He ran away from home when he was 14 years old to join Bakırköy Cavalry Junior Officer School. He joined the
Balkan War and was wounded on the Bulgarian front. As a result, he was awarded with honours and seniority allowance. Later he joined the
Ottoman Special Organization organized by Eşref Kuşçubaşı and participated in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during
World War I. He was again wounded and retired to his village. He later founded Kuvâ-yi Seyyâre which was the only organized military force in
Anatolia during 1919–1920 period between the
Armistice of Mudros and the
Treaty of Sèvres. He coordinated his military operations with
Ali Fuat Pasha in
Ankara and harassed the invading Greek armies with his fast cavalry. He was instrumental in putting down various rebellions against the authority of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Eventually Çerkes Ethem had a disagreement with İnönü, refusing to join his forces with the regular army established under the command of İnönü, as he would be a regular soldier as well. Ethem claimed that his soldiers made up of Circassians and mountain clans would never obey anyone other than him, and so he should be given the rank of commander in the army. Although
Mustafa Kemal had a positive view of Ethem,
Ismet Pasha did not like him, and so he was not taken seriously, and the newly reconstituted Turkish Army had to put down the situation whilst also fighting the Greeks at
First Battle of İnönü. While Ethem's forces were clashing with Greeks, the Turkish army under the command of İnönü arrived, and Ethem, stuck between two hostile armies, made a non-aggression pact with the Greeks and fled Anatolia. İnönü later claimed that Ethem subsequently cooperated with the Greek army (a claim which has been disputed and rejected by most historians). This resulted in Ethem's citizenship getting revoked on the grounds of treason and his being declared
persona non grata by the TBMM, amongst
many others. From Greece, he went to Jordan and settled there.
Cooperation with Atatürk's forces against the Allied powers Çerkes Ethem was an ally of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who appreciated him for his successful fight against invading Allied armies and bandits in different regions of Turkey. Atatürk awarded Ethem the Circassian with the title of
Millî Kahraman (National Hero).
Kuva-yi Seyyare The Kuvâ-yi Seyyâre was a force of
Islamic socialist Circassian and
Abkhazian volunteers, led by Ethem the Circassian against the allied invasion forces during the
Turkish War of Independence. The group saw themselves as a force to fight against "those who caused disturbance to the greater good of
Anatolia". The forces were a branch of the
Kuva-yi Milliye, and played a big role in significantly slowing down the Greek army during the
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). ==Death and burial==