Ataturk: The Rebirth of a Nation by Patrick Kinross

Author:Patrick Kinross [Kinross, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781780224442
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2012-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

As Churchill summed up the position: ‘The Greeks had gained a strategic and tactical success; they had gained possession of the railway for the further advance; but they had not destroyed the Turkish army or any part of it.’ That army had soon vanished from sight. It was trekking across the long weary wastes of the plateau towards Angora and the heart of the Anatolian homeland. Soon, essentially intact after casualties no greater than those of the Greeks, it had reached a point within fifty miles of Angora, behind the great bend in the Sakarya River on which Kemal had decided to stand.

All this had to be convincingly explained to the Turkish people. Their ‘moral shock’, which Kemal had predicted, now fell upon him with full force. The Assembly was aghast at the catastrophe. The deputies bayed, first for the blood of Ismet, then for the appointment of Kemal himself as Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Some sought by this to discredit him finally, to shift on to his personal shoulders the responsibility for what they took to be the irretrievable defeat of the army and the collapse of the Nationalist cause. Others, more loyal and less pessimistic, sought it from confidence that he could still save the situation. Others again opposed the appointment on the grounds that his personal implication in a further retreat would damage the cause irremediably. He should be held in reserve, they argued, only as a last resource, for which the moment had not yet arrived.

But by an ironical chance Kemal in this crisis had for the first time the support of the bulk of the Assembly – from his friends for the right reasons, from his enemies for the wrong ones. He would thus obtain the supreme command. But he must obtain it on his own terms. While the storm raged within and without the Assembly, he kept a wary silence, showing no disposition to accept the command, and thus turning into a positive conviction the general fear that disaster was inevitable. As soon as he judged that feeling had reached this point he called a secret session and mounted the rostrum. He agreed to accept the supreme command, provided he was given the full powers of the Assembly. Only thus could he prepare the army with sufficient speed for the next round in the struggle. But, in view of his respect for the principle of national sovereignty, he requested that these powers be granted him only for a period of three months.

At this his opponents came out into the open. Some objected to his investment with such comprehensive powers. Others objected to the title of Commander-in-Chief, as being one inherent in the Assembly itself. Kemal insisted that they were passing through extraordinary conditions, which called for extraordinary actions and decisions. He must be able to act energetically and swiftly, freed from the delays which would result from an appeal to the Cabinet or to the Assembly’s authority. He must be able to give orders unconditionally, and this could be done only with full powers.

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