Ali Çetinkaya

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Ali Çetinkaya (1878-1949, İstanbul) was a Turkish soldier and later politician, who played a key role in the Turkish War of Independence starting with the earliest hours.

He was born in Afyonkarahisar in 1878 and had a military education and career until the end of the World War I.

As the officer (at lieutenant colonel's rank) commanding the troops stationed in Ayvalık in May 1919, he briefly checked the landing in that city of Greek occupation forces. His action is considered to mark the first bullets fired by regular forces in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), taking exception of the earlier actions in İzmir of Hasan Tahsin, and in Urla and Ödemiş of irregular militias.

After the war, he was elected to the Turkish Grand National Assembly during eight successive terms and he held ministerial posts in six different governments until 1942. In 1939, with the constitution of a ministry of transport, he became Turkey's first Minister of Transport.