page_title: Mustafa Ertuğrul Aker
section_title: Ben Bir Türk Zabitiyim
hierarchical_section_title: Mustafa Ertuğrul Aker / Ben Bir Türk Zabitiyim
caption_attribution_description: Statue of Mustafa Ertuğrul, made by Meret Öwezov in 2006, placed in Antalya at Atatürk Kültür Parki anlongside the Konyaaltı Caddesi at the opposite of Hızır Reis Caddesi.
context_page_description: Mustafa Ertuğrul, Mustafa Ertuğrul Aker since the Surname Law of 1934 in Turkey, was a Turkish career officer. He was an officer of the Ottoman Army during World War I and of the Turkish Army in the early stages of the Turkish War of Independence.
  He accomplished a number of brilliant military feats, the most notable being the sinking of the British seaplane tender HMS Ben-my-Chree with shore artillery fire. In the same campaign along the coasts of southwestern Turkey, he also sank the French auxiliary aviso Paris II, the converted naval trawler Alexandra and a number of other Allied vessels in 1917.
context_section_description: Ertuğrul was recently rediscovered in Turkey thanks to research done on him and on the shipwrecks off the coast in Ağva Bay near Kemer in Antalya Province by the skin diver and amphora collector Mustafa Aydemir. 
  A book, based on the account that he had typewritten himself in 1934, on Atatürk's personal encouragement, "Ben bir Türk zabitiyim" (I am a Turkish officer), was re-edited by Aydemir and supplemented with photographs and archive documents, notably from France. It was published for the first time in 2004, subsequently running into several editions. Prior to Ertuğrul's account having been made public, easily available information on the officer was restricted to a few lines in the memoirs of Liman von Sanders and Field Marshal Erich Ludendorff and documents and literature regarding Ben-my-Chree's sinking. The commander of Paris II, Henri Rollin was taken prisoner by Ertuğrul's unit after his ship's sinking and had also presented a detailed official report on Paris II and Alexandra at the end of the war in 1918. 
  Ertuğrul's story requires more in-depth research, with a number of points included in his account awaiting further clarification, notably his mention of another British naval vessel that he claimed to have sunk and believed to be the actual ship commanded by Charles Rumney Samson; HMS Dard.
caption: Statue of Mustafa Ertuğrul in Antalya, Turkey
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK Z650 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "230", "Image YResolution": "230", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:30 12:55:24", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "886", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5803", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:01:03 10:28:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:01:03 10:28:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "93/10", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2128", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2832", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}