THE TRİCK PLAYED ON LİMAN VON SANDERS
One day, someone asked Atatürk what he
thought of the Turkish soldier.
“Wait,” he said, “let me tell you a story.”
“I
was the commander of the Yıldırım (Lightning) Armies Group. At that
time,
Liman von Sanders Pasha
had come to inspect our troops. Some men who had only recently been
discharged from the hospital had, somehow, been mixed in among the
companies.”
Sanders:
-Why
on earth do they send men like these here?
Grumbling, he pushed a frail and sickly soldier in the chest. The
Mehmetçik immediately fell to the ground.
Proud that he had proved his point, the German general remarked:
-There, you see? He was simply looking for an excuse to fall!
At that moment, Mustafa Kemal decided to play a small trick on von
Sanders. He approached the soldier and said:
-What a weak fellow you are! Be more careful. The man who knocked you
down is not one of us. Why didn't you stand your ground? If he comes
near you again, brace yourself. If you can, give him a kick in the
stomach or even butt him with your head!
Then, turning to von Sanders, Mustafa Kemal said:
-The
soldier you think so weak fell only because he was caught off guard. A
Turkish soldier is the most obedient man in the world when facing his
commander. I've spoken to him. He's saying, "Let him come again and see
whether he can knock me down a second time".
Von Sanders enjoyed joking with soldiers. Smiling, he walked back toward
the same man.But the moment he touched him, that seemingly exhausted
Mehmetçik gave him such a powerful shove to the chest that the German
general fell flat on his back. Far from becoming angry, von Sanders'
admiration for the Turkish soldier only grew. In fact, the first thing
he did after getting back to his feet was to go over and shake the sick
soldier's hand.
Atatürk concluded the
story with these words:
“That is the Turkish soldier.”