1918-01-21-DK-001

1918-01-21-DK-001

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Source: DK/RA-UM/Gruppeordnede sager 1909-1945. 139. D. 1., ”Tyrkiet – Indre Forhold,” pakke 2, Jan. 1917-Jan. 1919.
Edition: Danish diplomatic sources
Departure of telegram: 01/21/1918
Arrival of telegram: 02/02/1918
Embassy/consular serial number: No. 11
Translated by: Matthias Bjørnlund
Last updated: 03/23/2012

The minister in Constantinople (Carl Ellis Wandel) to the Foreign Minister (Erik Scavenius)

Report

No. 11
Constantinople, 21 January 1918. Confidential.

Mr. Foreign Minister,

In my dispatch of the 17. this month I had the honor to report that many Turkish officials and politicians from H.H. Talaat Pacha's group, Djambolet Bey, Carace Effendi, Husseïn Djahid Bey, and several other Committee members, have left for Berlin during these days, a fact I presumed was connected to the necessity for the Turks of getting German aid to solve the nutrition question.

However, a usually well-informed Turkish acquaintance of mine tells me today that there is another reason for these sudden departures.

My informant believes that Mustafa Kemal [Ataturk], the well-known colonel in the Turkish army whom I have already mentioned several times in my reports, and who escorted the successor to the Throne to Germany a short while ago, has succeeded in secretly forming a new political military-nationalistic party directed against the Germans and H.E. Enver Pacha, a party that is supported by many high-ranking officers and most of the members of the Committee and the Chamber of Deputies.

H.H. Talaat Pacha supposedly learned about this new formation in Berlin, a formation that may not be as alien to him as it may appear at the first glance, and he has immediately summoned his supporters and representatives to Berlin for a conference.

I still do not know how things really are.

The reports of my informant may be exaggerated or premature, but it is certain that ever since H.E. Enver Pacha lost his prestige, many army plots against him have already been discovered, and it is probable that the Parliament and the Committee will not voluntarily vote for the most necessary appropriation for the continuation of the war as long as he is Minister of War and Vice-Generalissimo unless he in the meantime becomes more successful with his war conduct than he has been up until now, because his latest statement in the Chamber of Deputies was not - as reported back then - well received.

H.E. Enver Pacha's va banque policy no longer seems seductive to his countrymen as they see that the results he promised them fail to materialize, and many believe that he will soon have had his day.

With the highest esteem I remain, Mr. Minister, yours faithfully
[Wandel]