Typescript letter signed 'K. Karabekir' to Nevzad Ayas.

KAZIM KARABEKIR, (The commander of the Eastern Army of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I and served as Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey), (1882-1948).

T.B.M.M. Baskanligi Özel Letterhead [i.e. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey], Ank., 1946.

Original typescript letter signed (TLS) by Kâzim Karabekir to Nevzat Ayas [Abdullatif Nevzad Ayasbeyoglu], (1889-1966), who was an important Turkish politician. 21x15 cm. In Turkish (Modern) with Latin letters. 1 p. [in four]. 'Sevgili Bay Nevzad Ayas, Yazilarinizi ilgili iç makama bildirmemizi uygun görürüm. Sevgilerimle gözlerinizden öperim, K. Karabekir'. "The Grand National Assembly of Turkey Presidency - Special" letterhead. The letter has five typescript lines with autograph signature of Karabekir. Musa Kâzim Karabekir was a Turkish general and politician. He was the commander of the Eastern Army of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I and served as Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey before his death. Karabekir was born in 1882 as the son of an Ottoman general, Mehmet Emin Pasha, in the Kocamustafapaşa quarter of the Kuleli neighborhood of Constantinople, Ottoman Empire. The Karabekir family traced its heritage back to the medieval Karamanid principality in central Anatolia. Karabekir toured several places in the Ottoman Empire while his father served in the army. He returned to Istanbul in 1893 with his mother after his father’s death in Mecca. They settled in the Zeyrek quarter. Karabekir was put into Fatih military secondary school the next year. After finishing his education there, he attended the Kuleli Military High School, from which he graduated in 1899. He continued his education at the Ottoman Military College, which he finished on 6 December 1902 at the top of his class. As a junior officer, after two months he was commissioned in January 1906 to the Third Army in the region around Bitola in North Macedonia. There, he was involved in fights with Greek and Bulgarian komitadjis. For his successful service, he was promoted to the rank of Senior Captain in 1907. In the following years, he served in Constantinople and again in the Second Army in Edirne. During his service in Edirne, Karabekir was promoted to the rank of major on 27 April 1912. He took part in the First Balkan War against Bulgarian forces but was captured during the Battle of Edirne-Kale on 22 April 1913. He remained a POW until the armistice of 21 October 1913. Before the outbreak of World War I, Karabekir served for a while in Constantinople and was then sent to some European countries like Austria, Germany, France, and Switzerland. In July 1914, he returned home, as a world war was likely. He was commissioned to the Iraqi front to join the Sixth Army. For his success at Gallipoli, he was decorated in December 1915 both by the Ottoman and German Command and was contemporaneously promoted to colonel. In April 1916, he took over the command of the 18th Corps, which gained a great victory over the British forces led by General Charles Townshend during the Siege of Kut-al Amara in Iraq. Karabekir was appointed commander of the 2nd Corps on the Caucasian front and fought bitterly against the Russian and Armenian forces for almost ten months. In September 1917, he was promoted to brigadier general by a decree of the Sultan. In compliance with the Treaty of Sèvres, which ended World War I, Ottoman Sultan Mehmet Vahdettin gave Karabekir the order to surrender to Entente powers, which he refused to obey. He stayed in the region and, on the eve of the Erzurum Congress when Mustafa Kemal had just arrived in Erzurum, he secured the city with a Cavalry Brigade under his command to protect him and the congressmen. He pledged with Mustafa Kemal to join the Turkish national movement and subsequently took the command of the Eastern Front during the Turkish War of Independence by the Kuva-yi Milliye. Karabekir Pasha moved to Ankara in October 1922 and continued to serve in the parliament as Deputy of Edirne. He was still the acting commander of the Eastern Army when he was elected Deputy of Constantinople on 29 June 1923. Six months later, he was appointed Inspector of the First Army. Parliament awarded him the highest Turkish "Order of Inde...".