The National War of
Independence
It was the 13th of November 1918. Istanbul
was overcast with dark clouds reflecting the mood of the people who were down
and out. The Ottomans had lost World War I and allied navy had anchored in the
harbor. The city was unofficially occupied.
Haydarpasa was the western terminus of the
Istanbul-Baghdad railway. A young handsome general got off the train and took
one of the little boats the Turks called "çatana", to cross the
Bosphorus...
We talked about Turkish history in the
previous chapters. Among the various states the Turks had founded, the most
important, the largest and the longest lasting was the Ottoman Empire which,
between the 14th and the 19th centuries, established a "Pax Ottomana"
on three continents ruling over many nations. The Ottomans who entered their
period of decline in the 18th century took part in the First World War on the
side of the Axis Powers. On October 30,1918 they signed the Mudros Armistice
which had heavy terms that spelled, in brief, unconditional surrender. On the
13th of November, allied battleships and cruisers anchored in the Istanbul
harbor.
That same day, Mustafa Kemal, a full-general
at the age of 37, the brilliant tactician of the Dardanelles and other fronts,
disembarked from the train which brought him back home from the southern
front. Passing between the warships of a mighty armada which had anchored in
the harbor, his face was tired but his eyes shone as usual with their
penetrating brilliance. Addressing his adjutant, he said: "Don't you
worry young man. They shall go the way they came."
Emerging defeated from the First World War,
the Ottomans were forced to sign an armistice embracing the most onerous
conditions, whereby the Anatolian Peninsula, that had been the Turkish
homeland for a thousand years, was divided up and subjected to imperialistic
designs.
The economy was a shambles, and from every
standpoint the Ottoman society was in ruins and in collapse. Seemingly there
was no hope. The views expressed at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 were
that Turkey would be divided up. But one thing had been forgotten, and that
was that the Turks had founded one of the world's most powerful states with
Anatolia at its core. Another fact was that the Turks had an ancient and
deeply rooted past.
These facts, plus the fact that a people who
had lived for centuries on this soil could not be dissolved, had to be made
known to the world. To this end associations were founded in various parts of
the country, and patriotic citizens did their best to organize. But meanwhile
in the Aegean region the Greek Army was advancing swiftly, equipped by Great
Britain with the most modern weapons of the day, the French were rapidly
occupying in southeastern Anatolia and in the east the Army of the Armenian
Republic was advancing. The Ottoman government, implementing the terms of the
armistice, was against any form of resistance on the grounds that it would
"anger" the enemies. What was to be done?
Mustafa Kemal Pasha knew what had to be done.
His thinking ran along these lines. "The Ottoman Empire, which lasted
more than six hundred years, has come to the end of its natural lifespan. It
is dead, and the dead cannot be revived. The Ottoman governments have no power
or decisiveness. Therefore the Turkish nation must decide its own fate and map
its own future. The only path to this goal is the founding of a new state
based on the sovereignty of the nation. If the nation unbinds the knots that
have held it for centuries, and establishes unity, it can save the
homeland."
It soon became apparent just how correct this
strategy was. On his return from the front to Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal Pasha
realized the hopelessness of the situation, and that the time had come to put
into action the plans he had nourished since his youth. He decided to go into
Anatolia and pursue the struggle from there. In the early months of 1919
Anatolia was a hotbed of troubles, and Mustafa Kemal requested that the
government assign him to go and deal with them. This request was accepted, and
he left Istanbul with this understanding. On May 19, 1919 he set foot in
Samsun. Mustafa Kemal Pasha was now in Anatolia, to unite it and reconcile
antagonistic factions.
His first step would be to bring about the
congresses he had planned, one by one. An association known as the Legal
Society for the Defense of Anatolia and Rumelia wanted the Ottoman Parliament
to convene and establish peace conditions, but in this matter Mustafa Kemal
was not hopeful. Nevertheless the Parliament, in the National Oath of January
28,1920, asked for an honorable peace in which all borders were removed that
threatened the territorial integrity of Turkey. Only if this condition were
met could peace talks be held.
The Entente Powers, who had thought the
Eastern Question was resolved, were greatly disturbed by this action taken
under the influence of the Anatolian National Movement, and in their anger
occupied Istanbul on March 16,1920. Thus for the first time in 467 years the
city no longer had the status of Ottoman capital.
Not long before this, on December 27, 1919,
Ankara had been made the center of national resistance, and it was now time to
found a National Parliament. On April 23,1920, a National Assembly deriving
its authority from the nation held its opening session, and by an unanimous
vote Mustafa Kemal was chosen to preside.
In order to carry out their project of
dividing Anatolia, the Entente Powers wished to extinguish the movement, which
in their view was not serious. They therefore dictated the final peace of the
First World War, the Peace of Sevres (August 10,1920), which the Ottoman
government was forced to sign. Under the terms of this peace, all of eastern
Thrace, plus Izmir and the Aegean region, were ceded to Greece. The straits
were to be managed jointly, without the participation of the Turks. In
addition, a large part of the country's eastern territory was ceded to
Armenia, which had been established in Russia. Southern Anatolia was to be
settled by French, Italian and British populations, so that only a small
Ottoman State was left in Anatolia.
This peace roused the patriotic fervor of the
Turks even more, and the youthful army of the new state began to win its first
victories. The Armenian army, which had occupied Eastern Anatolia at the end
of World War I, was expelled from these territories and signed a peace at Gümrü
on December 3, 1920, while the progress of the Greeks, who had set their
sights on Ankara, was brought to a halt. The first diplomatic contacts with
the new Turkish state now began to be made, as the Soviet Union, impressed by
the victories we have cited, signed an aid agreement at Moscow on March
16,1921. Meanwhile the French advance in the southeast was put to a definitive
halt by the brave Turkish militia.
These developments led Greece, at the
instigation of Great Britain, to prepare a major new offensive, and they
advanced as far as the Sakarya River near Ankara. Meanwhile the National
Assembly was temporarily relieving Mustafa Kemal of his powers so that he
could devote his attentions to the war as Commander in Chief. The Greeks
renewed their offensive on August 23,1921, and were repulsed on September 13
after 22 days and nights of fighting in which no quarter was given. With this
victory, a thousand years of the Turkish presence in Anatolia were confirmed.
After this victory won with the meagerest of
means, the French signed a peace with Ankara on October 20,1921, while the
Italians also evacuated from the territory they had occupied. This left the
Greeks and British alone. The following year, in September, 1922, the Greeks
were expelled from Anatolia as the result of a grand Turkish offensive.
The British were determined to remain in
eastern Thrace and the straits at all costs, but thanks to the wise policies
of the Turkish government they found themselves isolated. They were thus
compelled to sign an armistice, at Mudanya on October 11,1922. There was all
the difference in the world between this armistice and that of Mudros signed
some four years previously.
After his victory at the Battle of the
Sakarya, Mustafa Kemal was given the rank of Marshal by the National Assembly
and in addition was awarded the title of Gazi. This title is reserved by the
Islamic world for only its greatest heroes.
Mustafa Kemal Pasha wanted to sign a peace
which would confirm the independence and freedom from conditions of the new
Turkish state, while the Allies, preparing to meet in Lausanne, aimed for an
agreement which would take the Treaty of Sevres as its model, even though the
National Assembly did not recognize this treaty. In order to divide the Turks
at the conference, the Entente Powers had also invited the Istanbul
government. This was taken as an outrage by the National Assembly, which had
no choice but to legally dissolve the Ottoman Sultanate. This they did on
November 1, 1922. Thus the Ottoman Sultanate, which had already expired in
fact, legally too became a thing of the past. Henceforward there was only one
government in Turkey, that founded by the National Assembly.
The Turkish state was represented at Lausanne
by a national hero, Ismet Pasha (Inönü). The Turkish delegation stood alone,
for England, France and their allies had formed a common front in order to
preserve their interests. There was no one to back Turkey's cause, so that
Ismet Inönü and the rest of the delegation were compelled to wage a
diplomatic battle like that of the Sakarya. The peace signed at Lausanne on
July 24,1923, put an end to the centuries-old Eastern Question, and gave the
new Turkish State complete independence. The forces of occupation in Istanbul,
which had arrived on November 13, 1918, departed on October 2, 1923, saluting
the Turkish flag as they left.
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