Kemal Atatürk was a military leader, statesman and reformer in Turkey. He was born and named Mustafa, in 1888 in Salonika, Macedonia, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. In military school he was given the surname Kemal, meaning "perfectionist".
During World War I, Turkey sided with Germany; Mustafa Kemal Pasha was head of the branch of the Turkish army defending the Gallipoli peninsula. His brilliant generalship enabled the Turks to defeat the Allied Anzac forces at Souvla Bay. After the war, he was engaged in a power struggle with the Sultanate, and a border war with the invading Greeks, who were backed up by the British. His successful military encounters and political manuvering made him the founder of the new Republic of Turkey.
As President, Kemal instituted many reforms to modernize the country and separate the church from the state; almost immediately he abolished the Caliphate. He abolished the wearing of the fez, feeling that Western dress would make Turks more respected in Europe; he brutally suppressed the resulting Hat Riots. He supported the education of women, and gave them the vote, granting equal rights to men and women. In a swift 6-month program he changed the official writing system to the Latin alphabet rather than Arabic script. When he required all Turks to take a last name, he chose Atatürk, "Father of the Turks", and dropped Mustafa from his name entirely.
Although Atatürk liked the idea of democracy, he did not allow much dissidence; he repeatedly rounded up and shot leaders of the opposing parlimentary party on pretty thin grounds. His separation of Islam from the laws of the land meant that he heavily suppressed many fundamentalist Muslim groups. And while he saved the Ottoman Empire from being completely carved up by Western Powers, this also meant that he brutally suppressed independence movements like that of the Kurds.
Several biographies of Atatürk reveal his slightly unsavory habits of drinking and sleeping around with women and men- though his bisexuality is a controversial topic. After he ended his affair with his cousin Fikriye, she killed herself dramatically in his house. He loved dancing, dressing well, folk songs, and wrestling. Another of his habits was adopting young girls; his best known daughter is Sabiha Gokcen, Turkey's first female aviator.
Atatürk died in 1938 and is revered today by the people of Turkey for his leadership.