Ankara – The last surviving Turkish soldier from the Turkish War of Independence died in Istanbul on Tuesday aged 105, the Anadolu news agency reported. Born into the family of a naval officer in the Istanbul suburb of Uskudar in 1903, Mustafa Sekip Birgol attended a military high school before joining Turkish forces under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal fighting Allied partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after it was defeated in the First World War.
Birgol fought as a second-lieutenant in the western Anatolian region of Afyon and took part in the recapturing of Smyrna (today’s Izmir) from Greek forces in September 1922.
Mustafa Kemal’s victory in 1923 forced the Allies to abandon the partitioning of Anatolia and instead sign the Treaty of Lausanne which established the independent Turkish republic.
Mustafa Kemal became the country’s first president, later taking the name Ataturk (father of the Turks) while Birgol was sent to the Black Sea city of Samsun.
Birgol retired from the army in 1952 with the rank of colonel.
Turkey’s last soldier from Independence war dies in Istanbul : Europe World.
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