"Those hereos that shed their blood and lost their lives...You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country; therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here, in this country of ours... You, the motheres who sent their sons from far away countries; wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well"

(Statement by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk about the Anzacs, given on his behalf by Sükrü Kaya, the Minister of the Interior, at the Quins Post Cemetery, Dardanelles, Turkey, in 1934, and inscribed on the Gallipoli Fountains of Honour at Brisbane, Australia.)

ustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in the Muslim quarter of Ahmet Subasi in Salonika (Selanik), then part of the Ottoman Empire, now in Greece, in the spring of 1881. His exact date of birth is not known, but the Turkish nation has accepted 19th May, the day he landed at Samsun in 1919 in order to unfurl the banner of resistance and begin the Turkish War of Liberation against the invaders of Turkey, as his official birth date.

His mother Zübeyde Hanim, who was an old-fashioned Turkish lady, and his father, Ali Riza Efendi, who was a clerk at the Salonika Customs House, had named him Mustafa. Zübeyde Hanim's family, known as the Hacisofular, came from the region west of Salonika near Albania, where the Ottoman Government had settled a number of nomadic (yörük) Turks from the region of the Taurus (Toros) Mountains in South East Anatolia. She had dark blonde hair, deep blue eyes and fair skin. Ali Riza's family originally came from near Söke in Turkey's Aydin Province, south of Izmir.

At the time of Mustafa's birth, Sultan Abdülhamit II was on the throne. He had abolished the 1876 Constitution, so painstakingly prepared by a group of Ottoman reformists headed by Mithat Pasa, and had begun to rule the Empire as an absolute monarch. The Ottoman Empire was disintegrating, particularly in the Balkans, where the Serbs, the Montenegrins, the Greeks, the Bulgars and other Slavs, assisted by rival expansionist Powers such as Austria- Hungary, Russia, Germany, Britain and others, were striving to partition that Empire among themselves. The country was almost bankrupt, and its finances were pratically taken over by foreign boundholders through the Capitulations. These were extraterritorial and supra-national privileges, which were granted to foreigners within Ottoman bounderies, in return for loans to the Ottoman Government.

By 1893 Mustafa had made up his mind to attend the Salonika military secondary school, in 1895 he attended the Manastir military cadet school as a boarder. There, he took an interest in literature and began to write poetry.

In March 1899 he joined the infantry division of the Harbiye military academy at Istanbul. He also began to practise oratory. Three years later, in 1902, he was transferred to the General Staff College of the Harbiye as a lieutenant, after having passed very tough examinations. During his three years there he won the attention and appreciation of his tutors as an understanding, clever and hardworking cadet. It was there that Mustafa Kemal had his first lessons in guerrilla warfare, in particular from his logistics and strategy tutor Nuri Bey in Trabzon, which he would later put into practice in Anatolia.

On 11th January 1905 Kemal graduated from the Harbiye as a staff captain, but as he was involved in some political activities, he was arrested and taken to the Palace where he was kept in custody for a time. Later, however, he was released with a warning not to indulge in clandestine political activities. A short while later he was posted to the 30th Cavalry Contingent at Damascus in Syria for training. In October 1906, together with some of his friends, all disgruntled because of his existing situation, they set up a secret organisation called Vatan ve Hürriyet (Fatherland and Liberty). Kemal was very active in trying to spread the organisation in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, and later in Macedonia. A year later, he was appointed to the General Staff of the IIIrd Army Corps at Salonika where he was active in the "Fatherland and Liberty Society" which was now renamed Ittihat ve Terrakki Cemiyeti (Committee, or rather Society, of Union and Progress).

The aim of the Committee of Union and progress (CUP) was to oust Abdülhamit from power and to restore the Constitution. But when the Young Turk Revolution took place in July 1908, Kemal was not one of its protagonists. The glory was amassed by the CUP triumvirate Enver, Talat and Cemal, who would soon involve the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars and the First World War, which would lead to the final downfall of that Empire.

In September 1908 Mustafa Kemal was sent to Tripoli (Libya) as staff adjutant in order to quell the rioting Arabs against the new order in Turkey.

On his return to Salonika, a rebellion broke out in Istanbul on 13th April 1909 among the reactionaries who opposed the Young Turk regime. Mustafa Kemal was the first to suggest that an army should be set up and speedily despatched to the capital to put it down. His suggestion was accepted, and he was appointed the Chief of Staff of this Army of Operations. The rebellion was crushed and Abdülhamit was removed from the throne.

In 1913, when British General Sir Henry Wilson visited the scenes of the Balkan campaigns, he met Enver and Cemal in Istanbul. Neither of them impressed him by their military capacity; but he made one exception: " There is a man called Mustafa Kemal, a young Staff Colonel. Watch him. He may go far ", he declared.

During the war he showed great courage, particularly at Gallipoli, where he was reported to have remarked to his commanders:" I'am not ordering you to attack, I'am ordering you to die. By the time we die, other forces and commanders may take our place". It was also at Gallipoli that, on 10th August 1915, as he was observing the battle, a shrapnel pierced his coat on the right-hand side and smashed his pocket watch, leaving a stain of blood. During the fighting he disobeyed the German General Liman von Sanders, who actually regarded him as the ablest Turkish General.

"The name of Atatürk brings to mind the historical accomplishment of one of the great men of this century; his inspired leadership of the Turkish people; his perceptive understanding of the modern world; and his boldness as a military leader.

It is to the credit of Atatürk and the Turkish people that a free Turkey grew out of a collapsing empire, and that the new Turkey has proudly proclaimed and maintained its independence ever since. Certainly, there is no more successful example of national selfreliance than the Turkish Republic and the profound changes initiated since then by Turkey and Atatürk ".

(Statement by John F. Kennedy, The President of the United States)