Why did Jerusalem fall? If only Atatürk's advice had been heeded

Today,

some slanderers who pose as writers go so far as to claim, directly or indirectly, that Atatürk fled from the Sinai front and that Jerusalem fell after this escape. They do not refrain from committing treason against the homeland in this way.

What they say is, of course, a lie. So, let us explain the truth:

German Field Marshal Erich von Falkenhayn was appointed Commander of the Yıldırım Army Group, which was established by Enver Pasha on June 24, 1917, to defend the Syria-Arabia front (including Gaza-Jerusalem-Palestine).

2nd Army Commander Mustafa Kemal Pasha was also appointed as the Commander of the 7th Army, which was attached to the Yıldırım Army Group, and he came to Istanbul from Diyarbakır, and then to Aleppo together with Falkenhayn.

And he began his duty in Aleppo.

However, there was a problem. Actually, there were many problems. People had lost hope in the state, administrators had moved away from justice, and the public was groaning under the grip of poverty, destitution, and disease. The army was in ruins. Furthermore, Field Marshal Falkenhayn, the commander of the Yıldırım Army Group sent by the Ottoman Empire to defend the Syrian Front, and his subordinate, the German General Von Kressenstein, the commander of the 8th Army, were making major mistakes on the Gaza front.

He sat down and sent a report to the capital. He warned them. He laid out the situation in all its nakedness. But the report was more of a memorandum.

"I am not saying that everything is over and there is no remedy left. There is a possibility to get rid of these problems," he said, and listed one by one what needed to be done.

But he could not make anyone in Istanbul listen. The memorandum remained just that.

After evaluating the Sinai front, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, thinking that the armies fighting on the Palestine front would not be successful, requested that all the armies on the front be placed under his command. Because the German commanders were unsuccessful. Turkish commanders were successful on the Sinai front.

Furthermore, in his report, Mustafa Kemal Pasha stated that imperialists were preparing to establish a foreign (Jewish-Christian) state on Palestinian soil, and he requested that the defense of Jerusalem be given to a Muslim and Turkish commander.

He even gave a name. He requested that Falkenhayn be removed and that Cemal Pasha be appointed as the Commander of the Yıldırım Army Group.

He wrote all of this to the General Staff.

But he could not make them listen again. Not only could he not make them listen, but when Falkenhayn attempted to place him under the command of his peer, the 8th Army Commander German General Kress von Kressenstein;

"...although it is regrettable that I am being demoted to a second or third-degree command level, it is not important in the face of the interests of the homeland. However, there is a sensitive point that should not be overlooked: when the 7th Army units are shifted to Sinai, if the British launch an attack on the Sinai Front while we are starting to send soldiers, then it will necessitate that every soldier sent joins the battle piecemeal and comes under the command of General Kress von Kressenstein. In this situation... I cannot remain a spectator. The action I will take then is to unconditionally take under my own command the front where even my smallest unit is fighting," he replied.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha was pointing out a military strategy here. He stated that if the soldiers under his command were sent to the Sinai Front piecemeal and the British launched an attack during this time, his soldiers would naturally come under the command of General Kressenstein, but that this situation would lead to defeat, and therefore, to prevent this, he would take over the command himself. In summary, he was saying, "You will lose this way, you will send the soldiers to their deaths."

Because he had experienced this at Gallipoli. Soldiers had been sent to him piecemeal, and success in driving the enemy into the sea could not be achieved.

Eventually, a crisis broke out. As a result of intense telegrams, in a telegram he sent to Minister of Defense Enver Pasha, Mustafa Kemal Pasha said, "Falkenhayn can never take duty on the Sinai Front. Either the defense of Sinai belongs solely to the 7th Army Commander under the command of the Arabia High Command, or I am relieved of the 7th Army Command."

Mustafa Kemal Pasha in Aleppo

In other words, as a Brigadier General, he was defying the Chief of General Staff and the Minister of Defense, saying, "Either you put me fully in charge, or you remove me from duty."

In summary, he was saying, "Either me or Falkenhayn."

When Enver Pasha sided with the German Field Marshal Falkenhayn in this situation, Mustafa Kemal Pasha resigned.

And what do you think happened afterwards?

Atatürk’s predictions and concerns came true.

The British, under Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, launched an attack on the Sinai Front on October 31, 1917. In the report he wrote 1 month and 10 days earlier, Mustafa Kemal Pasha had requested that soldiers be urgently shifted to this region and that they switch to defense as soon as possible.

But it was too late.

Falkenhayn had been stalling in Aleppo for 5 months. When the attack occurred, he came to Jerusalem on November 5. While the 7th Army, which was placed under the command of General Kress, had not yet taken its place on the Sinai front, the British broke through the Ottoman front. As Mustafa Kemal Pasha had predicted, Falkenhayn had transported the 7th Army to the Sinai front piecemeal, but it was of no use. In the 3rd Battle of Gaza on October 31, 1917, the Turks could not hold their ground against the heavy artillery and infantry attacks of the British. The German Generals had to withdraw the Ottoman Armies on November 6, 1917.

On November 7, Gaza fell, and on November 8, Jerusalem was besieged.

Jerusalem, where it is believed the tomb of Jesus is also located, was not defended by the Yıldırım Army Group Commander and German General Erich von Falkenhayn and Kress von Kressenstein. Falkenhayn decided to surrender Jerusalem without showing any serious resistance so that the places considered holy by Christians would not be destroyed by bombs, and the surrender order was notified to the British in a letter together with Governor İzzet Bey and Mayor Hussein Salim al-Husayni.

Falkenhayn had betrayed the Ottoman-German alliance.

This was the reason why Mustafa Kemal Pasha wanted the Ottoman Army Group in this region to be surrendered not to a Christian commander, but to a Turkish and Muslim commander.

The answer to the surrender letter of the Governor and the Mayor had not yet arrived when, at that very moment, something happened.

On the morning of December 9, at 08:00, nurse Bertha Spafford Vester at the American Hospital tore a white sheet she took from the wards, attached it to the end of a stick, handed it to Mayor Hussein Salim al-Husayni, and sent him outside the walls to surrender the city together with Jerusalem Police Chief Hacı Abdülkadir.

She told him to give the flag of surrender to the first British soldier he encountered. However, the person who appeared before Jerusalem Mayor Hussein Salim al-Husayni and Police Chief Hacı Abdülkadir was a British head cook named James Sedgewick, who was looking for food and water sources in the area and was not even aware of the situation.

They gave him the letter under the flag of surrender. And they even took a photo for memory, can you believe it? Jerusalem, which had been in the hands of the Ottoman Empire for nearly eight centuries, had not been defended by the German Commanders, and the great city had been surrendered to a British head cook.

Field Marshal Allenby also entered Jerusalem walking, swinging his arms.

The German generals had not fired a single shot against the British, who were their co-religionists. The fall of Jerusalem was celebrated by ringing bells in European churches. Interestingly, some German churches also joined this celebration by ringing their bells.

Field Marshal Allenby entering Jerusalem

The reason why Mustafa Kemal Pasha insisted that the Sinai front be placed in the hands of a Muslim General had also been revealed.

It is painful that the greatest support in the fall of Jerusalem came not from the Christians and Jews in the region, but from the Muslim Arabs who rebelled against the Ottomans by making secret agreements with the British, and from the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein.

If Mustafa Kemal's advice had been heeded and the Sinai front had not been abandoned to the hands of German commanders, and if a defense policy, not an offensive one, had been followed in the region as Mustafa Kemal insistently requested, Jerusalem would not have fallen.

Finally, did Atatürk's foresight catch your attention, by the way?

In the report he sent to the General Staff in September 1917, that is, in the memorandum, he says that "preparations are being made to establish a foreign (Jewish-Christian) state in Palestine" and draws attention to this point. And exactly 31 years after this date, in 1948, a Jewish State, that is, Israel, was established, and Atatürk's foresight came true.

Now, where did Atatürk flee in this? Where did he give away Jerusalem?

He even struggled and strove not to give it away.

Now hold on tight; do you know when Mustafa Kemal Pasha sent the memorandum to the General Staff to avoid losing Jerusalem? He sent it after his name was put on the list for Major General due to his superior successes on the Bitlis-Muş and Bingöl fronts in 1916.

After the memorandum, his name was removed from the list. He was not made a Major General.

In other words, he did not think about that rank, position, or office like those of today. He did not flatter. He thought about his country, he thought about his army.

Be careful when writing about Atatürk; he is like no one else. He is nothing like your "reis" (chief/leader) or whatever you call him.