Who was that young lieutenant colonel who stood up to the occupiers right in front of the Prime Minister?

The date was October 30, 1918. We had been defeated.

The Ottoman Empire had lost World War I, which had lasted for more than 4 years, alongside the Germans. On behalf of the British State, Admiral Calthorpe, and on behalf of the Ottoman State, Hüseyin Rauf Bey met on the battleship Agamemnon, which was waiting off the coast of Mudros on the island of Lemnos. They signed the Armistice of Mudros.

The Ottoman State had effectively come to an end.

Because according to the treaty, the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits would be opened to enemy entry, the Turks would release all prisoners, the Turkish Armies would be demobilized and sent home, all shipyards would be seized, and the British and French would be able to land troops in any region they wished by using the excuse that public order in Anatolia had been disrupted.

This was a surrender treaty.

The situation was dire.

By force and fraud, all the country's armies had been disbanded, all shipyards had been seized, and every part of the sacred homeland was pregnant with occupation.

Unfortunately, Sultan Vahdettin signed the decree regarding the demobilization of Turkish soldiers as required by the Armistice of Mudros on November 5.

The Dardanelles Strait was also opened by the Sultan with a single signature. The Turks were forced to evacuate the Gallipoli positions they had heroically defended. Once the Dardanelles were opened, every British, French, Italian, and Greek warship set sail toward the capital, Istanbul.

And Gallipoli was passed.

According to the treaty, the weapons of the Ottoman Army were to be surrendered to the occupying states. But how would this happen?

A commission was immediately established, and the Ottoman General Staff Department appointed Ahmet Tevfik Pasha to the commission. They also assigned a short, intelligent, agile staff lieutenant colonel named Mustafa as his military advisor.

The commission meeting began with the representatives of the occupying states, led by Great Britain. The young military advisor of the Ottoman State, the staff lieutenant colonel, began to read the "Ottoman state's plan for surrendering weapons" as required by his duty. Just as he began to read, the British general interrupted him and harshly announced their own plans, which they demanded be implemented, in a commanding tone.

Upon this, the young lieutenant colonel stood up, turned to the Representative of the Ottoman Delegation, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, and said, "Pasha, we thought we came here to negotiate and seek a solution. Not to take orders. Our business here is finished." He then saluted Ahmet Tevfik Pasha in front of the representatives of the occupying forces and left the meeting.

Tevfik Pasha was a man who had served as Prime Minister in the Ottoman State. That lieutenant colonel had stood up to the occupiers right in front of the Prime Minister.

The meeting did not last long. It was over.

When Ahmet Tevfik Pasha came home that evening, he was happy. He told his family about the incident.

He said he liked that young staff lieutenant colonel very much and added, "If there had been more officers like him in the Ottoman Army, we would not have fallen into this state."

The young lieutenant colonel he was referring to was Mustafa İsmet İnönü.

Even under occupation, he had stood his ground against the enemy.