" There are two
Mustafa Kemals. One is the flesh-and-bone
Mustafa Kemal who now stands before you and who
will pass away. The other is you, all of you
here who will go to the far corners of our land
to spread the ideals which must be defended with
your lives if necessary. I stand for the
nation's dreams, and my life's work is to make
them come true."
Atatürk stands as
one of the world's few historic figures who
dedicated their lives totally to their nations.
He was born in
1881 (probably in the Spring) in Selanik, then
an Ottoman city, now in Greece. His father, Ali
Riza, a customs official turned timber merchant,
died when Mustafa was still a boy. His mother,
Zubeyde, a devout and strong-willed woman,
raised him and
his sister. First enrolled in a traditional
religious school, he soon switched to a modern
school. In 1893, he entered a military high
school where his mathematics teacher gave him
the second name Kemal (meaning "perfection") in
recognition of young Mustafa's superior
achievement. He was thereafter known as Mustafa
Kemal.
In 1905, Mustafa
Kemal graduated from the Military Academy in
Istanbul with the rank of Staff Captain. Posted
in Damascus, he started, with several colleagues,
a clandestine society called "Homeland and
Freedom" to fight against the Sultan's despotism.
Mustafa Kemal's career flourished as he won fame
and promotions because of his heroism in the
farflung corners of the Ottoman Empire,
including Albania and Tripoli. He also briefly
served as a staff officer in Selanik and
Istanbul and as a military attache in Sofia.
When the
Dardanelles campaign was launched in 1915,
Colonel Mustafa Kemal became a national hero by
winning successive vistories and finally
repelling the invaders. Promoted to general in
1916, at age 35, he liberated two major
provinces in eastern Antalia that year. In the
next two years, he served as commander of
several Ottoman armies in Palestine and Aleppo,
achieving anotherr major victory by stopping the
enemy advance at Aleppo.
