Who is Second Lieutenant Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay, Where From, How Was He Martyred?

Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay (born 1906; Kozan, Adana – died 23 December 1930; Menemen, Izmir), Turkish teacher and second lieutenant. It is the Turkish soldier who is the symbol of the chain of events that started with the murder of Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay, Bekçi Hasan and Bekçi Şevki in Menemen on 23 December 1930 by an anti-republican group and continued with the trial of the perpetrators, which is defined as the Kubilay Incident, and covers the months of January-February 1931.

He was born in Kozan in 1906 to a Cretan family. His father's name is Hüseyin, his mother's name is Zeynep. Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay was killed by a group of rebels led by Derviş Mehmet on December 1930, 23, while he was doing his military service with the rank of second lieutenant in the Menemen district of İzmir as a teacher in 1930. The event was the second important reactionary attempt witnessed by the republican regime after the Sheikh Said Rebellion in 1925 and went down in history as the "Menemen Incident" and the "Kubilay Incident". Mustafa Kemal's message to the Armed Forces, the message of the Chief of the General Staff, a parliamentary question and Prime Minister İsmet İnönü's speech, the decision of the Council of Ministers to declare martial law, the parliamentary discussions of the declaration of martial law, the minutes of the first day of the trial, the Indictment of the Prosecutor's Office on the merits, Divan-ı Harp The Decree of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the Mandate of the Judicial Council and the resolutions of the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey are available in the archives in full text.

Kubilay's murder had a great impact not only on the state, but also on society. Kenan Evren, the 7th President of Turkey, told that he was 13 years old at that time and what he experienced and felt as follows:

“The Kublai Incident had a great impact on me and my classmates. Because the brutal martyrdom of a young officer would of course affect us. I was under the influence of this for a long time. For a while, they said that the perpetrators of this massacre were caught and the train was waiting at the station. We went to the station immediately with 5-6 friends. I saw the traitors who martyred him and killed Kubilay there. It left such a deep mark on me that I started painting with pencil at that time. I made my first painting as Kubilay's painting. I remember and it was a beautiful picture. I wish I had kept it so that it would remain with me as a souvenir.”

The traces of the Menemen Incident have taken their place in the social memory and Ensign Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay has been symbolized as a "revolutionary martyr". Every year, on 23 December, articles about the Kubilay Incident are published in various media, the incident is condemned and commemoration ceremonies are held for Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay.