Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
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of them. Ataturk had with prescience stayed in Ankara. He at once organised a new Assembly and an alternaive government - the first Turkish Grand National Assembly. In August I920, the Sultan's government signed the Treaty of Sèvres with the Allies. This Treaty, which would have reduced Turkey to the north-west corner of Anatolia, and divided the rest of her present territory between Greece, Italy, France and an independent Armenia, roused a fresh wave of nationalist fervour and determination. By this time Turkish irregulars were engaging Greek troops advancing eastwards from Smyrna. The war intensified and became a fully organised campaign. After a desperate defence during 1920 and 1921, the Nationalists, strengthened by steadily improving organisation, by the departure of the French and Italians from Cilicia and Antalya respectively, and by the support of the new Soviet government, launched an offensive against the Greeks, who were growing weaker as time passed, and drove them into the sea. An armistice on Turkish terms was arranged in the autumn of 1922. In October, the Ankara government declared the Sultanate at an end and the last Sultan, Mohammet VI, fled in a British warship. His son remained as the Caliph of Islam, shorn of political powers. Ataturk's right-hand man, Ismet Pasa, later to be called Inonu, in tough negotiations which lasted till 1923, won practically all the points of the National Pact of February 1920
On the 29th October I923 Turkey was declared a Republic with Ataturk as President. Only in the light of the power and prestige which Ataturk acquired during these events can his success in carrying through his staggering programme of Westernisation be understood. The victory of the Turks over the Greeks restored their morale. Indeed, the villagers today do not think of the First World War as a defeat at the hands of the Allies, but as a victory over the Greeks.
Republic and Reform
From October I923 until the end of the Second World War Turkey was a one-party state, virtually under the control of a dictator. The organisation which began as a nationalist movement against the Allies in 1919, was re-christened the Republican
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