Today in History – 25 December

İsmet İnönü passes away

Atatürk’s brother in arms, the Second Man, Turkey’s President for 12 and Prime Minister for 17 years, İsmet İnönü died at the age of 89 on December 25, 1973 at 4:10 at the Pink Villa.

İnönü’s funeral was held on Friday, December 28th. Upon Prime Minister Naim Talu’s suggestion, a decision was made to bury him at Anıtkabir. Passing before his body placed on the catafalque set in front of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on the morning of December 27th, the people of Ankara paid him their loving respects for 24 hours. Following a state ceremony held in front of the Assembly building on December 28th, his casket was placed on gun carriage pulled by 16 generals and students of the War Academy and brought to Maltepe Mosque.

President Korutürk, ministers, deputies, local and foreign representatives, and a large crowd joined the procession from the Assembly to the mosque. Guns were fired every five minutes during the procession, after which İnönü’s body was brought to Anıtkabir and interred across from the mausoleum of Atatürk.

Soil brought from Malatya and other parts of the country were sprinkled on his grave. His inscription tablet carries the words Mustafa Kemal wrote to him in the celebratory telegraph he sent to İsmet Pasha after the victory of the Battle of İnönü:

You defeated not only the enemy there, but the ill fortune of the nation as well.