hi guys
i thought i would write a bit that i have read from books about the father of the turks Ataturk his histiory and a bit about his reforms on a new republic of turkey and all the other turkish member counties

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) was born in 1881 in salonika, his dad was a customs officer named Ali Riza and his mum name was Zubeyde, he started army junior school in 1895 and finnished the academy with the rank as a captain in 1905, in 1906 he was sent to damascus where he founded a society with his friends vatan ve hurriyet (fatherland and freedom)

In 1911 on his own accord he went to tripoli during the war with italy and took part of the defence, while he was still in libya the balkan war broke out and he served in this war as a successful commander during 1912-1914, at the end of the war he was appointed military attache in sofia.
when mustafa kemal was in sofia the first world war broke out and he was the commander of the anafartalar group based in canakkale defending turkey from the allied forces which he personally saved turkey of invaison, this is a true story during battle mustafa kemal was hit by shrapnel above his heart but his watch in his breast pocket saved his life
in 1918 the peace treaty was signed (armistice of mondoros) but was broken soon after by the british french and italians who were in istanbul, adana was occupied by french, urfa and samsun by the british, antalya and konya by the italians and then finally the greeks in 1919 in izmir

mustafa kemal landed in samsun on may the 19th 1919 and this day marks the day of the turkish day of independence, and mustafa kemal chose this day as his own birthday
while the invaders occupied istanbul on the 23 of april 1920, mustafa kemal opened the turkish national assembly and a new government was formed in ankara on the same day he was elected president of the party
after much fighting in many areas izmir was the last place that had enemy greek troops on the 9th of sept 1922 were driven back in to the sea near izmir and war had ended

on the 24th of july 1923 the treaty of lausanne was signed and a new turkish state was recognissed by all countries, on the 29th october 1923 mustafa kemal declared the turkish state a new republic and in turn the caliphate (otaman empire) was abolished and mustafa kemal was elected the first president of the republic of turkey

The reforms of Ataturk

His first reform was the abolition of the arabic alaphabet and the adoption of the latin alphabet and on the 3rd of nov 1928 the new turkish alphabet was formed
with his clothing reform women stopped wearing veils and started wearing modern clothing and men stopped wearing fez's and wore hats

the new turkish state needed a new legal sysytem so ataturk adopted the swiss civil code and introduced the italian penal code of that time

until the the early 1900 the education system was based on ottoman systems and in 1933 the university reform was introduced based on western models

he introduced women rights thru the civil code this gave them the same rights as men they could vote and have official jobs and to be politicans

he introduced many other reforms like the weekend act of 1924, the internatiional time and calender system of 1925, the system of measures 1933and the surname act of 1934 this meant that every turk could have a surname and the nations leader was named ATATURK 'the father of the turks'

this secularisim way of thinking named kemalist meant the state was sepearated from religion and educational,cultural and leagal affairs

the kemalist priciple of secularism did not advocate atheism and was not anti god but it was a rationalist and the principle was not against islam but against islam which was opposed to modernisation

the kemalist revolution was a nationalist revolution but not a racist it was meant to preserve the independence of turkey

by late 1938 he was seiously ill and on the 10th of nov 1938 at 9:05 Ataturk died

i hope this has helped to understand what this man meant to turks and turkish cypriots alike and ill leave you with Ataturks most favourite and well known quotes 'Peace at home, peace in the world'

warm regards to all
ukturk