İsmet Bey in the deserts of Yemen
Chief of the General Staff Ahmet İzzet Pasha came to know İsmet Bey for the first time during the Thrace Maneuvers and admired the latter’s tactics. When, in February of 1910, İzzet Pasha was made commander of the forces (Yemen Kuvva-i Seyyare) to be dispatched to Yemen to quell the rebellion there, he wrote a letter to Lieutenant Commander İsmet Bey and asked him to serve at his headquarters.
Meanwhile, provoked by the British, the Shiite Saidi rebels under the command of Imam Yahya in the mountainous Jabal region of Yemen revolted against Ottoman rule. The Sunni population in the country’s coastal plain known as Tihamah, on the other hand, remained loyal to the Empire. Soon, uprisings also broke out in the Asir region between Hejaz and Yemen.
Entering negotiations personally with İmam Yahya at a very critical time in Yemen, İsmet Bey succeeded in convincing the rebels. Hence, as Hejaz was overcome by disturbances during World War I, no action that would discomfort the Ottoman Empire took place in Yemen. İsmet Bey returned to his country on April 16, 1913.
