Secularism: Another face of Masonic Lodges? PART FIVE

By Naveed Tajammal                          

The young Turks, or the triumvirate composed of Enver  Pasha, Talat Pasha,& Jamal Pasha, who took over after the revolution, were all three dedicated to the glory of the Turkish Empire ,as an entity ,the new lot wanted administrative and legal reforms, but on the behalf of the Turkification of the society ,instead of the Ottoman name and control.

The young Turks were driven by a Pan-Turanian dream, Enver Pasha particularly coveted the emergence of a state that would embrace all the TURKS of the Central Asia, including those in Russia and China, from Manchuria to Eastern Europe.All united in a single entity ,even ZIA GOKALP, the intellectual who had foolishly erred in signing the Constitution of 1924,converting Turkey into a secular state, was in 1911,propagandizing ‘PAN-TURANIANISM’.

This aspect was sending shudders in Europe as a re-unification of this massive fighting force could un balance the world once again, to the advantage of the Turk, a situation like 1683 could again arise, when the Turk was about to make Germany its north western province, all measures were now adopted to defuse the situation.A new face was picked and launched by the powers, and an Empire was cut to pieces, another major reason was the discovery of OIL, geological surveys of North Africa ,Arabia and Iraq and gulf lands disclosed all held the new black gold.Had it remained in the hands of the Turk, even then today the OPEC would have been of the Turk, and Turkey as a state a power, would have been to be reckoned with. The new face lacked the vision, it was more interested in power being thrust on it, courtesy the western powers, gradually all men who could be a risk in due course of time were removed, as history shows it as a well orchestrated play. The warriors who could have created an issue for the new face, were sent off to fight for the greater glory of an pan-Turanian state. Enver Pasha and his lot, eventually died fighting for it. In the vacuum emerged, the so-called secular state of Turkey, or the Yenni-Turkyie, the flower of the old army was extinguished on the Trans-Caucasian mountains, without any logistics and supplies, and later in time it was here that the name of Musa Kazim Karabekhir Pasha emerges ,the later credit awarded to Mustapha Kamal, for defeating the Russians and the Armenians is wrongly attributed.

History is always re-written, when those in power and the supporting school of thought gradually phase out, then and only then the truth re-surfaces.

Musa Kazim Karabekhir  Pasha ,had been commissioned in 1906,and had seen active service on all Turkish fronts, and was a true soldier. He fought the Greeks, and the Bulgars ,he was at ‘Gallipoli ‘in 1915, in 1916 he was in Iraq, in 1917 he was fighting the Russian and Armenians forces bitterly for 10 months, and was promoted a one horse tail Pasha ,as per the treaty of Sevres ‘which ended the world war .The Ottoman Sultan ordered Kara Bekhir Pasha to surrender as per the entente powers resolution, The Pasha refused to surrender .It was much later that Mustapha Kamal arrived at Erz-e-rum, it was Kara Bekhir Pasha who had the only fighting force, and he joined him, It was Kara Bekhir Pasha who had fought later the Russians and the Armenians, and reclaimed his countries lost lands, and decisively defeated the Armenians, by re-taking ‘KARS’ and ‘SARI KAMISH’ and he also captured Alexanderopol. Thus, for not surrendering to his enemy he regained the lost prestige of his country and defeated them too .and now it was Karabekhir, who made the Armenians sign a peace treaty in their own country, ‘on his terms’, and also with the Soviets(Treaty of Kars 13 Oct 1921).

In 1921,Karabekhir Pasha was forcefully retired by Mustapha Kamal’s party on the grounds that Karabekhir Pasha, was insisting that as the British forces stood at the border of south eastern Turkey claiming “KIRKUK”(now, in Iraq),Karabekhir insisted on not abolishing the Caliphate, till the matter of the territories of the Empire had not been resolved with .Which could only happen if the entity of the Empire remained . As the matter of new Turkey and its borders had already been discussed with the new face (Mustapha Kamal), and his group of nihilists poor Karabekhir got the axe.

As Karabekhir, had predicted, the Kurds  revolted, and Ataturk, Mustapha Kamal ,surrendered Kirkuk, to the British in Iraq .On which the final confrontation between Mustapha and the Pasha took place ,and as Mustapha held the cards the Pasha was asked to resign .In 1924 Karabekhir formed his party .This was the first opposition party in Turkey, but soon his party was quashed with as he and others were charged with an assassination attempt on Mustapha .Subsequently, in Izmir, the party offices were closed ,and his colleagues imprisoned and under the threat of hanging all were asked to resign from politics. Later, Karabekhir was put under house arrest for the next 15 years. When reports reached Mustapha that he was writing accounts of events as they had happened, his house was raided on the orders of Mustapha and in front of the house his works WERE burnt ,and his books destroyed.

The most unfortunate aspect was that it had been Karabekhir who had given military support to Mustapha when he had been dismissed by the Caliph, when his own staff officers were not willing to obey him .But Karabekhir was a nationalist,the other was an adventurer.

In 2005,a grateful Turkish nation converted his house in a national museum, his later literary works survive but in Turkish a legacy for the future TURKS;

A mention of Ali Adnan Ertkin Menderes ,Fatin Rushtu Zorlu, and Hassan Polatkan, is also a must here, all three were hung, one as the Prime Minister and other two as his colleagues ,they had been the opposition of Ismet  Pasha, the man who had stepped in the shoes of Mustapha Kamal. It was the effort of these three and others that free elections were held in Turkey in 1950.As earlier the vote was cast in public in open in front of State Officials,BUT, counted behind the CLOSED doors also, a system evolved by Ismet Inonu. After a military coup led by General Gursul, on the directions of Ismet Pash ,Menders, Zorlu and Polatkan, were tried at Yassidia Island and hung on 16 Sept 1961.

However, on 17 Sept 1990, the remains of the three were re-buried by a State Funeral in Istanbul ,later as per the wishes of TURGUT OZAL, The Prime Minister of Turkey ,he too was buried next to Adnan Menderes.

The remains of Enver Pasha, who had died fighting the Russians at Abe-e-Darraya (Dushanbe) on 04 august 1922, Too were brought back and he too was buried with full honours, in Istanbul in 1996.

So we see that good nations never forget men who sincerely work for them, they never die others do.    (to be continued)

(The writer has over 26 years of experience in Investigative Historical Research)