Kemal's "genius" and Lenin's gold

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), May 30, 2008 at 15:44

sims02 wrote : <> It's far from the Turkish myth of Kemal's "genius" >

When Ataturk started doing what he did, No anachronisms , please. His name was Mustafa Kemal Pasha at that time, a bit later Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha. He became "Ataturk" only in 1934. < more than half of our country was either under occupation or to be occupied by five different nations, most of the victors of the war. Turkey had no allies, beaten down, worn out by more than a decade of war.

The sultan himself was not only against him, he actually fought against Ataturk. Five years later, we had our country back, had peace treaty signed with every nation on our borders as well as other powers (and former adversaries). If that is not genius, I don't know what is. I noticed you don't know many things. So dream on, ignoramus! The story told in brief is as follows. On 20.04.1920 - three days after opening the Grand National Assembly - Kemal wrote a letter in the name of his government to Lenin asking for establishing diplomatic relations and military aid to "fight imperialist governments" together. On 2.06.1920 Chicherin responded officially to this letter.

The Soviets agreed to play the role of intermediary in delineating the frontiers between Turkey and Armenia and Iran. The following Armenian-Turkish war with its Soviet-Armenian counterpart and the destruction of the anti-Soviet Dashnak government was a common Turkish-Soviet effort, the new atrocities being the Turkish prerogative though. On 19.07.1920 the Turkish delegation with foreign minister Bekir Sami arrived at Mosow. On 4.10. 1920 the Soviet diplomatic and military mission came to Ancara. Its head was Y.Y. Upmal-Angarskiy who was immediatel;y received by Kemal. 3 days later the Soviet embassy was officially opened. It was the only foreign embassy in Ancara at that time. Military aid followed including uniforms, rifles, machine-guns, radios, shells.

On 16.03.1921 the solemn treaty of "Soviet-Turkish Friendship and Brotherhood" was signed. Kemal got Kars, Ardagan and Artvin and 10 000 000 gold rubles were transferred to Kemal in installments. He used the Soviet money to buy French and Italian military supplies and favor. In teh critical days of August 1921 General M.V. Frunze was appointed the Soviet ambassador in Turkey. He became Kemal's close military advisor. His successor S.I. Aralov and Soviet military advisor K.K. Zvonarev used to visit the front and distribute gifts with dedications "To the Turkish soldier from the Red Army".

At that time over Novorossiyski, Tuapse and Batumi Kemal got 39 000 rifles, 327 heavy machine guns, 54 big cannons, 63 mln bullets, 147 000 artillery shells and more. The former tsarist military equipment left in Eastern provinces was given for free to the Turks together with an army of former Turkish POWs in Russia. In 1921 two Russian destroyers ("Zhyvoy" and "Zhutkiy") were turned over to Turkey. The Russians transported a complete powder and bullet factory to Ancara together with all the necessary raw materials, expertise and instructors. More gold followed to keep the Kemalist regime alive. Upmal-Angarskiy bestowed upon Kemal 200,6 kg of pure gold promised earlier.

Frunze gave the Turks in Trapezountas further 100 000 gold rubles. In April 1922 Aralov gave 20 000 to make the Kemalist propaganda machinery (cinema and printing) work smoothly. The first Kemalist film "Liberation" is in fact a Soviet production. On 3.05.1922 Aralov's generosity was shown again with 3 500 000 gold rubles given in Ancara . It was the last installment of 10 000 000 promised a year before. In Laussane Soviet Russia was the power that made Kemal's diplomatic success a reality. Lenin was not only a true friend in need but also a useful scarecrow. It is what stands behind the pious self-glorifying Turkish myth of Kemal's genius.

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