Turkish War of Independence
The Turkish War of Independence was a direct continuation of World War 1.
Contents
Antecedents
The Armistice of Mudros ceased hostilities on the eastern front and allowed an occupation by British, French, and Italian armies to begin. Mehmed VI was generally accommodating to their demands.
The land cessions planned by the Sykes-Picot Agreement between France and the UK, and then drafted into the Treaty of Sèvres, included:
Smyrna and Thrace to Greece
Syria, Lebanon, and a western portion of Anatolia to France
- This western portion of Anatolia was intended to hold a plebiscite over independence as Kurdistan.
- the Dodecanese Islands and southern Anatolia to Italy
Mesopotamia (sometimes called Mandatory Iraq), Mandatory Palestine, Transjordan to the UK
independence for Armenia
Russia had also entered the war with claims stipulated in the Constantinople Agreement, but this scheme fell apart under the Russian Revolution.
Mustafa Kemal Pasha established a provisional government in Ankara and refused to ratify the treaty; hostilities resumed.
Greek Front
Greece launched a military landing, with French support, into Smyrna in May 1919. This sparked the Greco-Turkish War saw an invasion deep into Anatolia.
French withdrawal from the conflict severely weakened Greece's ability to continue the war. The Turks launched the Great Offensive in August 1922, and began to quickly reclaim land.
The UK threatened to enter the conflict as Turkish armies advanced on the Dardanelles Strait. Lloyd George however refused to escalate, and the Chanak Crisis ended peacefully. It was nonetheless made clear that there would be no Allied relief for Greek forces. Quite the opposite, the USSR began to substantially finance the Turkish government.
Smyrna was reclaimed in September 1922, and the Armistice of Mudanya was agreed in October.
Southern Front
Apart from supporting the Greek invasion, France launched the Cilicia Campaign in November 1918. While they enjoyed immediate successes in occupying major port cities, the Battle of Marash in early 1920 was a turning point and began a slow withdrawal.
The peace process for the Franco-Turkish War took years to finalize. The Treaty of Ankara was ratified in 1922 but left various provisional structures in place on either side of the new border with Syria. The Armistice of Mudanya officially dropped French claims to Turkish lands.
Eastern Front
The Turkish-Armenian War broke out against the First Armenian Republic in September 1920. By December, the Turkish army had seized most of western Armenia. Foreign minister Alexander Khatisyan was forced to sign the Treaty of Alexandropol. Besides becoming a client state, the occupied western half of the country was ceded to Turkey and Nakhchivan was ceded to Azerbaijan.
The USSR invaded Armenia in the final days of this war and rapidly seized power in Yerevan. They declared an Armenian Socialist Republic. Negotiations resumed but the new Treaty of Moscow largely reaffirmed the land cessions.
In the following October, a nearly identical Treaty of Kars was signed by Soviet Georgia and Azerbaijan as well.
Consequences
The Treaty of Lausanne, signed in July 1923, superseded the Armistice of Mudanya and officially ended World War 1 between the Allied Powers and Turkey. Possession of the territories that the Turkish army occupied was recognized and old Ottoman debts were cleared. Millions of ethnic Greeks or Turks were displaced and resettled across the new borders.
The 1914 border with Greece along the Maritsa (alt. Meriç or Hebros) River was re-established, and it remains as the modern border. The modern borders with Syria and Armenia were also established by this treaty.
Possession of Mosul remained an open-ended issue. A plebiscite in 1926 finally awarded it to Mandatory Iraq.