Cemal Gürsel
Cemal Gürsel
4th President of the Republic of Turkey
In office
27 May 1960 – 28 March 1966
Preceded by
Celal Bayar
Succeeded by Cevdet Sunay
Prime Minister of Turkey
In office
27 May 1960 – 27 October 1961
Preceded by
Adnan Menderes
Succeeded by Emin Fahrettin Özdilek
Born
October 13, 1895(1895-10-13)
Erzurum, Ottoman Empire
Died
September 14, 1966 (aged 70)
Ankara, Turkey
Nationality
Turkish
Spouse
Melahat Gürsel
Cemal Gürsel
(13 October 1895— 14
September 1966), was a Turkish army of-
ficer, and the 4th president of Turkey.
Early life
He was born in Erzurum, Turkey as the son
of a Turkish Ottoman army officer, Abidin,
the grandson of Ibrahim (1820-1895) and the
great-grandson of Haci Ahmad (1790 - 1860).
After the elementary school in Ordu and the
military middle school in Erzincan, he gradu-
ated from the Kuleli military high school in
Istanbul. He was a popular figure and was
therefore nicknamed “Cemal Ağa”
(big
brother Cemal) since his childhood school
years and onwards all his life. Gürsel served
in the Army for 45 years. During World War I
, he participated in the Battle of Çanakkale in
Dardanelles, Gallipoli as a lieutenant with the
First Battery of the 12th Artillery Regiment
in 1915 and received the War Medal. He
later fought at the Palestine and Syria fronts
in 1917 and became a prisoner of war by the
British while suffering malaria during his
command of the 5th Battery of the 41st Regi-
ment on 19 September 1918. Gürsel was kept
as a prisoner of war in Egypt until 6 October
1920. During his presidency much later,
when interviewed by the foreign press as to
why he had not learned English during his
captivity, he somewhat regretfully recalled
that he was so frustrated to be a captive, he
protested and studied French in the British
camp instead.
After his release, Cemal Gürsel returned
to Anatolia to re-join Mustafa Kemal sub-
sequent to Erzurum Congress and took part
in all the western front campaigns in the
Turkish War of
Independence between
1920-1923. He was promoted for gallantry in
the