Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism.

He came to prominence for his role in securing the Ottoman victory at the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I. During this time, the Ottoman Empire perpetrated genocides against its Greek, Armenian and Assyrian subjects. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, he led the Turkish National Movement, which resisted the Empire's partition among the victorious Allied powers.