After Ali Rıza Efendi passed away, the family started to have a hard time. Zübeyde Hanım was always grateful to the house left by her husband, but she could not survive with a salary of two lira left from her husband. His brother was helping her in this difficult period. Zübeyde Hanım and Mustafa settled in Hüseyin Ağa's farm near Lavgaza, where his uncle also worked that summer. They both worked and lived there. At that time, it was also discussed how Mustafa would continue his education life. Zübeyde Hanım, who wanted her son to be a hafiz in the years when he started school, wanted her son to become a merchant when Mustafa reached the age of middle school, with the effect of the situation of her family. She wanted him to be an apprentice with a merchant, then trade and take care of her mother. Mustafa, on the other hand, wanted to study, he wanted a school.
Saying "I will not live as a cloth-seller, I have a lot of work to do, I have many duties to fulfil!”, he took the junior high school exams to be a soldier hidden from his mother and without her noticing. Mustafa was drawing his own path, with his own free will. Although he had not yet completed his education at the Şemsi Efendi School, it was only possible with his diligence to enrol in the military school by passing the high school exams.
It was hot... Kocatepe ridges and Afyon Meadow on the night of August 26
and Kutahya
and Aydın provinces and Sakarya,
Adana, Antep and Maraş
and Dumlupınar, Eskişehir, Erzurum,
Trakya, Sarıkamış and Urfa; it was hot... Waiting, determination and hope had palpable weight in the air. Lion-looking commander, from 1914 to 18, 1918 to 1922; He looked through years, even centuries, with his eyes in which he saw betrayal, lie, looting and plunder, the betrayers of his country, and hope, determination, courage, determination and wisdom; from Kocatepe to Afyon Meadow...
The southern front, the Balkan War, the Caucasus and Tripoli and Çanakkale fronts, he had seen those who lie on the dead of the homeland children who were martyred and those who sold the homeland, out of fear of their lives, their ambitions and their efforts to save their dishonourable heads. He had shielded his injured chest against those who tried to portray the American mandate, the British colony, or the French protectorate as a means of salvation. For days, months and years, despite all sorts of difficulties and hardships, every moment with superhuman effort and ensthusiasm, he had strived to give sovereignty unconditionally to the nation. Now he was standing in the middle of a historical turning point where his powerful supplication could come true.
The occupation of Istanbul in 1918 and Izmir in May 1919 hurt like an arrow stuck in his abdominal cavity. Since he knew very well how British warships got to Istanbul, he knew very well how they got to go: "As they come ..."
He took another drag of his hard tobacco. Then he left the edge of the cliff to return to the tent. Pashas also started walking with him. He stopped abruptly as he walked down the stony path towards the headquarters tent. It was heading towards four o'clock. He immediately remembered how the ancestral homeland of Thessaloniki and all of Rumelia was handed over to the enemy overnight. He wanted to see his beloved hometown with the eyes of his own once more, but he did not have the chance. He had so many memories there in fact… He remembered getting accepted to the high school and coming home with his uniform. His mother greeted him at the gates.
