He ran away from home when he was 14 years old to join Bakırköy Cavalry Junior Officer School. He joined the Balkan War and was wounded on the Bulgarian front. As a result, he was awarded with honours and seniority allowance. Later he joined Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa organized by Eşref Kuşçubaşı and participated in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during World War I. He was again wounded and retired to his village. He later founded Kuvâ-yi Seyyâre which was the only organized military force in Anatolia during 1919–1920 period between the Armistice of Mudros and the Treaty of Sèvres. He coordinated his military operations with Ali Fuat Paşa in Ankara and harassed the invading Greek armies with his fast cavalry. He was instrumental in putting down various rebellions against the authority of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Eventually Çerkes Ethem had a disagreement with İsmet İnönü, refusing to join his forces with the regular army established under the command of İnönü, as he would be a regular soldier as well. Ethem claimed that his soldiers made up of Circassians and mountain clans would never obey anyone other than him, and so he should be given the rank of commander in the army. Although Mustafa Kemal had a positive view of Ethem, İsmet Pasha did not like him, and so he was not taken seriously, and the newly reconstituted Turkish Army had to put down the situation whilst also fighting the Greeks at First Battle of İnönü. While Ethem's forces were clashing with Greeks, the Turkish army under the command of İnönü arrived, and Ethem, stuck between two hostile armies, made a non-aggression pact with the Greeks and fled Anatolia. İsmet İnönü later claimed that Ethem subsequently cooperated with the Greek army (a claim which has been disputed and rejected by most historians). This resulted in Ethem's citizenship getting revoked on the grounds of treason and his being declared persona non grata by the TBMM, amongst many others. From Greece, he went to Jordan and settled there.