War minister among the Three Pashas who took the Ottomans into the war and was a main perpetrator of the Armenian genocide
Born in Constantinople, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress and became a hero of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. After the 1913 coup he became war minister and ruled the empire with Talat and Djemal as the Three Pashas. He took the Ottomans into the First World War in alliance with Germany, and after losing most of his army at Sarıkamış in December 1914 blamed the defeat on the Armenians. He was a main perpetrator of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocides. After the defeat he fled and was sentenced to death in absentia. He worked with the Bolsheviks, then in 1921 in Central Asia went over to the Basmachi rebels, and was killed fighting the Red Army in 1922.
Career timeline
- 1908Leader of the Young Turk Revolution
- 1913Raid on the Sublime Porte
- 1914–1918Ottoman War Minister
- 1914Defeat at Sarıkamış
- 1919–1920Sentenced to death in absentia
- 1921–1922Joined the Basmachi revolt
Gallipoli commander who led the national movement and founded the Republic of Turkey as its first president
Born in Salonica, he joined the Young Turk movement and made his name defending Gallipoli in the First World War. After the defeat he landed at Samsun in May 1919 to organise the national movement against occupation, and in 1920 convened the Grand National Assembly in Ankara. With gold and arms from the Bolshevik government he defeated the Greek army, and the Treaty of Lausanne recognised the victory. In these years the ethnic cleansing of Anatolia’s Armenians and Greeks was completed through massacres, deportations and population exchange. He abolished the sultanate in 1922 and in 1923 became the first president of the republic, pursuing secularising reforms and Turkification under one-party rule. He died in 1938.
Career timeline
- 1915Commander of the 19th Division at Gallipoli
- 1919Landed at Samsun and organised the national movement
- 1920Speaker of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara
- 1921–1922Victories at the Sakarya and Dumlupınar
- 1923–1938First president of the Republic of Turkey
Officer who negotiated the Treaty of Lausanne and succeeded Atatürk as Turkey’s second president
Born in Smyrna, an Ottoman officer, he won the First and Second Battles of İnönü in the War of Independence as chief of the General Staff and commander of the Western Front. As Turkey’s chief negotiator at Lausanne in 1922–1923 he faced down Curzon and replaced the Treaty of Sèvres with the Treaty of Lausanne. As prime minister for most of Atatürk’s presidency he carried out the secularising reforms; after the Sheikh Said revolt he pushed the Turkification of the Kurds, and he is considered one of those responsible for the Dersim massacre. Elected second president in 1938, he took the title “National Chief” and kept Turkey in armed neutrality in the Second World War. After defeat in the 1950 election he handed over power peacefully. He died in 1973.
Career timeline
- 1921First and Second Battles of İnönü
- 1922–1923Chief Turkish negotiator at Lausanne
- 1923–1937Prime minister (twice)
- 1938–1950President of Turkey
- 1961–1965Prime minister
