Pailan's Response to Erdoğan's Post on Karabekir's Famous Portrait

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made a post on social media in connection with the anniversary of the death of Kazım Karabekir Pasha, commander of the so-called liberation movement's Eastern Front and commander of Turkish forces in the Turkish-Armenian war of 1920. This was reported by Ermenihaber.am.

In his post, Erdoğan shared a portrait of Karabekir Pasha, posing a rhetorical question about whether people know the history of that image. Following that, Erdoğan stated that Karabekir was supposedly a 'compassionate figure, protecting homeless children, a magnanimous statesman.'

According to him, Karabekir was the 'father of orphans,' who took care of 6,000 children in 'Anatolia' (Western Armenia) and covered all their expenses.

Addressing the history of the portrait, the Turkish President mentioned that it was gifted to Karabekir by the orphans of Trabzon, who were under the patronage of the Pasha. To highlight once again the merits of the disgraced Turkish commander, he wrote, 'The inscription under the portrait once again shows us how kind and magnanimous our ancestors were. To the glorious father of orphans, the hero Kazım Karabekir Pasha... From the Armenian orphans of Trabzon... Rum, September 9, 1922.'

It should be noted that the inscription under the portrait is in Ottoman Turkish.