Kemal Atatürk, (Turkish: “Kemal, Father of Turks”) original name Mustafa Kemal, also called Mustafa Kemal Paşa, (born 1881, Salonika [now Thessaloníki], Greece—died November 10, 1938, Istanbul, Turkey), soldier, statesman, and reformer who was the founder and first president (1923–38) of the Republic of Turkey. He modernized the country’s legal and educational systems and encouraged the adoption of a European way of life, with Turkish written in the Latin alphabet and with citizens adopting European-style names.
