Ömer Fahrettin Türkkan

Ömer Fahreddin Pasha

Ömer Fahrettin Türkkan , before the name reform in Arabic Umar Fachr ud-Din Pascha ( called Fakhri Pasha by the British , in Turkish Fahreddin Paşa , born January 4, 1868 in Rusçuk in what is now Bulgaria , Ottoman Empire , † November 22, 1948 near Eskişehir ), was an Ottoman officer and Turkish diplomat. As responsible for the defense of Medina and the Hejaz during the Arab revolt and the refusal - despite siege and eviction order - to surrender them without a fight, he was nicknamed "Lion of the Desert" by the British.

education

He was born as the child of Fatma Adile and Mehmed Nahid Bey in Rusçuk in what is now Bulgaria. The family had to leave the city towards the end of the Russo-Turkish War and fled to Istanbul. There he began training as an officer and graduated in 1888. He was taught French and mathematics by his father's French work colleagues - they also gave him an insight into photography. At the age of 17, he bought his first camera, with which he took numerous photos throughout his life.

He did his first military service in the 4th Army Group Dördüncü Ordu on the Armenian border. In 1908 he joined the 1st Army Group Birinci Ordu . In the period 1911-12 he was sent to Libya and took over the leadership of the 31st Division stationed in Gallipoli during the Balkan War . His units marched together with those of Enver Pascha into the Adrinapolis (today: Edirne ) controlled by Bulgaria .

In 1914 Fahreddin Pasha was assigned to the Seventh Corps stationed in Mosul . Later he became deputy commander of the Fourth Army Group Dördüncü Ordu in Aleppo .

Defense of the Hejaz

On the orders of Cemal Pasha he set out as Hicaz Kuvve-i Seferiyesi on May 23, 1916 in the direction of Medina and was assigned to secure the Hejaz Railway and the surrounding area.

A short time later, Faisal I and Abdallah ibn Husain I declared the Arab revolt. He repulsed the two-day attack by Faisal I and chased the fleeing Arab units. In the meantime, he sent 2,000 soldiers from the Prophet's Mosque to Istanbul with holy relics, personal belongings of Muhammad , which are now on display in the Topkapi Palace . Subsequently, his troops took the cities of Yanbu and Rabegh, which were under the Arab rebels . He succeeded in almost completely crushing the Arab revolt sparked with British help in the initial phase. However, due to British warships and logistical problems, he withdrew to the headquarters in Medina on January 18, 1917. Now the insurgents began with the organization by TE Lawrence to interrupt the Hejaz Railway with explosives and acts of sabotage. The aim was to arrest Fahreddin's 4th Army Group in Medina and to keep it away from an offensive in the direction of the Palestine front, which the insurgents succeeded in doing.

A grueling siege followed, in which Fahreddin Pascha gave the locust order, known in Turkey, Çekirge Talimatnamesi :

“What is the difference between a grasshopper and a sparrow? It just has no feathers ... He is just as winged, flies around, also eats grass, eats fresh and clean things. They even get addicted and flavorful, like lemons and tobacco. The Bedouins owe their tenacity to eating locusts. [...] It is said that there is also a hadith of our prophet on the issue of edibility. [...] In whichever sector the locusts appear, I ask you to consume them according to the methods I have described and to give them to me. "

With the armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918 and the regulation contained therein that the Ottoman generals had to submit to the next Allied troop leader, the task of Medina was expected. Allied Ottoman units were 1,300 miles away. Fahreddin Pasha resisted, however. After unanswered requests to surrender, the British issued an ultimatum until mid-December and hoped for a bloodless solution. The delay made Abdallah ibn Husain I nervous. A multitude of telegrams and the envoy Zia Bey of the Sublime Porte could not persuade him to give up. 72 days after the Mudros Armistice was signed, his own men ambushed him and arranged the handover of the city. Shortly thereafter, the rebels invaded and he was taken prisoner by the British.

Captivity and diplomat

He was taken to prison in Malta via Cairo . There he spent the time reading and learning the English language. He has since been sentenced to death by the Ottoman government for refusing to give orders. In 1921 he was released and joined the Turkish independence movement under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk . Parliament sent him to Afghanistan as a diplomat, where he raised funds for the Turkish War of Independence. In 1926 his diplomatic service ended and he worked in a military court until 1936.

He had two sons, Selim and Orhan Türkkan, the latter was a member of the Adalet Partisi from 1965 to 1969.

death

Ömer Fahrettin Türkkan died on November 22, 1948 of a heart attack on a train near Eskişehir. According to his will, he was buried in the Aşiyan Mezarlığı Cemetery in Istanbul.

Web links

Commons : Ömer Fahrettin Türkkan  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Randall Baker: King Husain and the Kingdom of Hejaz. The Oleander Press, 1979, ISBN 978-0-900-89148-9 , p. 138 ( limited preview in the Google book search) (pictures by Ömer Fahrettin Türkkan)

Individual evidence

1. ^ S. Tanvir Wasti: The defense of Medina, 1916-19 In: Middle Eastern Studies. Volume 27, Number 4, October 1991, pp. 642-653.
2. ↑ Ömer Faruk Şerifoğlu: Fahreddin Paşa'nın Medine'si. In: zaman.com.tr. August 4, 2013, archived from the original on February 10, 2015 ; Retrieved February 10, 2015 (Turkish). 
3. ^ "Fahreddin Paşa (Türkkan)" ( Memento from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Turkey in the First World War.
4. ^ David Murphy, The Arab Revolt 1916-18: Lawrence Sets Arabia Ablaze. , 2008, Osprey Publishing, pp. 35-39.
5. ↑ Habertürk: Kutsal Emanetler'deki hazineler, bugün Fahreddin Paşa'nın sayesinde bizdedir. In: haberturk.com. March 25, 2012, accessed February 10, 2015 (Turkish). 
6. ↑ Başbakan Erdoğan'ın sır konuşması. In: sabah.com.tr. March 24, 2012, accessed February 10, 2015 . 
7. ^ Francis E. Peters, Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land, 1999, Cambridge University Press, pp. 375-276.