Turkish War of Independence

rdf:langString Turkish War of Independence

rdf:langString Turkish War of Independence

rdf:langString Clockwise from top left: Delegation gathered in Sivas Congress to determine the objectives of the Turkish National Movement; Turkish civilians carrying ammunition to the front; Kuva-yi Milliye infantry; Turkish horse cavalry in chase; Turkish Army's capture of Smyrna; troops in Ankara's Ulus Square preparing to leave for the front.

rdf:langString ~7,000

rdf:langString Ottoman Empire

rdf:langString Grand National Assembly

rdf:langString * Loyalists

rdf:langString Committee of Representation

rdf:langString * Kuva-yi Milliye * Kuva-yi Seyyare ----

rdf:langString Entente:

rdf:langString Turkish Nationalists:

rdf:langString Turkish War of Independence

rdf:langString

rdf:langString c. The Treaty of Ankara was signed in 1921 and the Franco-Turkish War thus ended. The French troops remained in Constantinople with the other Allied troops.

rdf:langString b. Italy occupied Constantinople and a part of southwestern Anatolia but never fought the Turkish Army directly. During its occupation Italian troops protected Turkish civilians, who were living in the areas occupied by the Italian army, from Greek troops and accepted Turkish refugees who had to flee from the regions invaded by the Greek army. In July 1921 Italy began to withdraw its troops from southwestern Anatolia.

rdf:langString f. Greece took 22,071 military and civilian prisoners. Of these were 520 officers and 6,002 soldiers. During the prisoner exchange in 1923, 329 officers, 6,002 soldiers and 9,410 civilian prisoners arrived in Turkey. The remaining 6,330, mostly civilian prisoners, presumably died in Greek captivity.

rdf:langString e. The Ottoman controlled Kuva-yi Inzibatiye fought the Turkish revolutionaries during the Greek Summer Offensive and the Ottoman government in Constantinople supported other revolts .

rdf:langString the Revolutions of 1917–1923

rdf:langString in the aftermath of World War I

rdf:langString Anatolia, Southwestern Caucasus, Cilicia, East Thrace, and Upper Mesopotamia

rdf:langString Turkish victory

rdf:langString May 1919: 35,000

rdf:langString November 1920: 86,000

rdf:langString August 1922: 271,000

rdf:langString Dec. 1919: 80,000

rdf:langString Establishment of the Republic of Turkey

rdf:langString The Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by the Turkish National Movement after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following its defeat in World War I. These campaigns were directed against Greece in the west, Armenia in the east, France in the south, loyalists and separatists in various cities, and British and Ottoman troops around Constantinople (İstanbul). The ethnic demographics of the modern Turkish Republic were significantly impacted by the earlier Armenian genocide and the deportations of Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian Rum people. The Turkish nationalist movement carried out massacres and deportations to eliminate native Christian populations—a continuation of the Armenian genocide and other ethnic cleansing operations during World War I. Following these campaigns of ethnic cleansing the historic Christian presence in Anatolia was destroyed, in large part, and the Muslim demographic had increased from 80% to 98%. While World War I ended for the Ottoman Empire with the Armistice of Mudros, the Allied Powers continued occupying and seizing land. Ottoman military commanders therefore refused orders from both the Allies and the Ottoman government to surrender and disband their forces. This crisis reached a head when sultan Mehmed VI dispatched Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk), a well-respected and high-ranking general, to Anatolia to restore order; however, Mustafa Kemal became an enabler and eventually leader of Turkish nationalist resistance against the Ottoman government, Allied powers, and Christian minorities. In an attempt to establish control over the power vacuum in Anatolia, the Allies persuaded Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos to launch an expeditionary force into Anatolia and occupy Smyrna (İzmir), beginning the Turkish War of Independence. Many different national congresses banded together which led to the establishment of the Grand National Assembly (GNA) in Ankara, a counter government led by Mustafa Kemal made up of remaining elements of the Committee of Union and Progress. The Allied powers meanwhile pressured the Ottoman government into suspending the Constitution, shuttering the Chamber of Deputies, and signing the Treaty of Sèvres, a treaty unfavorable to Turkish interests that the "Ankara government" declared illegal. In the ensuing war, irregular militia known as Kuva-yi Milliye defeated the French forces in the south, and undemobilized units led by Kazım Karabekir Pasha went on to partition Armenia with Bolshevik forces, resulting in the Treaty of Kars (October 1921). The Western Front of the independence war was known as the Greco-Turkish War, in which Greek forces at first encountered unorganized resistance. However İsmet Pasha's organization of Kuva-yi Milliye militia into a regular army paid off when Ankara forces fought the Greeks in the Battles of First and Second İnönü. The Greek army emerged victorious in the Battle of Kütahya-Eskişehir and decided to drive on the nationalist capital of Ankara, stretching their supply lines. The Turks checked the advance in the Battle of Sakarya and counter-attacked in the Great Offensive, which expelled Greek forces from Anatolia in the span of three weeks. The war effectively ended with the recapture of İzmir and the Chanak Crisis, prompting the signing of another armistice in Mudanya. The GNA in Ankara was recognized as the legitimate Turkish government, which signed the Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923), a treaty more favorable to Turkey than the Sèvres Treaty. The Allies evacuated Anatolia and Eastern Thrace, the Ottoman government was overthrown and the monarchy abolished, and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (which remains Turkey's primary legislative body today) declared the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. With the war, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, 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 modern, secular nation-state of Turkey. On 3 March 1924, the Ottoman caliphate was also abolished.