Kemalism by Perry Anderson

[Edoman]

If you wish, i can try to help you in reading these documents.

P.S.: In fact, they are not Arabic, they are in Turkish. Before 1928, Turkish is written in an Arabic-based alphabet and Kemal made a so-called "Letter Revolution" and now written in Latin.

Hey that is great that you can read real Turkish (Can I say that? No pun intended my Turkish friend). I can still read and write Farsi but I am way out of practice. I appreciate your offer but no, it is better if we don’t go there. It is what it is.
Thanks.

Gavur. “If they release the Kemal files to the public it would instantly demythify him, and kill the taboo about "insulting Turkishness" in peoples mind, and promote unfettered discussion among Turks, who mostly unwittingly acting as a consipiritors to the state's crimes.”

So it is bigger than I thought. Why do I get the feeling that many moderate Turks silently would want those “KEMAL FILES” exposed. Very interesting, it puts it in a different perspective than I imagined. It makes more sense now.
Thanks Gavur.

[ardakilic]

So it is bigger than I thought. Why do I get the feeling that many moderate Turks silently would want those “KEMAL FILES” exposed. Very interesting, it puts it in a different perspective than I imagined. It makes more sense now.
Thanks Gavur.

In 80 army coup, Gen. Kenan Evren investgated "personal notebooks" of Kemal and some secret documents about him, stated "To open such documents can be harmful".

For instance, i have read a copy of one of those secret documents in Army Archive. It was memories of British ambassador in Ankara, 1938.

In his patient bed, just before two or three days before he dies, Kemal offers ambassador to be the second president of Turkey. Kemal stated him, "We will make live this republic which we established together".

[Gavur]

I think at that point the cerrosis might have affected his brain!

[ardakilic]

I think at that point the cerrosis might have affected his brain!

I dont suppose because till the last second his brain was working well. And ambassador also suspected what you mention, but he explains Kemal seems very healthy (probably last heal just before the death).

[Gavur]

Interesting enough.do you have the ambassedors name?

[ardakilic]

Interesting enough.do you have the ambassedors name?

HOW OUR MAN DECLINED TO RULE TURKEY

Martin Gilbert


In November 1938 Kemal Ataturk, President of Turkey, lay dying. During the 15 years of his stern dictatorship, he had dragged a reluctant Turkey forcibly into the 20th century. He had outlawed the fez and the veil. He had broken the powers of Islam. He had introduced the Latin alphabet.

Now, on his deathbed, Ataturk feared it would be impossible to find a successor able to continue his work. He summoned Sir Percy Loraine, the British Ambassador, to the presidential palace in Istanbul. What passed between them has remained secret for nearly 30 years. It is revealed for the first time by Piers Dixon, in his life of his father, Sir Pierson Dixon ("Double Diploma," to be published by Hutchinson this week). Among Pierson Dixon's papers was a telegram from Percy Loraine to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. In what is surely one of the strangest of all documents of recent British history, Loraine recounts his bizarre interview with the dying dictator:

" On my arrival . . . I found His Excellency propped up by pillows with two doctors and two nurses in attendance. . . . On my entry the President dismissed the doctors and the nurses, telling them curtly that he would ring if he required anything . . .

His Excellency then spoke to me slowly but carefully. He said that he had sent for me because, while he wished in no way to place me in an unfair position, he had an urgent request to make of me to which he hoped I would return a straight reply.

I would, no doubt recall the many interviews that I had had with him in the past. This might well be the last. In the course of a long and adventurous career, he had made and lost many friends and had taken and discarded much advice. My friendship and my advice was the one which he valued most because it had been the most consistent. It was for this reason that on various occasions . . . he had consulted me as freely as though I had been a Turkish Cabinet Minister myself.

It was his prerogative as President of the Republic to nominate a successor before his demise. His most earnest wish was that I should succeed him as President, and for this reason he wished to know what my reactions would be to this proposal.

After some minutes of silent reaction I told His Excellency in reply that I was quite unable to formulate any words which adequately expressed my feelings. Indeed, I was at that moment more deeply moved than I could ever remember being at any other time in my career.

By his proposal His Excellency had paid a unique compliment not only to me personally but also to the foreign policy of His Majesty's Government. . . . His Excellency would realize that I had spent the greater part of my life in the service of H M (His Majesty's, HD). . . . I hoped that I might have many years of such service still in front of me. His Excellency had asked for a straight answer and I would give him that answer. I gravely doubted whether my best qualities lay in the administrative sphere. The responsibilities of a President of the Turkish Republic were vastly different from those of a British Ambassador and I felt that my abilities and experience were best employed by continuing in the latter capacity. . . . I must therefore regretfully but firmly decline.

When I had finished speaking the President showed signs of great emotion. He sank back on the pillows and rang for his nurses, who administered a restorative.

When he was able to speak again His Excellency informed me he fully understood the reasons which had influenced my decision; he was good enough to say that, though bitterly disappointed, it was in a sense the reply he would have expected from me. He would therefore nominate Ismet Inonu in my place.

Ataturk then raised himself on his elbows and grasped my hand. He thanked me for what I had done for the furtherance of Anglo-Turkish friendship. I accordingly deemed it best to withdraw.

I shall be most grateful if I can receive from your Lordship a message of approval of the action which I have taken.

Please inform the King. "

Source: The Sunday Times (London), February 11, 1968,

[Edoman]

A Turkish Nationalist Leader would never relinquish power to a none-Turk, even if there was a dire reason to do so.
Does this support the conspiracy theory against Ataturk?
Ardakilik, this is very confusing.

You and Gavur are driving me crazy, please continue.

[ardakilic]

A Turkish Nationalist Leader would never relinquish power to a none-Turk, even if there was a dire reason to do so.
Does this support the conspiracy theory against Ataturk?
Ardakilik, this is very confusing.

You and Gavur are driving me crazy, please continue.

Desire To Be A Colonial Governor-General

In the large room on the first floor of his house in Shishli the three friends talked and plotted to find a way out for their country. They formed in effect a secret revolutionary committee, whose aim was to force the resignation of the Government, to form a new one, if necessary to dethrone the Sultan. But one at least of their conferedates found Kemal too extreme. He feared the risk involved and the committee was disbanded. Maybe, after all, revolution was not the answer, for any attempt at it would immediately be suppressed by the Allies.

Perhaps, it occurred to Kemal, something could be achieved through the Allies themselves. With his compelling presence and his immaculate uniform, emblazoned with medals and with the insignia of an ADC to the Sultan, he was already a conspicuous figure in the Pera Palace Hotel, its mock-Oriental marble halls now teeming with officers in the occupying forces and in the Inter-Allied High Commission. He attracted their curiosity as soon as it became known that he was the hero of the Dardanelles. At first he chose to keep his distance.

But now he began to see that some contact with the Allies might serve his designs. They were, after all, in virtual control of the country. The French had landed in Alexandretta and were pressing forward into Cilicia. The Italians were about to land at Adalia, thence likewise to penetrate inland. The British had control officers scattered over Turkey from Thrace to the Caucasus, supervising demobilization and disarmament. The Sultan was in power, and unlikely to give Kemal a post of any consequence in the dwindling Turkish army. For what he sought -and this was just such a national resurgence as Curzon feared- any position of authority was better than none. Might he not obtain some post from the Allies themselves - preferably the British, who had no ultimate territorial designs on the country? Power obtained under their auspices, now that they had come, might well be turned into other and more patriotic channels once they had gone.

Deciding to sound them out indirectly, he chose as intermediary a British correspondent of repute, G. Ward Price, of the 'Daily Mail'. Through the manager of the Pera Palace Hotel, he sent the correspondent an invitation to take coffee with him. After consulting the responsible colonel in the Intelligence Branch of the General Staff, Mr Ward Price accepted. He found Kemal not in uniform but in a frock-coat and fez. He struck him as handsome and virile, restrained in gestures, quiet and deliberate in voice. He was accompanied by his friend Refet.

Kemal confessed to him that his country had joined the wrong side in the war. The Turks should never have quarrelled with the British. They had done so as a result of Enver's pressure. They had lost - and now they must pay heavily. Anatolia was to be divided. Kemal was anxious that the French should be kept out of the country. A British administration would be less unpopular.

"If the British," he said, "are going to assume the responsibility for Anatolia, they will need the co-operation of experienced Turkish governors to work under them. What I want to know is the proper quarter to which I can offer my services in that capacity."

Source: Ataturk, The Rebirth of a Nation, Lord Kinross, 1965
page 141-142:

[Alexandros]

Interesting articles arda.Thanks for posting.Keep them coming!

[Gavur]

HOW OUR MAN DECLINED TO RULE TURKEY

Martin Gilbert


In November 1938 Kemal Ataturk, President of Turkey, lay dying. During the 15 years of his stern dictatorship, he had dragged a reluctant Turkey forcibly into the 20th century. He had outlawed the fez and the veil. He had broken the powers of Islam. He had introduced the Latin alphabet.

Now, on his deathbed, Ataturk feared it would be impossible to find a successor able to continue his work. He summoned Sir Percy Loraine, the British Ambassador, to the presidential palace in Istanbul. What passed between them has remained secret for nearly 30 years. It is revealed for the first time by Piers Dixon, in his life of his father, Sir Pierson Dixon ("Double Diploma," to be published by Hutchinson this week). Among Pierson Dixon's papers was a telegram from Percy Loraine to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. In what is surely one of the strangest of all documents of recent British history, Loraine recounts his bizarre interview with the dying dictator:

" On my arrival . . . I found His Excellency propped up by pillows with two doctors and two nurses in attendance. . . . On my entry the President dismissed the doctors and the nurses, telling them curtly that he would ring if he required anything . . .

His Excellency then spoke to me slowly but carefully. He said that he had sent for me because, while he wished in no way to place me in an unfair position, he had an urgent request to make of me to which he hoped I would return a straight reply.

I would, no doubt recall the many interviews that I had had with him in the past. This might well be the last. In the course of a long and adventurous career, he had made and lost many friends and had taken and discarded much advice. My friendship and my advice was the one which he valued most because it had been the most consistent. It was for this reason that on various occasions . . . he had consulted me as freely as though I had been a Turkish Cabinet Minister myself.

It was his prerogative as President of the Republic to nominate a successor before his demise. His most earnest wish was that I should succeed him as President, and for this reason he wished to know what my reactions would be to this proposal.

After some minutes of silent reaction I told His Excellency in reply that I was quite unable to formulate any words which adequately expressed my feelings. Indeed, I was at that moment more deeply moved than I could ever remember being at any other time in my career.

By his proposal His Excellency had paid a unique compliment not only to me personally but also to the foreign policy of His Majesty's Government. . . . His Excellency would realize that I had spent the greater part of my life in the service of H M (His Majesty's, HD). . . . I hoped that I might have many years of such service still in front of me. His Excellency had asked for a straight answer and I would give him that answer. I gravely doubted whether my best qualities lay in the administrative sphere. The responsibilities of a President of the Turkish Republic were vastly different from those of a British Ambassador and I felt that my abilities and experience were best employed by continuing in the latter capacity. . . . I must therefore regretfully but firmly decline.

When I had finished speaking the President showed signs of great emotion. He sank back on the pillows and rang for his nurses, who administered a restorative.

When he was able to speak again His Excellency informed me he fully understood the reasons which had influenced my decision; he was good enough to say that, though bitterly disappointed, it was in a sense the reply he would have expected from me. He would therefore nominate Ismet Inonu in my place.

Ataturk then raised himself on his elbows and grasped my hand. He thanked me for what I had done for the furtherance of Anglo-Turkish friendship. I accordingly deemed it best to withdraw.

I shall be most grateful if I can receive from your Lordship a message of approval of the action which I have taken.

Please inform the King. "

Source: The Sunday Times (London), February 11, 1968,

After reviewing this article I believe it is hogwash,and don't sound very credible at all analytically.