Scoundrels... The Mehmetçik was in Gaza 100 years ago.

The place is Palestine.

Palestine was still a part of Ottoman territory.

Now they say, “Mehmetçik to Gaza.” The Mehmetçik was already in Gaza 100 years ago. They were defending Palestinian lands. When the Emir of Mecca, Sharif Hussein, joined forces with the British—or was incited by them—and rebelled against the Ottoman Empire on June 10, 1916, the British, having completed their military buildup at the Canal, crossed the Sinai Desert and marched toward Jerusalem alongside Arab Bedouin cavalry units.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman State, Sultan Mehmed V Reşad, was spending his days in his palace feeding pigeons and reading the Masnavi. And he was also praying abundantly for the Mehmetçik who were shedding their blood on various fronts.

But he himself was not going.

In his place, Enver Pasha was the Deputy Commander-in-Chief. He was going. However, because he was a staunch admirer of the Germans, he had officially handed over the General Staff Headquarters to German commanders. But the intentions of the Germans were also clear: to exploit the Ottoman lands in the Middle East. However, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and a few other generals were the only ones who sensed this.

To make a long story short, Enver Pasha established the Yıldırım Army Group in Aleppo to resist the British-Arab Bedouin offensive advancing from the Sinai Desert. He appointed the German General Erich von Falkenhayn, who had lost the battles of Verdun in World War I and had been unsuccessful, to lead it.

Yes, the very marshal who tried to buy Mustafa Kemal by sending him chests of gold and failed.

Anyway; when Falkenhayn became the Commander of the Yıldırım Army Group, they gave Atatürk the command of the 7th Army. However, because he saw the reality, he could not get along with Falkenhayn. Or rather, he did not agree with him. When Falkenhayn wanted to send Atatürk and his 7th Army to the Gaza and Sinai front by placing them under the command of 8th Army Commander Friedrich Kreß von Kressenstein, Atatürk refused.

He wanted to go by being given command of the 8th Army himself. He did not want to go under the command of a German General.

Moreover, Mustafa Kemal Pasha wanted all the armies fighting on the Palestinian front, including the 8th Army commanded by General Kress von Kressenstein, to be placed under his command, and for Cemal Pasha to be appointed in place of Falkenhayn. Mustafa Kemal Pasha wanted to defend Gaza and Jerusalem himself. He argued that Kressenstein would not be able to mount a defense in Jerusalem and Gaza, that they would make tactical military errors, that Gaza and Jerusalem would be lost, and that his soldiers would be slaughtered in vain. And he was right.

They did not give this task to Atatürk. So, he resigned on October 1, 1917.

And events unfolded just as Atatürk had predicted. On October 31, 1917, during the Third Battle of Gaza, the Turks could not hold their ground against the heavy artillery and infantry attacks of the British. The British had deceived the German Generals with a “bag of tricks,” lulled them into complacency, and then attacked suddenly. The German Generals were forced to withdraw their armies on November 6, 1917. Gaza fell on November 7, and Jerusalem was besieged on November 8.

Jerusalem was deliberately not defended by the Germans.

Because it was considered holy in the name of Christianity. The commander of the Ottoman Yıldırım Army Group, Erich von Falkenhayn, surrendered Jerusalem to the British without putting up any resistance so that the sites considered holy by Christians would not be destroyed by bombs. The Governor of Jerusalem, Izzet Bey, and the Mayor, Hussein Salim al-Husayni, also sent a letter to the British and handed over the keys to Jerusalem to them.

The primary person responsible for this disgrace was Falkenhayn. The second responsible parties were the Emir of Mecca, Hussein, and the Arab Mayor of Jerusalem, Hussein Salim al-Husayni. In fact, the Emir of Mecca, Hussein, was the primary person responsible for this painful history.

This is how Gaza and Jerusalem fell.

I will not recount the Arab betrayals here.

That drama would not fit into volumes. Especially the reality of Falih Rıfkı Atay’s “Zeytindağı” (Mount of Olives), which makes you sit down and weep. You cannot bear to read how the Mehmetçik was massacred by Arabs in the Arab deserts. The Turks at the Musmus Pass, the critical point in the Anebta valley of Palestine, could not resist in 1918. 47 Turks were [killed] by Arab Bedouins...