Ali Rıza Efendi

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Ali Rıza Efendi was the father of Atatürk and the husband of Zübeyde. He was born in Thessaloniki and worked as a customs official. He died in 1887 when his son was 6 years old. Although he is thought by some to be of Albanian origin<ref>Lou Giaffo: Albania: Eye of the Balkan Vortex</ref>, other sources claim that he was of Turkish descent<ref>Ataturk.com - Biography of Atatürk</ref><ref>Çankaya, Falih Rıfkı Atay, Sena Matbaası, 1980, p.17</ref>, or that this can only be a matter for surmise.<ref>Ataturk: the Rebirth of a Nation by Patrick Kinross, Orion Publishing Co. (August 26, 1993), p.5</ref> However, there are no reliable sources other than controversial guesses about his Albanian descent.^{[citation needed]}