ALEPPO IN 1917

Let's listen to the story of Mustafa Kemal's photo taken with Abdürrahim Tuncak in the garden of a family friend's mansion in Aleppo, from Abdürrahim Tuncak himself:

- “We went to Aleppo with my mother (Zübeyde Hanım). After an illness, Mustafa Kemal spent his recovery period in Aleppo, in the mansion of his friends from Istanbul, Salih (Fansa) Bey, and rested there. Salih Bey's mansion was in the middle of a large orange orchard. Mustafa Kemal Pasha would often sit in the garden. I used to play around him all the time.

One day, while I was playing in the garden, he called me:

- " Shall I take a picture of you here  ?" said.

"I said yes too . "

He gave orders, had the army's tailor brought in, and had me make local clothes overnight.

A doctor captain in the army had a camera. The next day, the doctor captain entered Salih Bey's garden with his camera. They dressed me in my local clothes inside.

When I went to the garden, next to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, when he saw me, he started laughing:

" You have become a young man from right here, " he said. And he pointed to the place next to it:

" Come sit next to me, " he said.

The doctor captain had his camera ready and when we were about to take our picture, Mustafa Kemal Pasha told him to stop. He took out his pistol, which he had not left with him since Çanakkale, and put it on my waist. On the other side of my waist, between the sash, he placed his own bayonet.

- " Now it's done, " he said, and the doctor turned to the captain:

- “ You can take our photo now. Because Abdurrahim is ready .”

We stayed in Aleppo for a week or ten days with my mother. Mustafa Kemal Pasha entrusted us to a sergeant who returned to Istanbul on leave. Together with that sergeant, we returned to Istanbul by train again.

- “My photograph taken with Mustafa Kemal Pasha in Salih Bey's garden in Aleppo disappeared years later, along with my luggage, which I lost at the train station when I went to Germany for higher education.”

When my sister Makbule (Atatürk's sister Makbule Atadan) died in 1956, a postcard-sized copy of this photograph came out of her "documents."

Source: Başkent Üniversitesi Kültür Yayını, Bütün Dünya, Mart 2009 Sayfa: 44 - 45