Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Quotes


We must know our limitations and expend our lives only in the cause of our independence.


Context

Turkey under the Ottomans had been an imperialist, expansionist, empire, fighting and ruling over half of Europe and all of the Middle East. Ataturk argued that fighting and taking casualties should only take place to protect the nation’s independence and not to build or maintain an empire.


Citations

Kemal Ataturk, 1881-1938, 1st President and founder of the Turkish Republic, Statement, 1922, Quoted in Andrew Mango, Ataturk

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

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Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
  • Born: May 19, 1881
  • Died: November 10, 1938
  • Nationality: Turkish
  • Profession: Leader

Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressive reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrial nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and theories became known as Kemalism. Due to his military and political accomplishments, Atatürk is regarded as one of the most important political leaders of the 20th century.