The Rise and Development of the Turkish National Resistance

The Armistice of Moudros marked the final dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Immediately after the armistice, the occupation of Anatolia by the Allied Powers; namely, Britain, France and Italy began. The British forces occupied Mosul in Iraq and Merzifon, Kars, Ardahan and Batumi in north and north-eastern Anatolia. The French took Cilicia region including Mersin, Tarsus, Adana and the Taurus tunnels under their control. The Italians occupied Marmaris, Fethiye, Antalya and Burdur in south-western Anatolia. İstanbul entered into joint Allied administration led by these three powers.

New organizations began to rise as a reaction to the Allied occupations and territorial demands of the non-Muslim ethnic groups; particularly, the Greeks and the Armenians. At the same time, local resistance movements began to flourish in Anatolia under the name of Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyetleri (Societies for the Defense of Rights).

The turning point in the development of the resistance movements was the occupation of İzmir by the Greek army in May 1919. This started a series of demonstrations throughout the country against the occupation and turned the resistance movements into a full scale national resistance movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

The last Ottoman Parliament opened in January 1920 where the nationalists were in majority. The members of the Parliament adopted the National Pact (Misak-ı Milli) which was previously agreed upon at Erzurum and Sivas congresses setting the aims of the National Resistance.

The occupation of Istanbul by the British in March 1920 ended the existence of the parliament in the capital. This led to the opening of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, the future capital of Turkey, on April 23, 1920. In the

the Unionists lost power. Organized around old leaders, notably Damat Ferit Pasha, who headed at least five cabinets after the war, revived Hürriyet ve İtilâf Fırkası (the Party of Freedom and Accord) and became the dominant force in official politics under the new circumstances.

Unionists organized Turks in Istanbul through a clandestine organization named Karakol (Guard). It had been established before the end of the war with the purpose of protecting the Unionists in the postwar era against possible revengeful actors-the Allied Powers, the Liberals and the Christian communities. It also aimed to strengthen the resistance in Anatolia and the Caucasus by sending people, money, arms and supplies from İstanbul

As a result, many regional organizations called Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyetleri (Societies for the Defense of Rights) were formed with the purpose of preserving the rights of Turkish population based on Wilson’s twelfth point that had promised sovereignty to the Turkish portions of the Ottoman Empire. They were to demonstrate that the areas in danger of being separated from the Ottoman Empire were overwhelmingly Turkish and that they wanted to remain with the motherland.

The Society for the Defense of the National Rights of the Eastern Provinces was founded when rivalry over the region was fierce. It was founded by Süleyman Nazif, a well-known poet, and Hoca Raif [Dinç], a Unionist deputy of Erzurum. Former governors and deputies joined the organization.

One of the earliest of such organizations was the Vilâyat-ı Şarkiye Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti (The Society for the Defense of Rights of the Eastern Provinces) founded in December 1918. Eastern provinces included Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Mamuretü’l-Aziz (Elazığ) and Sivas. They were also known as the six provinces (vilayât-ı sitte).

Similar organizations were founded for the defense of the Black Sea province of Trabzon which included Rize, Giresun, Ordu and Gümüşhane. This region was claimed by the Pontian Greek nationalists as part of their ancient Greek state of Pontus. Trabzon was also claimed by the Armenians as the exit port of the Greater Armenia. The Greeks and Armenians resorted to diplomatic means to obtain the control of the city while the Turks laid the foundations of an armed national struggle. To this end, Trabzon Muhafaza-i Hukuk Cemiyeti (the Society for the Preservation of Rights of Trabzon) was founded. It aimed to prove and show the Allied Powers that the overwhelming majority of the population in the province was Muslim and Turkish.

The conference for the peace settlements with the defeated powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, commenced in Paris on January 18, 1919. The question of dealing with Germany and Austria was the primary concern. The settlement regarding the Ottoman territories that is Anatolia and the Arab lands, would require more time since there were conflicting interests among the Allies as well as the ethnic groups. The Ottoman Greeks, Ottoman Armenians, Kurds, Arabs and Jews except Turks were all represented by delegations in order to present their claims before the conference.

In fact, the Allied Powers had already declared to liberate peoples living under the Ottoman rule including Muslims and non-Muslims and grant them national recognition, even before the end of the First World War. After the signing of the Moudros Armistice, Britain and France affirmed their earlier commitment by issuing a joint-declaration on November 9, 1918. They guaranteed ‘the complete and final emancipation of all peoples oppressed by the Turks’ and the establishment of national governments and administrations who would drive their authority from the initiative and free will of their own people.

In the southern Anatolia, Turkish resistance developed after the occupation of Adana by the French troops. Former deputies and notables of the province founded Adana Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti (the Society for the Defense of Rights of Adana) on December 5, 1918. The causes of their foundation were similar to other Defense of Rights Societies. They wanted to appeal to the Allied Powers for the implementation of the self-determination principle provided that the majority of population was Muslim and Turkish.

The Supreme Council of the Conference (Council of Four) was formed by Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States, Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Britain, Georges Clemenceau, the Prime Minister of France and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, the Prime Minister of Italy.

The occupation of İzmir by the Greek troops came when all these different claims were being voiced for the Ottoman territories. The Greek desire to annex İzmir based on historical, demographic and ideological factors was already made clear. Nevertheless, the decision for the occupation of İzmir was taken mainly by Britain and France. Both countries disliked the idea of the extension of Italian occupation in Western Anatolia.

Mustafa Kemal accompanied by trusted friends left İstanbul by boat and landed in Samsun, a port on the Black Sea coast, on May 19, 1919, four days after the Greek occupation of İzmir. Soon after his landing, he started his work to organize and unify the nationalist resistance.

The Amasya Circular was sent to all civilian and military authorities in Anatolia. The Circular stated:

With the Amasya Circular the nation is warned against partition and possible occupation by the Allied forces.

The Erzurum Congress convened with the participation of over fifty delegates who were mostly from Erzurum and Trabzon from July 23, 1919 to August 7, 1919. Mustafa Kemal was elected as the chairman of the Congress. At the end of the Congress; a proclamation was issued setting the basic principles of the resistance movement. In the preface of the proclamation, it was stated that the Congress was convened to protect the ‘holy existence’ of the eastern provinces in face of the following menaces:

• the preparations to realize the Pontus state at the Black Sea coast and bringing Greek immigrants in crowds from the Russian shores to this effort.

For the protection of the eastern provinces against ‘treacherous perils’, the Congress reached the following conclusions:

• The province of Trabzon, the district of Samsun, and the six eastern provinces (Erzurum, Sivas, Diyarbekir, Elazığ, Van and Bitlis) are an inseparable whole. They cannot be separated from each other or from Ottoman territory for any reason.

• The preservation of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and national independence, the protection of the sultanate and caliphate are dependent to the putting of national forces in charge and the recognition of the national will as sovereign.

• All occupation and interference will be considered undertaken on behalf of establishing Greek and Armenian states. Therefore, the principle of united defense and resistance is accepted. Christian elements will not be granted new privileges that can counter political sovereignty and social equilibrium.

• If the central government abandons any part of the territory under foreign pressure, measures and decisions, including the establishment of a provisional government in eastern Anatolia, will be taken in order to defend the national rights and the sultanate and caliphate.

• The legal rights of the non-Muslims as indicated in the laws of the Ottoman state are reaffirmed. The Congress is in consensus that the property, life, and honor of the non-Muslims are the basic tenets of religious practices, national traditions, and legal principles.

• The Congress completely rejects the division of lands and separation of peoples who were within the boundaries of the country at the signature of the Moudros Armistice on October 30, 1918.

• The scientific, industrial and economic assistance of every state which do not nurture imperialistic ambitions towards the country and who respect the principles of nationality will be accepted on the condition that the internal and external independence of the people and the state as well as the territorial integrity of the country are preserved.

• The Central Government should be dependent to the national will at a time when the nations have the right of self-determination. It should convene the National Parliament immediately. All decisions taken on the destiny of the nation and country should be under the supervision of the parliament.

The most crucial step in the unification of resistance organizations took place at Sivas Congress September, 4-11, 1919. Compared to the Erzurum Congress, a wider geography, from eastern Anatolia to Thrace, were represented in Sivas, though with fewer participants. The Sivas Congress reaffirmed the resolutions of Erzurum Congress with a more forceful rejection of all occupation. The participants of the Congress decided to bring all local Defense of Rights organizations under the umbrella organization of Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti (the Society for the Defense of Rights in Anatolia and Rumelia). The Representative Committee elected at the Erzurum Congress was given the executive rights to function and speak on behalf of the whole nation.

The Amasya Protocol was the result of the discussions. Through this protocol, the resistance leadership demanded the acceptance of the resolutions of the Erzurum and Sivas Congresses and the recognition of the legality of the Society for Defense of Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia by the Istanbul government. Furthermore, the following were stipulated by the Protocol.

All these were confirmed with minor additions in the peace treaty that had been signed between the Allied Powers and the Ottoman state at Sèvres on August 10, 1920. In addition to the above resolutions, among the stipulations of the Treaty of Sèvres, there were the following: