EMERGENCE OF MODERN TURKEY MUSTAFA KHEMAL PASHA

• Turkey touched the nadir of her humiliation when she was made to sign the treaty of Sevres in 1920.
• The treaty had stripped her of almost all her possessions so that her empire was reduced to the mountainous region of Anatolia and small corner of Europe.
• The unusually harsh terms of the treaty shocked the Turks into immediate action. Their leader was Mustapha khemal who smashed the elaborate structure built by the victorious allied powers at Sevres.
• Born at Salonika in 1880 of Albanian parents Mustapha at an early age took up a soldier’s life at the staff school at Constantinople.
• Here he obtained the name of khemal.
• This means perfection for his proficiency in mathematics. He developed into first rate soldier and at the same time evinced a keen interest on the study of revolutionary literature.
• He came to detest the sultan’s autocratic government and for a time joined the party of the young Turks. But he disliked their muddled politics and intrigues and so in 1919 he went to France to study army manoeuvres.
• On coming back he proved his military abilities by taking a prominent part in his country’s wars against Italy and the Balkan powers (1912-13).
• But what definitely established his reputation as an able military commander was his successful repulse of the British attack on Gallipoli in 1915 during the First World War.
• When the war was over and the allies imposed upon turkey the humiliating terms of the treaty of Sevres, khemal felt extremely chagrined. 
• He sought to persuade sultans Muhammad VI to resist the allies and he offered to lead the army against the Greeks.
• But the Turkish authorities were too timid to take any risk.
• So khemal in anger resigned his command in Palestine and hastened to Constantinople.
• But the sultan’s government sought to get him out of the way by transferring him to Anatolia as Inspector general in charge of the demobilization operation.
• Khemal was not the man to be baffled in this way.
• He went to Anatolia but instead of disbanding the army he organized it.
• Then he set up a nationalist party called the people‘s party with the motto “Turkey for the Turks” this party met in two congresses and drew up a national pact containing provisions which practically amounted to refusal to accept the Sevres treaty.
• This pact was endorsed by a Constantinople parliament which had a nationalist majority but the allies completely ignored the pact and a British army marched into Constantinople, proclaimed material law and summoned a Grand National assembly at Ankara and proclaimed it to be sole representative of the Turkish nation. 
• The assembly elected khemal to be its president and made him the commander in chief of the national army. 
• Thus was set up parallel Turkish government with Ankara as its headquarters. Khemal was to give a lead to the nation, which the sultan had failed to do. 
• Khemal’s first act was to clear the country of foreign troops. He compelled the Italian troops to quit southern Anatolia and expelled the French troops from Cilicia.
• By a friendly arrangement with soviet Russian khemal secured the surrender of kars and ardahan. He then overthrew the recently established Armenian republic.

Khemal and the Greeks

• The Greeks had secured valuable gains by the Treaty of Sevres and so were keenly interested in enforcing its terms. 
• They had expelled the Turks from Thrace and occupied Smyrna. 
• They looked with concern at the possibility of the revival of Turkish power under khemal’s leadership and so were eager to smash the nationalist Turks in their stronghold in Anatolia. 
• In this project they were encouraged by the British government which offered them moral and financial support. In 1921 they began their great offensive and pushed on towards Ankara.
• But they were checked by the stony and waterless plateau around Ankara and were repulsed with great loss by Mustapha khemal. It was a complete and colossal disaster. 
• Khemal then captures Smyrna and gave it up to the flames. He expelled not only the Greek soldiers but every Greek inhabitant from Asia Minor.
• Flushed with success khemal wanted to cross the straits in order to expel the Greeks from thrace. But British warships guarded the straits and Lloyd George threatened war if the khemalists would attempt to cross into Europe. An Anglo- Turkish conflict seemed imminent.
• But it was averted and khemal was persuaded to conclude an armistice (1922).
• The Grand National Assembly then decreed the abolition of the sultanate and Muhammad VI fled to Malta on board a British ship.
• Next year turkey was declared a republic and the assembly unanimously elected khemal as its first president.

Treaty of Lausanne 

• Khemal’s resounding victory over the Greeks compelled the allied power to revise the treaty of Sevres and they met at Lausanne in 1923 to make a new treaty to meet altered conditions.
• By the treaty of Lausanne, turkey regained eastern thrace including the city of Adrianople. Constantinople was also restored to her. 
• Capitulations were abolished, foreign control of customs was lifted and so restrictions were placed on turkey’s military, naval and air forces.
• Turkey consented to the demilitarization of the straits and gave up all claims to her Asiatic and African possessions. 
• This treaty was a great triumph for Mustapha khemal and great humiliation for the great powers of Europe. In everything except demilitarizing the straits, khemal was strong enough to secure what he wanted.
• His firmness enabled turkey to escape onerous foreign control which had been imposed on all other ex-enemy powers.