Kemal Pasha "The terrible turk" Tel Aviv's first five years were a period of intensive growth and development, which abruptly ended with the outbreak of World War I. The country was under Ottoman rule and the Turks viewed the new Jewish enterprise with suspicion, treating it as a stronghold of Jewish resistance. Together with Yafo's Muslim rulers, the Turks sought to bring the new Jewish city to an end. But the worst was yet to come. As the British forces advanced, the Turkish authorities decided to expel the Jewish residents of Tel Aviv-Yafo, under the pretext that the British were planning to invade the country from the beach. The expulsion order, issued on behalf of Kemal Pasha (Kemal Ataturk), head of the Turkish army, came into force in March 1917. Meir Dizengoff, later mayor of Tel Aviv, was appointed head of the migration committee. Overnight Tel Aviv became a ghost town. The students of Gymnasium Herzliya were the last to leave. They were housed at the Zichron Ya'acov youth village. Eight months later, on November 19, 1917, following the British occupation of the country, the deportees were at last allowed to return home.  Mayor Dizengoff's parking tickets In June 1921, the British Mandate granted Tel Aviv independence, and it ceased to be part of the Arab town of Yafo. Independence was granted following intensive efforts by leaders of the Jewish community, mainly Meir Dizengoff, who was soon to become Tel Aviv's first mayor. Anti-Jewish riots mounted by the Arab population in 1921 played a crucial role in bringing about the decision. As soon as permission was given, the establishment of the first municipal institutions got under way, Tel Aviv's police force getting top priority. The first 25 policemen were recruited from among demobilized soldiers from World War I. The police force certainly took its job seriously and the mayor himself got two parking tickets. Apparently the mayor used to take a shortcut on his way to work, riding his horse through a public garden. Chaim Halperin, head of the Tel Aviv police force, advised the mayor about his parking tickets, adding the following admonition: "I am sending you the second parking ticket and would be grateful to receive your written explanation thereof. I am of the opinion that the legislator should himself set an example."