Revolt of Cherkess Ethem
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| Revolt of Circassian Ethem | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Government of the Grand National Assembly |
 Kuva-yi Seyyare | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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İsmet İnönü Refet Bele | Ethem Dipsheu | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
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796 officers 14,596 privates 4,111 animals 63 Heavy machine guns 32 balls 4.111 hayvan |
4,650 militias 2 Automatic rifles 6 Heavy machine guns 4 balls | ||||||
Revolt of Circassian Ethem was the uprising of the socialist paramilitary called Kuva-yi Seyyare against the Government of the Grand National Assembly in Bilecik as a part of Revolts during the Turkish War of Independence.
Background[edit]
- Attempt to try the Governor of Ankara without authorization. After suppressing the Yozgat Uprising, Ethem claimed that the uprising was caused by the practices of the then Ankara Governor, Yahya Galip Kargı. He summoned Yahya Galip Kargı to Yozgat on 26 June 1920 to try him for this crime. This order was rejected by the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Pasha.
- Opposition to the division of the Western Front Command into two parts. Ethem and his brothers opposed the decision of the Government to divide the Western Front Command into two parts on 9 November 1920. Ethem said that he did not trust the Southern Front Commander Colonel Refet Bele, and he wanted the entire Western Front to remain under the command of Colonel İsmet İnönü as before. On the other hand, his brother Captain Tevfik Bey had not been reporting for a while, although he was loyal to İsmet İnönü. Despite the government's decision, Ethem insisted on the implementation of his own wishes.
- Resistance against the transformation to a standing army. Ethem and his supporters were against the decision of the Government to transform the forces into a standing army and join the Turkish Armed Forces. Ethem's brother, Saruhan Deputy Reşit Bey, said that "the army organization has gone bankrupt all over the world, his homeland is only the National Forces". He was making speeches that he could save the Anatolia. The newspaper of Kuva-yi Seyyare Yeni Dünya, published in Eskişehir, was also publishing articles in this direction.
- Opposition to the authority of the Commander-in-Chief to be given to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The decision of the government to establish a standing army also gave all the command and administration authority of his army to the government. While the supporters of Ethem were against the standing army, they were also against this position of the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand National Assembly.
- Conflicts between Captain Tevfik Bey and Front Command. The Western Front Command decided to establish a field gendarmerie unit on 23 November 1920 for the safety of the people in the districts liberated from the occupation. Captain Tevfik Bey, the deputy commander of the Kuva-yi Navigational Command, is of the opinion that this unit was established to control him. This force, under the command of Major İbrahim Bey, under the name of Simav and Neighborhood Command, was ordered by Captain Tevfik Bey to return. Faced with threats of execution, this unit withdrew. As of this date, Captain Tevfik started not to report to the Front Command. In fact, Captain Tevfik Bey, in a telegram he wrote to Mustafa Kemal on November 27, states that "...he will not recognize the Western Front...".
All these reasons showed that Ethem and his two brothers saw themselves as an autonomous political-military authority apart from the Government and its standing army and were determined to protect it.[1] This situation created a breach in the authority of the Central Government throughout the country. On the other hand, it weakened the standing army's recruitment resource.
Revolt[edit]
In the last months of 1920, because Ethem did not recognize the political authority of the Government in its own region and acted according to its own authority, an uprising began to take shape. He started working to attract Ethem, Yörük Ali Efe and Sarı Efe to his side. He tries to impress these commanders of the Kuva-yi Milliye with encrypted telegrams, letters and special messengers.[2] In the encrypted telegram that Ethem sent to Yörük Ali Efe on 12 December 1920, he accuses the Turkish Grand National Assembly of being a tool of several people and states that he is determined to destroy Demirci Mehmet Efe. He says, "Harcadığımız emeklerin boşa gitmemesi için birbirimize sarılmalıyız".[3]
Upon the warning telegram sent by İsmet İnönü to Çerkez Ethem and his brother Tevfik Bey in December 1920, Ethem replied:
Masum millet ve asker kardeşleri! Ankara hükûmeti rezilesine 29 Kânunievvel 336 tarihli keşide ettiğim selameti memlekete taalluk eden telgrafın matbuatla ilân edilmesini isteyiniz. Ey Askerler! Şerre alet olmayınız, uhrevî ve dünyevî mes'uliyetten korkunuz. Ey millet; siz de maziyden intibah alarak her dürlü felâketi ve ihtilası vatanı, menfeatı harisanelerine kurban etmek isteyen erazile karşı hakkınızı müdafeada tereddüt göstermeyiniz ki muaveneti ilahiyeye mazhar olasınız. Ben sizi müdafaai memleket için davet ve icbar ettim, şerre, ihtirasatı şahsiyeye alet olmak için değil. Ey zabit arkadaşlar! Emir kulu olmaktan sarfınazar edilniz; Allah'ın kulu olunuz, aksi halde geliyorum ha son peşimanlık fâide vermez."[4] Umum Kumandanı Ethem
In the telegram he sent to the Istanbul Government on January 2, 1921, Ethem states that he sent a telegram to the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey demanding the immediate release of the representatives of the Istanbul Government, which Mustafa Kemal took to Ankara while returning from Bilecik. In this telegram, he also writes that the armies of the government are in a position to attack him, that their own forces are strong enough to attack, and that he has informed the Greek authorities of this situation.[5]
Suppression of revolt[edit]
The central government opposed Kuva-yi Seyyare. The Western Front Command demanded Ethem and Tevfik Bey to surrender, claiming that they committed treason. However, with the participation of the deputy Reşit Bey, the three brothers met with the Greeks in Uşak. Under the command of İsmet Bey and Refet Bey, the standing army marched on Gediz-Kütahya, which was held by Kuva-yi Seyyare in January 1921. The force next to Ethem had shrunk. Major Derviş Bey, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Group, was following him. Since Derviş Bey was Ethem's friend, he had him leave all his weapons and ammunition to the TBMM forces before he took refuge with the Greeks.
References[edit]
- ↑ Dipsheu, Ethem (2015). Nutuk'a Cevaplar. Derin Tarih. Search this book on
- ↑ Dipsheu, Ethem (2005). Anılarım. Berfin Yayınları. Search this book on
- ↑ ^ …Harp Tarihi Dairesi. Arşiv No:4/4478, Dosya No:11…
- ↑ ^ Uzunçarşılı, İ.H. Kütahya Şehri, İstanbul Devlet Matbaası, 1932, s, 204
- ↑ ^ …Cumhurbaşkanlığı Arşivi. Karton: 7, No: 3512…
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