Kâzım Karabekir
Musa Kâzım Karabekir | |
---|---|
Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey | |
In office 5 August 1946 – 26 January 1948 | |
Preceded by | Abdülhalik Renda |
Succeeded by | Ali Fuat Cebesoy |
Member of the Grand National Assembly | |
In office 1920 – 20 July 1927 | |
Constituency | Istanbul |
In office 26 March 1939 – 26 January 1948 | |
Constituency | Istanbul |
Personal details | |
Born | 1882 Kocamustafapaşa, Turkish Army |
Years of service | 1902–1924 |
Rank | General |
Commands | 1st Expeditionary Force, 14th Division, 18th Corps, II Corps, I Caucasian Corps, XIV Corps, XV Corps, Eastern Front, 1st Army |
Battles/wars | Balkan Wars World War I Turkish War of Independence |
Musa Kâzım Karabekir (also spelled Kiazim Karabekir in English; 1882 – 26 January 1948)
Early life
Karabekir was born in 1882 as the son of an Ottoman general, Mehmet Emin Pasha, in the Kocamustafapaşa quarter of the Kuleli neighborhood of İstanbul, in the Ottoman Empire. The Karabekir family traced its heritage back to the medieval Karamanid principality, in central Anatolia,[2] where his family belonged to the Afshar tribe.[5]
Karabekir toured several places in the Ottoman Empire while his father served in the army. He returned to
Military career
As a junior officer, he was commissioned in January 1906 after two months to the Third Army in the region around
On 15 April 1911, Kâzım applied to change his family name from Zeyrek to Karabekir.[7] Until then, he had been called Kâzım Zeyrek, after the place in which he lived with his mother, a custom in the Ottoman Empire as family names were not used. From then on, he adopted the name Karabekir, the name of his ancestors.
Balkan Wars
During his service in Edirne, Karabekir was promoted to the rank of major on 27 April 1912. He took part in the
World War I
Before the outbreak of World War I, Karabekir served in Constantinople and was then sent to some European countries like Austria-Hungary, Germany, France and Switzerland. In July 1914, he returned home, as a world war was likely.
Back in Constantinople, Karabekir was assigned[
He was commissioned to the
Karabekir was appointed commander of the 2nd Corps on the Caucasus front and fought bitterly against the Russian and Armenian forces for almost ten months. In September 1917, he was promoted to brigadier general by a decree of the Sultan. In May 1918 he became the commander of the 15th Army Corps in Erzerum and as he began to grasp the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, he began to prepare his forces for a war against the Armenians.[8]
Turkish War of Independence
In compliance with the
In early September 1920, Karabekir commenced the first military operations against the Republic of Armenia. There were brief small-scale skirmishes in the region of Oltu, but as the Turkish offensive elicited virtually no reaction from the Allied powers, Karabekir continued the offensive. On 28 September, he sent four divisions from the XV Army Corps across the Armenian border with the objective of capturing the strategic fortress of Sarikamish.[9] Sarikamish was taken the following day, and the rest of the Turkish advance continued unchecked. Throughout October, Armenian resistance progressively collapsed, and the Turkish armies captured Kars on 30 October and occupied Alexandropol, Armenia's largest city at the time, on 6 November.[10] A ceasefire was concluded on 18 November, and negotiations were carried out between Karabekir and a peace delegation, led by Alexander Khatisian, in Alexandropol. Although Karabekir's terms were extremely harsh, the Armenian delegation had little recourse but to agree to them. Karabekir affixed his signature under the peace agreement, the Treaty of Alexandropol, which was signed on 3 December 1920.[11] Although the treaty was technically invalid, as the government that Khatisian's delegation represented had ceased to exist the previous day, Turkey's territorial gains as stipulated in the treaty were confirmed in the Treaty of Kars of 1921.[12] Karabekir's army displaced and massacred tens of thousands of Armenian civilians during the campaign against Armenia, with conservative estimates placing the number killed at approximately 60,000.[13][14][15]
In 1924, he was assigned to take Hakkari back. He was designated by the new Grand National Assembly in Ankara to sign also the friendship agreement Treaty of Kars with the Soviet Union on 23 October 1921. He then conquered Hakkari from the Assyrian forces and in the process, massacred and displaced many Assyrians.
Political career
After the defeat of Greek forces in Western
Karabekir had differences of opinion with
On 17 November 1924, several politicians around Karabekir and Ali Fuat Cebesoy founded the Progressive Republican Party (Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası),[17] which had several prominent current and former military commanders as its members.[18] Afterwards, the party's recent members were blamed for the Sheikh Said rebellion and the assassination attempt made against Mustafa Kemal in İzmir.[19] The party was closed on 5 June 1925 by the government, and Karabekir was imprisoned by the Independence Tribunals with many of his party members but later acquitted and released.[19] Following those developments, all relations were broken between Karabekir and Mustafa Kemal.
Retiring temporarily from politics, Karabekir devoted himself to writing his memoirs of the Turkish War of Independence and Atatürk's Reforms. After Kemal Atatürk died in 1938, Karabekir's close friend İsmet İnönü rehabilitated him.
In 1939, Kâzım Karabekir returned to politics and re-entered parliament as an MP from Istanbul. He was elected speaker of the parliament on 5 August 1946. He died in office at the age of 66 on 26 January 1948 in Ankara after a heart attack. His remains were later relocated to the Turkish State Cemetery in Ankara.
Kâzım Karabekir was survived by his wife İclal and three daughters Hayat, Emel, and Timsal. The four-story mansion in the Erenköy quarter of Kadıköy district in Istanbul, where he lived for almost 15 years, was converted into a museum in 2005.
Personal views
Caliphate
Pan-Turkism
The aim of all Turks is to unite with the Turkic borders. History is affording us today the last opportunity. In order for the Muslim world not to be forever fragmented it is necessary that the campaign against Karabagh be not allowed to abate. As a matter of fact drive the point home in Azeri circles that the campaign should be pursued with greater determination and severity.[21]
— Kâzım Karabekir
Bibliography
- Ankara'da Savaş Rüzgarları (Winds of War in Ankara), 448 pp.
- Bir Düello ve Bir Suikast (A Duel and An Assassination), 272 pp. ISBN 975-7369-39-X
- Birinci Cihan Harbi 1–4 (World War I 1–4), 4 books 1320 pp. ISBN 975-7369-21-7
- Birinci Cihan Harbine Neden Girdik? (Why Did We Enter the World War I?), 199 pp. 1st book ISBN 975-7369-21-7
- Birinci Cihan Harbine Nasıl Girdik? (How Did We Enter the World War I?), 464 pp. 2nd book ISBN 975-7369-22-5
- Birinci Cihan Harbini Nasıl İdare Ettik? (How Did We Manage the World War I?), 272 pp. 3rd book ISBN 975-7369-23-3
- Birinci Cihan Harbini Nasıl İdare Ettik? (How Did We Manage the World War I?), 384 pp. 4th book ISBN 975-7369-24-1
- Birinci Cihan Harbine Neden Girdik? (Why Did We Enter the World War I?), 199 pp. 1st book
- Cumhuriyet Tarihi Set 1 (History of the Republic Set 1), 13 books
- Cumhuriyet Tarihi Set 2 (History of the Republic Set 2), 12 books
- İstiklal Harbimiz 1–5 (Our War of Independence 1–5), 5 books
- Paşaların Kavgası (Struggle of the Pashas)
- Paşaların Hesaplaşması (Reckoning of the Pashas)
- İzmir Suikastı (Assassination in İzmir)
- Çocuklara Öğütler (Advice to Children)
- Hayatım (My Life)
- İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti 1896–1909 (Committee of Union and Progress 1896–1909)
- Ermeni Dosyası (Armenian Dossier)
- İngiltere, İtalya ve Habeş Harbi (British, Italian and Ethiopian War)
- Kürt Meselesi (Kurdish Problem)
- Çocuk, Davamız 1–2 (The Child, Our Problem 1–2), 2 books
- İstiklal Harbimizin Esasları (Principals of Our War of Independence)
- Yunan Süngüsü (Greek Bayonet)
- Sanayi Projelerimiz (Our Industrial Projects)
- İktisat Esaslarımız (Our Principals of Economy)
- Tarihte Almanlar ve Alman Ordusu (Germans in the History and German Army)
- Türkiye'de ve Türk Ordusunda Almanlar (Germans in Turkey and in the Turkish Army)
- Tarih Boyunca Türk-Alman İlişkileri (Turkish-German Relations Throughout the History)
- İstiklal Harbimizde İttihad Terakki ve Enver Paşa 1–2 (Union Progress and Enver Pasha in Our War of Independence)
- İstiklal Harbimizin Esasları Neden Yazıldı? (Why Was the Principals of Our War of Independence Written?)
- Millî Mücadele'de Bursa (Bursa During the War of Independence)
- İtalya ve Habeş (Italy and Ethiopia)
- Ermeni Mezalimi (Armenian Outrage)
- Sırp-Bulgar Seferi (Serbian-Bulgarian Campaign)
- Osmanlı Ordusunun Taarruz Fikri (Attack Concept of the Ottoman Army)
- Erkan-i Harbiye Vezaifinden İstihbarat (Intelligence from the Service at General Staff)
- Sarıkamış, Kars ve Ötesi (Sarıkamış, Kars and Beyond)
- Erzincan ve Erzurum'un Kurtuluşu (Liberation of Erzincan and Erzurum)
- Bulgaristan Esareti - Hatıralar, Notlar (Captivity in Bulgaria - Memories, Notes)
- Nutuk ve Karabekir'den Cevaplar (The Address and Replies From Karabekir)
See also
References
- ^ Elaine Diana Smith, Turkey: origins of the Kemalist movement and the government of the Grand National Assembly, 1919–1923, American University, 26 January 1959, p. 171.
- ^ ISBN 978-975-16-1881-8, p. 119.
- ^ The Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol.7, Edited by Hugh Chisholm, (1911), 3; Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish Empire...
- ^ Britannica, Istanbul:When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara, and Constantinople was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930.
- ^ TDV Encyclopedia of Islam (44+2 vols.) (in Turkish). Istanbul: Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, Centre for Islamic Studies.
- ^ .
- ^ (in Turkish) M. Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, Bütünüyle Erzurum Kongresi, 1993, p. 12.
- ^ .
- ISBN 0-520-08804-2.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 237–282.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 394–396.
- ISBN 0-203-00493-0
- ISBN 978-2-13-062617-6.
- A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility. pp. 327. - Profile at Google Books
- ISBN 1-57181-666-6.
- ISBN 1850433003.
- ISBN 978-1-85065-371-4.
- ^ Heper, Metin; Landau, Jacob M. (1991), p.72–73
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4008-7942-7.
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam (44+2 vols.) (in Turkish). Istanbul: Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, Centre for Islamic Studies.
- ^ Karabekir, Istiklâl Harbimiz/n.2/, p. 631