İsmet İnönü

Mustafa İsmet İnönü (Turkish pronunciation: [isˈmet ˈinœny]; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish general[1] and statesman, who served as the second President of Turkey from 11 November 1938 to 22 May 1950, when his Republican People's Party was defeated in Turkey's second free elections. He also served as the first Chief of the General Staff from 1922 to 1924, and as the first Prime Minister after the declaration of the Republic, serving three terms: from 1923 to 1924, 1925 to 1937, and 1961 to 1965. As President, he was granted the official title of "Millî Şef" (National Chief).[2]

Millî Şef İsmet İnönü
2nd President of Turkey
In office 11 November 1938 – 22 May 1950
Prime Minister	Celal Bayar Refik Saydam Ahmet Fikri Tüzer Şükrü Saracoğlu Recep Peker Hasan Saka Şemsettin Günaltay
Preceded by	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Succeeded by	Celal Bayar
1st Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 20 November 1961 – 20 February 1965
President	Cemal Gürsel
Preceded by	Emin Fahrettin Özdilek
Succeeded by	Suat Hayri Ürgüplü
In office 4 March 1925 – 25 October 1937
President	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Preceded by	Ali Fethi Okyar
Succeeded by	Celal Bayar
In office 30 October 1923 – 22 November 1924
President	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Preceded by	Ali Fethi Okyar (as Prime Minister of the Government of the Grand National Assembly)
Succeeded by	Ali Fethi Okyar
2nd Leader of the Republican People's Party
In office 10 November 1938 – 8 May 1972
Preceded by	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Succeeded by	Bülent Ecevit
Chief of the General Staff of Turkey
In office 20 May 1920 – 3 August 1921
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Fevzi Çakmak
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey
In office 26 October 1922 – 21 November 1924
Prime Minister	Rauf Orbay Ali Fethi Okyar
Preceded by	Yusuf Kemal Tengirşenk
Succeeded by	Şükrü Kaya
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office 15 October 1961 – 20 November 1972
Constituency	Malatya (1961, 1965, 1969)
In office 14 May 1950 – 27 May 1960
Constituency	Malatya (1950, 1954, 1957)
In office 28 June 1923 – 10 November 1938
Constituency	Edirne (1923, 1927, 1931, 1935)
Personal details
Born	Mustafa İsmet (1884-09-24)24 September 1884 İzmir, Aidin Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	25 December 1973(1973-12-25) (aged 89) Ankara, Turkey
Resting place	Anıtkabir, Ankara
Nationality	Turkish
Political party	Republican People's Party
Spouse(s)	Mevhibe İnönü
Children	4, including Erdal İnönü
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire (1903–1920)  Turkey (1920–1926)
Branch/service	Turkish Land Forces
Rank	Orgeneral
Battles/wars	World War I Turkish War of Independence

When the 1934 Surname Law was adopted, Mustafa Kemal gave him a surname taken from İnönü, where he commanded the forces of Army of Grand National Assembly as the Minister of the Chief of the General Staff (Turkish: Erkân-ı Harbiye-i Umumiye Reis Vekili) during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. Afterwards these battles became to be known as the First Battle of İnönü and Second Battle of İnönü.

Family and early life

President İnönü (far right) with his family, c.1940s; from left: his wife Mevhibe, and their three children, Ömer, Özden (later Toker), and Erdal

İsmet İnönü was born in Smyrna (now known in English as İzmir), Aidin Vilayet to Hacı Reşit (Turkish: [hadʒɯ ɾeʃit]) and Cevriye (Turkish: [dʒevɾije]) (later Cevriye Temelli), and was of Kurdish descent on his father's side and of Turkish descent through his mother.[3][4][5][6][7] Hacı Reşit was retired from the First Examinant Department of Legal Affairs Bureau of the War Ministry (Harbiye Nezareti Muhakemat Dairesi Birinci Mümeyyizliği),[8] who was born in Malatya and a member of Kürümoğulları family of Bitlis. Cevriye was a daughter of Müderris (professor) Hasan Efendi who belonged to the ulema[8] and was a member of a Turkish family of Razgrad.[9]

Due to his father's assignments, the family moved from one city to another. Thus, Ismet completed his primary education in Sivas and graduated Sivas Military Junior High School (Sivas Askerî Rüştiyesi) in 1894. And then he studied at Sivas School for Civil Servants (Sivas Mülkiye İdadisi) for a year.

Early military career

Ismet graduated from the Imperial School of Military Engineering (Mühendishane-i Berrî-i Hümâyûn) in 1903 as gunnery officer, and received his first military assignment in the Ottoman Army. He joined the Committee of Union and Progress. He won his first military victories by suppressing two major revolts against the struggling Ottoman Empire, first in Rumelia and later in Yemen, whose leader was Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din. He served as a military officer during the Balkan Wars on the Ottoman-Bulgarian front. During World War I, he served with the Ottoman military rank of Miralay (arbitrarily the equivalent of Colonel or Senior Colonel (Brigadier)) and worked under Mustafa Kemal Pasha during his assignments at the Caucasus and Palestine fronts.

During the war, on 13 April 1916, Ismet married Mevhibe, who was a daughter of an Ashraf (Eşraf) of Ziştovi (present day Svishtov) Zühtü Efendi. They had three children: Ömer, Erdal and Özden (married to Metin Toker).[8]

Turkish War of Independence

See also: Turkish War of Independence

Turkish delegation after having signed the Treaty of Lausanne. The delegation was led by İsmet İnönü (in the middle) and Rıza Nur (on the left wearing the top hat)

After losing the Battle of Megiddo against General Edmund Allenby during the last days of World War I, he went to Istanbul and was assigned Undersecretary of the Ministry of War and then General Secretary of the Documentation in the Military Council.

After the military occupation of Constantinople on 16 March 1920, he decided to pass to Anatolia to join the Turkish National Movement. He and his chief of staff Major Saffet (Arıkan) wore soldier uniform and left Maltepe in the evening of 19 March 1920 and arrived at Ankara on 9 April 1920.

He was appointed the commander of the Western Front of the Army of the Grand National Assembly (GNA), a position in which he remained during the Turkish War of Independence. He was promoted to the rank of Mirliva (arbitrarily the equivalent of Brigadier General or Major General; the most junior General rank with the title Pasha in the Ottoman and pre-1934 Turkish Army) after winning the First Battle of İnönü which took place between 9 and 11 January 1921. He also won the subsequent Second Battle of İnönü which was fought between 26 and 31 March 1921. During the Turkish War of Independence, he was also a member of the GNA in Ankara.

İnönü was replaced by Mustafa Fevzi Pasha, who was also the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense at the time, as the Chief of Staff of the Army of the GNA after the Turkish forces lost major battles against the advancing Greek Army in July 1921, as a result of which the cities Afyonkarahisar, Kütahya and Eskişehir were temporarily lost. He participated as a staff officer (with the rank Brigadier General) to the later battles, until the final Turkish victory in September 1922 in which he was the commander of the front.

Chief negotiator in Mudanya and Lausanne

See also: Armistice of Mudanya and Treaty of Lausanne

After the War of Independence was won, İsmet Pasha was appointed as the chief negotiator of the Turkish delegation, both for the Armistice of Mudanya and for the Treaty of Lausanne.

The Lausanne conference convened in late 1922 to settle the terms of a new treaty that would take the place of the Treaty of Sèvres. Inönü became famous for his stubborn resolve in determining Ankara's position as the legitimate, sovereign government of Turkey. After delivering his position, Inönü turned off his hearing aid during the speeches of British foreign secretary Lord Curzon. When Curzon had finished, Inönü reiterated his position as if Curzon had never said a word.[10]

Single-party period

Prime Minister

İnönü as the Prime Minister during the single party period.

İnönü later served as the Prime Minister of Turkey for several terms, maintaining the system that Mustafa Kemal had put in place. He acted after every major crisis (such as the Sheikh Said rebellion or the attempted assassination in İzmir against Mustafa Kemal) to restore peace in the country. In October 1923 he suggested to make Ankara the capital of Turkey, which successively was approved by the parliament.[11] He shortly stepped down as prime minister between He replaced prime minister Fethi Okyar at a time the seriousness of the situation around the Sheikh Said Rebellion was realized by the Turkish Government in spring 1925.[12] While dealing with the Sheikh Said revolt he proclaimed a Turkish nationalist policy and encouraged the turkification of the non-Turkish population.[13] In September 1925, following the suppression of the Sheikh Said rebellion, he presided over the Reform Council for the East (Turkish: Şark İslahat Encümeni) which prepared the Report for Reform in the East (Turkish: Turkish: Şark İslahat Raporu), which recommended to impede an establishment of a Kurdish elite, to forbid non-Turkish languages and the creation of regional administrative units called Inspectorates-General, which were to be governed with martial law.[14] Following this report, three Inspectorates-Generals were established in the Kurdish areas comprising several provinces.[15]

Statism in economy

He tried to manage the economy with heavy-handed government intervention, especially after the 1929 economic crisis, by implementing an economic plan inspired by the Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union. In doing so, he took much private property under government control. Due to his efforts, to this day, more than 70% of land in Turkey is still owned by the state.

Desiring a more liberal economic system, Atatürk dissolved the government of İnönü[16] and appointed Celâl Bayar, the founder of the first Turkish commercial bank Türkiye İş Bankası, as Prime Minister.

"National Chief" period

President

Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference on 4–6 December 1943.

İnönü as the Prime Minister in 1964.

Celâl Bayar and İnönü visiting the Bakırköy Cloth Factory.

After the death of Atatürk on 10 November 1938,[17] İnönü was viewed as the most appropriate candidate to succeed him, and was elected the second President of the Republic of Turkey. He enjoyed the official title of "Millî Şef", i.e. "National Chief".

World War II broke out in the first year of his presidency, and both the Allies and the Axis pressured İnönü to bring Turkey into the war on their side.[18] The Germans sent Franz von Papen to Ankara in April 1939 while the British sent Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen and the French René Massigli. On 23 April 1939, Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu told Knatchbull-Hugessen of his nation's fears of Italian claims of the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum and German control of the Balkans, and suggested an Anglo-Soviet-Turkish alliance as the best way of countering the Axis.[19] In May 1939, during the visit of Maxime Weygand to Turkey, İnönü told the French Ambassador René Massigli that he believed that the best way of stopping Germany was an alliance of Turkey, the Soviet Union, France and Britain; that if such an alliance came into being, the Turks would allow Soviet ground and air forces onto their soil; and that he wanted a major programme of French military aid to modernize the Turkish armed forces.[20]

The signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939 drew Turkey away from the Allies; the Turks always believed that it was essential to have the Soviet Union as an ally to counter Germany, and thus the signing of the German-Soviet pact undercut completely the assumptions behind Turkish security policy.[21] With the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, İnönü chose to be neutral in World War II as taking on Germany and the Soviet Union at the same time would be too much for Turkey, through he signed a treaty of alliance with Britain and France on 19 October 1939.[22] It was only with France's defeat in June 1940 that İnönü abandoned the pro-Allied neutrality that he had followed since the beginning of the war.[22] A major embarrassment for the Turks occurred in July 1940 when the Germans captured and published documents from the Quai d'Orsay in Paris showing the Turks were aware of Operation Pike—as the Anglo-French plan in the winter of 1939–40 to bomb the oil fields in the Soviet Union from Turkey was codenamed—which was intended by Berlin to worsen relations between Ankara and Moscow.[23] In turn, worsening relations between the Soviet Union and Turkey were intended to drive Turkey into the arms of the Reich.[22] After the publication of the French documents relating to Operation Pike, İnönü had to sign an economic treaty with Germany that placed Turkey within the German economic sphere of influence, but İnönü would go no further towards the Axis.[22]

In the first half of 1941, Germany which was intent upon invading the Soviet Union went out of its way to improve relations with Turkey as the Reich hoped for a benevolent Turkish neutrality when the German-Soviet war began.[24] At the same time, the British had great hopes in the spring of 1941 when they dispatched an expeditionary force to Greece that İnönü could be persuaded to enter the war on the Allied side as the British leadership had high hopes of creating a Balkan front that would tie down German forces, and which thus led a major British diplomatic offensive with the Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden visiting Ankara several times to meet with İnönü.[25] İnönü always told Eden that the Turks would not join the British forces in Greece, and the Turks would only enter the war if Germany attacked Turkey.[26] For his part, Papen offered İnönü parts of Greece if Turkey were to enter the war on the Axis side, an offer İnönü declined.[26] In May 1941 when the Germans dispatched an expeditionary force to Iraq to fight against the British, İnönü refused Papen's request that the German forces be allowed transit rights to Iraq.[27]

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill travelled to Ankara on 30 January 1943 for a conference with President İnönu, to urge Turkey's entry into the war on the allied side.[28] Churchill met secretly with İnönü in January 1943, inside a railroad car at the Yenice Station near Adana. However, by December 4–6, 1943, İnönü felt confident enough about the outcome of the war, that he met openly with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference. Until 1941, both Roosevelt and Churchill had thought that Turkey's continuing neutrality would serve the interests of the Allies by blocking the Axis from reaching the strategic oil reserves of the Middle East. But the early victories of the Axis up to the end of 1942 caused Roosevelt and Churchill to re-evaluate a possible Turkish participation in the war on the side of the Allies. Turkey had maintained a decently-sized Army and Air Force throughout the war, and Churchill wanted the Turks to open a new front in the Balkans. Roosevelt, on the other hand, still believed that a Turkish attack would be too risky, and an eventual Turkish failure would have disastrous effects for the Allies.

İnönü knew very well the hardships which his country had suffered during decades of incessant war between 1908 and 1922 and was determined to keep Turkey out of another war as long as he could. The young Turkish Republic was still re-building, recovering from the losses due to earlier wars, and lacked any modern weapons and the infrastructure to enter a war to be fought along and possibly within its borders. İnönü based his neutrality policy during the Second World War on the premise that Western Allies and the Soviet Union would sooner or later have a falling out after the war.[29] Thus, İnönu wanted assurances on financial and military aid for Turkey, as well as a guarantee that the United States and the United Kingdom would stand beside Turkey in the event of a Soviet invasion of the Turkish Straits after the war. In August 1944 İnönü broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and on 5 January 1945, İnönü severed diplomatic relations with Japan.[30] Shortly afterwards, İnönü allowed Allied shipping to use the Turkish straits to send supplies to the Soviet Union and on 25 February 1945 he declared war on Germany and Japan.[27]

The post-war tensions and arguments surrounding the Turkish Straits would come to be known as the Turkish Straits crisis. The fear of Soviet invasion and Joseph Stalin's unconcealed desire for Soviet military bases in the Turkish Straits[29] eventually caused Turkey to give up its principle of neutrality in foreign relations and join NATO in February 1952.[31]

Multi-party period

See also: Multi-party period of the Republic of Turkey

İnönü's tomb at Anıtkabir

Under international pressure to transform the country to a democratic state, İnönü presided over the infamous 1946 elections, where voting was carried out under the gaze of onlookers who could determine which voters had voted for which parties, and where secrecy prevailed as to the subsequent counting of votes. Free and fair national elections had to wait till 1950, and on that occasion İnönü's government was defeated.

In the 1950 campaign, the leading figures of the opposition Democrat Party used the following slogan: "Geldi İsmet, kesildi kısmet" ("Ismet arrived, [our] fortune left" ). İnönü presided over the peaceful transfer of power to the Democratic Party of Celâl Bayar and Adnan Menderes. For ten years he served as the leader of the opposition before returning to power as Prime Minister after the 1961 election, held after the military coup-d'etat in 1960.

Even though the pro-Menderes opposition was forbidden to contest the 1961 election (most of its leaders who were still alive were in prison), İnönü's forces still did not gain enough seats in the legislature to win a majority. Therefore, they had to form coalition governments until 1965. İnönü lost both the 1965 and 1969 general elections to a much younger man, Süleyman Demirel, but he remained leader of the party till 1972, whereupon he was defeated by leadership rival Bülent Ecevit. In 1964 İnönü renounced the 1930 Greek-Turkish Treaty of friendship and took actions against the Greek minority.[32][33] Following the Turkish Government also strictly enforced a long‐overlooked law barring Greek nationals from 30 professions and occupations, for example Greeks could not be doctors, nurses, architects, shoemakers, tailors, plumbers, cabaret singers, ironsmiths, cooks, tourist guides, etc.[32] and 50,000 more Greeks were deported.[34]

In a meeting in Bursa for the 1969 general elections, a young man yelled at him; "You let us go without food!" by implying not joining World War II. İnönü replied him by saying "Yes, I let you go without food, but I did not let you become fatherless" by implying death of millions of people from the both sides of World War II.[35]

He died on 25 December 1973 of a heart attack, at the age of 89, and was interred opposite to Atatürk's mausoleum at Anıtkabir in Ankara.

Legacy

A highly educated man, İnönü was able to speak fluently Arabic, English, French and German in addition to his native Turkish. İnönü University and Malatya İnönü Stadium in Malatya are named after him, as is the İnönü Stadium in Istanbul, home of the Beşiktaş football club.

Media

• 
  Text of the message by President İsmet İnönü on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

See also

• Pembe Köşk – Private home from 1925 to 1973
• Çankaya Köşkü – The Presidency of the Republic of Turkey
• List of high-ranking commanders of the Turkish War of Independence
• Treaty of Lausanne (1923)
• 1st government of Turkey
• 2nd government of Turkey
• 4th government of Turkey
• 26th government of Turkey
• 27th government of Turkey
• 28th government of Turkey

References

1. TSK Genel Kurmay Baskanlari
2. Howard, Douglas Arthur (2001). The History of Turkey. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 109. ISBN 0-313-30708-3.
3. N. Pope, H. Pope, Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey, Overlook Press, 1998, ISBN 1-58567-096-0, ISBN 978-1-58567-096-3, p.254 (... president of republic, including Ismet Inönü and Turgut Özal, had Kurdish blood. Several cabinet ministers in 1980s and 1990s had been Kurdish...) – reference found in Turkish Wikipedia article
4. Romano, David, The Kurdish nationalist movement: opportunity, mobilization, and identity, (Cambridge University Press, 2006), 118; Despite his own Kurdish ancestry, Inonu had apparently embraced Ziya Gokalp's notions of Turkism, which allowed him to advance to the highest post of the new republic.
5. Erik Jan Zürcher, "The Young Turks – Children of the Borderlands?" at the Wayback Machine (archived 12 January 2008) (October 2002)
6. "Demek İsmet Kürttür. Hem de koyu Kürt! Biz bu heyetin başından Abaza diye Rauf’u attırdık. Türk diye bir halis Kürt getirmişiz, vah yazık!", Rıza Nur, Hayat ve Hatıratım: Rıza Nur-İnönü kavgası, Lozan ve ötesi, İşaret Yayınları, 1992, p. 235.
7. "Even Ismet Inonu, Ataturk's long time ally and successor, was discouraged from revealing his Kurdish heritage.", Nader Entessar, "The Kurdish Mosaic of Discord", Third World Foundation, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4, Ethnicity in World Politics (Oct. 1989), Carfax Publishing Co., 1989, p. 93.
8. T.C. Genelkurmay Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı Yayınları, Türk İstiklâl Harbine Katılan Tümen ve Daha Üst Kademelerdeki Komutanların Biyografileri, Genkurmay Başkanlığı Basımevi, Ankara, 1972. (in Turkish)
9. Günvar Otmanbölük, İsmet Paşa Dosyası, Cilt 1, Yaylacık Matbaası, 1969, p. 6. (in Turkish)
10. Cleveland, William L., and Martin P. Bunton. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder: Westview, 2013. Print.
11. Feroz, Ahmad (November 2002). The Making of Modern Turkey. Routledge. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-1-134-89891-6.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
12. Dag, Rahman (23 June 2017). Ideological Roots of the Conflict between Pro-Kurdish and Pro-Islamic Parties in Turkey. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-4438-7443-4.
13. Dag, Rahman (23 June 2017). Ideological Roots of the Conflict between Pro-Kurdish and Pro-Islamic Parties in Turkey. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-1-4438-7443-4.
14. Yadirgi, Veli (3 August 2017). The Political Economy of the Kurds of Turkey. Cambridge University Press. pp. 169–170. ISBN 978-1-107-18123-6.
15. Jongerden, Joost (28 May 2007). The Settlement Issue in Turkey and the Kurds: An Analysis of Spatial Policies, Modernity and War. BRILL. p. 53. ISBN 978-90-474-2011-8.
16. Lord Kinross, Atatürk: A biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1965) p. 449.
17. Nicole Pope and Hugh Pope, Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey (New York: The Overlook Press, 2004) p. 68.
18. Nicole Pope and Hugh Pope, Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey, p. 75.
19. Watt, D.C. How War Came : The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939 ,London: Heinemann, 1989 page 278
20. Watt, D.C. How War Came : The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939, London: Heinemann, 1989 page 282
21. Watt, D.C. How War Came : The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939, London: Heinemann, 1989 page 310.
22. Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 78
23. Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 970
24. Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 pages 196-197.
25. Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 pages 216-216.
26. Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 219.
27. Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 226.
28. Andrew Mango, The Turks Today, (New York: The Overlook Press, 2004) p. 36.
29. Andrew Mango, The Turks Today, p. 37.
30. Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 809.
31. Andrew Mango, The Turks Today, p. 47.
32. "TURKS EXPELLING ISTANBUL GREEKS; Community's Plight Worsens During Cyprus Crisis". 9 August 1964 – via NYTimes.com.
33. Roudometof, Victor; Agadjanian, Alexander; Pankhurst, Jerry (2006). Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age: Tradition Faces the 21st Century. AltaMira Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-0759105379.
34. "Why Turkey and Greece cannot reconcile". The Economist. 14 December 2017. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
35. Turan, Rahmi (23 January 2017). "Ama sizi babasız bırakmadım". Sözcü. Retrieved 21 January 2020.

Further reading

• Kinross, Lord, Atatürk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1965).
• Liebmann, George W. Diplomacy between the Wars: Five Diplomats and the Shaping of the Modern World (London I. B. Tauris, 2008)
• Mango, Andrew, The Turks Today (New York: The Overlook Press, 2004). ISBN 1-58567-615-2.
• Pope, Nicole and Pope, Hugh, Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey (New York: The Overlook Press, 2004). ISBN 1-58567-581-4.

External links

• Biography (İsmet İnönü Foundation)
• İsmet İnönü at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Newspaper clippings about İsmet İnönü in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• Archival video on YouTube
• Interview during 1971 coup on YouTube

Military offices
New title Office established	Chief of Turkish General Staff 1920–1921	Succeeded by Fevzi Çakmak
Political offices
Preceded by Yusuf Kemal Tengirşenk	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1922–1924	Succeeded by Şükrü Kaya
Preceded by Ali Fethi Okyar	Prime Minister of Turkey 1923–1924	Succeeded by Ali Fethi Okyar
	Prime Minister of Turkey 1925–1937	Succeeded by Celal Bayar
Preceded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	President of Turkey 1938–1950
Preceded by Emin Fahrettin Özdilek	Prime Minister of Turkey 1961–1965	Succeeded by Suat Hayri Ürgüplü
Party political offices
Preceded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Leader of the Republican People's Party 1938–1972	Succeeded by Bülent Ecevit