Portrait of a True Patriot: Kapba Kazim Bey

Türkçe

I have grown so weary of the demagogues who, preying on the darkness of ignorance, fill our people's minds with inflated, faux patriots, that on this blessed day of Ramadan, I wish to commemorate a distinguished figure—a true Caucasian patriot—on his 46th death anniversary with gratitude, whom we have rarely had the opportunity to honor properly.
Born in 1892 (Rumi 1308) in the village of Kayalar Reşitbey, Kazim Bey was one of the five children of Medine and Mehmet Kapba, who had been exiled to Ottoman lands during the uprisings in Abkhazia amidst the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War. After graduating from the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Academy in Istanbul, he joined the North Caucasian staff of the 15th Infantry Division of the Caucasian Islamic Army in the summer of 1918, setting out for Dagestan.

Although a graduate of the NCO Academy, Kazim Bey's sheer battlefield prowess propelled him to the rank of Artillery Major, where he assumed responsibilities far exceeding what was typical for his rank. He rendered immense services in liberating Derbent and Petrovsk (Anzhi/Makhachkala) from the Bolsheviks and Bicherakhov's gangs. While he was expected to return to Ottoman lands as an officer of a defeated empire following the Armistice of Mudros, he chose to transition to Azerbaijani citizenship, remaining in the Caucasus to continue the struggle for North Caucasian independence. On November 22, 1918, the 15th Division began its deployment to Batumi. Departing Derbent on November 27, the division reached Batumi on December 3, 1918, and integrated with the 9th Army units. In his memoirs, Kazim Kap recounted these developments as follows:

The year was 1918. Serving under the Azerbaijani Government as the Gendarmerie Regiment Commander of the Karabakh Province, I was fighting against the Armenians in accordance with the directives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was then that the Armistice of Mudros was signed. Subsequently, the commanders of the victorious Allied powers began to pressure the Ottoman Army to lay down its arms and evacuate the Caucasus. Following a proposal from the Azerbaijani Government and with the approval of our own, I decided to remain at my post. Furthermore, to clarify my status, I completed preparations to assume the identity of a Caucasian officer.

Initially serving as the Gendarmerie Commander in the Karabakh region to fend off Armenian offensives under the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, he later resolved to join the defense of the North Caucasus against General Denikin’s British-backed occupying forces. He did so commanding a formidable contingent of former Ottoman troops who had specifically requested to remain under his command, comprising 4,350 regular infantry, 565 cavalry, and 87 officers of various ranks.
Following the invasion by General Denikin's Volunteer Army, members of the suspended Mountaineers’ Government formed an entity known as the North Caucasus Committee, operating under the Union Council established in Tbilisi to organize resistance forces. The Committee held its inaugural meeting in Tbilisi on July 12. Ostensibly to collaborate against Denikin, Bolshevik Mountaineers —who had opposed the Mountaineers’ independence in 1917—also joined the committee. However, they boycotted even the meetings concerning aid to the occupied Ingush territories. Not only did the Bolshevik Mountaineers abstain from voting, but they also refused to take on any roles within the committee, which elected Ahmed Tsalykkaty as the chairman. Consequently, aid proposals were voted on and unanimously approved in the absence of the Bolsheviks. From the very first days, it was evident that the Bolsheviks had no intention of acting in good faith.
The Committee invited Kapba Kazim Bey to Tbilisi to attend its sessions, seeking to leverage this young, patriotic officer in the resistance against both the White and Red armies. During the Congress held in Tbilisi under Tsalykkaty’s chairmanship to discuss countermeasures against Denikin—attended by Georgian, Azerbaijani, and North Caucasian delegates—Kazim Bey was elected Commander of the Caucasian Front on August 10, 1919, securing 49 out of 52 votes.
The Georgian Government placed 49 train cars of weapons, ammunition, and provisions, along with General Tasov and various Georgian officers, under Kazim Bey's command. Meanwhile, General Denikin dispatched a delegation led by General Paratov to Tbilisi to thwart this emerging alliance between the North Caucasus, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. However, this delegation never reached its destination. Receiving intelligence of their approach, Kazim Bey intercepted them as they crossed the Kura River bridge, detonating it and completely annihilating the delegation.
An encrypted message sent by the French from Istanbul to Paris on October 9 spoke of a general uprising organized by Turkish and Bolshevik agents in Dagestan, supported by the Menshevik Georgian administration, noting that Russian troops would have to evacuate Derbent and Temir-Khan-Shura. The 'Turkish agents' mentioned were, in fact, North Caucasian figures in the Ottoman Army, such as Aziz Meker, İsmail Hakkı Berkuk, and Kazim Kap. They were not orchestrating provocations for Ottoman state interests, but were genuinely fighting for the liberation of the North Caucasus.
The Bolshevik members of the Mountaineers’ Defense Council exerted great effort to eliminate Kapba Kazim Kap, whom they viewed as a grave threat. Inciting Nuri Pasha against Kazim Bey, Mountain Bolsheviks Djelaleddin Korkmasov and Alibek Taho-Godi, aided by prominent Azerbaijani Bolsheviks, met with Nuri Pasha in Baku. Through lavish flattery, they convinced him to assume supreme command of the Defense Council's armed forces. Immediately upon assuming the role, Nuri Pasha sent a message to Kazim Bey, dismissing him, appointing Colonel Muhtar Bey in his stead, and ordering his prompt return to headquarters. Kazim Bey, however, defied this order, thwarting the Bolsheviks' scheme and continuing his military operations.

By now, Kazim Bey was resolute in purging the Defense Council of its Bolshevik elements. Although Ali Hadji of Akusha (Akushinsky) was a staunch Bolshevik sympathizer, he viewed Kazim Bey as an adopted son and, despite their clashes, could not bear to sacrifice him. To de-escalate the rising tensions, Ali Hadji issued a proclamation demanding that anyone whose primary purpose in Dagestan was not fighting the Volunteer Army, but rather pursuing personal political agendas, must leave immediately. Disregarding this plea, Kazim Bey and his men raided Levashi on the night of March 4–5. During the raid, Sultan Said Kazbekov—who had been elected acting chairman of the Defense Council under Bolshevik pressure—along with fellow Council member Abbas Efendiyev, another Bolshevik commissar, and several dozen resisting Bolshevik soldiers, were killed. On March 25, Kazim Bey's forces decimated another group and took Bolshevik leader Djelaleddin Korkmasov hostage, though Kazim Bey was eventually compelled to release him following the intercession of local Dagestani opinion leaders.

Concurrently, Baha Said of Dagestan, a leading figure of the Bolshevik network in Anatolia, was collaborating with the Russians to establish a Bolshevik regime in Azerbaijan. Commanding a force of over 800 men, he launched a manhunt to capture Kapba Kazim Bey dead or alive. Instead, he suffered the fate of becoming Kazim Bey’s prisoner. While Kazim Bey executed the captured Russian Bolsheviks, he spared Baha Said, deporting him to Azerbaijan.

Having exhausted all its forces and resources to eliminate General Denikin's occupying army without any external support, the Mountaineers’ Union Council and Defense Committee began to struggle against the intensifying, Russian-backed Bolshevik offensives. Nevertheless, Kapba Kazim Bey continued to fight the Bolsheviks with limited means even after the final National Assembly meeting held at Khetash-Kort between May 6–11, 1920. He even managed to escape wounded from the village of Kaka-maki after being encircled by Red partisans. Ultimately, when the Bolsheviks completely seized the Transcaucasus in early February 1921, Kapba Kazim Bey was forced to leave the region and return to Turkey.

Upon his return, Kazim Bey participated in the Greco-Turkish War and was awarded the Medal of Independence. After retiring from military service, he worked as a Railway Operations Inspector in Zonguldak and an Inspector for the Ministry of Agriculture in Eskişehir. Retiring entirely from civil service in 1935, he subsequently engaged in the timber trade. During World War II, he provided intelligence support for the North Caucasian independence movement, but withdrew entirely from public life during the Cold War period. He adopted the surname 'Kap' after the Surname Law was enacted in Türkiye. Kazım Kap married Makbule Hanum and had three children. He passed away in Istanbul on February 21, 1980.

Cem Kumuk
Istanbul, 19 February 2026

References: (Click on the links to access the original works and documents)

[1] Tarık Cemal Kutlu, “1918-1921 Yıllarında Kuzey Kafkasya’daki Mücadelelerin Bilinmeyen Komutanı”, Kafkasya Yazıları, No.7, 1999, pp.38-40

[2] Kakagasanov and Kaymarazova (Ed.), Soyuz Obedineniy Gortsev Severnovo Kavkaza i Dagestana (1917-1918), Mahachkala 1994, pp.333-335.

[3] Salavat Iskhakov. Grazhdanskaya voyna v Rossii i Musulmane, Moscow, 2014, p.505.

[4] Archives diplomatiques du ministère des Affaires étrangères France (AMAEF), Documents about the activities of the Turkish Agents in Dagestan in 1919

[5] Mustafa Butbay, Kafkasya Hatıraları, Ankara, 1994, pp.15-22, 33-34, 101

[6] “Atmosfera v Dagestane raschishchayetsya”. Volnıy Gorets, 15 Mart 1920, № 34. p.3.

[7] “Dagestanskaya Pereputanitsa.” Volnıy Gorets, 29 Mart 1920, № 36. p.2.