he was an army officer in the Ottoman army, but after the defeat and end of the Ottoman Empire in WWI he was a primary driver of the resistance against Allied attempts to carve up Turkey. He ultimately won the war for independence and established the Turkish republic with the capital in Ankara, where it is currently located and continues in the same form of government to this day.
As the president of the newly formed Turkish Republic, Atatürk initiated a rigorous program of political, economic, and cultural reforms with the ultimate aim
