ARMY AND POLITICS
Upon the proclamation of the Constitutional Monarchy, officers
who had made efforts, great or small, to secure liberty suddenly
found themselves drawn into politics. The traditional respect
and discipline that kept the army standing between superiors and
subordinates had greatly diminished.
One day, a close friend told me of a very young Unionist
lieutenant who, speaking of a division commander who had spent
his life on battlefields, said:
— The man stared straight into my face.
But I did not even want to salute him.
Neither the Committee of Union and Progress could command the
officers, nor could the officers command the Committee. The
Central Office lost its initiative, for, as I have already
explained, it had neither a program nor a leader to implement
such a program. Talat (Pasha) once told us:
— By God, I too am bewildered and at a
loss. We are waiting for the waters to settle.
The one most deeply affected by these events was Mustafa Kemal.
He saw that the warnings he had made before the revolution had
no effect, and his distress grew even greater. He said:
— The army must absolutely and
immediately withdraw from politics. Otherwise, it will lose its
quality of being a force. And this would be a disaster for the
country.