Salonika Ataturk House

SALONIKA ATATÜRK HOUSE Atatürk was born in Salonika in 1881, where he spent his childhood and part of his youth. The historic house where he was born was opened to the public as a museum on 10 November 1953, after restorations were completed. Known as, “Atatürk House,” it is located at 75, Apostolu Pavlu Avenue, in the Aya Dimitria district of Salonika. The Turkish Ministry of Education, along with historians and curators, selected items from Dolmabahce and Topkapi Palaces in Istanbul so that the rooms were restored and arranged for display in accordance with original plans. According to old records, “Atatürk House” in Salonika was situated on Islahane Caddesi, Kazim Pasha district in Salonika. The house is a three-story building with a courtyard and a basement floor.

Salonika archive records show that Atatürk House was built before 1870 by a teacher Hadji Mehmed from Rhodes, and was first sold to ibrahim Zühdü, and later to Abdullah Aga and his wife Ummü Gülsüm. According to this information the house was rented from its owners by Atatürk’s father Ali Riza Efendi . Atatürk’s father Ali Riza Efendi had worked for the Salonika Pious Foundation and later worked as a Customs Officer. In 1876 he joined the Salonika National Forces battalion as a first lieutenant. Later in his life he became a business man. Ali Riza Efendi, after marrying the daughter of Feyzullah Aga from a well known family Sarigüllü Haci Sofu’s Zübeyde Hanim in about 1878, left his father Ahmet Efendi’s, known as Kirmizi Hafiz, family home in the Subasi district and settled in this house with his wife in the Hoca Hanim Pasha district by renting it from its owners. The house, then surrounded by high walls with “harem” and “selamlik” sections, was a three-story classical building. The external facade was plastered, painted pink, with iron latticed windows on the ground and timber latticed windows on the upper floor. In 1881 Atatürk was born on the upper floor in a room that had a fireplace. After Ali Riza Efendi’s death in 1888, his young widow Zübeyde Hanim mostly for financial reasons moved out of this house, with her son young Mustafa (Atatürk) and her daughters Naciye and Makbule, into a smaller house nextdoor. Zübeyde Hanim, who, time to time visited her brother Hüseyin Aga on his farm with her children, met with Ragip Bey and remarried (with a very kind gentleman, as Atatürk expressed with his own words). They continued to live in this house. Atatürk had begun his education at the Semsi Efendi District School before his father’s death while they were living in this Pink House. After the death of his father, he first enrolled in Salonika Civil Servants Junior High School and then transferred to Salonika Military Junior High School in 1893. In 1896 he entered the Monastir Military Junior High School, and later in 1899, entered the Military Academy in Istanbul. During his holidays he visited his mother and sisters in Salonika. Atatürk graduated from the Military Academy in 1902 and enrolled to the Staff Officers School and became an Army Staff Captain in early 1905. Between this date and the declaration of the second Constitutional Monarchy in 1908, Atatürk and a few of his friends secretly founded a political society named “Country and Freedom” in 1906, while he was stationed in Damascus and continued its activity. Because he wished to activate this society in Macedonia, Atatürk secretly traveled to Salonika where with a few of friends he established a branch of this society in Salonika. In 1907, a year before the declaration of the second Constitutional Monarchy, Atatürk was appointed to Salonika and stayed in this small house with his family. Many secret political meetings took place here. After the start of the wars in Tripoli, Libya and in the Balkans, Atatürk left Salonika and spent his entire life for the cause of the national independence struggle for his country. After the Balkan war Atatürk’s mother Zübeyde Hanim also did not stay in Salonika and moved to Istanbul with her daughter Makbule (Atadan), as most Turkish families had done They settled in a house in Besiktas, within the Akaretler district. Later on, during the years of the National Struggle, Zübeyde Hanim moved to Ankara. However, after the Victory, because Ankara’s climate was not suitable for her health condition, she moved to Izmir where she later died in 1923. After the Balkan War, Salonika became a Greek city and the ownership of the house, where Zübeyde Hanim lived, was transferred to the Greek Government by the Lausanne Agreement. The house was later sold by the Greek Government to a Greek family. On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Turkish Republic (29 October 1933), Salonika Municipality Council, in memory of Turkish – Greek Friendship and the Balkan Conference, placed a marble plate on the right side of the double door of the house where Atatürk was born. The following words are inscribed on this plate in Turkish, Greek and French: “The great founder of the Turkish Nation and the pillar of the Balkan Entente, GAZI MUSTAFA KEMAL was born here. This plate is placed on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Turkish Republic. Salonika, 29 October 1933.” The plate was put in its place with a ceremony on 4 November 1933 with the participation of Turkish Ambassador in Athens and the embassy staff, The General Governor of Macedonia, Mayor of Salonika and Greek officials. The Salonika Municipality Council decided to buy the house from its Greek owner and present it to Atatürk. The house was evacuated on 19 February 1937 and its keys given to the Turkish Consulate in Salonika. Turkish Consulate in Salonika became responsible for “Atatürk House.” The house was restored to its original state. The yellow paint was replaced by its original pink colour and the roof repaired. In 1950 the house had more substantial restoration work done and the Foreign Ministry and the National Education Ministry began the necessary work to convert the house into a museum. The National Education Ministry and historians selected historic items from Dolmabahce and Topkapi Palaces in Istanbul so that the rooms in were restored and arranged for display according to its original plan. The museum was opened to the public 10 November 1953 after an official ceremony. Ground Floor: Through the door one enters a brick tiled hall. First room on the right is the cellar and the second is the kitchen. In the cellar, kitchen utensils (chests, copper bowls, large earthenware jars, jugs, and pitchers) are displayed. There are cupboards and shelves in the kitchen. The first room on the left was used by the housekeeper, and its is through the second room that one can reach the stairway which leads up to the floor above. First Floor: The museum visitor can come up to this floor from an open stone stair from the garden as well as from the stair hall on the ground floor. In the entry, there is a large sofa with a timber ceiling. The sofa has a large divan with pillows and embroidered covers in front of the triple windows facing the garden with satin curtains. In the middle of the sofa there is a round wooden table. On the right, from the garden entry to the sofa, there is a guest room and through it a storage room. Guest room is furnished with velvet-covered couches and armchairs, satin curtains, mirrored dresser, copper brazier and coffee tables. A silk-threaded inscription and a clock are on the walls. First small room on the left is the kitchen. There are various kitchen utensils and a stove oven in here. Second room is the bedroom. At one corner there is a double iron bedstead and on the wall at the bedside, a Koran with silver lapel and red satin book cover, and an inscription plate are hung. First verse of the Conquest Sura (chapter) is inscribed on this plate. In front of the bedstead there are a brass brazier and a large divan all along the windows facing the street with heavy satin curtains. Second Floor: The visitor can reach this floor through the stair hall next to the storage room on the first floor. The sofa with divans on this floor is similar to the sofa on the first floor only smaller. Right-hand side room from entry has a decorated gypsum ceiling and is the study room. There is a bronze bust of Atatürk, a desk, a brass brazier and armchairs in this room in which Atatürk was born. Ceramic dishes and inscriptions related to Atatürk are hung on the wall. The bedroom at the right was arranged as the Atatürk Museum. Wearing apparel and personal effects used by Atatürk can be seen in the cabinets with the glass fronts. There is also a bookshelf displaying the photographs of Atatürk, documents from his schooling and some of his books. There is a terrace with wooden railings next to the bedroom. The last restoration, arrangements and preparations for display of Atatürk House in Salonika were made in 1981. Source: Turkish Ministry of Culture & Tourism (material above to be updated) One of the most symbolic houses in Turkey Atatürk’s house & headquarters in Bigali, Gallipoli The year 2015 will be one of the most important years in the history of the Turkish Republic. Throughout 2015 Turks will be celebrating the beginning of the creation of the Turkish nation and national spirit. The 2015 centenary will also mark the rise of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whose leadership laid the foundations of the Turkish state. One of the most symbolic houses in Turkey can be found along a narrow street in Gallipoli, which is linked to the heart of a small village’s main square. It was here in this inland village of Bigali that Atatürk established his headquarters in a small house just before the war began. It was also here that Mustafa Kemal, as the commanding officer of the Ottoman Army’s 19th Division, received news that British-led forces, including the brave but inexperienced Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), were landing on the peninsula. Thus, as Atatürk set out from a seemingly ordinary town on the hills of Bigali towards the coast to battle British-led forces, he also began his march to his destiny. It is from the second floor of this two-story house that the leader of a nation was in the making and preparing his offensive plans. The headquarters and house where Atatürk stayed became a museum in 1973 after the establishment of the "Çamyayla Atatürk Museum Founding Committee" which enabled the purchase of the house from its owner. The museum has displayed military and civilian garments and photographs as well as items personally used by Atatürk. One of the original items in the house is a desk used by Atatürk, undoubtedly for planning war strategies and viewing maps. One enters the house after passing through a small courtyard from where the main door opens. On the ground floor there are one large and two small rooms. A wooden stairway leads to a living room on the first floor to which three rooms are connected. The room in the middle is the largest and was the study of Atatürk. The room to the right was his bedroom. The other room was used by his aide. Each of the rooms has wooden ceilings and floors. Atatürk’s desk is in the study room. An informed visit to the peninsula and a study of its geography offer greater appreciation of the unexpected hardships faced by combatants. The predictions of enemy landings by the German Gen. Otto Liman von Sanders, who was commander of the 5th Army for the defense of the Dardanelles, proved wrong. The invading forces landed their troops at Seddülbahir (Cape Helles) and Ariburnu (Anzac Cove) on April 25, 1915, after the French made diversionary landings to mislead Turkish troops. As a result of von Sanders miscalculations, the positioning of Turkish troops was not advantageous to winning the battle. Confusion also arose amidst the British-led forces when ANZAC troops failed to land on the intended beaches. Atatürk, however, devised his own strategy and took his own initiative without authorization from von Sanders, as he assessed the significance of the landings. After ordering his division forward over the rugged countryside between Bigali and the coast, Turkish forces succeeded in stopping the enemy at Conkbayir. In addition to Seddülbahir, the peak and surrounding hilly areas of Conkbayir are known as one of the bloodiest grounds of the Gallipoli war, where Turkish forces prepared to die for the land that Western powers were carving up. Mustafa Kemal’s famous order to his soldiers, "I am not giving you an order to attack, but I am ordering you to die!" is said to have played a decisive role in the battle. Atatürk not only led Turks in winning the battle of Gallipoli but also ignited an enduring sense of national identity. Looking back at the emergence of modern Turkey, Atatürk’s house in Bigali is a remarkable reminder of how Turks found the strength and vision to mobilize forces to unite. It was here that the foundations of the Turkish nation were first laid and the enduring unity of a nation sprang forth. The upcoming centenary should be an opportunity for Turks and peoples of other nations to better understand the significance of Gallipoli for Turks. As the centenary celebrations of 2015 near, there will be a heightened sense of the value and ideals upon which Turkey was founded, especially as the present generation assumes responsibility and strives to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest statesman of history, who led the Turkish nation to achieve great things. The sacrifices of other soldiers will also be honored as Turks together with the peoples of many countries and remember those who came from great distances to fight at Gallipoli. While the Armenian diaspora and supporters of an alleged 1915 Armenian genocide fail to objectively present all the events of 1915, the approaching centennial can serve to provide more balanced accounts of all the facts of World War I. If nations do not take these opportunities to educate their children with a fair and accurate understanding of history, they risk having young minds dangerously misled by the conflicts and hostilities of the past.