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Official ceremonies commemorating Atatürk´s death began with President Abdullah Gül laying a wreath at Anıtkabir, the Turkish leader´s mausoleum in Ankara. Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel, main opposition party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and many other political figures attended the ceremony. There was also a ceremony held at Dolmabahçe Palace, where Ataturk died at 9:05 a.m. on Nov. 10, 1938.
Regardless of where they are, people observed a moment of silence at 9:05 a.m. Flags across the country were flown at half-staff.
Atatürk was born in 1881 in Thessalonica, in present-day Greece. While his wartime record in the Balkan Wars, World War I and the War of Independence is outstanding, he is chiefly remembered for founding the Turkish Republic and the modernizing reforms that he instituted.
Atatürk died at Dolmabahçe Palace, in İstanbul on Nov. 10, 1938, finally succumbing to cirrhosis of the liver. His body was first taken to a temporary resting place at the Ethnography Museum in Ankara on Nov. 21, 1938. When his mausoleum was completed, he was interred with a grand ceremony on Nov. 10, 1953.
During his presidency, Atatürk embarked upon a program of political, economic and cultural reform. An admirer of the Enlightenment, he sought to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern, democratic and secular nation-state. The principles of Atatürk´s reforms, upon which Turkey was established, are referred to as Kemalism.
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