Cemil Cahit Toydemir

Cemil Cahit Toydemir (1883 – July 15, 1956) was an officer of the Ottoman Army and a general of the Turkish Army of Circassian origin. He served in the Caucasus campaign in WWI, and after the Armistice of Mudros he joined the Turkish National Movement and attended the Sivas Congress.

Meeting with Adolf Hitler

In 1943 Adolf Hitler invited the Turkish government to an official visit. Army General Toydemir had been assigned by President İnönü to visit Nazi Germany in an official trip. He had visited the Atlantic Wall and Eastern Front. He examined Tiger I tanks with Turkish officers just before Operation Citadel and shared a cigar with Erich von Manstein.

During this trip, he noticed Hitler Youth members, below the age of eighteen, were in uniform. He met Adolf Hitler, Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl, and during the meeting Hitler stated that Turkey, being the first ones to defy postwar treaties, inspired their movement and compared the well-preparedness of Atlantic wall to Çatalca line (Çatalca line was built to stop any probable German invasion.).

Hitler also claimed that if they did not started Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the Soviet Union would have invaded Europe. Hitler ended the meeting with a prediction that in the future it will only take two hours to fly from Moscow to Berlin. After he came back to Turkey, General Toydemir wrote a report to President İnönü about Germany's military situation. He came to a conclusion that Germany would lose the war.

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