Who was Atatürk?

On 10 November at 09:05 all of Türkiye stops. Sirens sound, cars halt, people stand in silence.

It is a minute of remembrance for a man born in 1881 in Salonica, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

Mustafa Kemal became an officer. In 1915 he made his name in the battle of Gallipoli.

On 19 May 1919 he landed at Samsun. The War of Independence began.

In 1923 the Republic was founded, and he became its first president.

Reforms followed: the Latin alphabet, schools for everyone, votes for women. In 1934 parliament gave him the surname Atatürk, 'Father of the Turks'.

He died on 10 November 1938 at 09:05. For Turks he is something like Józef Piłsudski for Poles: the father of an independent state. Though they are two different stories.