Ali Fuat Cebesoy (born September 1882,
İstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
– death January 10 1968,
İstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
) was a
TurkishThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
officer, politician and statesman. His father is İsmail Fazıl Paşa and mother is Zekiye Hanım. He attended the War School (1902) and graduated from the Turkish War College (1905) as the first in his class, while
AtatürkMustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, and founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first President....
was the second best in grades.
He went to
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
and Thessalonica as an intern, and then became a
lieutenantLieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service, emergency medical services or police officer rank....
(1907).
Ali Fuat Cebesoy (born September 1882,
İstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
– death January 10 1968,
İstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
) was a
TurkishThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
officer, politician and statesman. His father is İsmail Fazıl Paşa and mother is Zekiye Hanım. He attended the War School (1902) and graduated from the Turkish War College (1905) as the first in his class, while
AtatürkMustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, and founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first President....
was the second best in grades.
Military background
He went to
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
and Thessalonica as an intern, and then became a
lieutenantLieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service, emergency medical services or police officer rank....
(1907). After serving as the military attaché in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
he participated in the
Balkan WarsThe Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913. The First Balkan War broke out on 8 October 1912 when Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia , having large parts of their ethnic populations under Ottoman sovereignty, attacked the Ottoman Empire, terminating its five-century...
. As a reward to his superior success during the Defense of Yanya, he was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant colonelLieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
.
During the
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, he served as a commander of division, army corps and army. Because of his successes, he was promoted to the rank of
colonelColonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in 1915 and
major generalMajor General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of Sergeant Major General. A Major General is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of Lieutenant General and senior to the ranks of Brigadier and Brigadier General...
in 1917, and became the commander of the XXth Army Corps. At the last phase of the war, he fought on the fronts of the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
and
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
. After the
Montrose CeasefireThe Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits was a 1936 agreement that gives Turkey control over the Bosporus Straits and the Dardanelles and regulates military activity in the region. Signed on 20 July 1936, it permitted Turkey to remilitarise the Straits and imposed new...
was signed, he transferred the headquarters of his army corps from
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
to Ereğli, then to
KonyaKonya is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. It is the capital of the Konya Province, and had a city population of 980,973 in 2008 while the provincial population was 1,959,082 in the same year.-Etymology:Konya, also spelled in some historic English texts as Konia or Koniah, was known...
and to
AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
.
Turkish Revolutionary War
Ali Fuat Pasha organized the resistance in Western Turkey against the Greek invasion and thus actually started the
National Independence WarThe Turkish War of Independence is the political and military resistance developed by Turkish Nationalists to the Allied partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in World War I...
. He contributed to the resistance forces against the
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
army that had begun to occupy Western
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
. He signed Amasya Protocol and at the end of the Sivas Congress in 1920, he was appointed as the general commander of the National Forces by the Board of Representatives. The presence of him and his army in Ankara is the reason behind Atatürk's choice of this city as the center of Turkish War of Independence.
The same year, he was elected as a deputy at the First Parliament. He was appointed ambassador to
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
,
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
in 1921, as he had quarrels with
Ismet InonuMustafa İsmet İnönü was a Turkish Army General, Prime Minister and the second President of the Republic of Turkey...
, who was appointed by Atatürk as the Commander of the Western Front although Inonu had failed against Greek invasion at Kutahya-Altıntas in 1921. By personally negotiating with Lenin and Stalin in Moscow, he signed the
Treaty of Moscow (1921)The Treaty of Moscow or Treaty of Brotherhood was a friendship treaty between Grand National Assembly of Turkey under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Bolshevist Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, signed on 16 March 1921 and based on the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which was...
along the lines of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty as the representative of the
AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
government, which provided financial and military support from the Soviet Union to the Turkish Independence War, in exchange for the return of Batum back to Soviet Union. After finishing his duty as an ambassador, he was elected as the second spokesman of the Turkish Parliament.
Political life
After the declaration of the Republic, he became a deputy. In this new era of his political career, he joined the founders of the opposition party, the
Progressive Republican PartyThe Progressive Republican Party was the second political party after Republican People's Party in Turkey. It was established by Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Kazım Karabekir, Refet Bele, Rauf Orbay and Adnan Adıvar on 17 October 1924...
, and he was elected as the general secretary of the party in 1924. During the rebellion of Şeyh Sait, the Law on the Maintenance of Order was affected and the Progressive Republican Party was closed down. Ali Fuat Cebesoy was arrested with the accusations of participating in the attempt of assassination against Atatürk and was taken to
İzmirİzmir, historically Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir, by the Aegean Sea. It is the seat of İzmir Province, which has an area of 7350 km
2...
. He was tried at the İzmir
Independence CourtThe Independence Courts were eight special courts founded during the Turkish War of Independence to prosecute those who were against the system of the government. They were located in Ankara, Eskişehir, Konya, Isparta, Sivas, Kastamonu, Pozantı, and Diyarbakır...
and was acquitted in 1926.
He retired with the title of general. He stayed away from politics for four years between 1927 and 1931). In 1931, he returned to politics and elected as a deputy from
KonyaKonya is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. It is the capital of the Konya Province, and had a city population of 980,973 in 2008 while the provincial population was 1,959,082 in the same year.-Etymology:Konya, also spelled in some historic English texts as Konia or Koniah, was known...
. He served as the deputy of Konya and
EskişehirEskişehir is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. According to the 2008 census, the population of the district was 614,247; of which 599,796 live in the city of Eskişehir. The city is located on the banks of the Porsuk River, 792 m above sea level, where it...
until 1950. He also served as Minister of Public Works from 1939 to 1943, Minister of Transportation (1943–1946) and as the president of the Parliament in 1948. He was an independent candidate of the
Democratic PartyDemocratic Party may refer to:* Democratic Party * Democratic Party...
from
EskişehirEskişehir is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. According to the 2008 census, the population of the district was 614,247; of which 599,796 live in the city of Eskişehir. The city is located on the banks of the Porsuk River, 792 m above sea level, where it...
in the first democratic elections of the Turkish history held on May 14, 1950 and he was elected with a landslide. In the following years, he was elected as a deputy from İstanbul and served in the parliament for ten more years between 1950 and 1960. After the military coup on May 27, 1960, he was initially arrested by the junta with the rest of the Democratic Party MPs but later set free. After this experience he quit politics for good.
In accordance with his will, he was buried to the backyard of a mosque near
GeyveGeyve is a town and a district of Sakarya Province in the Marmara region of Turkey....
train station, where the first shots of the
Turkish War of IndependenceThe Turkish War of Independence is the political and military resistance developed by Turkish Nationalists to the Allied partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in World War I...
were fired, when he died at the age of 86. However, his remains were moved to the
Turkish State CemeteryTurkish State Cemetery is a national and military cemetery in Ankara, Turkey, containing the graves of the presidents of Turkey and the high-ranked, close companions-in-arms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, in the Turkish War of Independence.- History :The cemetery...
in Ankara, after the military coup of 1980.