Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) was the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. He was born in Thessaloniki (present-day Greece), and gained prominence during World War I, especially at the Battle of Gallipoli. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk led the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923), establishing Turkey as a sovereign republic in 1923. As president, he abolished the sultanate and caliphate, adopted secular laws and education and the Latin alphabet. He’s known as the “Father of the Turks”.
