Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak (12 January 1876 – 10 April 1950) was a Turkish field marshal (Mareşal) and politician. He served as the Chief of General Staff from 1918 and 1919 and later the Minister of War of the Ottoman Empire in 1920. He later joined the provisional Government of the Grand National Assembly and became the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense and later as the prime minister of Turkey from 1921 to 1922. He was the second chief of the General Staff of the provisional Ankara Government and the first chief of the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey.
Graduating from the War College as a Staff captain and assigned to the 4th Department of the General Staff, Mustafa Fevzi participated in numerous battles during the prolonged downfall of the Ottoman Empire, such as the First Balkan War and the Battle of Monastir. He was engaged as the commander of the V Corps throughout the defence of Gallipoli, during which his younger brother was killed in the Battle of Chunuk Bair. He became a Pasha and the chief of General Staff of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War and was appointed as the commander of the First Army Troops Inspectorate in 1919 by Grand Vizier Ahmet Tevfik Pasha. After briefly serving as war minister in 1920, Fevzi left to join the dissident Grand National Assembly in Ankara as a Member of Parliament for Kozan.
He was appointed as national defence minister and deputy prime minister by Mustafa Kemal Paşa in 1920, commanding numerous military successes throughout the Turkish War of Independence, notably during the Battle of Sakarya. He succeeded Mustafa Kemal as prime minister in 1921, resigning in 1922 to engage in the successful Battle of Dumlupınar. He was appointed Field Marshal (Mareşal) in 1922 at the recommendation of Mustafa Kemal. He had succeeded İsmet İnönü as the Chief of General Staff in August 1921 and continued serving after the Turkish Republic was declared in 1923. Adopting the surname 'Çakmak', he was a candidate to succeed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as the president of Turkey after Atatürk's death in 1938, but stood down in favour of İnönü. He continued to serve as chief of General Staff until 1944, after which he became a member of parliament for Istanbul from the Democrat Party. He later resigned from the Democrats and co-founded the Nation Party headed by Osman Bölükbaşı.
Fevzi Çakmak remains, alongside Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as one of the only two field marshals of Turkey.
Mustafa Fevzi was born on 12 January 1876 in Cihangir (Istanbul, Ottoman Empire). His family is of Turkish origin. Their ancestors came to Istanbul from Çakmak, in modern-day Balıkesir Province. to mother Hesna Hanım, daughter of Varnalı Hacı Bekir Efendi, who was the youngest son of Ömer Ağa, and father Ali Sırrı Efendi, who was the son of Çakmakoğlu Hüseyin Derviş Kaptan. Ali Sırrı Efendi had served for Tophane (Arsenal) as secretary. In 1879 Ali Sırrı Bey was appointed to Black Sea Artillery Regiment (Karadeniz Topçu Alayı) at Rumeli Kavağı, and the family moved there. Thus, Fevzi's name in the Army became 'Fevzi Pasha of Kavak' (Kavaklı Fevzi Paşa).
He studied at Sadık Hoca Mektebi in Rumeli Kavağı between 1882 and 1884. He continued to study at Tedrisiye-i Haybiye Mektebi in Sarıyer between 1884 and 1886, at Salonica Military School (Selânik Askerî Rüşdiyesi) between 1886 and 1887, at Soğukçeşme Askerî Rüşdiyesi between 1887 and 1890. He learned Arabic and Persian languages from his grandfather Hacı Bekir Efendi, who had studied in Egypt and Baghdad and was one of the prominent intelligentsia at the time. He continued to Kuleli Military High School (Kuleli Askerî İdadisi) between 1890 and 1893. After graduating from the Kuleli military high school, he entered Ottoman Military College on 29 April 1893. He completed the military school as the seventh of the class on 28 January 1896 and joined the Ottoman military as an infantryman where he saw combat during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Second Lieutenant (Mülâzım-ı Sani).
On 28 January 1898, he entered the Imperial War Academy and on 16 March 1897, he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. On 25 December 1898, he graduated from Academy as a staff captain and was assigned to the 4th department of the General Staff.
On 11 April 1899, he became the staff officer of 18th Regular Division under the command of Şemsi Pasha at Metroviça (present day Mitrovica) of the Third Army. He studied Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian languages to read their newspapers for collecting information. On 20 April 1900, he was promoted to the rank of Kolağası, on 20 April 1902, Major (Binbaşı), on 19 July 1906, Lieutenant Colonel (Kaymakam) and on 17 December 1907, Miralay.
According to some researchers, he was in contact with Committee of Union and Progress and elected the member of the secret board of directors of the Metroviça branch of the committee. On 3 July 1908, Senior Captain Ahmed Niyazi Bey stationed at Resne (present day: Resen), an ethnic Albanian, took to the hills with 200 soldiers and a number of civilians, and issued a manifesto which demanded the restoration of constitutional government. Şemsi Pasha, an ethnic Albanian, was ordered to crush the rebel and went to Monastir with two battalions. But he was shot and killed by then Second Lieutenant Bigalı Atıf Bey.
On 19 August 1909, he was demoted to major, because of the Law for the Purge of Military Ranks.
On 29 December 1908 he was appointed as governor and commander of Taşlıca (present day Pljevlja), and at the same time, the commander of the 35th Brigade . On 15 January 1910, he was temporarily assigned to the headquarters of the Kosovo Provisional Corps, on 29 September, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and on 27 July, became the chief of staff of the same corps.
On 15 January 1911, he was assigned to the 4th department of the General Staff. On 2 October 1911, when he was staying in İşkodra (present day: Shkodër), because Italo-Turkish War (29 September 1911 – 18 October 1912) broke out, he was assigned to the Western Army that was formed for the defense of Western Rumelia under the command of Birinci Ferik Ali Rıza Pasha. On 6 October, he was appointed governor of İpek Sancağı (present day District of Peja). On 19 October, he went back to Istanbul to continue his task at the 4th department of the General Staff. On 11 February 1912, he was appointed to the member of the committee that was formed under the chairmanship of the Minister of the Interior Hacı Adil Bey with the decision about reform of Albania and three vilayet (Salonica, Monastir, Kosova). 9 May, he was appointed to a secretariat formed in the Sadaret and on 3 July, to the deputy commander of the 21st Infantry Division at Yakova (now Gjakova), on 6 August, to the staff of the General Forces of Kosovo .
On 29 September 1912, he was appointed to the chief of the 1st department (chief of operations) of the Vardar Army under the command of Ferik Halepli Zeki Pasha, formed within the Western Army. During the First Balkan War (8 October 1912 – 30 May 1913), after the defeat at the Battle of Kumanovo ( 23–24 October 1912), Fevzi wrote that the distributions of the Ottoman forces over a wide area gave initiative to the enemy and that mobilization and concentration plan was poorly designed and flawed. He also noted that there were great deficiencies in artillery, wireless, and air units. But he wrote that he had put the idea of creating a six-corps army of one hundred thousand men operation on interior lines from the Monastir (present day: Bitola) area. The Vardar Army retreated to Monastir.
On 16 November, during the Battle of Monastir ( 16–19 November 1912), his younger brother Muhtar Efendi was killed in action at the heights of Oblakovo, northwest of Bitola. After the defeat at the Battle of Bitola, he wrote that the Vardar Army's effective strength for its 78 infantry battalions was 39,398 men. The Vardar Army retreated to Albania. On 10 May, because Colonel Ibrahim Halil Bey (Sedes), who was the chief of staff of the Vardar Army, went to Istanbul, and Fevzi was deputized the chief of staff. On 19 June, the headquarters of the Vardar Army evacuated from the pier on the Seman aboard the steamships Karadeniz and Gülcemal and arrived at Istanbul on 22 June.