İsmet Eker

Abdullah İsmet Eker (1877, Çorum – 4 October 1962) was a Turkish statesman who represented Çorum for many years in both the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies and the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). Eker chaired, as deputy speaker of the Assembly, the TBMM session of 29 October 1923 at which the Republic of Turkey was declared, and announced the vote’s result to the General Assembly from the podium.

Who Was He?

Educated at Çorum’s medrese and idadi (secondary school), İsmet Eker held posts including clerk and chief clerk of the Land Registry Office (Defter-i Hakani) and director of Çorum’s Evkaf (pious foundations) administration. In his youth he joined the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat ve Terakki) and served as its representative (mutemet) in Çorum. He was elected to the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies for Çorum in 1914 (5th term) and again in 1919 (6th term). After the occupation of Istanbul in 1920, he escaped from the group of deputies being deported to Malta, made his way via Samsun back to Çorum, and joined the National Struggle (Milli Mücadele); during this period he took part, with local militia, in defending Çorum against the Alaca and Yozgat uprisings, and was at one point arrested and sent to Ankara on a charge of “Bolshevik propaganda” before being released.

From the first TBMM, convened on 23 April 1920, through the 8th term (until 1950), he served eight consecutive terms as Çorum’s deputy. Over this period he also served on the board of Ziraat Bankası and chaired several parliamentary committees, including Finance, Budget, and Customs and Monopolies at various times.

Deputy Speaker and 29 October 1923

İsmet Eker served as second deputy speaker (İkinci Reis Vekili) of the Assembly’s presiding board in the 2nd term (1923-1927) and as deputy speaker in the 3rd term. The TBMM’s own official album, together with academic publications based directly on the Assembly’s minutes (including an article in the journal of the Atatürk Research Center and a paper published on DergiPark), state that on the evening of 29 October 1923, when the bill amending the Teşkilat-ı Esasiye Kanunu (Constitution) — establishing the Republic as the state’s form of government — was put to a vote, and when Mustafa Kemal was elected the first President, the person at the podium was the “İkinci Reis Vekili Başkan İsmet Bey (Eker),” who personally announced the law’s adoption and the election result to the General Assembly.

This is confirmed by the primary source. The record of the Grand National Assembly (TBMM Zabıt Ceridesi) for the Forty-Third Sitting on 29 Teşrinievvel 1339 (29 October 1923) opens with the heading “REİS — İkinci Reisvekili İsmet Beyefendi” (Chair: Second Deputy Speaker İsmet Bey), and the Chair opens the sitting at 6.00 pm. After the amendment to the Constitution was adopted, the same Chair announced the result of the presidential election: 158 members took part in the vote and unanimously elected Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha, deputy for Ankara, to the Presidency of the Republic. He also closed the sitting after Mustafa Kemal’s speech of thanks.

A Note on the Birth and Death Dates

Most sources (Turkish Wikipedia, biyografya.com, the Atatürk Encyclopedia, and an Istanbul University master’s thesis on “Çorum Deputy İsmet Bey’s Activities in the First Turkish Grand National Assembly”) give his birth year as 1877 and his date of death as 4 October 1962; the thesis states directly that he “was born in Çorum in 1877.” However, the TBMM’s own official “First-Term Deputies’ Album” contains an internal inconsistency: the heading of İsmet Eker’s biography page reads “(b. Çorum 1877, d. Ankara 1962),” while the biographical text immediately below it opens with “he was born in Çorum in 1876.” One architectural-history journal article also gives his birth year as 1876, matching the TBMM Album’s own body text. In short, while 1877 is the majority figure, the TBMM’s own archival publication is internally inconsistent, so 1876 cannot be entirely ruled out; this research could not reach a definitive conclusion.

Traces in Çorum

İsmet Eker’s mansion in Çorum (İsmet Eker Konağı) has been restored and opened to visitors. His farm outside the city has also been studied in architectural-history scholarship as an example of agricultural modernization efforts in the early Republican era. A book of his granddaughter Türkan Alaybeyoğlu’s memoirs, Konakta Geçen Bir Ömür (A Lifetime Spent in the Mansion), was published by the Çorum Municipality.

For more on Çorum’s Republican-era history, see History of Çorum and About Çorum; for other notable figures from the period, see the History and People topic page.

Sources

• TBMM Zabıt Ceridesi, Term II, Vol. 3, Forty-Third Sitting, 29 October 1923 (primary source)
• TBMM — First-Term Deputies’ Album 1920-1923 (Abdullah İsmet Bey (Eker) biography, p. 237; 1877 in the heading, 1876 in the text)
• Istanbul University — “Çorum Deputy İsmet Bey’s Activities in the First Turkish Grand National Assembly” (master’s thesis, D.R.C. Eraslan)
• Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye — Atatürk Encyclopedia: Abdullah İsmet (Eker) Bey (1877-1962)
• Turkish Wikipedia — İsmet Eker
• Biyografya.com — İsmet Eker
• KÜRE Encyclopedia — Abdullah İsmet (Eker) Bey
• Anadolu Agency (AA) — “Cumhuriyet’in ilan edildiği birleşimde ‘mebusların’ konuşmaları TBMM tutanaklarında” (25 October 2023)
• Journal of the Atatürk Research Center — Cumhuriyetin İlanı (atamdergi.gov.tr, full text PDF)
• DergiPark — Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin İlânı
• Mimarlık Dergisi — Çorum’da Mebus İsmet Eker Çiftliği (Ö. Tuluk)
• Yayla Haber — Abdullah İsmet Eker, pioneer of the National Struggle in Çorum
• Çorum Municipality — Konakta Geçen Bir Ömür (PDF)

Frequently asked questions

Who was İsmet Eker?

Full name Abdullah İsmet Eker (1877, Çorum – 4 October 1962), a statesman who represented Çorum for eight uninterrupted terms in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies and the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). He served as deputy speaker of the TBMM in its 2nd and 3rd terms.

Who chaired the session at which the Republic was declared?

İsmet Bey (Eker), deputy for Çorum, as Second Deputy Speaker. The official record of the sitting of 29 October 1923 opens with the heading "REİS — İkinci Reisvekili İsmet Beyefendi"; he opened the sitting, announced the result of the presidential election and closed the sitting.

What was İsmet Eker's connection to Çorum?

He was born in Çorum in 1877, was educated at Çorum's medrese and idadi (secondary school), served as director of Çorum's Evkaf (pious foundations) office, and represented Çorum continuously in the Ottoman and Turkish parliaments from 1914 to 1950. His mansion and farm in Çorum are still remembered today.