Ataturk's house in Thessaloniki restored

The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism has completed the restoration of the house in Thessaloniki, Greece, where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, was born in 1881. The house has been restored to serve as a modern museum and includes visual and written information about Atatürk's life. All visitors are also treated to documentaries about Atatürk. In 1953, Turkish President Celal Bayar began an initiative to open the house as a museum on the 15th anniversary of the death of Atatürk. Atatürk's house was first opened to visitors on Nov. 10, 1953. Nov. 10 marks the day on which Atatürk died in 1938. In cooperation with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism began the restoration in 2010. Rooms in the three-story building have been named “Selanik” (Thessaloniki), “İstanbul,” “Ankara” and “Manastır” (present-day Bitola, Macedonia, where Atatürk attended an Ottoman military academy).