Turkish War of Independence ｜ 3 Minute History

The Ottoman Empire suffered defeat in World War I at the hands of the British, the French and their allies. However, during the war the allied nations signed secret agreements on how to divide up the territory. Britain and France already occupied the Levant and would go on to divide it amongst themselves and Arabian nations had gained their independence so they turned their attention to Anatolia. France and Britain wanted the east to add to their new Middle Eastern regions. Greece looked to expand east and take the west coast of Anatolia, Italy wanted the southern coast and the new nation of Armenia would take the northeast. The Ottoman Empire would be reduced to a small amount of land around Ankara. When the war ended an armistice was signed and in November 1918 a French brigade entered Constantinople and occupied the city. Paris Peace Conference began in 1919 and the allies discussed finalising their plans to divide Turkey amongst themselves. Meanwhile, allied troops occupied more and more towns in the Ottoman Empire. However, there were land disputes amongst the Italians and the Greeks so the Italians left the peace conference. This pushed the Greeks to land in Izmir and begin their first military campaign. There were pockets of resistance around Anatolia but largely they were easily crushed. Meanwhile an army general, Mustafa Kemal, recognised that his government was being oppressed by foreign nations and not fighting back. He decided to organise his own resistance. He united local resistance movements with military units to fight to keep the land inhabited by Turks united. On April 23, 1920, the Grand National Assembly gathered in Ankara and elected Mustafa Kemal as the chairman. However, the Sultan had already signed the Treaty of Sevres with the allied powers, dividing the empire amongst the powers and making the Dardanelles and Istanbul an international zone. Kemal rejected the treaty and this effectively gave the Turks two governments, Kemal's Republic in Ankara and the Sultan's government in Istanbul. Kemal's Republic soon started to fight against the allies on three fronts, Greece to the west, Armenia to the east and France to the south and they all received a lot of backing from other nations. However, Kemal was able to get help from the Soviets who wanted to move into Armenia and find a new ally. They sent the Turks thousands of weapons and then Bolshevik troops took Yerevan and established a new Soviet government in Armenia. The two nations then signed a treaty to establish new borders. With the Armenian front freed, this allowed Kemal to focus on Greece in the west. In early 1921, the Greeks were pushing on Ankara, however they were halted at the Battle of Sarkaya. The Battle of Sarkaya and the loss of Armenia undermined the French desire to continue the war, so they made peace with the Turks and cemented the Turkish-Syrian border. Kemal then led an offensive against the Greeks and retook Izmir in September 1922. He then began to threaten Constantinople which was under international control. The British Prime Minister Lloyd George pushed for war, however he couldn't find the support in Parliament or amongst other European nations or even in their Canadian dominion. The Chanak Crisis, as it was called, saw the election of the anti-war Conservative government in Britain and an increase in self-determination in Canada. The new British government then persuaded the Greeks to abandon Constantinople and peace talks began. However the allied states invited the Sultan's government to the peace talks. Kemal didn't wish to see the government who fought against him represented at the conference so he decided to abolish the Sultanate, ending the Ottoman Empire which had been around for over 600 years. The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923. It secured Turkish independence and established very similar borders to what the country has today. Meanwhile in Greece the war caused discontent and rebellions which forced King Constantine I to abdicate in 1922 and then his son, George II, had to give way for the Second Hellenic Republic. During the campaign both the Greeks and the Turks committed a number of atrocities. The deaths of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Greeks within Turkey encouraged the two nations to agree to a population exchange. Turks and Muslims went to Turkey while Greeks and Christians went to Greece. Nearly 2 million people would cross the Greek-Turkish border.