EVERYTHING IS YOUR RIGHT
Mr. Salih Bozok, who was with Atatürk during the days of the
Commander-in-Chief's war, describes a memory from those days as
follows:
It was the night of the battle. According to a report, the enemy
was in a very bad situation. The next morning, we set out for
Dumlupınar with Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who had arrived from
Afyon. We found the First Army Commander in his tent there.
Atatürk requested that a staff officer among the captured
Greek officers be brought to him. After asking them to bring him
some tea, he explained that he had no knowledge of the
situation... Mustafa Kemal Pasha then opened the map and marked
the situation based on the reports received about the enemy
situation. The enemy staff had seen the net into which his own
army had fallen and understood the very dangerous situation. In
a rather impulsive gesture, he ran his finger over the map and
said:
-According to this situation, I
believe our Corps Commander and our four Division Commanders are
within the circle of your Armies!
Gazi immediately reported this information to Corps Commander
Kemaleddin Sami Pasha by telephone and demanded the capture of the
aforementioned commanders. The enemy officer initially declared that he
did not speak Turkish and had been spoken to in Greek through an
interpreter.
However, upon hearing Gazi Pasha's order in Turkish, he turned pale. He
touched his forehead, refrained from drinking the tea out of sorrow, and
asked permission to leave the tent. Sensing that he spoke Turkish, I
went out with him. I asked him in Turkish:
-Where are you from?
He answered my question as follows:
-I'm from Salonika, living in the Kule
Coffeehouses neighborhood.
What a strange coincidence! I also lived in that neighborhood in
Salonika. I asked.
-Why did you leave that
beautiful Salonika and come here?
⁃ I am soldier, I have received orders!...
When he explained that his head ached so badly that he couldn't speak
much, we gave him the necessary medicine.
Mustafa Kemal Pasha wanted to go to Kemaleddin Sami Pasha's
headquarters. The warning that the road could be very dangerous didn't
deter him. As he watched the enemy retreat there through binoculars, he
asked:
-I see smoke up ahead.
What is this?"
Kemaleddin Sami Pasha answered:
-The enemy is burning their weight, Pasha!
The last rays of the sun, which had retreated between the mountains on
the horizon, were reflected on the gleaming bayonets of our soldiers in
the enemy positions.
As night fell, the firing had ceased. While we thought we were returning
to Afyon, Gazi Pasha announced that we were going to the village of
Dumlupınar. We pitched the Pasha's tent on the roof of one of the
village houses. Shortly thereafter, General Kazım brought in four enemy
generals who had been captured in the war. These were the Corps
Commanders whom Ghazi had ordered captured the day before. Mustafa Kemal
Pasha met with the captured Greek generals and received information. At
the end of the interrogations, one general asked whom he had met with,
and I replied:
-He is General
Mustafa Kemal!
He opened his eyes in astonishment, refusing to believe it. He repeated
his question:
-But is this General Mustafa Kemal the Marshal
Mustafa Kemal we know?"
he asked. After believing that the Commander he was speaking with was
indeed Commander-in-Chief General Mustafa Kemal, he asked:
-Was he here yesterday too?
-He personally led the
war as Commander-in-Chief!
In response to our request, the enemy General remained silent for a
moment before turning his gaze respectfully and appreciatively to Gazi
Pasha and mouthed the following words:
"Victory, victory, fame, and this land, everything is yours... Our Hacı
Anesti hasn't moved from Izmir!"