Turkish War of Independence

Front page of İkdam on 4 November 1918, after the Three Pashas fled the Ottoman Empire following World War I

In the summer months of 1918, the leaders of the Central Powers realized that World War I was lost, including the Ottomans'. Almost simultaneously in late September and early October the Palestinian Front and then the Macedonian Front collapsed. On the Palestine Front, Ottoman armies were soundly defeated by the British. In the Balkans, the sudden decision by Bulgaria to sign an armistice cut communications from Constantinople (İstanbul) to Vienna and Berlin, and opened the undefended Ottoman capital to attack.

With the major fronts crumbling, Prime Minister Talât Pasha intended to sign an armistice, and resigned on 8 October 1918 so that a new government would receive less harsh armistice terms. Ahmed İzzet (Furgaç) Pasha formed a caretaker government and signed the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, ending World War I for the Ottoman Empire.[61] On 1 November, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)—which governed the Ottoman Empire as a one-party state since 1913—held its last congress, where it was decided the party would be dissolved. Talât, Enver Pasha, Cemal Pasha, and four other high ranking Unionists escaped the Ottoman Empire on a German torpedo boat later that night.

On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I, bringing hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I to an end. The Ottoman Army was to demobilize, its navy handed to the Allies, and occupied territory in the Caucasus and Persia to be evacuated. However Article VII granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus; and the right to occupy "in case of disorder" any territory if there were a threat to security, especially the six eastern vilayets.[62][63] The House of Osman escaped the fates of the Hohenzollerns, Habsburgs, and Romanovs to continue ruling their empire, though at the cost of its remaining sovereignty.

On 13 November 1918, a French brigade entered the city to begin a de facto occupation of the Ottoman capital of Constantinople and its immediate dependencies. This was followed by a fleet consisting of British, French, Italian and Greek ships deploying soldiers on the ground the next day, totaling 50,000 troops in Constantinople.[64] The Allied Powers stated that the occupation was temporary and its purpose was to protect the monarchy, the Caliphate and the minorities. Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe—the British signatory of the Mudros Armistice—stated the Triple Entente's public position that they had no intention to dismantle the Ottoman government or place it under military occupation by "occupying Constantinople".[65] However, dismantling the Ottoman government and partitioning the Ottoman Empire among the Allied nations had been an objective of the Entente since the start of WWI.[66]

Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) Pasha in 1918, then an Ottoman army general

A wave of seizures took place in the rest of the country in the following months by the Allies. On 14 November, joint Franco-Greek troops occupied the town of Uzunköprü in Eastern Thrace as well as the railway axis until the train station of Hadımköy near Çatalca on the outskirts of Constantinople. On 1 December, British troops based in Syria occupied Kilis, Maraş, Urfa and Birecik. Beginning in December, French troops began successive seizures of Ottoman territory in Cilicia, including the towns of Antakya, Mersin, Tarsus, Ceyhan, Adana, Osmaniye, and İslâhiye[67] while French forces embarked by gunboats and sent troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli commanding Turkey's coal mining region.

When the Allies continued occupying areas in the Ottoman Empire despite the armistice, Ottoman commanders began to refuse demobilization and prepare for renewed conflict. The British forces demanded that Turkish troops under the command of Ali İhsan (Sabis) Pasha evacuate Mosul, claiming that civilian Christians in Mosul and Zaho were killed en masse. İhsan Pasha refused this request, but British soldiers illegally entered Mosul anyway without encountering any resistance.

The British similarly asked Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) Pasha to turn over the port of Alexandretta (İskenderun), which he reluctantly did, though he distributed weapons to the population to prevent them from falling into the hands of Allied forces. Some of these weapons were smuggled to the east by members of the Special Organization, a paramilitary group controlled by the CUP, to be used in case resistance was necessary in Anatolia. Many Ottoman officials participated in efforts to conceal from the occupying authorities details of the burgeoning independence movement spreading throughout Anatolia. Munitions initially seized by the Allies were secretly smuggled out of Constantinople into Central Anatolia, along with Ottoman officers keen to resist any division of Ottoman territories. These operations were conducted through the secret Karakol Association in order to thwart Allied demands through passive and active resistance.

Other commanders began refusing orders from the Ottoman government and the Allied powers. After Mustafa Kemal Pasha returned to Constantinople, Ali Fuat (Cebesoy) Pasha brought XX Corps under his command. He marched first to Konya and then to Ankara to organise resistance groups, such as the Circassian çetes he assembled with guerilla leader Çerkes Ethem. Meanwhile, Kazım Karabekir Pasha refused to surrender his powerful four division strong XV Corps in Erzurum.

Ahmed İzzet Pasha resigned following the occupation of Constantinople, and Sultan Mehmed VI invited the pro-Palace politician Ahmed Tevfik (Okday) Pasha to form a government. The Ottoman Parliament, still dominated by Unionists elected back in 1914, voted to support an anti-Unionist cabinet so an election would not be called which they would for sure lose. Sultan Mehmed VI dissolved the Chamber of Deputies on 21 December anyway, promising elections for the next year.

A general amnesty was soon issued, allowing the exiled and imprisoned dissidents persecuted by the CUP to return to Constantinople. Soon Okday Pasha was replaced by Damat Ferid Pasha, leader of the reconstituted Freedom and Accord Party, whose members quickly set out to purge the Unionists from the Ottoman government. The change in government was especially problematic from the military's perspective, most being members of the liquidated committee. Years of corruption, unconstitutional acts, war profiteering, and enrichment from ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Unionists soon became basis of war crimes trials and court martial trials held in Constantinople. Talât Pasha, Enver Pasha, Cemal Pasha, and Dr. Nazım would be sentenced to death, though in absentia.

On 19 January 1919, the Paris Peace Conference was first held, at which Allied nations set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers, including the Ottoman Empire.[68] As a special body of the Paris Conference, "The Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey", was established to pursue the secret treaties they had signed between 1915 and 1917.[69] Italy sought control over the southern part of Anatolia under the Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne. France expected to exercise control over Hatay, Lebanon, Syria, and a portion of southeastern Anatolia based on the Sykes–Picot Agreement.

Greece expected to annex Ottoman land due to the Megali Idea, territorial gains promised by British prime minister David Lloyd George to Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos if Greece entered the war on the Allied side.[70] These included parts of Eastern Thrace, the islands of Imbros (Gökçeada), Tenedos (Bozcaada), and parts of Western Anatolia around the city of Smyrna (İzmir), all of which had large Greek populations. Greece also wanted to incorporate Constantinople, but Entente powers did not give permission. Damat Ferid Pasha also went to Paris on behalf of the Ottoman Empire hoping to minimize territorial losses but returned empty handed.

At the Paris Peace Conference, competing claims over Western Anatolia by Greek and Italian delegations led Greece to land the flagship of the Greek Navy at Smyrna, resulting in the Italian delegation walking out of the peace talks. On 30 April, Italy responded to the possible idea of Greek incorporation of Western Anatolia by also sending a warship to Smyrna as a show of force against the Greek campaign. A large Italian force also landed in Antalya. Faced with Italian annexation of parts of Asia Minor with a significant ethnic Greek population, Venizelos secured Allied permission for Greek troops to land in Smyrna, ostensibly in order to protect the civilian population from turmoil. Venizelos's rhetoric was more directed against the Ottoman CUP regime than the Turks, an attitude not always shared in the Greek military: "Greece is not making war against Islam, but against the anachronistic Ottoman Government, and its corrupt, ignominious, and bloody administration, with a view to the expelling it from those territories where the majority of the population consists of Greeks."[71] It was decided by the Triple Entente that Greece would control a zone around Smyrna and Ayvalık in western Asia Minor.

Greek troops marching on İzmir's coastal street, May 1919.

Greek troops began landing in Smyrna on 15 May 1919 in what was intended as an occupation of the Aydin Vilayet but soon became a military campaign. The occupation ceremony quickly turned out of control due to nationalist fervor. The nationalist Hasan Tahsin fired the "first bullet"[note 4] at the Greek standard bearer at the head of the troops, Miralay Fethi Bey was murdered by bayonet for refusing to shout "Zito Venizelos" (meaning "long live Venizelos"), and unarmed Turkish soldiers and 300–400 civilians were killed or wounded in the city's principal casern.

Greek troops moved from Smyrna outwards to towns on the Karaburun peninsula; to Selçuk, situated a hundred kilometres south of Smyrna at a key location that commands the fertile Küçük Menderes River valley; and to Menemen towards the north. In the countryside, Muslims began to organize themselves into irregular guerilla groups known as Kuva-yi Milliye (national forces), which were soon joined by deserting Ottoman soldiers. Most Kuva-yi Milliye bands were between 50 and 200 people strong and were led by known members of the Special Organization. The Greek troops based in cosmopolitan Smyrna soon found themselves conducting counterinsurgency operations in a hostile, dominantly Muslim hinterland. Groups of Ottoman Greeks also formed Greek nationalist militias and cooperated with the Greek Army to combat Kuva-yi Milliye within Ottoman borders.

With Anatolia in practical anarchy, the Ottoman army being only questionably loyal, and the Greek landing at Smyrna especially restarting ethnic conflict in the Aydin region, Sultan Mehmed VI established the military inspectorate system to avert total collapse of the state. Encouraged by Karabekir and Edmund Allenby, he assigned[72] Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) Pasha as the inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate to restore order to Ottoman military units and to improve internal security on 30 April 1919.[73] Mustafa Kemal was a well known, well respected, and well connected army commander, with much prestige gained from his status as the "Hero of Anafartalar"—for his role in the Gallipoli Campaign—and his title of "Honorary Aide-de-camp to His Majesty Sultan" (gained in the last months of WWI). While he was a member of the CUP, he frequently clashed with the Central Committee during war and was therefore sidelined to the periphery of power. After the armistice, Kemal was also considered for the War Ministry in the several cabinet reshuffles. His assignment to the Ninth Army was meant to accommodate nationalists within the military to keep them loyal to the government.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha had earlier declined to become the leader of the Sixth Army headquartered in Nusaybin.[74] But according to Lord Kinross, through manipulation and the help of friends and sympathizers, he became the inspector of virtually all of the Ottoman forces in Anatolia, tasked with overseeing the disbanding process of the remaining Ottoman forces.[75] Mustafa Kemal had an abundance of connections and personal friends concentrated in the post-armistice Ottoman War Ministry, a powerful tool that would help him accomplish his secret goal: enabling Turkish resistance against the Allied powers and a cooperative Ottoman government.

Before departing to Samsun on the remote Black Sea coast, Mustafa Kemal Pasha promised his loyalty to the Palace and Damat Ferid Pasha. He and his carefully selected staff left Constantinople aboard the old steamer SS Bandırma on the evening of 16 May 1919.[76]

Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his colleagues stepped ashore in Samsun on 19 May[72] and set up their first quarters in the Mintika Palace Hotel. British troops were present[77], and Kemal initially maintained cordial contact.[78] He had assured Damat Ferid Pasha about the army's loyalty towards the new government in Constantinople.[79] Kemal made the people of Samsun aware of the Greek and Italian landings, staged discreet mass meetings, made fast connections via telegraph with the army units in Anatolia, and began to form links with various nationalist groups. He sent telegrams of protest to foreign embassies and the War Ministry about British reinforcements in the area and about British aid to Greek brigand gangs. After a week in Samsun, Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his staff moved to Havza. It was there that Kemal Pasha first showed the flag of the resistance.[80] 23 May 1919 was the date of the Sultanahmet Square demonstrations, the largest act of civil disobedience in Turkish history at that point. The next day Hüseyin Rauf (Orbay), who had become an important military commander, left Constantinople to join the burgeoning Turkish Nationalist Movement.[80]

Mustafa Kemal Pasha wrote in his memoir that he needed nationwide support to justify armed resistance against the Allied occupation. His credentials and the importance of his position were not enough to inspire everyone. While officially occupied with the disarming of the army, he met with various contacts in order to build his movement's momentum. He met with Rauf, Karabekir Pasha, Ali Fuat (Cebesoy) Pasha, and Refet (Bele) and issued the Amasya Circular (22 June 1919). Ottoman provincial authorities were notified via telegraph that the unity and independence of the nation was at risk, and that the Ottoman government in Constantinople was compromised. To remedy this, a congress was to take place in Erzurum between delegates of the six eastern Vilayets to decide on a response, and another congress would take place in Sivas where every Vilayet should send delegates.

On 23 June, High Commissioner Admiral Calthorpe, realising the significance of Mustafa Kemal's discreet activities in Anatolia, sent a report about Mustafa Kemal to the Foreign Office. His remarks were downplayed by George Kidson of the Eastern Department. Captain Hurst of the British occupation force in Samsun warned Admiral Calthorpe one more time, but Hurst's units were replaced with the Brigade of Gurkhas. When the British landed in Alexandretta, Admiral Calthorpe resigned on the basis that this was against the armistice that he had signed and was assigned to another position on 5 August 1919.[81] The movement of British units alarmed the population of the region and convinced them that Mustafa Kemal was right.

On 2 July, Mustafa Kemal Pasha received a telegram from the Sultan, asking him to cease his activities in Anatolia and return to the capital. Kemal was in Erzincan and did not want to return to Constantinople, concerned that the foreign authorities might have designs for him beyond the Sultan's plans. He felt the best course for him was to declare a two-month leave of absence. While in Erzincan, the War Ministry discharged Mustafa Kemal from the army for insubordination, and ordered Kazım Karabekir Pasha to arrest Kemal, an order which Kazım Karabekir refused.

Borders and plebiscites of the National Pact outlined in the Erzurum Congress

The Erzurum Congress was held in July as a meeting of delegates from six Eastern Anatolian provinces. They drafted the National Pact (Misak-ı Millî), which set out key decisions of Turkish national self-determination per Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, the security of Constantinople, and the abolition of the Ottomancapitulations. They decided that the status of the regions within the front lines of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by Turkish majorities upon the signing of the Armistice of Mudros as well as the Eastern Vilayets were nonnegotiable in the Paris Peace Conference, though the idea of an American mandate was not yet ruled out. If the government in Constantinople was not able to attain this, they insisted a provisional government should be promulgated to defend Turkish sovereignty. The Committee of Representation was established as a provisional executive body based in Anatolia, with Mustafa Kemal as its chairman.

Following the congress, the Committee of Representation relocated to Sivas. As announced in the Amasya Circular, a new congress was held there ins September with delegates from all Ottoman provinces. The Sivas Congress united the various regional resistance organizations, known as Defence of National Rights Associations, into a united political organisation: Association of the Defence of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia (ADNRAR), with Mustafa Kemal as its chairman. A plot by a loyalist Ottoman governor to arrest Mustafa Kemal lead to the cutting of all ties with the Ottoman government until new elections were held in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. On 16 October 1919, Prime Minister Ali Rıza Pasha sent Navy Minister Salih Hulusi (Kezrak) Pasha to negotiate with the nationalists. Hulusi Pasha and Mustafa Kemal met in Amasya. Mustafa Kemal's goal was to convince the Ottoman government to join a national resistance. They agreed in the Amasya Protocol that the Ottoman Parliament would call for elections and meet outside of Constantinople to pass resolutions made in the Sivas Congress, including the National Pact.

Mustafa Kemal and his colleagues in Erzurum (5 July 1919)

In December 1919, elections were held for the Ottoman parliament that were boycotted by Ottoman Greeks, Ottoman Armenians and the Freedom and Accord Party, resulting in the domination of a pro–ADNRAR group called Felâh-ı Vatan. Though Mustafa Kemal was elected an MP from Erzurum, he expected the Allies neither to accept the Harbord report nor to respect his parliamentary immunity if he went to the Ottoman capital, hence he remained in Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal moved the Representative Committee's capital from Sivas to Ankara so that he could keep in touch with as many deputies as possible as they traveled to Constantinople to attend the parliament. He also started a newspaper on 10 January 2020, the Hakimiyet-i Milliye (National Sovereignty), to speak for his movement both in Turkey and the outside world.

Though Ali Rıza Pasha called the elections as per the Amasya Protocol to keep unity between the Constantinople and Ankara governments, he was too hasty in thinking that his parliament could bring him legitimacy. The Ottoman parliament was under the shadow of the British battalion stationed at Constantinople and any decisions by the parliament had to have the signatures of both Ali Rıza Pasha and the commanding British Officer. Ali Rıza Pasha and his government had become the voice of the Allies. The only laws that passed were those acceptable to, or specifically ordered by the British.

A part from a newspaper published on 18 March 1920 (The Gray River Argus, New Zealand)

Before the Amasya Circular (22 June 1919), Mustafa Kemal met with a Bolshevik delegation headed by Colonel Semyon Budyonny. The Bolsheviks wanted to annex the parts of the Caucasus, including the Democratic Republic of Armenia, which were formerly part of Tsarist Russia. They also saw a Turkish Republic as a buffer state or possibly a communist ally. Mustafa Kemal's official response was "Such questions had to be postponed until Turkish independence was achieved." Having this support was important for the national movement.[82]

The first objective was the securing of arms from abroad. They obtained these primarily from Soviet Russia and from Italy and France. These arms—especially the Soviet weapons—allowed the Turks to organise an effective army. The Treaties of Moscow and Kars (1921) arranged the border between Turkey and the Soviet-controlled Transcaucasian republics, while Russia itself was in a state of disarray. and preparing to establish the Soviet Union. In particular Nakhchivan and Batumi were ceded to the future USSR. In return the nationalists received support and gold. For the promised resources, the nationalists had to wait until the Battle of Sakarya (August–September 1921).

By providing financial and war materiel aid, the Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin aimed to heat up the war between the Allies and the Turkish nationalists in order to prevent the participation of more Allied troops in the Russian Civil War.[83] At the same time the Bolsheviks attempted to export communist ideologies to Anatolia and moreover supported individuals (for example: Mustafa Suphi and Ethem Nejat) who were pro-communism.[83]

According to Soviet documents, Soviet financial and war material support between 1920 and 1922 amounted to: 39,000 rifles, 327 machine guns, 54 cannon, 63 million rifle bullets, 147,000 shells, 2 patrol boats, 200.6 kg of gold ingots and 10.7[84] million Turkish lira (which accounted for a twentieth of the Turkish budget during the war).[84] Additionally the Soviets gave the Turkish nationalists 100,000 gold rubles to help build an orphanage and 20,000 lira to obtain printing house equipment and cinema equipment.[85]

Fire caused by the British bombardment in Mudanya (6 July 1920)

On 12 January 1920, the last session of the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies met in the capital. First the Sultan's speech was presented, and then a telegram from Mustafa Kemal, manifesting the claim that the rightful government of Turkey was in Ankara in the name of the Committee of Representation.

The Felâh-ı Vatan worked to acknowledge the National Pact as drawn up in the Erzurum Congress and the Sivas Congress. The British began to sense that the elected Ottoman government was becoming less cooperative with the Allies and independently minded. The Ottoman government was not doing all that it could to suppress the nationalists.

On 28 January the deputies secretly met to pass the National Pact. Proposals were also made to elect Mustafa Kemal president of the Chamber, however this was deferred in the certain knowledge that the British would prorogue the Chamber. Chamber of Deputies would be forcefully dissolved for passing the National Pact anyway. This pact adopted six principles, which called for self-determination, the security of Constantinople, and the opening of the Straits, also the abolition of the capitulations. In effect the National Pact solidified nationalist notions, which were in conflict with the Allied plans.

The National Movement—which persuaded the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies to declare the "National Pact" against the occupying Allies–prompted the British government to take action. To put an end to Turkish Nationalist hopes, the British decided to systematically bring Turkey under their control. The plan was to dismantle Turkish Government organisations, beginning in Istanbul and moving deep into Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal's National Movement was seen as the main problem. The Foreign Office drew up a similar plan previously used to co-opt the Arab Revolt. This time however, resources were channeled to warlords like Ahmet Anzavur. Anatolia was to be put under control of Christian governments. This policy aimed to break down authority in Anatolia by separating the Sultan, its government, and pitting Christians (Greece and Republic of Armenia, Armenians of Cilicia) against Muslims.

Allied occupation of Constantinople

On the night of 15 March, British troops began to occupy key buildings and arrest Turkish nationalists. At the military music school there was resistance. At least ten students died but the official death toll is unknown. The British arrested the leadership of Kemal's Turkish National Movement and many ex-Unionists. Those who were arrested were shipped to Malta, and were known as the Malta Exiles.

Mustafa Kemal was ready for this move. He warned all the nationalist organisations that there would be misleading declarations from the capital. He warned that the only way to stop the British was to organise protests. He said "Today the Turkish nation is called to defend its capacity for civilization, its right to life and independence – its entire future". Mustafa Kemal was extensively familiar with the Arab Revolt and British involvement. He managed to stay one step ahead of the British Foreign Office. This—as well as his other abilities—gave Mustafa Kemal considerable authority among the revolutionaries.

On 18 March, the Chamber of Deputies declared that it was unacceptable to arrest five of its members, and dissolved itself. Mehmed VI confirmed this and declared the end of the Second Constitutional Monarchy and a return to absolutism. This show of force by the British had left the Sultan as a puppet and sole political authority of the Empire. But the Sultan depended on British power to keep what was left of the empire. However this also gave Mustafa Kemal legitimacy to be de facto leader of national resistance against the Allied Powers.

With the lower elected Chamber of Deputies shuttered, the Constitution terminated, and the capital occupied; the Sultan, his cabinet, and the appointed Senate were all that was left of the Ottoman government.

The strong measures taken against the nationalists by the Ottoman government created a distinct new phase of the conflict. Mustafa Kemal sent a note to the governors and force commanders, asking them to conduct elections to provide delegates for a Grand National Assembly, which would convene in Ankara. Mustafa Kemal appealed to the Islamic world, asking for help to make sure that everyone knew he was still fighting in the name of the sultan who was also the caliph. He stated he wanted to free the caliph from the Allies. Plans were made to organise a new government and parliament in Ankara, and then ask the sultan to accept its authority.

Opening of the Grand National Assembly

A flood of supporters moved to Ankara just ahead of the Allied dragnets. Included among them were Halide Edip and Abdülhak Adnan (Adıvar), Mustafa İsmet (İnönü) Pasha, Mustafa Fevzi (Çakmak) Pasha,[86] many of Kemal's allies in the Ministry of War, and Celalettin Arif, the president of the now closed Ottoman Chamber of Deputies. Celaleddin Arif's desertion of the capital was of great significance, as he declared that the Ottoman Parliament had been dissolved illegally. The armistice did not give Allies the power to dissolve the Ottoman Parliament and the Constitution had also removed the Sultan's power to do so, to prevent what Abdul Hamid II did in 1878 and 1909.

Some 100 members of the Ottoman Parliament were able to escape the Allied roundup and joined 190 deputies elected around the country by the national resistance group. In March 1920, Turkish revolutionaries announced the establishment of a new parliament in Ankara known as the Grand National Assembly (GNA). The GNA assumed full governmental powers. On 23 April, the new Assembly gathered for the first time, making Mustafa Kemal its first Speaker and Prime Minister[87] and İsmet Pasha, Chief of the General Staff. The parliament was dominated by the ADNRAR. This was not an unprecedented action in Ottoman politics, only 11 years earlier, Talât Pasha established a counter parliament in Aya Stefanos (Yeşilköy) when reactionaries revolted in Constantinople and took control of the government in the 31 March Incident. The revolt was crushed and resulted in the deposition of Abdul Hamid II.

Hoping to undermine the National Movement, Mehmed VI passed a fatwa (legal opinion) to qualify the Turkish revolutionaries as infidels, calling for the death of its leaders.[88] The fatwa stated that true believers should not go along with the nationalist (rebels) movement. At the same time, the müfti of Ankara Rifat Börekçi in defence of the nationalist movement, issued a counteracting fatwa declaring that the capital was under the control of the Entente and the Ferid Pasha government.[89] In this text, the nationalist movement's goal was stated as freeing the sultanate and the caliphate from its enemies. In reaction to the desertion of several prominent figures to the Nationalist Movement, Ferid Pasha ordered Halide Edip, Ali Fuat and Mustafa Kemal to be sentenced to death in absentia for treason.[90]

Anatolia had many competing forces on its soil: British battalions, Ahmet Anzavur forces, the Sultan's army, and Kuva-yi Milliye. The Sultan raised 4,000 soldiers and Kuva-i İnzibatiye (Caliphate Army) to resist against the nationalists. Then using money from the Allies, he raised another army, a force about 2,000 strong from non-Muslim inhabitants which were initially deployed in İznik. The Sultan's government sent forces under the name of the caliphate army to the revolutionaries and aroused counterrevolutionary sympathy.[91]

The British being skeptical of how formidable these insurgents were, decided to use irregular power to counteract this rebellion. The nationalist forces were distributed all around Turkey, so many small units were dispatched to face them. In İzmit there were two battalions of the British army. Their commanders were living on the Ottoman warship Yavuz. These units were to be used to rout the partisans under the command of Ali Fuat Cebesoy and Refet Bele.

Execution of a Kemalist by the British forces in İzmit. (1920)

On 13 April 1920, the first conflict occurred at Düzce as a direct consequence of the fatwa. On 18 April 1920, the Düzce conflict was extended to Bolu; on 20 April 1920, it extended to Gerede. The movement engulfed northwestern Anatolia for about a month. The Ottoman government had accorded semi-official status to the "Kuva-i İnzibatiye" and Ahmet Anzavur held an important role in the uprising. Both sides faced each other in a pitched battle near İzmit on 14 June. Ahmet Anzavur's forces and British units outnumbered the militias. Yet under heavy attack some of the Kuva-i İnzibatiye deserted and joined the opposing ranks. This revealed the Sultan did not have the unwavering support of his men. Meanwhile, the rest of these forces withdrew behind the British lines which held their position.

The clash outside İzmit brought serious consequences. The British forces opened fire on the nationalists and bombed them from the air. This bombing forced a retreat but there was a panic in Constantinople. The British commander—General George Milne—asked for reinforcements. This led to a study to determine what would be required to defeat the Turkish nationalists. The report—signed by Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch—concluded that 27 divisions would be sufficient, but the British army did not have 27 divisions to spare. Also, a deployment of this size could have disastrous political consequences back home. World War I had just ended, and the British public would not support another lengthy and costly expedition.

The British accepted the fact that a nationalist movement could not be faced without deployment of consistent and well-trained forces. On 25 June, the forces originating from Kuva-i İnzibatiye were dismantled under British supervision. The official stance was that there was no use for them. The British realised that the best option to overcome these Turkish nationalists was to use a force that was battle-tested and fierce enough to fight the Turks on their own soil. The British had to look no further than Turkey's neighbor: Greece.

Borders of the Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) which was annulled and replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923

Venizelos, pessimistic of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Anatolia, requested to the Allies that a peace treaty be drawn up with the idea that fighting would stop. Mehmed VI affirmed Ferid Pasha's signature of the subsequent treaty in Sèvres in August 1920. It confirmed the Arab Vilayets of the empire would be given to Britain and France in the form of Mandates by the League of Nations, while Anatolia would be partitioned between Greece, Italy, French mandatory Syria, British mandatory Iraq, Armenia, and Georgia. Armenia would become an American League of Nations Mandate. The old capital of Istanbul as well as the Dardanelles would be under international League control, while the Ottoman Empire would become a rump state based in Northern Anatolia.

However the treaty would never come into effect. While the Allies signed the treaty, the Ottoman government and Greece never ratified it. Though Ferid Pasha signed the treaty, the Ottoman Senate, the upper house with seats appointed by the Sultan, refused to ratify the treaty, demonstrating the clout of Kemal's movement in the Ottoman government. Greece disagreed on the borders drawn.

Kemal's GNA Government responded to the Treaty of Sèvres by promulgating a new constitution in January 1921. The resulting constitution consecrated the principle of popular sovereignty; authority not deriving from the unelected Sultan, but from the Turkish people who elect governments representative of their interests. This document became the legal basis for the war of independence by the GNA, as the Sultan's signature of the Treaty of Sèvres would be unconstitutional as his position was not elected. While the constitution did not specify a future role of the Sultan, the document gave Kemal ever more legitimacy in the eyes of Turks for justified resistance against the Ottoman Government.

Turkish nationalist militias in Cilicia

The French wanted to take control of Syria. With pressure against the French, Cilicia would be easily left to the nationalists. The Taurus Mountains were critical to the Ankara government. The initial landing were by the French Armenian Legion and the French cooperated with Armenian militia. Turkish nationalists also cooperated with Faysil's self-proclaimed Arab Kingdom of Syria.

Zones of control held by the Ankara government and the Allies

The border of the Republic of Armenia (ADR) and the Ottoman Empire was defined in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918) after the Bolshevik revolution, and later by the Treaty of Batum (4 June 1918) with the ADR. It was obvious that after the Armistice of Mudros (30 October 1918) the eastern border was not going to stay as it was drawn. There were talks going on with the Armenian Diaspora and Allied Powers on reshaping the border. The Fourteen Points was seen as an incentive to the ADR, if the Armenians could prove that they were the majority of the population and that they had military control over the eastern regions. The Armenian movements on the borders were being used as an argument to redraw the border between the Ottoman Empire and the ADR. Woodrow Wilson agreed to transfer the territories back to the ADR on the principle that they were dominated by Armenians. The results of these talks were to be reflected on the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920).

One of the most important fights had taken place on this border. The very early onset of a national army was proof of this, even though there was a pressing Greek danger to the west. The stage of the eastern campaign developed through Kâzım Karabekir Pasha's two reports (30 May and 4 June 1920) outlining the situation in the region. He was detailing the activities of the Armenian Republic and advising on how to shape the resources on the eastern borders, especially in Erzurum. The Russian government sent a message to settle not only the Armenian but also the Iranian border through diplomacy under Russian control. Soviet support was absolutely vital for the Turkish nationalist movement, as Turkey was underdeveloped and had no domestic armaments industry. Bakir Sami (Kunduh) Bey was assigned to the talks. The Bolsheviks demanded that Van and Bitlis be transferred to Armenia. This was unacceptable to the Turkish revolutionaries.

The Treaty of Alexandropol (2—3 December 1920) was the first treaty (although illegitimate) signed by the Turkish revolutionaries. It was supposed to nullify the Armenian activities on the eastern border, which was reflected in the Treaty of Sèvres as a succession of regions named Wilsonian Armenia. The 10th article in the Treaty of Alexandropol stated that Armenia renounced the Treaty of Sèvres. The agreement was signed with representatives of the former government of Armenia, which by that time had no de jure or de facto power in Armenia, since Soviet rule was already established in the country.

After the peace agreement with the Turkish nationalists, in late November, a Soviet-backed Communist uprising took place in Armenia. On 28 November 1920, the 11th Red Army under the command of Anatoliy Gekker crossed over into Armenia from Soviet Azerbaijan. The Soviet-Armenian war lasted only a week. After their defeat by the Turkish revolutionaries the Armenians were no longer a threat to the Nationalist cause. On 16 March 1921, the Bolsheviks and Turkey signed a more comprehensive agreement, the Treaty of Kars, which involved representatives of Soviet Armenia, Soviet Azerbaijan, and Soviet Georgia.

Depicteé in a 1922 oil painting, the Turkish recapture of Smyrna, the Turkish Army's entry into İzmir (Smyrna in Greek) on 9 September 1922

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In salvaging the Treaty of Sèvres, The Triple Entente forced the Turkish Revolutionaries to agree with the terms through a series of conferences in London. The conference of London gave the Triple Entente an opportunity to reverse some of its policies. In October, parties to the conference received a report from Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol. He organised a commission to analyse the situation, and inquire into the bloodshed during the Occupation of İzmir and the following activities in the region. The commission reported that if annexation would not follow, Greece should not be the only occupation force in this area. Admiral Bristol was not so sure how to explain this annexation to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson as he insisted on "respect for nationalities" in the Fourteen Points. He believed that the sentiments of the Turks "will never accept this annexation".

Neither the Conference of London nor Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol's report changed British Prime Minister David Lloyd George's position. On 12 February 1921, he went with the annexation of the Aegean coast which was followed by the Greek offensive. David Lloyd George acted with his sentiments, which were developed during Battle of Gallipoli, as opposed to General Milne, who was his officer on the ground.

Turkish troops enter Constantinople on 6 October 1923

First negotiations between the sides failed during the Conference of London. The stage for peace was set after the Triple Entente's decision to make an arrangement with the Turkish revolutionaries. Before the talks with the Entente, the nationalists partially settled their eastern borders with the Democratic Republic of Armenia, signing the Treaty of Alexandropol, but changes in the Caucasus—especially the establishment of the Armenian SSR—required one more round of talks. The outcome was the Treaty of Kars, a successor treaty to the earlier Treaty of Moscow of March 1921. It was signed in Kars with the Russian SFSR on 13 October 1921[92] and ratified in Yerevan on 11 September 1922.[93]

With the borders secured with treaties and agreements at east and south, Mustafa Kemal was now in a commanding position. The Nationalists were able to demand on 5 September 1922 that the Greek army evacuate East Thrace, Imbros, and Tenedos as well as Asia Minor. The Maritsa (Meriç) River would again become the western border of Turkey, as it was before 1914. The British were prepared to defend the neutral zone of Constantinople and the Straits and the French asked Kemal to respect it,[94] to which he agreed on 28 September.[95] However, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, and the British Dominions objected to a new war.[96] France, Italy and Britain called on Mustafa Kemal to enter into cease-fire negotiations. In return, on 29 September Kemal asked for the negotiations to be started at Mudanya. Negotiations at Mudanya began on 3 October and it was concluded with the Armistice of Mudanya. This was agreed on 11 October, two hours before the British intended to engage nationalist forces at Çanak, and signed the next day. The Greeks initially refused to agree but did so on 13 October.[97] Factors persuading Turkey to sign may have included the arrival of British reinforcements.[98]

The Marmara sea resort town of Mudanya hosted the conference to arrange the armistice on 3 October 1922. İsmet Pasha—commander of the western armies—was in front of the Allies. The scene was unlike Mondros as the British and the Greeks were on the defence. Greece was represented by the Allies.

The British still expected the GNA to make concessions. From the first speech, the British were startled as Ankara demanded fulfillment of the National Pact. During the conference, the British troops in Constantinople were preparing for a Kemalist attack. There was never any fighting in Thrace, as Greek units withdrew before the Turks crossed the straits from Asia Minor. The only concession that İsmet made to the British was an agreement that his troops would not advance any farther toward the Dardanelles, which gave a safe haven for the British troops as long as the conference continued. The conference dragged on far beyond the original expectations. In the end, it was the British who yielded to Ankara's advances.

Kemal Pasha inspects the Turkish troops (18 June 1922)

The Armistice of Mudanya was signed on 11 October. By its terms, the Greek army would move west of the Maritsa, clearing Eastern Thrace to the Allies. The famous American author Ernest Hemingway was in Thrace at the time, and he covered the evacuation of Eastern Thrace of its Greek population. He has several short stories written about Thrace and Smyrna, which appear in his book In Our Time. The agreement came into force starting 15 October. Allied forces would stay in Eastern Thrace for a month to assure law and order. In return, Ankara would recognise continued British occupation of Constantinople and the Straits zones until the final treaty was signed.

Refet Bele was assigned to seize control of Eastern Thrace from the Allies. He was the first representative to reach the old capital. The British did not allow the hundred gendarmes who came with him. That resistance lasted until the next day.

Kemal had long ago made up his mind to abolish the sultanate when the moment was ripe. After facing opposition from some members of the assembly, using his influence as a war hero, he managed to prepare a draft law for the abolition of the sultanate, which was then submitted to the National Assembly for voting. In that article, it was stated that the form of the government in Constantinople, resting on the sovereignty of an individual, had already ceased to exist when the British forces occupied the city after World War I.[99] Furthermore, it was argued that although the caliphate had belonged to the Ottoman Empire, it rested on the Turkish state by its dissolution and Turkish National Assembly would have right to choose a member of the Ottoman family in the office of caliph. On 1 November, The Turkish Grand National Assembly voted for the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate. The last Sultan left Turkey on 17 November 1922, in a British battleship on his way to Malta. Such was the last act in the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire; so ended the empire after having been founded over 600 years earlier c. 1299.[100] Ahmed Tevfik Pasha also resigned as Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) a couple days later, without a replacement.

The Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923 that guaranteed Turkey's independence, replacing the Treaty of Sèvres

The Conference of Lausanne began on 21 November 1922 in Lausanne, Switzerland and lasted into 1923. Its purpose was the negotiation of a treaty to replace the Treaty of Sèvres, which, under the new government of the Grand National Assembly, was no longer recognised by Turkey. İsmet Pasha was the leading Turkish negotiator. İsmet maintained the basic position of the Ankara government that it had to be treated as an independent and sovereign state, equal with all other states attending the conference. In accordance with the directives of Mustafa Kemal, while discussing matters regarding the control of Turkish finances and justice, the Capitulations, the Turkish Straits and the like, he refused any proposal that would compromise Turkish sovereignty.[101] Finally, after long debates, on 24 July 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. Ten weeks after the signature the Allied forces left Istanbul.[102]

The conference opened with representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Turkey. It heard speeches from Benito Mussolini of Italy and Raymond Poincaré of France. At its conclusion, Turkey assented to the political clauses and the "freedom of the straits", which was Britain's main concern. The matter of the status of Mosul was deferred, since Curzon refused to be budged on the British position that the area was part of Iraq. The British Iraq Mandate's possession of Mosul was confirmed by a League of Nations brokered agreement between Turkey and Great Britain in 1926. The French delegation, however, did not achieve any of their goals and on 30 January 1923 issued a statement that they did not consider the draft treaty to be any more than a "basis of discussion". The Turks therefore refused to sign the treaty. On 4 February 1923, Curzon made a final appeal to İsmet Pasha to sign, and when he refused the Foreign Secretary broke off negotiations and left that night on the Orient Express.

The Treaty of Lausanne, finally signed in July 1923, led to international recognition of the Grand National Assembly as the legitimate government of Turkey and sovereignty of the Republic of Turkey as the successor state to the defunct Ottoman Empire.[103] Most goals on the condition of sovereignty were granted to Turkey. In addition to Turkey's more favourable land borders compared with Treaty of Sèvres (as can be seen in the picture to the right), capitulations were abolished, the issue of Mosul would be decided by a League of Nations plebiscite in 1926, while the border with Greece and Bulgaria would become demilitarised. The Turkish Straits would be under an international commission which gave Turkey more of a voice (this arrangement would be replaced by the Montreux Convention in 1936).

Turkey was proclaimed a Republic on 29 October 1923, with Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) was elected as the first President. In forming his government, he placed Mustafa Fevzi (Çakmak), Köprülü Kâzım (Özalp), and İsmet (İnönü) in important positions. They helped him to establish his subsequent political and social reforms in Turkey, transforming the country into a modern and secular nation state.

Historian Erik Sjöberg concludes that "It seems, in the end, unlikely that the Turkish nationalist leaders, though secular in name, ever had any intention of allowing any sizeable non-Muslim minority to remain."[113] According to Rıza Nur, one of the Turkish delegates at Lausanne, wrote that "disposing of people of different races, languages and religions in our country is the most ... vital issue".[113] Many Greek men were conscripted into unarmed labor battalions where the death rate sometimes exceeded 90 percent.[114] Raymond Kévorkian states that "removing non-Turks from the sanctuary of Anatolia continued to be one of" the Turkish nationalists' main activities after World War I.[115] Preventing Armenians and other Christians from returning home—and therefore allowing their properties to be retained by those who had stolen them during the war—was a key factor in securing popular support for the Turkish nationalist movement.[116] Christian civilians were subjected to forced deportation to expel them from the country, a policy that continued after the war.[117] These deportations were similar to those employed during the Armenian Genocide and caused many deaths.[118] Over 1 million Greeks were expelled as were all remaining Armenians in the areas of Diyarbekir, Mardin, Urfa, Harput, and Malatia—forced across the border into French-mandate Syria.[119]

Vahagn Avedian argues that the Turkish War of Independence was not directed against the Allied Powers, but that its main objective was to get rid of non-Turkish minority groups. The Nationalist movement maintained the aggressive policy of the CUP against Christians. It was stated in a secret telegram from Foreign Minister Ahmet Muhtar (Mollaoğlu) to Kazım Karabekir in mid-1921 "the most important thing is to eliminate Armenia, both politically and materially". Avedian holds that the existence of the Armenian Republic was considered as the "greatest threat" for the continuation of Turkish state, and that for this reason, they "fulfilled the genocidal policy of its CUP predecessor". After the Christian population was destroyed, the focus shifted to the Kurdish population. Ethnic cleansing was also carried against Pontic Greeks with the collaboration with Ankara and Istanbul governments.[59]

Hatıra-i Zafer (Memory of Victory) by Hasan Sabri in 1925.

The Grand National Assembly transitioned from a provisional counsel to being Turkey's primary legislative body. In 1923, ADNRAR changed its name to the People's Party. A couple years later, the name would be changed again by Mustafa Kemal to the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP), one of Turkey's major political parties as well as its oldest. CHP went on to rule Turkey as a one party state until the 1946 general elections.

In addition to toppling the British government, the Çanak Crisis would have far reaching consequences on British dominion policy. As the Dominion of Canada did not see itself committed to support a potential British war with Kemal's GNA, dominion foreign policy would become less committed for security for the British Empire. This attitude of no commitment to the Empire would be a defining moment in Canada's gradual movement towards independence as well as the decline of the British Empire.

The media in Weimar Germany covered the events in Anatolia extensively. Ihrig argues that Turkish War of Independence had a more definite impact on the Beer Hall Putsch than Mussolini's March on Rome. Germans, including Adolf Hitler, wanted to abolish the Treaty of Versailles just like the Treaty of Sèvres was abolished. After the failed putsch media coverage on the war ceased.[120]