ABSTRACT
The place of mythologized heroic figures in national(ist) historiographies and their role in the discursive construction of nations are widely studied issues. However, the role of anti-heroes is equally important and illuminating, particularly when the subject figures in the formative period of a nation state, such as the so-called ‘Turkish war of independence’ (1919-23), in which Kemalist nationalists were involved in the formation of the modern republic of Turkey. The subject of this essay, the place of the Circassian military leader Çerkes Ethem (1886-1948) in this war, constitutes a model case study in support of this assertion. Çerkes Ethem is widely considered one of the most prominent ‘traitors’ in Turkish national historiography of the twentieth century, while simultaneously earning praise for his acts on behalf of the nationalist movement’s centre in Ankara during the first two difficult years of the war. As a result of his armed struggle and often violent suppression of opposition forces in Western and Central Anatolia, it is generally accepted that between 1919 and 1920, Ethem played a vital role in the emergence of armed resistance to the Greek invasion of Western Turkey. He was particularly instrumental in consolidating the supremacy of the Ankara-based Kemalist cadres in the resistance. By the autumn of 1920, however, Ethem’s irregular forces (the Ethemists) were in conflict with the regular military forces supporting the Ankara government (Kemalists); this struggle ended at the beginning of 1921 with the Kemalists’ victory and their absolute control over the ‘national independence movement’. That Ethem subsequently sought refuge with the Greek forces has been the main reason for the accusation of treason levied against him in Turkish historiography.
