Turkish victory
110-656: 19 Mayıs ( Ondokuz Mayıs , " 19 May ") is a municipality and district of Samsun Province , Turkey . Its area is 234 km, and its population is 26,989 (2022). The mayor is Osman Topaloğlu ( AKP ). There are 38 neighbourhoods in 19 Mayıs District: This geographical article about a location in Samsun Province , Turkey is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Turkish War of Independence Turkish Nationalists : [REDACTED] Ankara Government ( 1919–1920 ; 1920–1923) The Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923)
220-553: A peacekeeping force to keep stability in the region. Venizelos's rhetoric was more directed against the CUP regime than the Turks as a whole, an attitude not always shared in the Greek military: "Greece is not making war against Islam, but against the anachronistic [ Unionist ] Government, and its corrupt, ignominious, and bloody administration, with a view to the expelling it from those territories where
330-826: A regular army paid off when Ankara forces fought the Greeks in the First and Second Battle of İnönü . The Greeks emerged victorious in the Battle of Kütahya-Eskişehir and drove on Ankara. The Turks checked their advance in the Battle of Sakarya and counter-attacked in the Great Offensive , which expelled Greek forces. The war ended with the recapture of İzmir , the Chanak Crisis and another armistice in Mudanya . The Grand National Assembly in Ankara
440-546: A brief period before the great summer offensive of the Greek army in 1920, at which time that city fell to the Greeks. The first landing took place on 17 November 1918 at Mersin with roughly 15,000 men, mainly volunteers from the French Armenian Legion , accompanied by 150 French officers. The first goals of that expeditionary force were to occupy ports and dismantle the Ottoman administration. On 19 November, Tarsus
550-525: A civilian stripped of his command, Mustafa Kemal was at the mercy of the new inspector of Third Army (renamed from Ninth Army) Karabekir Pasha, indeed the War Ministry ordered him to arrest Kemal, an order which Karabekir refused. The Erzurum Congress was a meeting of delegates and governors from the six Eastern Vilayets. They drafted the National Pact ( Misak-ı Millî) , which envisioned new borders for
660-564: A congress was to take place in Erzurum between delegates of the Six Vilayets to decide on a response, and another congress would take place in Sivas where every Vilayet should send delegates. Sympathy and an lack of coordination from the capital gave Mustafa Kemal freedom of movement and telegraph use despite his implied anti-government tone. On 23 June, High Commissioner Admiral Calthorpe, realising
770-512: A demonstration against the courts martials trials. With all the chaotic politics in the capital and uncertainty of the severity of the incoming peace treaty, many Ottomans looked to Washington with the hope that the application of Wilsonian principles would mean Constantinople would stay Turkish, as Muslims outnumbered Christians 2:1. The United States never declared war on the Ottoman Empire, so many imperial elite believed Washington could be
880-691: A fleet consisting of British, French, Italian and Greek ships deploying soldiers on the ground the next day, totaling 50,000 troops in Constantinople. 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
990-521: A homegrown anti-Entente movement that overthrew a government and driven it into resistance. In December 1919, an election was held for the Ottoman parliament , with polls only open in unoccupied Anatolia and Thrace. It was boycotted by Ottoman Greeks, Ottoman Armenians and the Freedom and Accord Party , resulting in groups associated with the Turkish Nationalist Movement winning, including
1100-528: A neutral arbiter that could fix the empire's problems. Halide Edip (Adıvar) and her Wilsonian Principles Society led the movement that advocated for the empire to be governed by an American League of Nations Mandate (see United States during the Turkish War of Independence ). American diplomats attempted to ascertain a role they could play in the area with the Harbord and King–Crane Commissions . However, with
1210-579: A peace settlement. They added to the points passed in Sivas, calling for plebiscites to be held in West Thrace; Batum, Kars, and Ardahan, and Arab lands on whether to stay in the Empire or not. Proposals were also made to elect Kemal president of the Chamber; however, this was deferred in the certain knowledge that the British would prorogue the Chamber. The Chamber of Deputies would be forcefully dissolved for passing
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#17329311684381320-624: A post-war settlement in the Ottoman Empire being leaked to the press as the Sykes–Picot Agreement . Russia's exit from World War I and descent into civil war was driven in part by the Ottoman closure of the Turkish straits to goods bound for Russia . A new imperative was given to the Entente powers to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and restart the Eastern Front . World War I would be
1430-471: A radical revolutionary group seeking to prevent a collapse of the Ottoman Empire, by the eve of World War I it decided that the solution was to implement nationalist and centralizing policies. The CUP reacted to the losses of land and the expulsion of Muslims from the Balkan Wars by turning even more nationalistic. Part of its effort to consolidate power was to proscribe and exile opposition politicians from
1540-674: A successor to the CUP's Special Organization , 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. Other commanders began refusing orders from the Ottoman government and the Allied powers. After Mustafa Kemal Pasha returned to Constantinople, Ali Fuat Pasha (Cebesoy) brought XX Corps under his command. He marched first to Konya and then to Ankara to organise resistance groups, such as
1650-478: A well known, well respected, and well connected army commander, with much prestige coming 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. This choice would seem curious, as he was a nationalist and a fierce critic of the government's accommodating policy to the Entente powers. He
1760-827: The Cilicia Campaign ( French : La campagne de Cilicie ) in France and as the Southern Front ( Turkish : Güney Cephesi ) of the Turkish War of Independence in Turkey , was a series of conflicts fought between France (the French Colonial Forces and the French Armenian Legion ) and the Turkish National Forces (led by the Turkish provisional government after 4 September 1920) from December 1918 to October 1921 in
1870-707: The Circassian çetes he assembled with guerilla leader Çerkes Ethem . Meanwhile, Kazım Karabekir Pasha refused to surrender his intact and powerful XV Corps in Erzurum . Evacuating from the Caucusus, puppet republics and Muslim militia groups were established in the army's wake to hamper the consolidation of the new Armenian state. Elsewhere in the country, regional nationalist resistance organizations known as Şuras –meaning "councils", not unlike soviets in revolutionary Russia– were founded, most incorperating themselves into
1980-614: The Conference of Lausanne on the abolition of the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire . French objections during the discussions on abolition were perceived as contravening full Turkish independence and sovereignty. Furthermore, the fact that the sanjak of Alexandretta remained under French control also contributed to the tension between the two countries, as the Turks claimed the land in the Misak-ı Millî . The positive attitude developed with
2090-717: The Constitution , Parliament , and sign the Treaty of Sèvres , a treaty unfavorable to Turkish interests that the " Ankara government " declared illegal. Turkish and Syrian forces defeated the French in the south , and remobilized army units went on to partition Armenia with the Bolsheviks , resulting in the Treaty of Kars (1921). The Western Front is known as the Greco-Turkish War . İsmet Pasha (İnönü) 's organization of militia into
2200-674: The Dardanelles , but the British seemed prepared to hold their ground. The British government issued a request for military support from its colonies . This was refused , and the French leaving the British on the straits signaled that the Allies were unwilling to intervene in aid of Greece. Greek troops and the French withdrew beyond the Meriç River . France had better relations with the Turkish nationals during
2310-577: The Defence of National Rights movement which protested continued Allied occupation and appeasement by the Sublime Porte . Following the occupation of Constantinople, Mehmed VI Vahdettin dissolved the Chamber of Deputies which was dominated by Unionists elected back in 1914 , promising elections for the next year. Vahdettin just ascended to the throne only months earlier with the death of Mehmed V Reşad . He
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#17329311684382420-415: The Freedom and Accord Party to remote Sinop . The Unionists brought the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary , during which a genocidal campaign was waged against Ottoman Christians, namely Armenians , Pontic Greeks , and Assyrians . It was based on an alleged conspiracy that the three groups would rebel on the side of the Allies, so collective punishment
2530-571: The Karaburun peninsula; to Selçuk , situated a hundred kilometres south of the city at a key location that commands the fertile Küçük Menderes River valley; and to Menemen towards the north. Guerilla warfare commenced in the countryside, as Turks began to organize themselves into irregular guerilla groups known as Kuva-yi Milliye (national forces), which were soon joined by Ottoman soldiers, bandits, and disaffected farmers. Most Kuva-yi Milliye bands were led by rogue military commanders and members of
2640-591: The Russian Civil War would pass through the Turkish straits and Anatolia, with 150,000 White émigrés choosing to settle in Istanbul for short or long term (see Evacuation of the Crimea ). Many provinces were simply depopulated from years of fighting, conscription, and ethnic cleansing (see Ottoman casualties of World War I ). The province of Yozgat lost 50% of its Muslim population from conscription, while according to
2750-567: 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 contingents that cooperated with the Greek Army to combat Kuva-yi Milliye within the zone of control. A massacre of Turks at Menemen was followed up with a battle for the town of Aydın , which saw intense intercommunal violence and
2860-634: The Sykes–Picot Agreement , and to facilitate the prosecution of former members of the Committee of Union and Progress and those involved in the Armenian genocide . Ottoman commanders therefore refused orders from the Allies and Ottoman government to disband their forces. In an atmosphere of turmoil, Sultan Mehmed VI dispatched well-respected general Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) , to restore order; however, he became an enabler and leader of Turkish Nationalist resistance . In an attempt to establish control over
2970-556: The Sykes–Picot Agreement . Greece justified their territorial claims of Ottoman land not least from Greece's entrance to WWI on the Allied side but also through the Megali Idea as well as international sympathy from the suffering of Ottoman Greeks in 1914 and 1917–1918 . Privately, Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos had British prime minister David Lloyd George 's backing because of his Philhellenism , and from his charisma and charming personality. Greece's participation in
3080-472: The Turkish War of Independence , chiefly on account of breaking Triple Entente solidarity and signing a separate agreement with the Turkish National Movement . The Treaty of Ankara did not resolve the problems in connection with the sanjak of Alexandretta . However, positive Franco-Turkish relations were maintained. French policy supporting the Turkish independence movement were set back during
3190-596: The aftermath of World War I . French interest in the region stemmed from the Sykes-Picot Agreement and was further fueled by the refugee crisis following the Armenian genocide . After the Armistice of Mudros , the French Army had moved into Çukurova in accordance with the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. On the one hand, that agreement gave France control of Ottoman Syria and southern Anatolia , including
3300-678: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire , ending the Ottoman sultanate and the Ottoman caliphate , and establishing the Republic of Turkey . This resulted in the transfer of sovereignty from the sultan-caliph to the nation , setting the stage for nationalist revolutionary reform in Republican Turkey. While World War I ended for the Ottomans with the Armistice of Mudros , the Allies continued occupying land per
3410-608: The province of Adana , including the towns of Antioch , Mersin , Tarsus , Ceyhan , Adana , Osmaniye , and İslâhiye , incorporating the area into the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration North 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. These continued seizures of land prompted Ottoman commanders to refuse demobilization and prepare for
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3520-585: The A-RMHC. The Nationalists' obvious links to the CUP made the election especially polarizing and voter intimidation and ballot box stuffing in favor of the Kemalists were regular occurrences in rural provinces. This controversy led to many of the nationalist MPs organizing the National Salvation Group separate from Kemal's movement, which risked the nationalist movement splitting in two. Mustafa Kemal
3630-529: The Allied powers. However, his appointment was problematic for the Unionists, many being members of the liquidated committee that were surely to face trial. 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 courts martial trials held in Constantinople . While many leading Unionists were sentenced lengthy prison sentences, many made sure to escape
3740-504: The Allies did not mandate an abdication of the imperial family as a condition for peace, nor did they request the Ottoman Army to dissolve its general staff . Though the army suffered from mass desertion throughout the war which led to banditry , there was no threat of mutiny or revolutions like in Germany , Austria-Hungary , or Russia . This is despite famine and economic collapse that
3850-561: The Allies' Southern Russian intervention also earned it favors in Paris. Venizelos' demands 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. Venizelos also advocated a large Armenian state to check a post-war Ottoman Empire. Greece wanted to incorporate Constantinople, but Entente powers did not give permission. Damat Ferid Pasha went to Paris on behalf of
3960-627: The Amasya Circular, a new congress was held there in September with delegates from all Anatolian and Thracian provinces. The Sivas Congress repeated the points of the National Pact agreed to in Erzurum, and united the various regional Defence of National Rights Associations organizations, into a united political organisation: Anatolia and Rumeli Defence of Rights Association (A-RMHC), with Mustafa Kemal as its chairman. In an effort show his movement
4070-583: The Armenians' especially as warlords hailing from those communities assisted the deportations of the Christians even though as many commanders in the Nationalist movement also had Caucasian and Balkan Muslim ancestry. With Anatolia in practical anarchy and the Ottoman army being questionably loyal in reaction to Allied land seizures, Mehmed VI established the military inspectorate system to reestablish authority over
4180-499: The British. On 12 January 1920, the last session of the 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. On 28 January the MPs from both sides of the isle secretly met to endorse the National Pact as
4290-507: The CUP government against Armenian Ottomans . For now, 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 Constantinople to begin a de facto occupation of the Ottoman capital and its immediate dependencies. This was followed by
4400-491: The Caucasus, Britain established a presence in Menshevik Georgia and the Lori and Aras valleys as peace-keepers . On 14 November, joint Franco-Greek occupation was established in the town of Uzunköprü in eastern Thrace as well as the railway axis until the train station of Hadımköy on the outskirts of Constantinople. On 1 December, British troops based in Syria occupied Kilis , Marash , Urfa and Birecik . Beginning in December, French troops began successive seizures of
4510-423: The Chamber of Deputies or to become a British or American mandate. By and large, the assembly was unsuccessful in its goals, and the Ottoman government did not develop a strategy to navigate the crises the empire was engulfed in. Ottoman bureaucrats, military, and bourgeoisie trusted the Allies to bring peace, and thought the terms offered at Mudros were considerably more lenient than they actually were. Pushback
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4620-404: The Empire. The Ottoman government was not doing all that it could to suppress the Nationalists. Mustafa Kemal manufactured a crisis to pressure the Istanbul government to pick a side by deploying Kuva-yi Milliye towards İzmit . The British, concerned about the security of the Bosporus Strait , demanded Ali Rıza Pasha to reassert control over the area, to which he responded with his resignation to
4730-400: The First World War. Ethnic conflict restarted in Anatolia; government officials responsible for resettling Christian refugees often assisted Muslim refugees in these disputes, prompting European powers to continue bringing Ottoman territory under their control. Of the 800,000 Ottoman Christian refugees, approximately over half returned to their homes by 1920. Meanwhile 1.4 million refugees from
4840-433: The French and the Turks on 20 October 1921, and finalized with Armistice of Mudanya . The French forces withdrew from the occupation zone in the first days of 1922, about ten months before the Armistice of Mudanya. Beginning on 3 January, French troops evacuated Mersin and Dörtyol . On 5 January they left Adana , Ceyhan and Tarsus . The evacuation was completed on 7 January with the last troops leaving Osmaniye . In
4950-492: The French arrived in the southern Anatolian regions allocated to them in the agreement. The French Armenian Legion under the command of General Edmund Allenby consisted of Armenian volunteers. After the armistice of Mudros, the first thing the French military did was to control the strategically important Ottoman coal mines in which French capital held significant stakes. The goal was both to take control of this energy source and to meet French military needs. It also prevented
5060-467: The French would not hold its territories in Turkey, especially as they mainly wanted to settle in Syria. The strategic goal of opening a southern front by moving Armenians against the Turkish National forces was a failure after the defeat of the Greek forces to the west. On 11 February 1920, after 22 days of the Battle of Marash , the French occupation troops, followed by members of the local Armenian community, found themselves forced to evacuate Marash by
5170-474: 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 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 per Article VII, ostensibly as
5280-533: The Mıntıka Palace Hotel. British troops were present in Samsun, and he initially maintained cordial contact. He had assured Damat Ferid about the army's loyalty towards the new government in Constantinople. However, behind the government's back, 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
5390-453: The National Pact anyway. The National Pact solidified Nationalist interests, which were in conflict with the Allied plans. From February to April, leaders of Britain, France, and Italy met in London to discuss the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and the crisis in Anatolia. The British began to sense that the elected Ottoman government was under Kemalist influence and if left unchecked, the Entente could once again find themselves at war with
5500-404: The Ottoman Empire and under Allied occupation, with some "imperialists" still loyal to the Ottoman Sultanate-Caliphate, and others wishing for independence or Allied protection under a League of Nations mandate . Sizable Greek and Armenian minorities remained within its borders, and most of these communities no longer wished to remain under the Empire. On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros
5610-497: The Ottoman Empire by applying principles of national self-determination per Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points and the abolition of the capitulations . The Erzurum Congress concluded with a circular that was effectively a declaration of independence: All regions within Ottoman borders upon the signing of the Mudros Armistice were indivisible from the Ottoman state –Greek and Armenian claims on Thrace and Anatolia were moot– and assistance from any country not coveting Ottoman territory
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#17329311684385720-431: The Ottoman Empire hoping to minimize territorial losses using Fourteen Points rhetoric, wishing for a return to status quo ante bellum , on the basis that every province of the Empire holds Muslim majorities. This plea was met with ridicule. 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
5830-424: The Ottoman Empire. 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. 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
5940-498: The Ottoman government or place it under military occupation by "occupying Constantinople". However, dismantling the government and partitioning the Ottoman Empire among the Allied nations had been an objective of the Entente since the start of WWI. A wave of seizures took place in the rest of the country in the following months. Citing Article VII, British forces demanded that Turkish troops evacuate Mosul , claiming that Christian civilians in Mosul and Zakho were killed en masse. In
6050-421: The Turkish, especially because they had associated themselves with Armenian objectives. The French soldiers were foreign to the region and were using Armenian militia to acquire their intelligence. Turkish nationals had been in cooperation with Arab tribes in this area. Compared to the Greek threat , the French seemed less dangerous to Mustafa Kemal Pasha , who suggested that, if the Greek threat could be overcome,
6160-476: The War Ministry about British reinforcements in the area and about British aid to Greek brigand gangs. After a week in Samsun, Kemal and his staff moved to Havza . It was there that he first showed the flag of the resistance. Mustafa Kemal 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
6270-413: The basis that this was against the armistice that he had signed and was assigned to another position on 5 August 1919. The movement of British units alarmed the population of the region and convinced them that Mustafa Kemal was right. By early July, Mustafa Kemal Pasha received telegrams from the sultan and Calthorpe, asking him and Refet to cease his activities in Anatolia and return to the capital. Kemal
6380-586: The collapse of Woodrow Wilson 's health, the United States diplomatically withdrew from the Middle East to focus on Europe, leaving the Entente powers to construct a post-Ottoman order . The Entente would have arrived at Constantinople to discover an administration attempting to deal with decades of accumulated refugee crisis. The new government issued a proclamation allowing for deportees to return to their homes , but many Greeks and Armenians found their old homes occupied by desperate Rumelian and Caucasian Muslim refugees which were settled in their properties during
6490-419: The country before Allied occupation or to regions that the government now had minimal control over; thus most were sentenced in absentia . The Allies encouragement of the proceedings and the use of British Malta as their holding ground made the trials unpopular. The partisan nature of the trials was not lost on observers either. The hanging of the Kaymakam of Boğazlıyan district Mehmed Kemal resulted in
6600-419: The disarming of the army, he met with various contacts in order to build his movement's momentum. He met with Rauf Pasha , Karabekir Pasha, Ali Fuat Pasha , and Refet Pasha 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 government in Constantinople was compromised. To remedy this,
6710-478: The distribution of coal in Anatolia, which could be used in activities to support insurgency. On 18 March 1919, two French gunboats brought troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli to command the Ottoman coal mining region. Because of the resistance they faced during their one-year stay in the region, French troops began to withdraw from Karadeniz Ereğli on 8 June 1920. They continued to pursue their occupation in Zonguldak, where they occupied
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#17329311684386820-434: The early stages of the Greco-Turkish War , French and Greek troops jointly crossed the Meriç River and occupied the town of Uzunköprü in eastern Thrace and the railway route from there to the station of Hadımköy near Çatalca on the outskirts of Constantinople. In September 1922, at the end of that war, during the Greek pull-out after the advance of Turkish revolutionaries , French forces withdrew from their positions near
6930-497: The election as per the Amasya Protocol to keep unity between the " Istanbul government " and " Ankara government ", he was wrong to think the election could bring him any legitimacy. The Ottoman parliament was under the de facto control 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 battalion's commanding officer. The only laws that passed were those acceptable to, or specifically ordered by
7040-414: The environment not looking conducive for an election, Sultan Mehmed VI called for an Sultanate Council ( Şûrâ-yı Saltanat ), so the government could be consulted by representatives of civil society how the Ottoman Empire should deal with its present predicaments. On 26 May 1919, 131 representatives of Ottoman civil society gathered in the capital as a faux parliament. Discussion focused on a new election for
7150-447: The genocide and other ethnic cleansing during World War I. The Christian presence in Anatolia was largely destroyed; Muslims went from 80% to 98% of the population. Following the chaotic politics of the Second Constitutional Era , the Ottoman Empire came under the control of the Committee of Union and Progress in a coup in 1913, and then further consolidated its control after the assassination of Mahmud Shevket Pasha . Founded as
7260-429: The government in northwestern Anatolia and Kurds in southeastern Anatolia were engaged in blood feuds that intensified during the war and were hesitant to pledge allegiance to the Defence of Rights movement, and only would if officials could facilitate truces. Various Muhacir groups were suspicious of the continued Unionist ideology in the Defence of Rights movement, and the potential for themselves to meet fates 'like
7370-524: The governor of Van , almost 95% of its prewar residents were dead or internally displaced . Administration in much of the Anatolian and Thracian countryside would soon all but collapse by 1919. Army deserters who turned to banditry essentially controlled fiefdoms with tacit approval from bureaucrats and local elites. An amnesty issued in late 1918 saw these bandits strengthen their positions and fight amongst each other instead of returning to civilian life. Albanian and Circassian muhacirs resettled by
7480-414: The key strategic locations of the fertile plain of Çukurova , the ports of Mersin and İskenderun (Alexandretta), and the copper mines in Ergani . On the other hand, the fertile lands of Mesopotamia and the vilayet of Mosul (where oil fields were suspected to exist) were priorities for the British. According to the agreement, the British would look after the cities of Antep , Marash and Urfa , until
7590-458: The major fronts crumbling, Unionist Grand Vizier Talât Pasha intended to sign an armistice, and resigned on 8 October 1918 so that a new government would receive less harsh armistice terms. The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918, ending World War I for the Ottoman Empire. Three days later, 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
7700-451: The majority of the population consists of Greeks." It was decided by the Triple Entente that Greece would control a zone around Smyrna and Ayvalık in western Asia Minor. Most historians mark the Greek landing at Smyrna on 15 May 1919 as the start date of the Turkish War of Independence as well as the start of the " Kuva-yi Milliye Phase". The occupation ceremony from the outset was tense from nationalist fervor, with Ottoman Greeks greeting
7810-402: The nail in the coffin of Ottomanism , an imperialist and multicultural nationalism. Mistreatment of non-Turk groups after 1913, and the general context of great socio-political upheaval that occurred in the aftermath of World War I , meant many minorities now wished to divorce their future from imperialism to form futures of their own by separating into (often republican ) nation-states . In
7920-721: The outbreak of hostilities, all British troops stationed in the Black Sea coast and Kütahya were evacuated. Damat Ferid Pasha resigned, and the sultan replaced him with a general with nationalist credentials: Ali Rıza Pasha . On 16 October 1919, Ali Rıza and the Nationalists held negotiations in Amasya. They agreed in the Amasya Protocol that an election would be called for the Ottoman Parliament to establish national unity by upholding
8030-461: The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, and the abolition of the sultanate , the Ottoman era came to an end, and with Atatürk's reforms , the Turks created the secular nation of Turkey. Turkey's demographics were significantly impacted by the Armenian genocide and deportations of Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian Rum people . The Turkish Nationalist Movement carried out massacres and deportations to eliminate Christian populations—a continuation of
8140-524: The party came from all parts of Ottoman media . A general amnesty was soon issued, allowing the exiled and imprisoned dissidents persecuted by the CUP to return to Constantinople. Vahdettin invited the pro- Palace politician Damat Ferid Pasha to form a government, whose members quickly set out to purge the Unionists from the Ottoman government . Ferid Pasha hoped that his Anglophilia and an attitude of appeasement would induce less harsh peace terms from
8250-404: The post-armistice War Ministry, a powerful tool that would help him accomplish his secret goal: to lead a nationalist movement to safeguard Turkish interests against the Allied powers and a collaborative Ottoman government. The day before his departure to Samsun on the remote Black Sea coast, Kemal had one last audience with Sultan Vahdettin, where he affirmed his loyalty to the sultan-caliph. It
8360-465: The power vacuum in Anatolia, the Allies agreed to launch a Greek peacekeeping force and occupy Smyrna ( İzmir ), inflaming sectarian tensions and beginning the Turkish War of Independence. A nationalist counter government led by Mustafa Kemal was established in Ankara when it became clear the Ottoman government was appeasing the Allies. The Allies pressured the Ottoman " Istanbul government " to suspend
8470-422: The razing of the city. What was supposed to be a peacekeeping mission of Western Anatolia instead inflamed ethnic tensions and became a counterinsurgency . The reaction of Greek landing at Smyrna and continued Allied seizures of land served to destabilize Turkish civil society. Damat Ferid Pasha resigned as Grand Vizier, but the sultan reappointed him anyways. With the Chamber of Deputies of deputies dissolved, and
8580-472: The remaining empire. Encouraged by Karabekir and Edmund Allenby , he assigned Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) as the inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate –based in Erzurum – to restore order to Ottoman military units and to improve internal security on 30 April 1919, with his first assignment to suppress a rebellion by Greek rebels around the city of Samsun . Mustafa Kemal was
8690-468: The resistance and assaults of the Turkish revolutionaries. The loss of the city was accompanied by large-scale massacres of the Armenian population, with thousands of victims. French Armenian Legion member Sarkis Torossian suspects in his diary that the French forces gave weapons and ammunition to the Kemalists to allow the French army safe passage out of Cilicia. Marash militia forces contributed further to
8800-536: The resolutions made in the Sivas Congress, including the National Pact. By October 1919, the Ottoman government only held de facto control over Constantinople; the rest of the Ottoman Empire was loyal to Kemal's movement to resist a partition of Anatolia and Thrace. Within a few months Mustafa Kemal went from General Inspector of the Ninth Army to a renegade military commander discharged for insubordination to leading
8910-403: The resumption of war. The British similarly asked Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) to turn over the port of Alexandretta ( İskenderun ), which he reluctantly did, following which he was recalled to Constantinople. He made sure to distribute 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 Karakol ,
9020-661: The rump radical faction which formed the Renewal Party (both parties would be banned in May 1919 for being successors of the CUP). All these reasons allowed him to be the most legitimate nationalist for the sultan to placate. In this new political climate, he sought to capitalize on his war exploits to attain a better job, indeed several times he unsuccessfully lobbied for his inclusion in cabinet as War Minister . His new assignment gave him effective plenipotentiary powers over all of Anatolia which
9130-572: The senior leadership of the Turkish National Movement and former members of the CUP. 150 arrested Turkish politicians accused of war crimes were interned in Malta and became 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 counter Allied movements
9240-793: The significance of Mustafa Kemal's discreet activities in Anatolia, sent a report about the Pasha 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
9350-636: The soldiers with an ecstatic welcome, and Ottoman Muslims protesting the landing. A miscommunication in Greek high command led to an Evzone column marching by the municipal Turkish barracks. The nationalist journalist Hasan Tahsin fired the "first bullet" at the Greek standard bearer at the head of the troops, turning the city into a warzone. Süleyman Fethi Bey was murdered by bayonet for refusing to shout "Zito Venizelos " (meaning "long live Venizelos"), and 300–400 unarmed Turkish soldiers and civilians and 100 Greek soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded. Greek troops moved from Smyrna outwards to towns on
9460-401: The sultan. As they were negotiating the partition of the Ottoman Empire , the Allies were growing increasingly concerned about the Turkish National Movement. To this end, the Allied occupational authorities in Istanbul began to plan a raid to arrest nationalist politicians and journalists along with occupying military and police installations and government buildings. On 16 March 1920, the coup
9570-641: The summer months of 1918, the leaders of the Central Powers realized that the Great War was lost, including the Ottomans'. Almost simultaneously the Palestinian Front and then the Macedonian Front collapsed . 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 Entente attack. With
9680-411: The vague right to occupy "in case of disorder" any territory if there were a threat to security. The clause relating to the occupation of the straits was meant to secure a Southern Russian intervention force , while the rest of the article was used to allow for Allied controlled peace-keeping forces. There was also a hope to follow through punishing local actors that carried out exterminatory orders from
9790-509: The war effort by taking part in the recapture of other centers in the region, forcing the French forces to retreat gradually, town by town. The Cilicia Peace Treaty between France and the Turkish National Movement was signed on 9 March 1921. It was intended to end the Franco-Turkish war, but failed to do so and was replaced in October 1921 with the Treaty of Ankara signed by representatives of
9900-610: The whole city on 18 June 1920. The main operations in Thrace aimed to support the strategic goals of the allies. A French brigade entered Constantinople on 12 November 1918. On 8 February 1919, French general Franchet d'Espèrey —commander-in-chief of allied occupation forces in the Ottoman Empire—arrived in Constantinople to coordinate the occupation government. The city of Bursa —a former Ottoman capital of central importance in northwest Anatolia—was also held by French forces for
10010-610: Was a series of military campaigns and a revolution waged by the Turkish National Movement , after the Ottoman Empire was occupied and partitioned following its defeat in World War I . The conflict was between the Turkish Nationalists against Allied and separatist forces over the application of Wilsonian principles , especially self-determination , in post-World War I Anatolia and eastern Thrace . The revolution concluded
10120-583: Was also an early member of the CUP. However Kemal Pasha did not associate himself with the fanatical faction of the CUP, many knew that he frequently clashed with the radicals of the Central Committee like Enver. He was therefore sidelined to the periphery of power throughout the Great War; after the CUP's dissolution he vocally aligned himself with moderates that formed the Liberal People's Party instead of
10230-409: Was also occupied for one day (on 21 November 1919) until the evening, when the French thought it better to abandon the occupation attempt. France designated Édouard Brémond governor of the French occupation zone in the south from January 1, 1919 – September 4, 1920, and Julien Dufieux from September 1920–23 December 1921. In the regions they occupied, the French encountered immediate resistance from
10340-542: Was applied. A similar suspicion and suppression from the Turkish nationalist government was directed towards the Arab and Kurdish populations, leading to localized rebellions. The Entente powers reacted to these developments by charging the CUP leaders, commonly known as the Three Pashas , with " crimes against humanity " and threatened accountability. They also had imperialist ambitions on Ottoman territory, with correspondence over
10450-528: Was brought on by the extreme levels of mobilization , destruction from the war, disease , and mass murder since 1914. Due to the Turkish nationalist policies pursued by the CUP against Ottoman Christians by 1918 the Ottoman Empire held control over a mostly homogeneous land of Muslims from eastern Thrace to the Persian border. These included mostly Turks , as well as Kurds , Circassians , and Muhacir groups from Rumeli . Most Muslim Arabs were now outside of
10560-551: Was carried out; several Royal Navy warships were anchored in the Galata Bridge to support British forces, including the Indian Army , while they carried out the arrests and occupied several government buildings in the early hours of the morning. An Indian Army operation, the Şehzadebaşı raid , resulted in 5 Ottoman soldiers from the 10th Infantry Division being killed when troops raided their barracks. Among those arrested were
10670-416: Was decided the party would be dissolved. Talât, Enver Pasha , Cemal Pasha , and five other high-ranking members of the CUP escaped the Ottoman Empire on a German torpedo boat later that night, plunging the country into a power vacuum. The armistice was signed because the Ottoman Empire had been defeated in important fronts, but the military was intact and retreated in good order. Unlike other Central Powers,
10780-406: Was disgusted with the policies of the CUP, and wished to be a more assertive sovereign than his diseased half brother. Greek and Armenian Ottomans declared the termination of their relationship with the Ottoman Empire through their respective patriarchates , and refused to partake in any future election. With the collapse of the CUP and its censorship regime, an outpouring of condemnation against
10890-441: Was elected an MP from Erzurum, but 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 and the Committee of Representation moved 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. Though Ali Rıza Pasha called
11000-449: 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. Before resigning from his position, he dispatched a circular to all nationalist organizations and military commanders to not disband or surrender unless for the latter if they could be replaced by cooperative nationalist commanders. Now only
11110-526: Was in fact a new and unifying movement, the delegates had to swear an oath to discontinue their relations with the CUP and to never revive the party (despite most present in Sivas being previous members). It was also decided there that the Ottoman Empire should not be a League of Nations mandate under the United States, especially after the U.S Senate failed to ratify American membership in the League. Momentum
11220-466: Was in this meeting that they were informed of the botched occupation ceremony of Smyrna (İzmir) by the Greeks. He and his carefully selected staff left Constantinople aboard the old steamer SS Bandırma on the evening of 16 May 1919. 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
11330-626: Was meant to accommodate him and other nationalists to keep them loyal to the government. Mustafa Kemal had earlier declined to become the leader of the Sixth Army headquartered in Nusaybin . But according to Patrick Balfour , 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 remaining Ottoman forces. Kemal had an abundance of connections and personal friends concentrated in
11440-404: Was now on the Nationalists' side. A plot by a loyalist Ottoman governor and a British intelligence officer to arrest Kemal before the Sivas Congress led to the cutting of all ties with the Ottoman government until a new election would be held in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies . In October 1919, the last Ottoman governor loyal to Constantinople fled his province. Fearing
11550-462: Was occupied in order to secure the surroundings and prepare for the establishment of headquarters in Adana . After the occupation of Cilicia proper at the end of 1918, French troops occupied the Ottoman provinces of Antep , Marash and Urfa in southern Anatolia at the end of 1919, taking them over from British troops as agreed. At the eastern tip of the occupation zone in the south, the city of Mardin
11660-605: Was potent in the capital, with 23 May 1919 being largest of the Sultanahmet Square demonstrations organized by the Turkish Hearths against the Greek occupation of Smyrna, the largest act of civil disobedience in Turkish history at that point. The Ottoman government condemned the landing, but could do little about it. Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his colleagues stepped ashore in Samsun on 19 May and set up their first quarters in
11770-481: Was recognized as the legitimate Turkish government, which signed the Treaty of Lausanne , a treaty more favorable to Turkey than Sèvres. The Allies evacuated Anatolia and eastern Thrace, the Ottoman government was overthrown, the monarchy abolished , and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey declared the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. With the war, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey ,
11880-577: 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 and air force handed to the Allies, and occupied territory in the Caucasus and Persia to be evacuated. Critically, Article VII granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Turkish Straits and
11990-461: Was to organise protests. He declared "Today the Turkish nation is called to defend its capacity for civilization, its right to life and independence – its entire future". Franco-Turkish War [REDACTED] France [REDACTED] Ankara Government [REDACTED] : Mar. 1920 : 25,000–30,000 May 1920 : ~40,000 men Feb. 1921 : 70,000 men [REDACTED] : 10,150 men The Franco–Turkish War , known as
12100-441: Was welcome. If the government in Constantinople was not able to attain this after electing a new parliament, 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 Pasha as its chairman. Following the congress, the Committee of Representation relocated to Sivas. As announced in
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