As a result of this success, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to the rank of Colonel. When the enemy forces landed at Arıburnu (Cape of Bees) on April 25, 1915, the 19th Division, under the command of Mustafa Kemal, stopped them at Conkbayırı (Chunuk Bair). Mustafa Kemal was appointed to Tekirdağ to establish the 19th Division.ĭuring World War I, Mustafa Kemal made history and thanks to his great service, the Entente States had to confess, "Dardanelle straits is impassable!" When the British and French fleets suffered heavy losses during the attempts to pass the Dardanelle Straits on March 18, 1915, they decided to land troops on the Gallipolis Peninsula. In the meantime, World War I had started and the Ottoman Empire was forced to participate in the war. His assignment as Military Attaché ended in January 1915.
As the incumbent attaché, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1914. In 1913, he was assigned as the Military Attaché to Sofia. He performed great service in the recapturing of Dimetoka and Edirne. When the Balkan War started in October 1912, Mustafa Kemal participated in the war with regiments from Gallipolis and Bolayır.
After defeating the Italians in the Tobruk Battle on December 22, 1911, he was appointed as the Commander of Darnah on March 6, 1912. In 1911,during the war that started upon the Italians' assault on Tripoli, Mustafa Kemal took up duties with a group of comrades in the Tobruk and Darnah regions. In 1911, he started to work at Ottoman General Staff in Istanbul. In 1910, he was sent to France and took part in the Picardie Maneuvers. On April 19, 1909, he was the Chief of Staff in the Action Army, which entered Istanbul to quell the March 31st Incident. After being promoted to Senior Captain in 1907, he was assigned to the 3rd Army in Bitola (Manastır).
Between 19, he served in the 5th Army in Damascus. On January 11, 1905, he graduated from the Army War College as Captain. Upon graduating with the rank of lieutenant in 1902, he attended the Army War College. After attending the Manastır (Bitola) Military High School between 18, he started his education at the Military Academy in Istanbul. In the military school, his mathematics teacher gave him his middle name "Kemal", which means "mature and perfect". In 1893, he entered the Military Middle School. He enrolled in the Salonica Secondary School. After loosing his father in 1888, he spent some time on the Rapla farm with his maternal uncle and later returned to Salonica and finished his school. When Mustafa reached school age, he started his education at the Hafız Efendi local primary school however, upon his father's request, he later switched to Şemsi Efendi School. Four of Atatürk's five siblings died at an early age and only his sister Makbule (Atadan) lived until 1956. Ali Rıza Efendi, who served as a militia officer, an estate clerk and a lumber merchant, married Zübeyde Hanım in 1871. His mother, Zübeyde Hanım, was the daughter of an old Turkish family that had settled in the town of Langaza near Salonica.
His paternal grandfather, Hafız Ahmet Efendi, was from the Kocacık Yörüks (a Turkish nomadic tribe), who had emigrated from Konya and Aydın and settled in Macedonia during the 14th and 15th centuries. His father's name was Ali Rıza Efendi and his mother was Zübeyde Hanım. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in the Kocakasım District of Salonica in 1881 in a three-story pink house on Islahane Street.