The War of Independence and the Republic
After Ottoman defeat and Allied occupation, Mustafa Kemal leads a national resistance from Anatolia, defeats the Greek army and wins the Treaty of Lausanne; the Republic of Turkey is proclaimed on 29 October 1923.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey — Andrew Mango, John Murray (1999)
- Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey — Bruce Clark, Granta (2006)
- The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East — Eugene Rogan, Basic Books (2015)
- A Modern History of the Kurds — David McDowall, I.B. Tauris (2004)
By the armistice of Mudros in October 1918 the Ottoman Empire was beaten. Allied forces occupied Istanbul; Britain held Mesopotamia and Palestine, France Syria and Cilicia, Italy the south-west of Anatolia. In May 1919 Greek troops, backed by the Allies, landed at Izmir (Smyrna), a city with a large Greek population.
- The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East — Eugene Rogan, Basic Books (2015)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
Samsun and Ankara
On 19 May 1919 Mustafa Kemal, the hero of Gallipoli, landed at Samsun on the Black Sea, officially as an army inspector, in reality to organise resistance. At congresses in Erzurum and Sivas, nationalists drew up the National Pact, claiming the lands with a Muslim majority as an indivisible homeland. In April 1920 a Grand National Assembly opened in Ankara, a small Anatolian town that became the movement’s capital.
- Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey — Andrew Mango, John Murray (1999)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
In August 1920 the Sultan’s government signed the Treaty of Sèvres, which would have left the Turks a rump state in central and northern Anatolia, with Armenian and Greek gains, a possible Kurdish autonomy and the Straits under international control. The Ankara assembly rejected it, and it was never implemented, but “Sèvres” became a byword for the nightmare of partition.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- A Modern History of the Kurds — David McDowall, I.B. Tauris (2004)
The war
The nationalists fought on several fronts: against the Armenian republic in the east in 1920, against the French in the south, and above all against the Greek army, which advanced deep into Anatolia. In August and September 1921 it was stopped on the Sakarya River, within striking distance of Ankara, after three weeks of battle. In August 1922 Kemal’s counter-offensive broke the Greek lines, and on 9 September Turkish troops entered Izmir. Days later a great fire destroyed the Greek and Armenian quarters, while refugees crowded the waterfront. Who started it is still argued over; most non-Turkish historians blame Turkish troops or irregulars, while Turkish accounts often blame Armenians or retreating Greeks.
- Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey — Andrew Mango, John Murray (1999)
- Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey — Bruce Clark, Granta (2006)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
Both sides committed atrocities against civilians during the war, Greek forces burning Turkish villages in their retreat and Turkish forces killing and expelling Greeks and Armenians.
- Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey — Bruce Clark, Granta (2006)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
Lausanne and the Republic
The Treaty of Lausanne, signed on 24 July 1923, recognised Turkey’s independence and roughly its present borders, ending the capitulations that had given foreigners special legal privileges. It defined minorities purely by religion, recognising only non-Muslims, and so made no provision for Kurds.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- A Modern History of the Kurds — David McDowall, I.B. Tauris (2004)
- Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey — Bruce Clark, Granta (2006)
On 29 October 1923 the Grand National Assembly proclaimed the Republic of Turkey, with Ankara as its capital and Mustafa Kemal as its first president. The sultanate had already been abolished in 1922.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey — Andrew Mango, John Murray (1999)
Why it still matters
For most Turks, these years are the proof that the nation can survive anything if it stands together. The memory also carries fear: that the great powers might still want to revive Sèvres, which colours Turkish views of Western support for Kurdish groups or Armenian recognition. And it carries the silences of a nation-state built on a mixed empire, about the Greeks, Armenians and Kurds whose stories do not fit the national epic.
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
- A Modern History of the Kurds — David McDowall, I.B. Tauris (2004)
- Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey — Bruce Clark, Granta (2006)
A war of national liberation: a defeated, occupied people rose under Mustafa Kemal against the imperial powers and their Greek proxy, tore up the dictated Treaty of Sèvres and won full independence at Lausanne.
- Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey — Andrew Mango, John Murray (1999)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
The "Asia Minor Catastrophe": the defeat of the Greek army in 1922, the burning of Smyrna and the expulsion of Greek Orthodox communities that had lived in Anatolia for some three thousand years.
- Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey — Bruce Clark, Granta (2006)
Kurds fought alongside Turks in the war as fellow Muslims, but Lausanne buried the Kurdish autonomy envisaged at Sèvres, and the new republic soon denied Kurdish identity altogether.
- A Modern History of the Kurds — David McDowall, I.B. Tauris (2004)
The nationalist forces completed the removal of Armenians from Anatolia, fighting the short-lived Armenian republic in 1920, and Lausanne closed the question of justice for 1915.
- "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide — Ronald Grigor Suny, Princeton University Press (2015)
Why it matters today
This is Turkey's founding story, taught as a near-miraculous rescue of a nation from extinction. It explains Turks' devotion to Atatürk, the strength of their national pride, and the "Sèvres syndrome", a lasting fear that foreign powers want to partition the country. Republic Day on 29 October and 19 May, Youth and Sports Day, are among the most important dates of the year.