THE NECESSITY TO LEAVE ERZURUM

At last, gentlemen, in August, we heard that the delegates had started from all the districts and were on their way to Sivas. Some of them were already beginning to arrive there. These latter were asking me when I thought I would be able to come to Sivas.

This made it necessary for me to leave Erzurum. But as can readily be seen from what I have told you, the Congress of Sivas wanted to link up all the vilayets in the east and the west, as well as those in Trakya [Thrace] - in fact the whole of the country. The eastern vilayets had, therefore, to send delegates to the congress, but it was impracticable to elect delegates in these provinces. It was also discovered that it was impossible to arrange for those delegates who had met at the Erzurum Congress to come to Sivas. Besides, these delegates had received from their districts only a limited mandate in the name of the Committee of the "Defence of the Rights of the Eastern Provinces", and did not consider that they were authorised to extend that mandate generally. In the same way, it was evident that the Erzurum Congress had no authority to send a delegation to the Sivas Congress in the name of the Eastern Provinces.

It was just as impracticable to go to the trouble of electing new delegates, who would find themselves unnecessarily lost in a labyrinth of theories.

The simplest and most pratical thing to do was to bring the Representative Committee of the "Union for the Defence of the Rights of the Eastern Provinces" to Sivas.

I knew that the thought of coming down from his mountains would inspire the chief of the Mutki tribe with dread.

Sadullah Bey, the deputy for Siirt, was nowhere to be found.

Servet Bey and Izzet Bey, making some excuse or other, had gone to Trabzon when the congress was over.

Rauf Bey and Raif Bey were in Erzurum. Raif Bey also made excuses.

We thought that, perhaps, on the way we might meet Seyh Fevzi Efendi.

I tried to persuade Servet Bey and Izzet Bey, but they did not come. Raif Bey agreed to go with us.

Altogether we numbered five members of the Representative Committee; three from Erzurum, one from Erzincan, and Bekir Sami Bey, whom we found in Sivas. Now as we thought that we ought to examine the powers of the delegates who had come to the Congress in Sivas, I drew up a document and sealed it with the seal of the Representative Committee. It ran as follows:

From the Representative Committee: Mustafa Kemal Pasha, Rauf Bey, Raif Efendi, Seyh Fevzi Efendi, Bekir Sami Bey.

The persons whose names appear above have been elected by the Erzurum Congress to take part in the Congress at Sivas as representatives of the Eastern Provinces.

Official seal

We left Erzurum on the 29th August, 1919.