Kemal Ataturk — the national pride of Istanbul

In Istanbul, as well as in all the other corners of Turkey, the first president of the state — Kemal Ataturk — is treated with a special respect and love. This is not a surprise, because this person managed to give the development of the state a quite new direction.

From the life of the first president

The future president of Turkey was born in 1881 in Salonica city, that is now located in Greece. His parents named him Mustafa. In the military school, where he was matriculated after school, his teacher added “Kemal” to his name – that means “perfection” in Turkish, for his talent in mathematics. In his younger years the talented officer was fond of literature and poetry, but later he chose politics as the matter of his whole life.

During the First world war Mustafa Kemal has been brilliantly fighting at all world fronts from Libya to Syria, but the most important stage of his political career became the participation in the defense of Dardanelles strait from Enlish-Frensh forces that numerically surpassed their rival. The merits of Mustafa Kemal could not stay unnoticed and so, in 1916 he was promoted to general and given the title of pasha. After the war the Ottoman empire broke up and the countries-winners occupied most of the territory of Turkey. Then Mustafa headed the national emancipatory movement.

After the fight for liberty in 1923 the independence of Turkish republic was proclaimed, and Mustafa Kemal its first president. By the request of his people in 1935 Mustafa took the surname “Ataturk” which is translated from Turkish like “The father of Turks”.

Mustafa Kemal deceased in 1938, his remnants are stored in a specially-built mausoleum in Ankara. Turks love and respect their first president very much: almost in every town and village of Turkey there is a street named in his honor. Disrespect for his memory is considered as a serious outrage for any inhabitant of Turkey.

The role of Ataturk in the development of the state

The extensive reforms of Kemal Ataturk led to the gradual transformation of Turkey into a secular state. Among the most important reforms were the introduction of Roman alphabet, granting women equal rights with men, acceptance of a new civil code, and other steps towards the improvement of Turkish people’s life. In spite of the fact that the president was atheist, Islam was not persecuted during his rule. All political activity of Ataturk used to have a single aim – returning Turkish people their national pride and self-actualization without using force methods.