MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK
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LISTENING GAP FILL
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1) ________________ the Republic of Turkey.
His surname, Ataturk, means “Father of the Turks”.
He was born in
1881 in Salonika, then part of the Ottoman Empire. He had a long and
active military career before entering politics. (2) ________________
and revolutionary leader who swiftly modernized Turkey after
becoming its first president. (3) ________________ throughout
Turkish life today.
When Atatürk was 12, he joined a military school. He later graduated
from (4) ________________ Istanbul in 1905. He quickly established
his military (5) ________________ against the Italians in Libya in
1911, and in the Balkan Wars between 1912-1913. He became a hero
by defending the Dardanelles against the Allies in 1915.
Atatürk was
(6) ________________ at the age of 35 because of his military skills.
Atatürk played a key role in the Turkish War of Independence (1919-
1922). He started (7) __________________ and successfully fought
off European armies that (8) ________________
occupied Turkey
after WWI. In 1921, he established a temporary government in
Ankara. Two years later, in 1923, Turkey (9) ____________________
with Atatürk as its president. He remained in office until 1938.
As
president, Mustafa Kemal’s reforms (10) ________________ and
encouraged education for girls. He also asked women to work to build
Turkey’s economy. He replaced Islamic courts with secular civil law
and replaced Arabic script (11) ________________ Turkish alphabet.
He also promoted a more western style of dressing.
Atatürk died on
November 10, 1938, aged 57 years old. He (12) ________________
figure in Turkey.