Nazım Çerkeş (1891 – 1948)

Nazim Cerkes

Nazim Bey, known as Nazim the blond in Ankara, was born in Ankara in 1891. His father, Zühtü Bey, was the son of Refiye Hanım, daughter of Abidin Pasha. He possibly studied in a school called Stone School and became a prosecutor. After the surname law was passed, he took the surname Cerkes because he had ties with Cankiri Cerkes. He married a purely Turkish woman, daughter of merchant. His three children from this marriage died one after the other from the Spanish flu during the war, while he was on the front lines in the Gallipoli war. His wife was terribly sorry and cried constantly for a longtime. She lost one of her eyes due tears which might have created an infection. After this, Mr. Nazim’s wife gave birth to three more children. They named the first born baby Yasar meaning “Will Live” as they didn’t want to loose him like the other ones.

During his years as a prosecutor, in addition to cases such as the shooting of Halit Pasha in the parliament, (See political events in our recent history) and the bribery case regarding the battleship Yavuz, he carried out useful work on legal issues and gained Atatürk’s appreciation.
My father, Yaşar Çerkeş, told me that he never accepted the bribe offers that criminals made to him many times through intermediaries to save them. He also said that the bribes in question included a kerosene can full of gold and a horse carriage full of carpets.

He made positive efforts to help the society understand that there was an impartial judiciary in Ataturk’s Turkey. An incident he experienced while he was a prosecutor is worth telling here.
A brave young man named Mehmet, who was stabbed in the leg during his fight in Elmadağ, Ankara, was taken to the hospital in Ankara by horse carriage under the conditions of that day, with blood flowing from his leg, but he was not taken to the hospital and died from blood loss on a bench in the hospital garden. The dead young man’s mother came to his house in Ankara Hacettepe that evening and asked the prosecutor Nazım Çerkeş, who was having dinner with his family where my father was also present. “What kind of a prosecutor are you? My lion-like Mehmet died of blood loss outside because he was not taken to the hospital, you are here having good time with your family.” “You are doing it,” he said. Mr. Nazım sat the old lady down and asked her to explain the incident.

Mehmet, a tall strong young man, the son of the old lady, had a fight with a short young Kurdish boy in Elmadağ, Ankara, and after the short man stabbed Mehmet in the leg, Mehmet was brought to Ankara by horse carriage under the conditions of that day, but was not allowed into the hospital… Afterwards, Mehmet, who was irresponsibly left on the bench in the hospital garden, died from blood loss. The old lady says, “If I had wrapped a handful of tobacco around my son’s leg, he would not have died. What kind of hospital is this?”

Prosecutor Nazım Çerkeş, who listened to the aunt, went to the hospital with two police officers. The entrance door of the hospital was closed. Even though he knocked on the iron door many times. When the door did not open, he started hitting the door with a stone he picked up from the ground. After a while an officer from inside screamed, “What the fu.k are you doing there? Prosecutor said “I’m sick, can you open it?” The officer replied, “You are not dead are you? We don’t accept patients at this time, you may come tomorrow if you like” The prosecutor replied, “Open it, fu.ked up woman’s man.” Upon hearing this the officer got very angry and shouted “who are you to swear to my wife” and opened the door furiously to attack the man who sweared him. When he opened the door, he encountered prosecutor Nazım Çerkeş, who hit his chin with the grip of his pistol and handled him to the officers for the arrest. When Nazim bey entered the hospital and wanted to see the doctor, the hospital staff tried to avoid him, but when he pressured them, he found the paramedics in inappropriate situations with the nurses and arrested a few more employees there who were not doing their duty. Obviously Nazım bey was quite upset with the hospital stuff who did not do their jobs. Nazim bey did not evacuate the paramedics who neglected their duties for several months. After a while, the matter was transferred to İsmet Pasha. When İsmet Pasha asked the Minister of Justice Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, “Why doesn’t your prosecutor release the paramedics?” Mahmut Bey said, “My prosecutor knows what he is doing” and defended prosecutor Nazim. But İsmet Pasha must have thought that this punishment was harsh. After a while, Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, who still continued to defend the prosecutor, had to resign.

With this resignation, Prosecutor Nazım Çerkeş was also dismissed.

Mr. Nazım, who later started working as a freelance lawyer, was a lawyer whose fame spread beyond Ankara, by taking only heavy criminal cases of people he believed to be innocent, and helping them. My grandfather, Nazım Çerkeş, who was much loved in Ankara and known for his aid to the poor, died at the age of 57 in his old house in Hamamönü, Ankara, most likely due to a brain hemorrhage.