Anniversary of Atatürk's death

(...) On November 10, 1938 at 9:05 am, Mustafa Kemal, better known as Atatürk, died in his Dolmabahçe Palace. Ironically, this hero of the liberation war, who ended the Sultanate will have completed his life in the - very modest - remains of the last Sultans! (...)

The story of Atatürk for short is that of an undoubtedly ambitious man. For him as for his country!

Born in 1881 in Salonica, a city now Greek but then part of the Ottoman Empire, Mustafa followed a military schooling during which one of his teachers added the name of Kemal. Which means perfect, complete! He was very interested in politics and in particular in the model of the French Revolution and the Empire of Napoleon I, from whom he was later inspired to build the Turkish Republic. During the 1st World War, Mustafa Kemal distinguished himself in the famous battle of the Dardanelles from which he emerged victorious. But it was at the end of the war, when the Ottoman Empire was defeated, dismantled and Turkey was occupied by the allies, that Mustafa Kemal disobeyed orders. He decides to wage war against the occupier and therefore against his Sultan. In 1923, Turkey was liberated.

From then on, Mustafa Kemal, supported by the Turkish people undertook drastic reforms to found the Republic of Turkey. It puts an end to the sultanate, imposes secularism and starts the modernization of the country by following the European model. The steel-blue-eyed man raises his country with an iron fist and didnt make only happy people, but cultivates his image of a leader. In 1934 he chose his surname and became Mustafa Kemal Atatürk - the father of the Turks!

"Bon vivant", he left at the age of 57, leaving the Turkish nation orphan of his guide. (...)

(extract from an article in https://grainedestambouliote.com)