Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's leadership of the independence war

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Main article: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Gazi Mustafa Kemal

Commander in chief of the Turkish revolutionaries, 1921
Movement: Turkish national movement
Major organizations: Grand National Assembly
Notable prizes: given surname "Ataturk"
Turkish Medal of Independence
Religion: Islam[1]
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (series)
Personal life Birth date · Name · Early life (Education) · Family · Character · Religious beliefs · Will · Publications
Military career Early period · Gallipoli · Caucasus · Sinai and Palestine
Independence War Establishment · Conflicts · Peace
Atatürk's Reforms & Kemalist ideology
Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's leadership of the independence war begins with his departure from occupied Istanbul on May 1919 and ends with the establishments of Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923.

Mustafa Kemal's active participation in the national resistance movement began with his assignment as a General Inspector to the 9th Army by the Sultan Mehmed VI. His task was to oversee the demobilisation of remaining Ottoman military units and nationalist organizations. On May 19, 1919, he departed from Istanbul to Samsun on board the ferry Bandırma. May 19 is accepted as the beginning of Turkish War of Independence or more precisely onset of the initial organization of oppositions under his leadership.

Contents

[edit] Initial organization, May 1919 – March 1920

The occupations had already generated disorganised local oppositions by numerous militant resistance groups. The establishment of an organised national resistance movement against the occupying forces was the first goal in Mustafa Kemal's mind. The General Inspector position created an ideal situation in organising the resistance.[2] He contacted local leaders, provincial governors and military commanders calling them to resist the occupations instead of trying to disarm the military units. In June 1919, he and his close friends issued the Amasya Circular, which stated that the independence of the country was in danger, since the Ottoman government in Istanbul was subject to foreign control the nation had to save itself by its own will and sources.

The British were alarmed when they learned of Mustafa Kemal's activities and immediately contacted the Ottoman government. Ottoman government issued a warrant for the arrest of Mustafa Kemal, on the charge that he was disobeying the Sultan's order for dissolving the remaining Ottoman forces in Anatolia, later condemning him to death. As a response, Mustafa Kemal resigned from the Ottoman Army on July 8, while he was in Erzurum. Mustafa Kemal called for a national election to establish a new Turkish Parliament that would have its seat in Ankara.[3] The call for an election became successful. On 12 February, 1920, the last Ottoman Parliament gathered in Istanbul and declared the National Pact (Turkish: Misak-ı Milli). Parliament then was dissolved by the occupying British forces.

[edit] Conflicts, March 1920 – March 1922

Mustafa Kemal used the dissolution of the Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul as an opportunity to establish a new National Assembly in Ankara. The first session of the "Grand National Assembly of Turkey" (GNA) gathered on April 23, 1920, with Mustafa Kemal as its president. The assembly declared its goal as to "liberate the Sultan".[3]

On August 10, 1920 Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha signed the Treaty of Sèvres, which finalized the plans for the partitioning of Ottoman Empire including what Turkish nationals accepted as their heartland. Mustafa Kemal and his friends deemed Treaty of Sèvres was unacceptable, as it would spell the end of Turkish independence. The proposal for a British protectorate also rejected in the rest of Anatolia left to Turks by the Treaty of Sèvres. Kemal Insisted on complete independence and the safeguarding of the interests of the Turkish majority on Turkish soil. The acceptance of treaty and the following events weakened the legitimacy of the Sultan's government in Istanbul, and caused a shift of power in favour of the GNA in Ankara.

Mustafa Kemal persuaded the assembly to recognize that sovereignty resided in the nation and in the GNA as the representative of the nation.[4] A popular sovereignty law was passed with the new constitution of 1921. This constitution gave Mustafa Kemal the tools to wage a War of Independence, as it publicly denounced the authority of the Istanbul government by assigning the right of sovereignty to the nation, not to the Ottoman Sultan. Kemal then persuaded the GNA to gather a National Army. The executive power was delegated to a cabinet and it's speaker Mustafa Kemal. The National Army faced the Allied occupation forces and fought on three fronts: in the Franco-Turkish, Greco-Turkish and Turkish-Armenian wars.

In the early autumn of 1920, the Turkish-Armenian War was waged between the Turkish revolutionaries and the Armenian military. In December 1920, Armenia appealed for peace and signed the Treaty of Alexandropol. After Armenia was incorporated into the Transcaucasian SFSR as a Soviet Socialist Republic, the Treaty of Kars gave the Turks control over most of the territories in northeastern Anatolia, where they constituted the ethnic majority.

[edit] Battle of Sakarya

Mustafa Kemal with the Turkish revolutionaries.
Mustafa Kemal with the Turkish revolutionaries.

After a series of initial battles during Greco-Turkish war, the Greek army advanced as far as to the Sakarya River, just eighty kilometers west of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara. While events were being set into motion, Enver Pasha returned from Moscow to meet with several Union of Islamic Revolutionary Societies leaders in Batum about the possibility of taking over the leadership. Mustafa Kemal politely did not invited Enver to Ankara, and he left Batum by the end of September, 1921. On August 5 1921, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to be the Commander in chief of the forces [5]. The Battle of Sakarya from August 23 to September 13, 1921 ended with the defeated of the Greeks. Mustafa Kemal returned in triumph to Ankara, where a grateful Grand National Assembly awarded him the rank of Field Marshal of the Army, as well as the title of Gazi[6]. Another meeting in Conference of London was held in March 1922. The Allies, without considering the extent of Ankara's successes, hoped to impose modified Serves as a peace settlement on Ankara. Allies offered to raise the Sèvres limits on the Turkish army to 85,000 men, eliminating the European financial controls over the Turkish government, but retaining the Capitulations and Public Debt Commission. Kemal rejected this proposal.

[edit] Battle of Dumlupınar

After the failure of Conference of London, the final battle, Battle of Dumlupınar, was fought between August–September 1922. Mustafa Kemal chose to adopt the strategy of concentration and surprise, employed by General Allenby in Syria. He launched an all-out attack on the Greek lines at Afyonkarahisar, aimed at smashing a hole in the Greek defences, cutting the Greek supply lines and opening the road to Izmir and to the sea. The Greek defense positions were overrun on August 26. On August 30, the Greek army was defeated decisively[7]. On September 1, Mustafa Kemal issued his famous order to the Turkish army: "Armies, your first goal is the Mediterranean, Forward!"[7] Greeks asked for an armistice on September 6.[5]. By 10 September, the remainder of the Greek forces have left Anatolia, the Turkish mainland. Praising Mustafa Kemal's military capabilities, Noel Barber wrote:

A man born out of due season, an anachronism, a throwback to the Tartars of the steppes, a fierce elemental force of a man. With his military genius and his ruthless determination, … in a different age he might well have been a Genghis Khan, conquering empires…[8]

—Noel Barber

[edit] Stage for peace, March 1922 – April 1923

TIME March 24, 1923. Atatürk, the title reads 'Where is a Turk his own master?'
TIME March 24, 1923. Atatürk, the title reads 'Where is a Turk his own master?'

The Treaty of Kars on October 23, 1921, had already settled the conflicts at the eastern border of Turkey and returned the sovereignty of the cities of Kars and Ardahan to the Turks, which were three decades earlier captured by the Russian Empire during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.

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 Istanbul, resting on the sovereignty of an individual, had already ceased to exist when the British forces occupied the city after the World War I.[9] 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 Assembly voted for the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate. The last Sultan left Turkey on November 17 1922, in a British battleship on his way to Malta. Such was the last act in the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The Conference of Lausanne began on November 21, 1922. İsmet İnönü was the leading Turkish negotiator. Ismet 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.[10] Finally, after long debates, on July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, thus putting an end to long years of warfare which had consumed the country. Ten weeks after the signature the Allied forces left Istanbul.[11]Through the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey finally entered into a period of peace.

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Turkish War of Independence
Concepts Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire - Establishment of movement - Turkish revolutionaries - Turkish National Movement
Issues Chanak Crisis - Population Exchange - Persona non grata - Malta exiles - Outpost Societies - King-Crane Commission - Khilafat Movement
Campaigns British (Allies): İstanbul
Revolts: Kuva-i Inzibatiye - Revolt of Ahmet Aznavur - Koçkiri Rebellion
French : Maras - Antep - Urfa
Greek : Smyrna (İzmir) - Aydın - 1st İnönü - 2nd İnönü - Sakarya - Dumlupinar
Armenian : Oltu – Sarıkamış – Kars – Alexandropol
Agreements

Allies: Conference of London - Ottoman Empire: Paris Peace Conference, 1919 - Sanremo conference - (Ottoman Parliament:) Misak-ı Milli - Treaty of Sèvres
Turkish revolutionaries: Treaty of Alexandropol - Treaty of Moscow (1921) - Conference of London - Cilicia Peace Treaty - Treaty of Ankara (1921) - Treaty of Kars - Conference of London - Armistice of Mudanya - Conference of Lausanne - Treaty of Lausanne
Timeline

[edit] Notes


  1. ^ Fığlalı, Ethem Ruhi (1993). "Atatürk And The Religion Of Islam". Atatürk Arastirma Dergisi IX (26). Anjara: Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Başkanlığı. “On the other hand, in addition to his profound knowledge about Islamic culture, one an clearly conclude on the basis of his speeches and attitudes that he was a sincere believer.” 
  2. ^ Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey, 49
  3. ^ a b Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey, 50
  4. ^ Yapp, The making of the modern Near East, 1792–1923, 314
  5. ^ a b editorial staff. A short history of AA. Anadolu Ajansı Genel Müdürlüğü. Retrieved on 2008-01-01. “Ikdam newspaper dated August 9th, 1921, reproducing the dispatches of AA dated August 5th and 6th, 1921, announced that Mustafa Kemal Pasha was promoted as Chief Commander”
  6. ^ Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 357
  7. ^ a b Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 362
  8. ^ Barber, Lords of the Golden Horn : from Suleiman the Magnificent to Kamal Ataturk, 265
  9. ^ Kinross, Rebirth of a Nation, p. 348
  10. ^ Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 365
  11. ^ Kinross, Atatürk, The Rebirth of a Nation, 373.

[edit] References


Prints
  • Ahmad, Feroz (1993). The Making of Modern Turkey. London ; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415078351. 
  • Barber, Noel (1988). Lords of the Golden Horn: From Suleiman the Magnificent to Kemal Ataturk. London: Arrow. ISBN 978-0099539506. 
  • Kinross, Patrick (2003). Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1842125991. OCLC 55516821. 
  • Kinross, Patrick (1979). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: Morrow. ISBN 978-0688080938. 
  • Landau, Jacob M (1983). Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0865319868. 
  • Lengyel, Emil (1962). They Called Him Atatürk. New York: The John Day Co. OCLC 1337444. 
  • Mango, Andrew [1999] (2002). Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey, Paperback, Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc. ISBN 1-58567-334-x. 
  • Shaw, Stanford Jay; Shaw, Ezel Kural (1976–1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521212809. 
  • Yapp, Malcolm (1987). The Making of the Modern Near East, 1792–1923. London ; New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0582493803. 
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