The December 1919 visit of Mustafa Kemal Pasha and the Representative Committee to Hacıbektaş is an important example of solidarity with different social groups during the National Struggle. Our new post recalls the place of these contacts with Alevi-Bektashi leaders in our shared memory.
Contacts in Hacıbektaş
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s museum brochure states that the delegation arrived in Hacıbektaş on 22 December 1919 and that Mustafa Kemal Pasha spent a night as a guest in the home of Çelebi Cemalettin Efendi. The building, now open to visitors as the Atatürk House Museum, is a tangible trace of this contact in local memory.
The Atatürk Encyclopaedia’s biography of Cemalettin Çelebi also discusses the meeting during the journey to Ankara, using the date 23 December. We therefore place the visit in the context of December 1919 while making the sources’ different day datings explicit.
A relationship extending beyond the meeting
The specific address to Cemalettin Efendi in the notification dated 2 January 1920, cited in the encyclopaedia entry, shows that the relationship continued in later correspondence. These contacts should be read as part of efforts to broaden social support for the struggle for independence.
Historical memory and documents
Accounts that the idea of a republic was discussed at the meeting should not be presented as verbatim minutes. Understanding a historical event also requires distinguishing the nature of documents from that of recollections recorded later.
The group photograph on the cover poster bears the label Kırşehir, 24 December 1919. We do not describe it as a photograph of the Hacıbektaş meeting. We value examining sources so that this shared heritage can be passed on to future generations accurately.