August 30, the honor of duty, and the struggle against imperialism

The year is 1922. The month is August. These were the days when the Turkish nation witnessed both fire and betrayal...

During the War of Independence, before the Great Offensive—the final and decisive blow to be struck against the occupying enemy—opponents of Mustafa Kemal Pasha were not idle in Ankara, within the Veteran Parliament. The opposition in the Parliament was spreading propaganda that the order in the army had collapsed and that the soldiers were in no condition to move.

The great leader, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, successfully used this propaganda of his opponents against the enemy as well. He told his close circle that this propaganda helped in concealing the offensive plan from the enemy. Furthermore, before the Great Offensive, Fethi (Okyar) Bey was sent to London, both to try diplomatic channels once more and to gain time. However, British Prime Minister Lloyd George did not grant him an appointment. Mustafa Kemal Pasha preferred to portray even major military successes as insignificant skirmishes to prevent the intervention of major Western powers. He would recount the period between August 26 and September 9 in detail at the Veteran Parliament on October 4, 1922, after the Great Victory and the liberation of İzmir.

The offensive plan was based on launching a lightning raid to crush the enemy army where it stood, not on making the enemy flee, retreat, repel, or force a withdrawal. Kocatepe was so close to the front that, in Atatürk's words, there was no need for binoculars to observe and direct the operation.

During the Great Offensive, the left flank of our army faltered slightly. And Colonel Reşat Bey, the commander of the 57th Division, who had promised to take the hill but was half an hour late—meaning he could not fulfill his promise on time—committed suicide with his pistol because he could not keep his word. At the moment he ended his life, his soldiers had captured Çiğiltepe. Çiğiltepe would become the surname of the national hero and symbol of honor, Colonel Reşat Bey, after the adoption of the Surname Law.

Colonel Reşat would go down in history as one of the most valiant and distinguished examples of the honor of duty and military honor. The lesson he taught remains important, meaningful, and valid today...

Let us come to the present day...

It is necessary to remind those who ignore or belittle the War of Independence, the Turkish Revolution, and the Republic; those who call it a "bloody coup" and insult it by saying it was a "parenthesis, a commercial break, left behind wreckage, or created trauma."

If it were not for Atatürk, the War of Independence, and the Republic, they would be sitting in a Central Anatolian town granted to the Turks by the imperialists as a result of the Treaty of Sèvres, and they would have to ask for permission from the British consul to go to Istanbul, from the Greek commander to go to İzmir, from the Italian commissioner to go to Antalya, and from the French trade attaché to go to Adana.

If it were not for the spirit of the Kuvayı Milliye (National Forces), and if it were not for the nationalist rebels whom the British intelligence service and the US press called Kemalists, the sound of bells from churches, not the sound of the adhan from mosques, would be heard in Anatolia.

The hatred of imperialists and their local collaborators for Atatürk never ends.

It is known how Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish Revolution, and subsequently the Republic, inspired oppressed nations and third-world countries, and thus how they frightened and unsettled British imperialism. Indeed, at the very beginning of the War of Independence, the first state to recognize Turkey was Afghanistan. Then, the first major state to recognize it was Soviet Russia. This is such a simple fact that the imperialists always dragged their feet in moving their diplomatic missions to the capital, Ankara.

Our esteemed professor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hüner Tuncer, summarizes this situation in the second volume of her important two-volume work titled "Turkish Foreign Policy" (Kaynak Yayınları, October 2017, Ankara, pages 154–155) as follows:

"In the founding years of the new Turkish State, the embassies of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan were opened in Ankara. The first Soviet Embassy was in a building opposite the Kurşunlu Mosque in the district called Samanpazarı. When this embassy building burned down as a result of a fire, the Soviet Embassy moved to a large wooden building in Hamamönü. The Azerbaijani Embassy, on the other hand, was in a vineyard house where the first Conservatory building was located. The first Soviet Ambassador to the Ankara Government was Aralov, and the first Azerbaijani Ambassador was Abilov.

During the founding period of the Republic, there were disagreements between Turkey and Western states regarding the status of the embassies these states would open before the Republic of Turkey and the capital of the new Turkish State. While the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) Government requested these states to send diplomatic representatives with the status of 'ambassador,' Western states such as Britain, France, and Italy insisted on sending 'ministers' to the Ankara Government. However, in the end, Ankara succeeded in getting the Western states to accept its view.

On the other hand, the Westerners insisted that the capital of the Republic of Turkey should be Istanbul, because these states thought they could use their political and military influence more easily over Istanbul. It is seen that European states still did not give up their old habits and, just as they did with the Ottoman Empire, did not see any harm in interfering in the internal affairs of the new Turkish State.

In the early years of the Republic, Western embassies generally continued to remain in Istanbul, and the ambassadors returned to Istanbul after presenting their letters of credence to Atatürk in Ankara. In this situation, the Ankara Government felt the necessity of opening a branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Istanbul and conducted its relations with the embassies in Istanbul through this office. Over time, by giving free land to foreign embassies in Ankara, they were gradually moved to Ankara; however, the British Embassy continued to remain in Istanbul until 1929."