‘‘GENTLEMEN,
I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING YOUR AND YOUR PLAYERS’ SERIOUS WORK, AGILITY AND COMPETENCY WITH GREAT ATTENTION AND PLEASURE FOR QUITE SOME TIME. 
REGARDLESS OF HOW A PERSON IS DEVELOPED INTELLECTUALLY, IF HIS PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IS INSUFFICIENT, HE CANNOT CARRY THAT ADVANCED MIND FORWARD AS IN THE CASE OF AN INEFFECTIVE DEFENSE OF FATHERLAND BY A YOUTH LACKING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORTS.  
ALL THESE YOUNGSTERS, YOU ARE TRYING TO BRING UP WITH THE LATEST SCIENTIFIC METHODS, WILL BE ABLE TO DEFEND THIS FATHERLAND ONLY IF THEY ARE COMPLETELY DEVELOPED BOTH PHYSICALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY. AND THEN THEY WILL PROVE THE ETERNAL POWER OF THIS TURKISH NATION AGAINST THEIR EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS NOT ONLY IN THE SCIENTIFIC FIELD BUT IN ALL KINDS OF SPORTS COMPETITIONS AS WELL.   
I SINCERELY CONGRATULATE YOU ON YOUR ONGOING EFFORT AND EXPECT TO HEAR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE FUTURE FROM YOU.’’
ATATÜRK - 1915
Following the collapse of Ottoman Empire that dominated the three continents for more than six hundred years, the imperialist powers of Europe immediately descended on the country and tried to share what was left. At this specific moment of history, a true leader named Mustafa Kemal stepped forward and liberated the nation with his unique personality, brilliant military and political intelligence and unlimited foresight. Right after the realisation of this miracle, he founded the ‘Democratic Turkish Republic’ and revolutionized the every aspect of Turkish like with modern values.
When the Great Leader, Atatürk, was realizing the impossible, the Beşiktaş Club stood behing him without reservation.
During the War of Independence, most of the sportsmen whom Atatürk assigned with crucial and difficult tasks had always come from the courageous individuals of the Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club. While FUAT BALKAN and MEHMET ALİ FETGERİ were engaged in a guerilla war against the Greeks with the militia forces they established in Western Thrace, hundreds of other Black and White players such as AHMET FETGERİ, DANİŞ KARABELEN, HÜSEYİN BEREKET, CAMİ BAYKURT and SIRIKÇI İZZET assumed important roles in secret arms shipment from Istanbul to Anatolia. These extremely self-sacrificing tasks were being carried out with the utmost secrecy under the auspieces Atatürk and his two comrades in arms, Fevzi Çakmak and İsmet İnönü.
The martyrdom of 8 players from Beşiktaş’s first Football Team in Gallipoli and on the Caucasus fronts and our hockey player Refik’s losing half of his body with a mortar shot at the Battle of Sakarya are just the two of many examples that reinforce their love and loyalty towards Mustafa Kemal Pasha.
For these reasons, the Beşiktaş Club has always felt proud at being the first sports’ community that our Great Leader embraced with all his heart.
 
The close cooperation between ATATÜRK and BEŞİKTAŞ goes back to 1915. During the years between 1915 and 1920, Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk], who lived near the Beşiktaş Club on Akaretler Sport Street, entrusted the care for his mother and sister to Black and White personnel without any hesitation when absent on duty. This attachment based on mutual trust and love is further strengthened with the active and documented participation of Beşiktaş’s players in Great Leader’s secret organization that paved the way for liberation. 
Encouraged by some outspoken representatives of minority communities, a number of Greek officers looted the Beşiktaş Club House.
In 1918, the ‘‘First World War’’ ended and the Allies occupied İstanbul on 13 November 1918, in accordance with the provisions of Mudros Armistice. In those days, since its Club House was closed by the occupying forces, Beşiktaş was operating from a small church located in today’s central market. At that time, the Black and Whites experienced an extremely unfortunate event and lost all of its trophies, medals, pennants and plates it won during the years between 1903 and 1918 including valuable documents and photographs. All of the photographs taken by Fuat Balkan which show Atatürk’s visits to the Club also perished in the mayhem.
As stated above, Atatürk’s relationship with Beşiktaş started before he was assigned to the command post of Thunderbolt Army, when he was known to world as the ‘‘Defender of Dardanelles’’.
The MARBLE INSCRIPTION, which proves this fact, is placed on the entrance of his house no.76 in Akaretler Hill and reads as follow:   
‘‘BRIGADIER GENERAL ATATÜRK, WHO SAVED AND LIBERATED ISTANBUL FROM THE OCCUPYING FORCES IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR AS THE ‘DEFENDER OF DARDANELLES’AND COMMANDER OF SARİ BAİR HAD LIVED HERE AS A TENANT…’’
Since the ‘‘War of Dardanelles’’ took place between 19 February and 1 December 1915, this document proves that the dialogue between ATATÜRK- BEŞİKTAŞ took place in 1915.
In summary, it is hereby documented that BEŞİKTAŞ was the first love and favourite club of our Great Leader, Atatürk.
One of founders of Beşiktaş, the fencer FUAT BALKAN was a soldier sportsman. Atatürk maintained close relations with him. During the days of national struggle, following his heroism in Macedonia and Western Thrace, he successfully brought the ‘THREE MILITIA BATTALION’ (ÜÇ MİLİS TABURU) to Turkey from Drama on 17 September 1917. The ‘General Command’ did not know how to congratulate him on this achievement which provided fresh soldiers to the depleted Turkish Army.
Besides being a true sportsman, Mr. Fuat Balkan was the most successful guerrilla fighter of our times. Between 1908 and 1923 he served in the various crucial secret missions of his country. After having been assigned to Macedonia during Ottoman times, the TBMM sent him to Greece to prevent Greek forces from entering Turkey by creating disturbances inside their own country. Therefore, he was authorized with the unlimited powers. Following the execution of Treaty of Lausanne, Field Marshal Fevzi Çakmak, with the approval by Atatürk, sent Fuat Balkan a certificate of appreciation thanking him and his comrades-in-arms for their contributions to the fatherland. He received numerous citations of the similar kind throughout his life.
Before taking the command post at the Thunderbolt Army, one day in early1916, MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK, came down to Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club’s training field (today’s plaza area) through the back door of his rented house and delivered this short speech to Mr. Ahmet Fetgeri and Fuat Balkan:
‘‘GENTLEMEN,
I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING YOUR AND YOUR PLAYERS’ SERIOUS WORK, AGILITY AND COMPETENCY WITH GREAT ATTENTION AND PLEASURE FOR QUITE SOME TIME. 
REGARDLESS OF HOW A PERSON IS DEVELOPED INTELLECTUALLY, IF HIS PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IS INSUFFICIENT, HE CANNOT CARRY THAT ADVANCED MIND FORWARD AS IN THE CASE OF AN INEFFECTIVE DEFENSE OF FATHERLAND BY A YOUTH LACKING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORTS.  
ALL THESE YOUNGSTERS, YOU ARE TRYING TO BRING UP WITH THE LATEST SCIENTIFIC METHODS, WILL BE ABLE TO DEFEND THIS FATHERLAND ONLY IF THEY ARE COMPLETELY DEVELOPED BOTH PHYSICALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY. AND THEN THEY WILL PROVE THE ETERNAL POWER OF THIS TURKISH NATION AGAINST THEIR EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS NOT ONLY IN THE SCIENTIFIC FIELD BUT IN ALL KINDS OF SPORTS COMPETITIONS AS WELL.   
I SINCERELY CONGRATULATE YOU ON YOUR ONGOING EFFORT AND EXPECT TO HEAR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE FUTURE FROM YOU.’’
This short speech, a copy of which I obtained from writer AHMET FETGERİ AŞENİ, who was also one of the founders of Beşiktaş Club and the first president of Turkish Wrestling Federation, during my interview on ‘Beşiktaş’s History’ in 1961, has become the living testament of Atatürk’s legacy to Black and White community.
Source: ‘‘One Hundred Years of Beşiktaş in Turkish Sports’’ by Vala Somalı