MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK'S LAND WAR SCHOOL DIPLOMA 

Mustafa Kemal graduated from school on February 10, 1902 (with the registration number of Infantry - 1472) and became an honorable officer of the Turkish Army with the rank of lieutenant.

HARBİYELİ  MUSTAFA KEMAL

"... He graduated from the Manastır High School in the summer of 1898. He was now 17-18 years old, self-confident, eager to grow up and progress, eager to read, loving to think, and balanced in the frenzy of youth. In 1899, Mustafa Kemal was a candidate for the Military Academy. He is now a cadet in Istanbul...

Mustafa Kemal came to Harbiye with the ideas of freedom that he was under the influence of in the Manastır High School and his interests in the affairs of the country. So, it means that the Harbiye would not only prepare him as an officer, but also develop his feelings of homeland and freedom and train him as a rebel against the tyranny. That's what happened.

... Later on, when Mustafa Kemal talked about his life in Harbiye, he said that he could not get himself together in the first academic year, and that he could not attend classes. But the test was successful again and he skipped the class. When he goes to the second year, he gives himself to his lessons... Meanwhile, his enthusiasm for writing beautifully and speaking well has developed... Mustafa Kemal's situation improved even more in his last year of Harbiye. He was eighth among 459 present when he finished third, that is, the last year. On February 10, 1902, he graduated from Harbiye with the registration number 1472 as a lieutenant. He was 21 years old...

... While he was reporting this result to his mother Zübeyde and stepfather Ragıp Efendi in Thessaloniki, he carefully chose words that both pleased them and expressed his pride in his letter. Behind this formal oratory was the pure and happy resolution of a now satisfied and indeed positive complex, namely the "They will see, what I will be" complex. The first battle of his life had been won... While closing the envelope of the letter going to Thessaloniki, he also placed a photograph in this envelope...

... In Thessaloniki, Lieutenant Mustafa Kemal's mother, Zübeyde, shed tears of joy when she received this letter and opened the envelope and received this picture. Who knows how the house in Ahmet Subaşı neighborhood was filled with relatives and neighbors that day... A child born in this neighborhood 21 years ago had now reached the rank of officer. He gained his future and was brought up as a disgraced child of the neighborhood..."