Ali Çetinkaya with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Ali Çetinkaya (1878—21 February 1949) was a Turkish Army officer who served in World War I, played a key role in the Turkish War of Independence, starting with the opening battle, and served eight terms in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, including a period in 1939–40 as his country's first Minister of Transport.

A native of the western Turkey city of Afyonkarahisar, the capital of Afyonkarahisar Province, Ali Çetinkaya was a career army officer who, following a military education, spent his career in service until the end of World War I in November 1918, when he was in his early forties. In May 1919, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel and commanding troops stationed in the Aegean coastal town of Ayvalık, he was briefly able to hold back the advance into the city of Greek occupation forces. His action is considered to mark the first shots fired by regular forces in the 1919–22 Greco-Turkish War, although there were earlier confrontations in which irregular militias participated, including the battle involving national hero Hasan Tahsin in İzmir, as well as actions in Urla and Ödemiş.

After the war, Ali Çetinkaya was elected to Turkish Grand National Assembly for eight successive terms and served until 1942, holding ministerial posts in six different governments, including, with the formation of a Ministry of Transport, becoming Turkey's first Minister of Transport.

Ali Cetinkaya died in Istanbul in the year of his 71st birthday.

[edit] References

• Ali Çetinkaya biographical sketch {in Turkish} at Biyografi.info (includes small photograph)

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