The bright and courageous Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is known well throughout parts of the world such as the Middle East and Europe. He is one of a few people that would do so much for their country and its people. Kemal should be recognized as a very significant person in the world and Turkey because he protected the country from foreign powers, declared its independence, and attempted to make the country more Westernized. After Kemal became Turkey's first president, he wanted Turkey to be a modern nation so he had numerous reforms to meet Western standards. He was the one who founded the Republic of Turkey, which still continues today. .
Kemal Ataturk's birth name was Mustafa. He was born in Salonika, Macedonia, which was back then the part of the Ottoman Empire. He was the one of two children of Ali Riza and Zubeyde. His sister's name was Makbule. His father, who was 20 years older then his mother, was a customs official and died in 1888. Mustafa's mother wanted him to go to an Islamic school, but Mustafa wanted to have a military career. He went to a military secondary school at 12 years old. Mustafa was then given the name Kemal that meant "perfect". After that, Mustafa Kemal went to the war college in Istanbul in 1899. Then he went to a staff college for training as an advanced field officer. During his attendance in the war college and the staff college, he entered in many anti-Ottoman government activities that opposed Sultan Abdul Hamid. He read literature that was banned and secretly helped to write an anti-government newspaper. Three years later, Kemal graduated and his activities were exposed. He was allowed to follow his career in Syria where he could not pose any trouble. But there he still spread his ideas.
When World War 1 started the Ottoman Empire entered it on the side of the Central Powers. Kemal insisted that Turkey stay neutral but things didn"t go his way. The following year the Allied Powers attempted to capture the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, and open a route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
