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Subject:
Military career of Ataturk. (Part 1)
ilpars
6/15/2004 3:06:21 PM
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This is requested by densoflex. I thought best to put this under another topic.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938):
Ataturk was born at Selanica at the time a cosmopolit city, it was the cultural capital of Ottoman Empire the most "European" city of the empire.
He were always a brilliant student especially at mathematics, literature and French. He finished the military academy as the second best. Like all top graduates of Ottoman Academies he were sent to Europe to learn from an European military academy. In his case it was Ecole Militarie of France.
He was handsome and atractive. In all of his life he was a lady's men. Later a 17 years old Zsa Zsa Gabor was one of his conquests. In his letters he told he had his most beatiful year in Paris. Appearently he was a popular gentleman at Paris.
After his return, he wrote several books about training and commanding of platoon, company, battalion and regimently. I have these books probably they were greatly influenced by the French regulations.
He was appoined to a unit at Seşanica his home city.
His company and later battalion was the model of his ideas. From all over Selanica, young officers were coming to see his training methods.
He was one of the leaders of young idealistic offiecers of Turkish army.
Other most influential young officers of his age were Enver (his greatest rival) who trained at Germany became a personal friend of later Kaiser of Germany in WW1; Cemal who was trained at UK; and naval officer Rauf who trained at USA.
Note: As you can see the most brilliant Ottoman officers always trained at other countries to bring new military ideas to the empire. Side effect was they too much influenced by the country they were sent to.
These 4 men were all very active in the secret Ittihad and Terakki Party which was trying to make a coup to make Ottoman Empire a parliamentry monarchy like United Kingdom. The coup succeeded at 1908. Ittihad and Terakki Party became a legal party and entered the first elections of Ottoman Empire. They were not majority and did not form the government but they were very influential. Enver and Cemal were at the top circle of the party but Mustafa Kemal and Rauf bey were not. That was the time Enver-Kemal enmity has begun. They were very friendly and close to each other but the ones who knew them did nknow that they hated each other. Kemal was openly discussing that Army personnel must not involve in politics. To make an example he quited from the party.
At 1911, Italy invaded Libya last Ottoman land at Africa. As at late 19th century UK had invaded Egypt, there were no land connection to Libya from the empire and Italian navy was much superior. Ottoman government sent voluntary officers to Libya to organize defence from the locals. Both Enver and Mustafa Kemal went and both were very successful against Italians.
At 1912, Balkan states (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) declared war to Ottoman Empire. The empire needed every officer he had. Both commanders started to return. First Balkan War was a total disaster for the empire. Balkan states attacked the Empire before it finished its mobilization. In fact mobilisation had planned so badly that, the war ended before the mobilisation. Political enmities divided the officers corps so badly that, they could not organised a defense. A politically superior junior officer refusing to obey a politically inferior senior officer was a common thing. The result was a total disaster. Only battleships had stopped the highly trained and well commanded Bulgarian army at Catalca (150 km from Istanbul).
Selanica was lost to Greek army. A close friend of Mustafa Kemal later wrote that Mustafa Kemal cried after he learned the lost of his home city. He continously told his fellow officer "How could you do that? How could you lost Selanica?".
On his return Mustafa Kemal was on the staff of the corps which defended Geliboli against Bulgarians. A great fortune for the future.
Bulgarian army was much more successful than his allies and made a mistake of alienating all of them. Previously neutral Romania opened the second phase. Romania, Greece, Serbia and ottoman Empire attacked Bulgaristan. Enver was the first officer who entered Edirne one of the ex-capitals of Ottoman Empire. He used this greatly for propaganda. He was known as the saviour of Edirne. Cemal was very successfull at Catalca front. Both men returned to Istanbul and started a new coup. This time they put a puppet to the throne Murad V. Enver, Cemal and Talat (civilian leader of Ittihad and Terakki) trio became the new true leaders of the empire. They all promoted to Pasha (use for both Generals and high level bureacrats). Enver Pasha became the new CiC of the empire before commanding any unit larger than a battalion.
He probably knew his limitations and turned to his old friend now Kaiser of Germany. Germany sent a advisory council commanded by General von Goltz. Advisors included some very talented German staff officers.
Enver showed his only great talents bravery and determination and fired all officers that are trained in one of military academies. Reduce the rank of officers who graduated from the academies before the reorganizations were made.
General von Goltz energitically planned the new mobilisation plans which suited much more to the realities of Ottoman Empire. Ottoman army trained vigoriously. The years 1913 and 1914 were a great transformation for Ottoman army and it brought a nasty surprise to the Allies in the WW1. |
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