What kind of man was Mustafa Kemal?

Yakup Cemil had been executed.

He had been by Enver Pasha's side since 1903.

Thanks to Enver Pasha, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress. He became a fedai (militant). In Thessaloniki, at the request of Enver Bey (who was not yet a pasha at that time), he organized an assassination attempt against Mustafa Kemal, but it was unsuccessful. It was alleged that he was the person who killed journalist Ahmet Samim in 1910. However, he was not tried, and the killer was never found.

He fought under the command of Enver Bey in Tripoli-Benghazi. There, he shot a lieutenant in the head, killing him without question. Enver Bey sent him back to Istanbul in a hurry.

During the Raid on the Sublime Porte carried out by Enver Bey, he shot and killed Minister of War Nazım Pasha in the temple. But he was not tried. In 1914, Kuşçubaşı Eşref recruited him into the Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa (Special Organization). He was a law unto himself because he was Enver Pasha's number one militant and supporter.

In 1915, he organized the Armenian deportation in Erzurum. He went to Bitlis, he went to Baghdad. He was headstrong. After a while, he began to disobey orders. Then he was summoned to Istanbul. In Istanbul, he fell out with Enver Pasha because he had started making plans for a coup.

At that time, Mustafa Kemal had written an epic in the Gallipoli campaign, saved the capital, and saved the state. For this reason, Yakup Cemil was thinking of killing Enver Pasha and bringing Mustafa Kemal Pasha to power. For Mustafa Kemal Pasha, whom he had previously wanted to kill, he had begun to say, "There is no salvation unless Mustafa Kemal becomes Minister of War and Deputy Commander-in-Chief.”

He had come to his senses, but it was too late. When he said this in a few places, the word reached Enver Pasha's ears, and he had him arrested immediately. He was sentenced to death under Article 14, Paragraph 6 of the Treason Law. He was then executed by firing squad on September 11, 1916.

At that time, Mustafa Kemal was the Commander of the 16th Corps in Silvan, unaware of anything.

He had become a general. He was holding the Bingöl-Muş-Bitlis line of the Caucasus Front. He was achieving significant successes together with the 2nd Army Commander Ahmet İzzet Pasha.

Doctor Hilmi from Thessaloniki came to Diyarbakır from Istanbul. Hilmi was a very close friend of Yakup Cemil. He said that in Istanbul, Yakup Cemil, Hakkı Sapanca, Hüsrev, and a few others had been arrested for attempting a coup against the government, but that he had escaped and saved himself. After waiting for a while in Diyarbakır, he sent word to Mustafa Kemal. He said he wanted to come to Silvan and meet with him. Mustafa Kemal accepted.

On the evening of September 27, 1916, they ate dinner together. Doctor Hilmi told them with fear what they had done in Istanbul;

-"If I had stayed in Istanbul, they would have hanged me too," he said. He asked Mustafa Kemal Pasha to make a request to the authorities in Istanbul so that he would not be hanged. Mustafa Kemal accepted. He wrote to the higher authorities and ensured that he would not be hanged and that his sentence would be pardoned.

Later, his classmate Ali Fuat Cebesoy came to Silvan. They had dinner in the evening. The subject came up at the table. Mustafa Kemal Pasha told Ali Fuat that Doctor Hilmi had come from Istanbul and provided information about some events in Istanbul.

-"Yakup Cemil has been hanged," he said. "The reason is that he said there is no salvation unless Mustafa Kemal becomes Minister of War and Deputy Commander-in-Chief," he said.

Ali Fuat was listening. There was a moment of silence. A short conversation took place about whether he would accept the duty if Yakup Cemil had been successful. Yes, Mustafa Kemal Pasha would have wanted to be Minister of War and Deputy Commander-in-Chief. But after a while, he ended his speech with these sentences;

-"If I am a man to be brought to power by the wishes of Yakup Cemil and his likes, then I am not a man," he said.

As for Doctor Hilmi from Thessaloniki, he had previously served as a headquarters doctor in the Gallipoli campaign, in the Anafartalar battles. Mustafa Kemal Pasha would not waste such a hero. He saved his life. He took him under his wing. He made him a Headquarters Doctor. Doctor Hilmi fought against the Greeks in the Bursa Mustafakemalpaşa and Karacabey regions during the War of Independence and served in the War of Independence. After the War of Independence, he also served as a member of parliament in the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey).

He was very beneficial to our country.

Doctor Hilmi from Thessaloniki was Dr. Mehmet Hilmi Oytaç.

Not only Doctor Hilmi, but Hakkı Sapanca and Hüsrev Gerede entered under Atatürk's command in the War of Independence. They performed great acts of heroism against the enemy.

They were all useful.

Mustafa Kemal, on the other hand, very much wanted to be Minister of War at that time. Because his goal was to persuade Sultan Mehmed V Reşad, turn his back (in his own words) on the Germans who caused our defeat in World War I, and if necessary, sit at the table with the British for the benefit of the country, and save the military and human power of the Ottoman State in 1916 and its map at that time.

According to Mustafa Kemal, this was possible at that time, and in 1916, we had not yet lost much outside of the Balkans.

But it did not happen, it could not happen because Mustafa Kemal was not a man to be brought to power by someone else's coup. Furthermore, he did not lose men; he won men.

In short, he was a man of his word.