The Military and Political Biography of Kâzım Karabekir

Kazım karabekir established the branch of the committee of union and progress when he was a staff captain in monastry in 1905. after the committee gained a political association in 1909 and since he did not approve that the army was engaged in politics, he kept way from the committee and policy. in 1912 kazım karabekir was captured in the balkan war in bulgaria. in the world war i he crusaded the dardanellen, iraq and caucasus fronts. upon the armistice of montrose, karabekir who returned to istanbul, was assigned as the 15th corps commander in erzurum against the occupations. kazım karabekir contributed a lot to the turkish victory war as the commander of the east front in erzurum. karabekir was elected a representative of edirne in 1920 and of istanbul in 1923. karabekir, always standing by atatürk during the war of independence, had some clashes of ideas with atatürk in such matters as the proclamation of the republic and abolition of the caliphate. karabekir was elected the president of progressive republican party (prp) in 1924 opposing the republican people’s party. in 1925, upon the closing the prp he was not engaged in any political organization until the death of atatürk in 1938. he was on trial in independence court due to the fact that he was aware of the izmir assassination against atatürk in 1926 and was acquitted. he was elected the rpp’s representative of istanbul at the end of 1938. in 1946 multi-party system was accepted, the democratic party was established, and karabekir was elected the president of the turkish national grand assembly. he died on january 16, 1948 when he was the president of the turkish national grand assembly (tgna). in this study one of the most important turkish political and military figures, kazım karabekir, was scrutinized relying on mainly karabekir’s own works, military historical documents, archives, books and articles on karabekir.