Atatürk’s dog; Alp

When Mustafa Kemal first arrived in Sofia,

at the beginning of May 1914, he rented a beautiful two-story house with a garden on Ferdinand Boulevard. The house he rented was very close to the Bulgarian Parliament. And he would be able to conduct his diplomatic and political meetings more easily here. While in this house, Mustafa Kemal bought a setter puppy that was still nursing. He named it Alp. He took it wherever he went and never left its side.

And he trained it with care. He looked after it and fed it.

On the snowy nights of Sofia, Alp kept him company. It slept at the foot of Mustafa Kemal’s bed, and they slept together.

One night, at an unexpected hour, his comrade-in-arms Mehmet Nuri, with whom he had fought in Tripoli, had written him a letter/book titled “Officer and Commander” in 1913, and Mustafa Kemal had sat down and written a response titled “Conversations with the Officer and Commander.”

While writing the response, he remembered the past. Thessaloniki came to his mind. In fact, it never left his mind. He was saddened. His memories were stirred. He sighed and said, “Ah, Thessaloniki.” Because while he was in Cyrenaica (the cliffs of Benghazi), Thessaloniki had been lost, surrendered to the enemy, and the graves of his mother, sister, and deceased siblings had remained on the soil of Thessaloniki.

Moreover, the grave of his father, Ali Rıza Efendi, had been trampled by the feet of Greek ruffians in the garden of the Hortacı Süleyman Mosque in Thessaloniki.

He entered the subject by writing the sentence, “The heavy defeat of our army in the last Balkan War is a bitter truth.” In the letter, he spoke of the military profession, mentioned that soldiers were not adequately trained, spoke of the mistakes and inadequacies of the commanders, and described how Thessaloniki was surrendered to the enemy with a bitter betrayal.

And he reached a point.

“And truly, one day while rushing from Cyrenaica (Benghazi) to the Balkan fire (defeat), one day while seeing that the roads from the African coast to my homeland were closed, one day, I heard that my father’s home, Thessaloniki, and my mother, sister, and all my relatives and loved ones there had been surrendered to the enemy by Tahsin Pasha.

One day, I heard that a bell had been installed on the minaret of the Hortacı Süleyman Mosque and the bones of my father lying there had been trampled under the dirty feet of Greek soldiers,” he said, and he could not bear it.

He cried.

His tears dripped onto the ink of his letter.

At that moment, only his dog Alp was by his side.

Summer had arrived.

Mustafa Kemal was having a stormy romance with Dimitriana Kovaçeva, the daughter of the Bulgarian Minister of Defense, General Kovaçev. However, this love affair had been heard of in Sofia and was met with reaction by some Bulgarian nationalists. For this reason, Mustafa Kemal had to stop seeing Dimitriana for a while.

To clear his head a little and to do some regional work, he went on an excursion to the north of Sofia with his mounted staff.

At that time, Europe was pregnant with the First World War.

Mustafa Kemal did not want to take his dog Alp on the horseback trip. Because it was still a puppy. But Alp would not stop. It wanted to come. It ran after Mustafa Kemal and the horsemen for a long time. After a while, when Alp became overwhelmed by the heat and tired, Mustafa Kemal stopped the horses. He turned back and looked at Alp. Alp was barking at him bitterly. It insisted on coming. Mustafa Kemal could not bear it and placed Alp in the arms of a cavalryman.

That is how he continued on his way.

At the end of 1914, when the First World War broke out and he was appointed as the Commander of the 19th Division on the Gallipoli front, Mustafa Kemal did not stay in Sofia. He left all his belongings, even his love Dimitriana, and returned to Istanbul, taking only a few suitcases with him.

The only living soul he had with him was Alp.

He had taken only it with him.

Without wasting any time, he prepared the 19th Division in Tekirdağ. His dog Alp had also grown up by now and had started to obey. And it was always by Mustafa Kemal’s side. Mustafa Kemal was personally training the regiments under the command of the 19th Division in Tekirdağ and preparing them for war. Among these regiments was the 57th Regiment, which became heroic in the Gallipoli Campaign and almost all of whom were martyred. Alp walked, ran, hopped, and jumped among those 57th soldiers, and shared the grief of the soldiers of that heroic regiment.

It practically became the mascot of the 57th Regiment.

On February 23, Mustafa Kemal left Tekirdağ with three regiments, including the famous 57th Regiment, and set off. He arrived in Maydos. Because the war had started. They were calling urgently.

While going to Maydos, he stopped by Gallipoli.

Here he met with 3rd Army Chief of Staff Fahrettin Altay. Fahrettin Altay was a successful staff officer who had participated in various wars. He was two years senior to Mustafa Kemal. Fahrettin Altay was seeing Mustafa Kemal for the first time. He was surprised. Because there was a dog with Mustafa Kemal, and he was constantly traveling with it. A lieutenant colonel who walked around everywhere with a dog—in the barracks, during training, in meetings. It was impossible to find such an officer in the Ottoman army.

Mustafa Kemal had productive meetings with Fahrettin Altay. And then, he continued on his way to Gallipoli, to the middle of the wars.

And it was not long before the Gallipoli Campaign began. During the war, bombs were exploding, soldiers were launching attacks, soldiers were sometimes staying on the defensive, and sometimes fighting to the death.

Meanwhile, Alp was also experiencing this war. If a bomb fell somewhere, Alp would immediately run there to see if there were any wounded soldiers. When there were wounded soldiers, it would bark to give notice. When enemy artillery fired, it would immediately run to the trenches to see if there were any wounded soldiers, and it would return when Mustafa Kemal shouted, “You’ll get hit, you rascal.”

When the war ended, a hero was born in Gallipoli. As a result of Mustafa Kemal’s superior genius and great heroism, the war was won, and the enemy had stopped attacking.

Mustafa Kemal had won all the land battles he engaged in during the Gallipoli Campaign and had become the “Hero of Gallipoli.” The end of August had arrived, Mustafa Kemal had also won the Anafartalar victory, and the enemy had stopped attacking and halted.

At the end of this war, Mustafa Kemal was exhausted, his malaria had recurred, and he was lying in a tent. At that moment, only his dog Alp was by his side. When Mustafa Kemal’s fever rose, Alp would sit up from where it was lying, look at Mustafa Kemal, and become restless. It usually waited at the door of his tent, occasionally poking its head through the gap in the tent to check if Mustafa Kemal was breathing.

It would growl and bark at aggressive or ill-intentioned people who came to the tent and would never let them inside.

It was also, in a way, Mustafa Kemal’s bodyguard.

Mustafa Kemal became a general, and Alp was by his side. Some evenings, Mustafa Kemal Pasha would drink, and Alp would wait by his side. Mustafa Kemal would become sorrowful, and Alp would become sorrowful. Mustafa Kemal would become cheerful, and Alp would become cheerful. Mustafa Kemal Pasha went to the Caucasus front, and Alp went with him. Mustafa Kemal went to the Sinai front, and Alp went too.

When Mustafa Kemal Pasha was retreating from Nablus in September 1918, the British launched a major air attack on him. They practically rained bombs down. In this air raid, everyone scattered. All soldiers and vehicles were mixed up. Alp also disappeared. Mustafa Kemal had Alp searched for, but could not find it. But they had to retreat as soon as possible. Because the 7th Army he commanded was being surrounded by British and Arab soldiers. If they did not retreat, they would be taken prisoner. And in all likelihood, they would be killed.

After a while, he lost hope and gave up searching for Alp. And he had to leave the region with his soldiers.

However, Alp had been confused and panicked by the intense bombing, lost contact with Mustafa Kemal, and had gone missing.

Later, Alp was found.

But what good was it? Nablus had remained in enemy hands. Atatürk had become the Commander of the Lightning Army Group and had begun a great struggle. He never heard that Alp had been found.

Alp did not live long either. It lost its life from the sadness caused by the separation from its owner.

Don’t just dismiss them as dogs.

They are also living souls. In Sofia, it was by Mustafa Kemal’s side. During the Gallipoli Campaign, it would sleep at the door of Mustafa Kemal’s tent. It would not let ominous and dangerous people inside. On the Caucasus front, there was Alp. It was by Mustafa Kemal’s side. On the Syrian front, on the Sinai front, it was there.

Alp was always by his side like a mother, like a protector. When he was sick, it would sniff Mustafa Kemal’s face to see if he was alive.

Now they want to put these dogs to sleep and kill them.

Yet they were not as useful to the country as an Alp.

They did not protect the memory of Atatürk, the savior of this country,

as much as an Alp did.