Mustafa Kemal was born in Salonika in 1881 and became a member of the Young Turks, a revolutionary movement of intellectuals. He became a very successful soldier distinguishing himself in the 1911 war against the Italians and in the Balkan Wars a couple of years later.  Mustafa Kemal helped to thwart the Allied invasion of the Dardanelles in 1915. At the end of WW1 the Armistice of Mudros gave the Allies the right to occupy any Turkish forts that controlled major waterways as well as any territory deemed to be a threat to security.  Thus half a dozen areas along Turkey’s borders were occupied by Italians, Greeks, French, British and other forces.  In what we now call the Turkish War of Independence Mustafa Kemal led Turkish forces in battles against Greeks and Armenians until he signed the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 which established the Republic of Turkey and Mustafa Kemal became the country’s first president.  In 1934 a grateful nation gave him the surname ‘Ataturk’ meaning ‘Father of the Turks’  

Ataturk made other - not always popular- profound changes to Turkish society in his drive to turn it into a modern secular country.   After his death in October 1938 a competition was held to build a suitable burial place for the man generally regarded as the driving force behind the modern Republic of Turkey.  His mausoleum took 13 years to build and was finally completed in 1953.  My pics cannot do justice to the finished product, but hopefully they give you some idea!

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