WHO'S WHO (WWI) (Part IV)Online version Who were the main military leaders, political leaders, monarchs and pacifists during the WWI? by Javier Ramón Núñez 1 Prominent Ottoman military commander of World War I. Pistas 1 When the Ottomans entered World War I in late 1914, he, then a colonel, was tasked with defending the Dardanelles from a probable Allied landing. 2 By 1918 he was convinced that the Allies would win the war, so his interests turned towards securing the future of his homeland. 3 He is best known for his leadership of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-22) and his long tenure as Turkey’s first republican president. 4 His surname, meaning ‘father of the Turks’, was bestowed on him in 1934.