TURKEY (). An organized State of Nationalist
Turkey, in its wider aspect an Anatolian State created by Turkish
Nationalists in 1919-20, was the outcome of the terms of
peace dictated to the Ottoman Empire by the victorious Powers
after the war of 1914-8. A severe peace was expected by the
Turkish rulers and people. They were resigned to the loss of
Turkish Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia; to stringent
foreign control of Turkish finance; to the reimposition of the
Capitulations; to international control of the waterway between
the Aegean and the Black Sea; and to measures for the protection
of Christian populations in Turkish territory. Such curtailments
of territory and supervision of their internal affairs would doubtless
have received their reluctant acquiescence. But the surrender
of Ottoman territory of — Smyrna and Thrace — to Greece as part
of the terms of peace was a matter that touched all Turks to the
quick. The Turkish Nationalist movement received its first
great impulse when a Greek force, acting on a decision of the
Supreme Council, occupied Smyrna and the surrounding territory
in May 1919. Nationalist plans were rapidly matured and
put into execution.
General Mustafa Kemal Pasha, an officer who had fought
with much credit in the defence of Gallipoli, left Constantinople
early in June 1919, ostensibly for his military district in Asia
Minor. On June 19 he outlined the Nationalist plan for saving
the country at a public meeting held at Khavsa, 50 m. inland
from Samsun. It was the official opening of the Nationalist
movement. In brief, the scheme was to create a government
and army in the heart of Asia Minor to resist the partitioning of
Turkish territory within “Armistice limits.” The definition of
area referred to the armistice of Mudros of Oct. 30 1918, and thus
excluded Mesopotamia, Syria and Arabia from the territory to
be preserved, but included Smyrna and Thrace. For this area
Nationalists professed willingness to accept a single Great Power
as mandatory; they would not, however, accept more than one. The movement spread rapidly. A provisional government was set up at Erzerum in August. In Sept. a National Congress was held at Sivas, which affirmed the purpose not only of maintaining the integrity of Ottoman territory within armistice limits, but of upholding the Caliphate and Sultanate. A few weeks later the seat of the government was changed to Angora, as a more central position. By the end of 1919 the Nationalist movement had been accepted by nearly the whole of Asia Minor, and the Ottoman government at Constantinople became a government representing little, and wielding no authority.
Behind the Nationalist movement was the military class of
Turkey, and the still powerful secret society known as the
Committee of Union and Progress. In fact, though the movement
represented on the part of the people a genuine patriotism and
desire to resist what was deemed as aggression, it is doubtful if
the Committee were not its real founders. At all events Talaat
Pasha, Enver Pasha, Djemal Pasha, Sais Halim Pasha, and many
other Committee leaders became exceedingly active in the
nationalist cause. They gave it, too, the Panislamist policy
which the Committee had followed when in power behind the
Ottoman Government at Constantinople. Owing to this connexion
between Turkish Nationalism and Panislamism Moslem
sympathy was excited in British India. Doubtless the agitation
was arranged, but nevertheless it carried weight. A “Caliphate
Committee” to oppose the imposition of harsh terms of
peace on Turkey was formed, and a delegation sent to London, the delegation laid much stress on a speech made by Mr. Lloyd