent to Tripoli to prevent the reactions that followed the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy by the Central Committee of the Committee of Union and Progress. He returned to Thessaloniki in January 1909 after resolving the unrest there and establishing the state authority. He was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army Thessaloniki 2nd Redif Division. Upon the outbreak of the rebellion, which went down in history as the 31 March Incident, he moved from Thessaloniki to Istanbul on 15-16 April 1909 as the chief of staff of this army, together with the Action Army under the command of Hüseyin Hüsnü Pasha. He personally wrote the first statement issued by the Movement Army to the people of Istanbul. He attended the second major congress of the Committee of Union and Progress, gathered in Thessaloniki in 1909, as a Tripoli delegate. In this congress, he advocated the withdrawal of the army from politics, expanding the organization of the society among the people and making it a political party based on the nation. Since his views were not shared by the leaders of the society, he kept himself away from the society and devoted himself to his military duty. Mustafa Kemal was reassigned to the headquarters of the 3rd Army from the Chief of Staff of the 2nd Redif Division. He took part in the operation organized to suppress the rebellion in Albania in May 1910, alongside the Minister of War Mahmut Şevket Pasha. On September 6, 1910, Mustafa Kemal was appointed to the 3rd Army Officer Training Command. While Mustafa Kemal was in this position, he participated in the Picardie maneuvers in France with a committee that included Fethi Bey, representing the army. In 1911, he started to work under the command of the General Staff in Istanbul.