Ali Rıza Efendi was the father of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....

 and the husband of Zübeyde Hanım

Zübeyde Hanim

Zübeyde Hanım was the mother of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. She was the only daughter of the Hacısofular family which included her two brothers...

.

He was born in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 and worked as a customs official. He died in 1888, when his son was 7 years old. He is thought to be of Albanian

Albanians

Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...

 origin, although Falih Rıfkı Atay, journalist and close friend of Atatürk, holds that he has roots in Söke

Söke

Söke is a town and a large district of Aydın Province in the Aegean region of western Turkey, south-west of the city of Aydın, near the Aegean coast. It had 68,020 population in 2010.- Geography :...

, in Aydın Province

Aydin Province

Aydın Province is a province of southwestern Turkey, located in the Aegean Region. The provincial capital is the city of Aydın which has a population of approx. 150,000 . Other towns in the province include the summer seaside resorts of Didim and Kuşadası.-History:Aydın was founded by the ancient...

. Historian and biographer Patrick Kinross writes that "this can only be a matter for surmise".

Ali Riza's family comes from the village Kodžadžik

Kodžadžik

Kodžadžik is a village in the Republic of Macedonia. It is located in the western part of the country in the Centar Župa Municipality.According to historians, the village was mentioned for the first time in 1385 and the name of the village means "Great Battle". It was known "Svetigrad" before...

, Centar Župa Municipality

Centar Župa municipality

Centar Župa is a municipality in western Republic of Macedonia. Centar Župa is also the name of the village where the municipal seat is found...

, Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

, where there is a memorial house.