Military career of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 – 10 November 1938) was a field marshal, revolutionary statesman, and founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first president. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's military career explains his life between graduation from Ottoman War College in Istanbul as a lieutenant in 1905 to his resignation from the Ottoman Army on 8 July 1919, as well as his military leadership throughout the subsequent Turkish War of Independence (armistice 11 October 1922). Early years Staff captain at Fifth Army (1905–1907) Mustafa Kemal graduated from the Ottoman Military Staff College as a staff captain (Kurmay Yüzbaşı) in 1905 and was assigned to the Fifth Army based in Damascus. There he soon joined a small secret revolutionary society of reformist officers called "Motherland and Liberty" () and became an active opponent to the regime of Abdülhamid II. Senior captain at Third Army (1907–1910) In 1907, he was promoted to the rank of senior captain (Kolağası) and assigned to the Third Army in Monastir (now Bitola, North Macedonia). During this period he joined the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). In 1908, the Young Turk Revolution seized power from the then reigning Sultan Abdülhamid II and Mustafa Kemal became