Chapter 97 – Mustafa
“I had realised that the enemy was about to withdraw, and so I had proposed an offensive. But they turned it down. This upset me. As I was also very tired, I came to Istanbul. If the enemy had withdrawn, as successfully as he has done now, while I was there I would have been even more upset. Lucky that I’m here.” This quote by Mustafa Kemal, translated from Salih Bozok’s memoirs, is provided by Andrew Mango in Ataturk (p. 155). Mango describes how Kemal was with his friend Salih Bozok at Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul, the location where deposed Sultan Abdulhamit was kept under guard, when the news of enemy evacuation came. The two then rushed to the Ministry of War to seek further details.
Mango states that Mustafa Kemal left Gallipoli for Istanbul on 10 December 1915, after obtaining a report granting him leave on medical grounds. Many historical accounts state that Mustafa Kemal left the battlefront due to illness (eg Gallipoli – The Turkish Defence , Harvey Broadbent, p. 361; Gallipoli – The Ottoman Campaign , Edward Erickson, p. 179). However, in addition to the quote above from Salih Bozok’s memoirs, another statement is provided by a man likely to have known Kemal well, indicating that this was a ruse. A quote from Kemal’s Chief of Staff, Izzettin, states that conflict between German commander Liman von Sanders and Mustafa Kemal led to Kemal’s departure “under cover of a medical report.” (p. 155).
Mango states in Ataturk (p. 157), that Mustafa Kemal extended his sick leave by one month and used the extra time to bring his achievements to the notice of his country’s leaders.
Mango states in Ataturk (p. 159), that on 30 November 1915, the 57th Regiment was commended in an imperial decree and had banners decorated in the presence of Enver, but Mustafa Kemal’s name was not mentioned. The December issue of the Ottoman War Magazine mentioned Mustafa Kemal for the first time, low down on an inside page, captioned a photo of Mustafa Kemal looking drawn and tired, standing under some trees. Mango states that “…there is no doubt that he [Kemal] was angry at the lack of publicity and he did his best to remedy it.”
German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Baron Hans von Wangenheim, died on 26 October 1915. Officially, the cause of his death was a stroke. However, a press article in the New York Times on 27 October 1915 (page 1) states that there was a suspicion of poisoning:
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/10/27/301827622.pdf