Erdogan revives memory of Abdur Rehman Peshawari

Praises the services of Peshawar-born volunteer for Turkey

PESHAWAR: By eulogizing the services of the late Abdur Rehman Peshawari in the Turkish War of Independence and the First World War, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his speech to the joint session of Parliament in Islamabad on Thursday reminded the Pakistanis of a long-forgotten war hero.

As his name suggests, Abdur Rehman Peshawari belonged to Peshawar, a city that has produced famous people in different walks of life. He is almost unknown in his hometown or in rest of Pakistan, but is known to many people in Turkey because he devoted his life to the Turkish people as a medic, fighter, journalist and diplomat.

Out of respect, he is sometimes referred to as Abdur Rehman Bey in Turkey. He had gone to Turkey in 1912-13 and it is unclear if he ever paid a visit to his hometown Peshawar after that. As President Erdogan pointed out in his speech, Abdur Rehman Peshawari didn’t listen to his mother’s pleas to return home by arguing that he cannot leave while the Muslim nation in Turkey is under invasion.

Only tidbits of information is available about this brave man fired by feelings of pan-Islamism who gave up his education at the Aligarh Muslim University and went to Turkey as a member of the “People’s Mission to the Ottoman Empire” to help the Turkish people in their hour of need. He was 26 years old and was part of a medical mission comprising 24 doctors and male nurses put together by Dr Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari. He volunteered to join the mission and was listed as a male nurse for which he received training from the doctors during their sea voyage from Mumbai to Istanbul.

Abdur Rehman Peshawari belonged to a prominent family from Peshawar. His father’s name was Haji Ghulam Samdani. He reportedly sold his belongings at Aligarh to raise money for his journey to Turkey as he was uncertain whether his father would provide him the funds.

He enlisted in the army, was trained in Istanbul and served in Beirut until the First World War started. He fought in the Balkan War at Dardanelles and was wounded thrice at Gallipoli fighting the British navy. As Turkey along with Germany was defeated in the World War I and Istanbul was occupied by the Allied Powers, Abdur Rehman Peshawari joined the forces led by Mustafa Kamal Pasha (Ataturk) to fight for Turkey’s independence. He later served the Turkish Republic and Ataturk appointed him Turkey’s ambassador to Afghanistan in 1921.

He had also worked as a journalist at the Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s first news service. According to his profile put together by Turkish historians, Abdur Rehman Peshawari was shot and killed in Istanbul, apparently in a case of mistaken identity as he closely resembled a prominent Turkish politician Rauf Bey, who later became Turkey’s prime minister. It was a tragic end to the life of an Indian Muslim who devoted his life in the service of the Turkish people.

He hasn’t been forgotten in Turkey. Erdogan, the most powerful and popular Turkish politician in the last more than a decade, remembered him while addressing Pakistani members of parliament in a city not very far from his hometown of Peshawar.