It was in 1299, from humble beginnings, that Osman1 laid the foundation of what was to become the mighty Ottoman Empire.
But by the time of the First World War, after long expansion followed by a steady period of continuous dissipation, the Empire was in an advanced state of rot, and the sun was due to set on it.
When the war began, disaster was quickened when the Turkish Sultan threw in his lot with Germany and the Central Powers. Churchill’s persuasiveness moved the War Cabinet in London to attack Turkey from the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople, and prise Turkey out of the war.
The Turkish army was poorly equipped to the extent that bandages were taken off the dead, washed and dried, and used on the next casualty brought in by the stretcher-bearers.
But all was not lost because the Turkish soldier had still retained his famed fighting spirit. And at the point of attack, he was commanded by Gen Mustafa Kemal [ later to be called Ataturk]. Kemal’s 19nth infantry division was deployed at Gallipoli, barring the advance of the British and their Anzac allies to Constantinople. And the Turks beat back everything that the enemy could throw at them. For a whole year, they did not allow the enemy to take any ground. And when a year’s fighting was over, overwhelmed by exhaustion and the immovable Turk [made the more so by Kemal’s sterling leadership] the allied forces broke off the engagement and withdrew.
Very early on in the battle, a shrapnel that could have taken Ataturk’s life was stopped by his pocket watch. He decided to cash in on this miracle. And so, each morning he would parade himself in front of the trenches of his men while bullets flew around him, loudly proclaiming that the bullet that could kill Mustafa Kemal, had yet to be made.
And so, his men followed him against superhuman odds when frequent counterattacks had to be launched to restore positions lost to the enemy. Before one such attack when a junior officer ventured an opinion that an attack ordered by Ataturk would be suicide, Ataturk uttered his immortal retort: “I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die.”
And die they did, but attacked and took their objective.
With Gallipoli secure, he was transferred to the Syrian front.
The war for Turkey ended with the Armistice of Mudros on 30 Oct 1918, with Turkey defeated.
When Ataturk returned to Constantinople, it was to a city under combined British and French occupation. And rumours were rife that mainland Turkey was to be divided among the English, the French, the Italians, and the Greeks. But well before this, and to forestall this eventuality, Ataturk used all his influence to get himself transferred to Anatolia, the Turkish heartland, as Inspector General of the 3rd Army, with specific orders to stamp out anarchy there.
He landed at Samsun on 19 May 1919, but instead of disarming the populace, he began to organize committees of national defense which, he said, were being organized,” to prevent the nation slipping through the fingers of the people.”
His activities could not be long masked and soon the Allies in control of the capital prevailed over the Sultan to order his return. The order was legal and constitutional. But the Constitution was hostage to powers inimical to the state. Thus, he decided to stand by the state in defiance of the constitution. He was ordered to report back to Constantinople, which he ignored. Then orders for his arrest were sent out to all Turkish garrisons. When these orders could not be implemented, he was sentenced to death in absentia.
The one man who could have arrested and sent him back to Constantinople was Lt Gen Kazim Karabekir, commander of the Turkish XV Corps at Erzurum. This was the largest Turkish force which was still more or less intact. And Gen Kazim was a military hero in his own right, second only to Ataturk himself. Instead of arresting Ataturk, he went over to his side and the side of Turkey.
Meanwhile, the eager Greeks landed a military force at Smyrna on 15 May 1919. The Italians, French, and the British, who had plans to carve up Turkey among themselves, were too exhausted to send any troops. Their contribution to the invasion came in the form of equipping and supporting the Greeks.
The Greek army progressed eastwards against poorly armed Turks. Only a third of the Turkish forces deployed to stop them were equipped with rifles. The rest were armed with staffs, axes and pitchforks etc. And as one rifleman fell, the next man picked up his rifle to continue the fight. The Greeks overwhelmed every defensive position thrown up to bar their advance, till they reached the banks of River Sakarya, a mere earshot from Ankara.
The Battle of River Sakarya [also known as the Officers’ Battle because seventy percent of the Turkish officers deployed in this battle, fell there] began on Aug 23, 1921. Ataturk went back into uniform to take personal command of operations, with a sentence of death still hanging over him.
The Greek army was halted, and then on Sep 12, 1921, it was decisively routed.
This was 238 years after the expansion of the Ottoman Empire was brought to a halt outside Vienna on 23 Sep 1683. From then onwards the Ottoman Empire was steadily pushed back. This long retreat was finally checked by the victory on the Sakarya. What this victory salvaged for the Turks was the Anatolian heartland of Turkey, the state which we know by that name today.
By the time Ataturk died in 1938, at the age of 57, he had willed his assets to his party, the state, and the six orphan girls he had adopted as his daughters.
Generals like Ataturk, driven by national commitment and the real spirit of their oaths, will preserve and protect the people they serve, and retrieve them from the jaws of death. Those like Mir Jaffer, Bajwa, and Asim Munir, unrestrained by integrity, will sell, ruin, and destroy the state.
And then there are those who will happily destroy their countries twice over.