THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

agreement did not consider it necessary to abide by its terms. Under
various pretexts the navies and the armies of the Entente ( France,
Britain and Italy ) were in Istanbul, while the p rovince of Adana had
been occupied by the French and Urfa and Maras by the British. There were
Italian soldiers in Antalya and Konya, and British soldiers in Merzifon
and Samsun. Everywhere there were foreign officers, officials and agents. 
On the 15th of May 1919 the Greek Army landed in Izmir with the agreement
of the Entente. Under difficult conditions, Mustafa Kemal decided to go
to Anatolia. On 16th of May 1919, he left Istanbul in a small boat called
the "Bandirma". Mustafa Kemal was warned that his enemies had planned to
sink his ship on the way out. But he was not afraid and on Monday19th May
1919, he arrived in Samsun and set foot on Anatolian soil. That date marks
the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence . It is also the date
Mustafa Kemal later chose as his own birthday. A wave of national
resistance arose in Anatolia. A movement had already begun in Erzurum in
the east and Mustafa Kemal quickly placed himself at the head of the whole
organization. The congresses in Erzurum and Sivas in the Summer of 1919
declared the nat ional aims by a national pact.

When the foreign armies occupied Istanbul, on 23th of April 1920 Mustafa
Kemal opened the Turkish Grand National Assembly and hence established a
provisional new government, the centre of which was to be Ankara. On the
same day Mustafa Kemal was elected President of the Grand National
Assembly. The Greeks, profiting by the rebellion of Çerkez Ethem and
acting in collaboration with him, started to advance towards Bursa and
Eskisehir. On the 10th of January 1921, the enemy forces were heavily
defeated by the Commander of the Western Front, Colon el Ismet and his
troops. On the 10th of July 1921, the Greeks launched a frontal attack
with five divisions on Sakarya. After the great battle of Sakarya, which
continued without interruption from the 23rd of August to the 13th of
September, the Greek Army was defeated and ha d to retreat. After the
battle, the Grand National Assembly gave Mustafa Kemal the titles of Ghazi
and Marshal. Mustafa Kemal decided to drive the enemies out of his
country. He gave the order that the attack should be launched on the
morning of the 26th of August 1922. The bulk of the enemy forces were
surrounded and killed or captured on the 30th of August at D umlupinar.
The enemy Commander - in - Chief, General Trikupis, was captured. Or the
9th of September 1922 the fleeing enemy forces were driven into the sea
near Izmir. The Turkish forces, under the extraordinary military skill of
Kemal Atatürk, fought a War of Independence against the occupying Allied
powers and in the end won victories on every front all over the country. 
On the 24th of July 1923, with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne,
(Lozan Antlasmasi ) the independence of the new Turkish State was
recognised by all countries. Mustafa Kemal built up a new, sturdy,
vigorous state. On the 29th of October 1923, he d eclared the new Turkish
state a Republic. Following the declaration of the Republic, the Caliphate
wase abolished. Mustafa Kemal was elected the first President of the
Republic of Turkey.