Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-10-10

WV are in fair way to learn more
M about Turkey and the Turk these
embattled days. A long time we
have been prone to regard the Turk sim
ply as unspeakable and to let him slide as
such. A statesman, with gift for biting
epigram had referred to the "unspeakable
Turk" and that was about all we knew
about him except that he wore the worlds
most unsuitable headgear, In any KIND OF
weather, and supplied the United States
with an occasional wrestler, usually named
Mahmout. Then there was the Fourth
Reader poem about the Turk dreaming in
his tent. And brand of cigarettes Ia
beled Turkish Atrocities-no; that wasn't
II. but It might have been without doing
violence. And Armenian massacres.
And that about let the Turk out, SO far
as we knew.
oh, yes-and they called the Turk ge-
nerically the Sick Man of Europe" because
he was always in bad and trying to Dor
row money, and SO on.
But now the Turk means to most OF us
one Mustapha Renal Pasha; talented
dictator and an able general. We find
also that he is a suave and Chesterf1eldlan
person with pretty taste in sartorial mat
tiers: the best-dressed man in Europe, some
one assures us.
And we see in the papers where he takes
cities and signs treaties and demeans hlmsei1
generally as leader Of consequence.
Let us seek further concerning Kemal.
f.Ambitious, energetic, clever and cum
ming" is a description we find in the foreign
press by a writer in Independence Beige.
He belonged, we learn, to the so-called
Committee of Union and Progress, in which
Germany doubtless was concerned at that
time-say in 1906. But a couple OF years
later Renal Pasha was upset and chucKed
out by rival, Enver Pasha, who organized
a revolution in 1908 and was scientifically
sat upon, which damaged his feelings and I'M
bued him with fervent animoslty for MS
former political coreligionist.
Mustapha Renal kept quiet number OF
thoughtful years and in 1915 got into the
: World war as an organizer of the famous
Dardanelles defense, which was so well Or
ganized that it stopped the advance OF Sir
Ian Hamilton's troops in Anaforta. Inspired
by this success, he waited through the period
OF Turkish depression for chance to start
a revolt in Anatolia.
This was after Turkey had been compelled
to sue for an armistice, and Renal, after
y,
eminent the mission of "disbanding" the
Anatolian army.
Whereupon, backed by Bolshvist- support,
which he Individually had been enlisting for
some time, he not only did not disband the
electives in that army but enrolled volunteers,
arranged congress at Erzeroum, and caused
teers, arranged a congress at Erzeroum, and
caused it to vote a treaty by which an indie
pendent turkey was to endeavor to regain
her former national frontiers. -
This was the inception of the national
movement" about which we hear so much
these days.
Straightway in 1919, the conflict became
acute between Constantinople and the revo-
lutionary leader, who was then known SIM
ply as general inspector Of the Orient ar
mics" But when the Sublime Porte, or
regular government tried to drop Renal, he
promptly discarded the mask and selected
the city Of ngora-suitably named for the
purposes his headquarters, that town be-
coming available through the retirement OF
the British troops.
The populace, evidently taking to an active
leader Of Kemars type, soon supplied him
with an irregular sort of army numbering
upwards of one hundred thousand, to go with
his regular army of 10000 trained soldiers,
and the astute Renal next instituted po-
litical move-he organized what he called
the National Assembly, in order to put the
other side in wrong, and to step from under
the stigma of revolution and rebellion. y
More politics followed in rapid succession.
Renal signed agreement with the Soviet
representative Tchitcherin as to the respec-
tive frontiers of Russia and Turkey, and
having thus gained some standing by the
evident recognition by Moscow, he got in
volved with the Greeks, who were not slow
to see danger in his growing power.
The Greek offensive of September, 1921, in
fact threatened Kemal'ss capital and he
promptly gave over his job as president Of
the national assembly to direct the military
operations which in the course of the last
year decisively upset the Hellenic troops and
established the organizer of the Angora re-
public as dictator, which title he now enjoys
and is utilizing to the utmost.
Mustapha Kemal Pasha is rated 'the
incontestable leader of the nationalist move
ment," but no man can say what day or a
month may bring forth. Friendly relations
between Turks and Russians never have been
enduring; that Is matter of history And
this little sketch next may come in handy in
the form Of information as to who Mustapha
Renal Pasha was.