As Ali Kemal feared the Nationalists soon targeted him in their increasingly
violent crackdown on those who opposed him but it was to be world events that
sorted things out for Ali Kemal in 1914 the Nationalist government took turkey
into World War one on the German side and lost disastrously they were forced
to resign and British and French Allied troops occupied Istanbul the Allies
backed a new government and in an extraordinary turn of events Ali Kemal
was invited to be Minister for the Interior convinced turkey's best
interests lay in cooperating with the Allies he took the job
the tables had turned now Ali Kemal had real political power so this is the
sublime Porte this is the sublime hey superb this is the business it's not bad
now if I was Home Secretary in the ottoman empire what interior ms whatever
i want to have a crackdown the only say no point of being interior minister
without having a crackdown so what's he gonna do you can crack down on
aggressive beggars or pan handlers or squeegee merchants or something what's
he what's what's what's his what's his big initiative well as it turned out he
wouldn't crack down Ali Kemal Bey had a major crackdown on his hands and that
was the attempt to suppress the emerging nationalist resistance movement over
which they had increasingly less control despite their defeat in the war some key
nationalists remained in positions of power chief among them was mustafa kemal
later known as Ataturk at the time Ataturk was a senior officer in the
Ottoman army a war hero and respected leader he should have been taking his
orders from the Allied backed government in Istanbul but in fact he was actively
organizing nationalist resistance to the foreign occupation of Turkey as interior
minister desperate to avoid a new war Ali Kemal acted to try and stop him
Boris his great-grandfather was about to take on the man who would one day become
the President of the Republic the most famous man in modern Turkish history
Ataturk is still deeply revered throughout the country today and this is
where it really gets dicey for Ali Kemal and his political story yeah you got
some bad news for me here well actually I'm gonna let someone else give you the
bad news because although we've had some problems finding a Turkish historian who
would speak about the Ali Kamal issue on camera you mean even though later talk
about it that's right why not because it's still controversial here in Turkey
but one eminent Turkish historian dr. Ahmet COO Yash has agreed to talk to
Boris about an infamous government order known as a circular that Ali Kemal
issues sacking Mustafa Kemal atatürk from the Ottoman army so here we have
the circular by the Minister of the Interior Ali Kemal it's dated June 23rd
your great-grandfather sends this circular to all the governor's saying
that Mustafa Kemal is fired you don't have to listen to his orders he's not
acting on behalf of the Ottoman government right this sounds like a
serious political stake he took on Ataturk who is to become the father of
modern Turkey and he was faced the doors every lamppost and municipal dump and
official historiography in Turkey calls Ali Kemal together with the Sultan
traitors is it not possible he just had the interest
turkey at heart of course maybe he thought look this this guy's trouble all
he wants to do is take on the French and the British gonna cause I said no end of
bother all he was advocating with her was with diplomacy yeah you know trying
to do the best for is country didn't want another war did it was simply that
he lose or in the political struggle that's another matter
following this notorious circular Ali Kemal was forced to resign from the
government his political career over he returned to journalism writing pieces
against the Nationalists war of resistance he was sure would lead Turkey
to ruin it wasn't so much a political blunder at the end of his career it was
the natural conclusion of his opposition to the Nationalists and the more I dig
into his more I think about it the more respectable I think the case for Ali
Kemal really is and what he's saying is we've had all these wars what good does
it do and that's why he distrusted the Nationalists modern techies of course
it's a wonderful place we we will we all love it to bits but because they've
created a kind of secular religion out of Ataturk they've got this ruler cult
it's become necessary is symmetrically to demonize those who can be said to
have opposed Ataturk and I think if you look at what Ali Kumar was actually
saying and doing and the values he really stood for I think that's unfair
fair or not Ali Kemal was a marked man in 1922 the Nationalists led by Ataturk
claimed victory and regained control over most of Turkey one of their first
moves was to go after those who had dared to criticize them Ali Kemal was
top of the list Boris has never known the details of
what happened next but now his cousin see nan has uncovered an astonishing
account written by a junior officer who was present of Ali Kemal interrogation
and witnessed the events that followed
the prosecutor asked him directly the reason why he was against the National
Movement and al-khaimah answered I never believed in the success of the movement
and I was convinced that in the case of failure the fatherland would be totally
ruined which is been like his line throughout the day when integration was
over the local commander told me to gather kind of people outside sometime
later mari Kemal left the building the card
set on him turned him several people even stabbed him he fell on the ground
blood pouring out of his head and his face and when al-khaimah died in the
crowd set on his body stealing whatever valuable he had on him
his gold watch his ring and even his charges and then the body the dead body
was hung on a tree
Boston's
you