Ali Fuat Cebesoy

Ali Fuat Cebesoy

Ali Fuat Cebesoy (born September 23, 1882 in İstanbul , † January 10, 1968 ibid) was an Ottoman-Turkish general, fighter in the Turkish liberation war , member of parliament, minister and ambassador of Turkey. Before the naming law was passed in 1934 , his name was Ali Fuat Pascha or Ali Fuat Bey.

Family and school years

Ali Fuat Cebesoy (1st row, 3rd from left) with classmates from the War School of the Ottoman Empire (1901), including Kâzım Özalp (1st row, 1st from left), Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1st row, 2nd from left ) and Sedat Doğruer (1st row, 4th from the left)

Cebesoy was born on September 23, 1882 in Salacak in the Istanbul district of Üsküdar . His maternal grandfather, Field Marshal Mehmed Ali Pascha , a German who converted to Islam, was a delegate of the Ottomans at the Berlin Congress . His father İsmail Fazıl Pascha was later the first minister of construction in Turkey. He attended elementary school in Erzincan , then he went to the French secondary school Saint Joseph (1894–1899) in Istanbul. Against his father's wishes, he enrolled in the military school on March 13, 1899. There he was a classmate of Mustafa Kemal from Saloniki . Cebesoy graduated from military school as a lieutenant on January 9, 1902. On January 11, 1905, he finished the military academy with the rank of captain as the best of his year, while Mustafa Kemal was fifth best.

Cebesoy in the military

Like many other officers and cadets, Cebesoy was a member of the Committee for Unity and Progress , which opposed the authoritarian regime of Sultan Abdülhamid II and overthrew it in 1908. Cebesoy began his service as an officer in Beirut . In 1907 he was promoted to first lieutenant . When the Italo-Turkish War broke out over Ottoman Libya in 1911 , Cebesoy was one of the first Ottoman soldiers to be sent to war. During the Balkan War , Cebesoy successfully fought in the battles of Montenegro , Ioannina , Pista and Pisani. For this he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

"Ali Fuad Bey says goodbye to troops in the desert who are to be deployed on the canal". Original text from Illustrirten Zeitung 1915. It is unclear which of the characters is Ali Fuad Bey. The Suez Canal is obviously meant by the canal

During the First World War , as Chief of Staff of the VIII Corps, he took part in the fighting on the Suez Canal against the British. He then stood on the Caucasus Front as commander of the 5th Division under the command of Mustafa Kemal. In 1915 he rose to colonel and in 1917 to major general .

In 1918 Cebesoy fought on the Palestine Front in the Army Group Yıldırım (= "Jilderim", Turkish for lightning ), which was under the command of Otto Liman von Sanders . The initially successful von Sanders was replaced by Mustafa Kemal after a defeat by the British under Edmund Allenby on September 23, 1918. But even this could not stop the advance of the British, so that the British took Damascus on October 1st and Aleppo on October 25th . On October 30, 1918, the Ottomans signed the Mudros armistice and had to demobilize their troops. But Cebesoy withdrew with the XX. Corps returned to Konya and from there to Ankara and refused to lay down their arms.

War of liberation

Cebesoy (front far left) with some commanders in the Turkish War of Liberation (photo from 1923)

When the Allies occupied Istanbul in 1919 , there were only two corps in Anatolia that were not under Allied control. That was the corps of Kâzım Karabekir , to which Cebesoy was related, in Erzurum and the XX. Cebesoy Corps in Ankara. An armed clash at Geyve (in today's Sakarya province ) between the XX. Corps and British troops heading towards Eskişehir are considered to be the beginning of the Turkish War of Liberation.

When Mustafa Kemal went ashore in Samsun , he met with Cebesoy in Amasya , where they jointly announced the Amasya decree. Initially, Cebesoy fought with his XX. Corps in Western Anatolia against the Greeks. The government in Istanbul had informed Cebesoy by telegram that Mustafa Kemal had been relieved of all posts and ranks. But Cebesoy opposed the government and announced in a circular to all governors that they only had to obey his orders. Cebesoy also ensured that resistance fighters organized themselves in associations and joined the liberation movement. After the Sivas Congress , Cebesoy was appointed commander of the Kuvayı Milliye - irregular armed groups. Together with Çerkez Ethem he fought in the Greco-Turkish War of 1920. In October 1920, against the will of the Turkish chief of staff İsmet İnönü , they were able to recapture the city of Gediz from the Greeks. After the end of the war, the Kuvayı Milliye was dissolved and Cebesoy was sent to Moscow as a representative of the Kemalists.

Cebesoy as an ambassador

The dispatch as ambassador to Moscow was probably due to the disagreements between Cebesoy and İnönü. The western front was reorganized and commanded by Generals İnönü and Refet Bele . Cebesoy, meanwhile, was commissioned by Mustafa Kemal to conclude an agreement with the Soviets and to define the Turkish-Soviet border in eastern Anatolia. In the east, the Turks fought in the Turkish-Armenian War over areas that had been conquered by the Armenians and the Russians who supported them in the First World War. General Kâzım Karabekir was able to oust the Armenians in a series of battles from September. On March 16, 1921, the eastern border was established in the Moscow Treaty. The treaty also granted the Turks territories that they had lost to the Russians in 1878. With the treaty, the Kemalists were also recognized internationally for the first time.

politics

Ali Fuat Cebesoy

On May 10, 1921, Cebesoy returned to Ankara. He became chairman of the Society for the Defense of Rights (tr: Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti). In 1923 he became inspector of the Turkish 2nd Army in Konya . A year later he resigned as inspector and became a member of the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi for Ankara.

In 1924 he was one of the founders and general secretary of the first opposition party, the Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası . But the party was banned just a year later. When plans for an assassination attempt against Ataturk emerged, Cebesoy, among others, was arrested. Several defendants were executed after the trial. Cebesoy was acquitted. At the end of the second legislative period on October 1, 1927, Cebesoy had to resign as a member of parliament. On December 5, 1927, he was retired from military service. Cebesoy was banned from political activity for four years.

In 1931 Cebesoy returned to politics after the reconciliation with Ataturk. He was elected MP for Konya . When İsmet İnönü was President, Cebesoy was Minister of Construction from 1939 to 1943. Cebesoy traveled to Berlin with a delegation on April 14, 1939 for Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday . In 1948 he became President of Parliament.

In the same year he resigned from his office and left the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi to join the Democrat Parti . In 1950 he was elected as a member of parliament for Eskişehir and in 1957 for İstanbul. After the military coup in 1960 , he was arrested along with other members of the government and party and brought to justice in the Yassıada trials . Cebesoy was released.

Cebesoy was a member of parliament for various provinces several times. For example, he was in parliament for Ankara in the first and second legislative periods. In the 4th to 8th legislative period he sat for Konya in parliament and in the X. and XI. Legislative period for Istanbul.

Cebesoy, who never married, died on January 10, 1968 in Istanbul. He was buried in a mosque near the town of Alifuatpaşa in Geyve, where he had fought against British troops in 1920. There is a museum there that displays exhibits from Cebesoy such as photos and letters. After the military coup in 1980 , his body was not transferred to the Turkish national cemetery in Ankara due to protests by his family .

Books

Cebesoy wrote several books about his different stages of life:

• Milli Mücadele Hatıratı (Memories of the National Resistance)
• Moskova Hatıraları (Memories of Moscow)
• Birüssebi - Gazze Meydan Muharebesi ve 20 nci Kolordu (Birüssebi - The Gazzaschlacht and the 20th Corps)
• Mektep Arkadaşım Ataturk (My Classmate Ataturk)
• Siyasi Hatıralar (Political Memories)
• Mustafa Kemal - Milli Lider (Mustafa Kemal - The National Guide)

literature

• Ayfer Özçelik: Ali Fuad Cepesoy. Akçağ Yayınları, 1993, ISBN 975-338-006-2 .
• Osman Selim Kocahanoğlu: Bir Osmanlı Ailesi ve Ali Fuad Cebesoy: Ali Fuat Cebesoy'un Arşivinden Askeri ve Siyasi Belgeler. Temel Yayınları, İstanbul 2005, ISBN 975-410-092-6 .

Web links

Commons : Ali Fuat Cebesoy  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Erik Jan Zürcher: The Unionist factor: the role of the Committee of Union and Progress in the Turkish National Movement 1905–1926 . Brill, Leiden 1984, p. 96.
2. ↑ Ingeborg Böer, Ruth Haerkötter, Petra Kappert: Turks in Berlin from 1871 to 1945. A metropolis in the memories of Ottoman and Turkish contemporary witnesses. de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 368.

predecessor	Office	successor
Kâzım Karabekir	President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey January 30, 1948–1. November 1948	Şükrü Saracoğlu