Karakol Association-Mustafa Kemal Pasha Rivalry in the Kocaeli Peninsula and the Yahya Kaptan Event I

Abstract

Karakol Association, which was initiated by Kara Vasıf Bey in a Unionist manner, is the very first known Turkish national defensive organization of the Armistice ( of Mudros ) period. The Karakol Association had formed an armed organization against Greek bands in order to get the Kocaeli Peninsula area under control and Yahya Kaptan was appointed as the head of the organization in Gebze and its vicinities. It was decided in the Congress of Sivas that all regional national organizations had to be unified under 'Association for the Defense of the Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia". The Karakol Association agreed to outwardly admit this decision but they still tried to maintain their own organization and act independently. When Mustafa Kemal Pahsa, who was the chief of the Committee of the Representativies which was in charge of the decision and execution in the name of ADRAR, wanted to connect Gebze and Kartal districts and also Yahya Kaptan to the Committee of Representativies directly, but it was rejected by the Karakol Association which was then recognized as the İstanbul branch of ADRAR, and they tried to conduct Yahya Kaptan away from the mission as he had been becoming uncontrollable. Yahya Kaptan, who had been accused in a great deal of allegations by Greeks and Ziver Bey, the governor of Scutari, was killed in Tavşancıl on 9th January by the Government forces dispatched from İstanbul. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, in line with documents he himself puts fort, mentions of this incidence greatly in his Speech and accuses the İstanbul branch of the Committee of be-ing in collaboration with the İstanbul Government. Again, he accuses some persons at Kartal and Gebze districts of to be in connection with their activities conducted in favour of 'the Association of the Friends of England in Turkey'. Although, when other related documents and sources analyzed, the fact that the persons who were accused by Mutafa Kemal Pahsa apparently had a part in the murder of Yahya Kaptan, it is much too far as a possibility to conclude that they had a direct connection with the Istanbul Government in treachery and treason against the Turkish National War of Independence. This incidence should be considered in paralel with the immediate fact that 'the Defense of the Rights Movement' was not at all concentric, at least until the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The competition between Mustafa Kemal Pasha and the Karakol Assosiation in the Kocaeli Peninsula continued until 16th March, 1920, when İstanbul was virtually occupied.