The Ataturk Interview, Pedley Philip M.

This work examines the provenance of an interview conducted with Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atat rk by Karl Emil Hildebrand, published in the US in 1926. The interviews significance is twofold. Firstly, Mustafa Kemals acknowledgement of Turkish culpability in Armenian massacres and secondly his assertion that a last-minute confession by a prominent female conspirator thwarted the 1926 Izmir assassination attempt on his life. Leading Turkish scholar, Professor Turkkaya Ata v, asserts that the interview is an Armenian fabrication made in support of false claims of genocide.
New evidence, revealed here, establishes the provenance of the interview. Mustafa Kemals acknowledgement of Ottoman guilt is confirmed. It is also contended that the Izmir plot conspirator who alerted Mustafa Kemal was Turkeys leading feminist and PRP member, Halide Edib. This revelation challenges the prevailing narrative that Mustafa Kemal exploited the attempted assassination to silence innocent PRP members who had no knowledge of the plot.