Ali Rıza Efendi

Ali Rıza Efendi (1839–1888) was the father of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the husband of Zübeyde Hanım.

He was born in Salonica/Thessaloniki in present-day Greek Macedonia but then the most important city in the Ottoman Empire in Europe after Constantinople/Istanbul. He worked as a customs official and died in 1888, when his son was 7 years old. He is thought to be of Albanian or Slavic origin by some scholars, however the village where his family was born has still a Turkish majority population. According Falih Rıfkı Atay, journalist and close friend of Atatürk, holds that he descends partially from Turks of Söke, in Aydın Province. According to other historians such as Vamik D. Volkan, Norman Itzkowitz, Müjgân Cunbur, Numan Kartal and Hasan İzzettin Dinamo, Ali Rıza's ancestors were Turks, ultimately descending from Söke in the Aydın Province of Anatolia.

Ali Riza's family comes from Kodžadžik, a Yörük majority village in Centar Župa Municipality, Macedonia, where there is a memorial house.

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