war fought between the Turkish National Movement and the Entente and their proxies
The Turkish War of Independence (also known as the Turkish War of Liberation) was a military conflict waged by the Turkish National Movement against the Allied Powers after World War I. The war lasted from 1919 to 1923 and resulted in the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.
Turkish War of Independence
Part of the Revolutions of 1917–1923 in the aftermath of World War I
Clockwise from top left: Delegation gathered in Sivas Congress to determine the objectives of the Turkish National Movement; Turkish civilians carrying ammunition to the front; Kuva-yi Milliye infantry; Turkish horse cavalry in chase; Turkish Army's capture of Smyrna; troops in Ankara's Ulus Square preparing to leave for the front.
Date
19 May 1919 – 11 October 1922 (Armistice) 24 July 1923 (Peace) (4 years, 2 months and 5 days)
Mustafa Kemal Pasha Mustafa Fevzi Pasha Mustafa İsmet Pasha Kazım Karabekir Pasha Fahrettin Pasha Ali Fuat Pasha Refet Pasha Nureddin Pasha Ethem the Circassian Template:Country data Cyrenaica Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi[18]
Constantine I Alexander I Eleftherios Venizelos Anastasios Papoulas Georgios Hatzianestis Leonidas Paraskevopoulos Kimon Digenis (POW) Nikolaos Trikoupis (POW) Henri Gouraud Template:Country data Democratic Republic of Armenia Drastamat Kanayan Template:Country data Democratic Republic of Armenia Movses Silikyan Sir George Milne Mehmed VI Damat Ferid Pasha Süleyman Şefik Pasha Anzavur Ahmed Pasha Ethem the Circassian
Dec. 1919: 80,000[22] 1922: 200,000[23]–250,000[24][25] 60,000[26][27] 30,000[28] Template:Country data Democratic Republic of Armenia 20,000[29] 7,000 (at peak)[30]
Casualties and losses
13,000 killed[31] 22,690 died of disease[32] 5,362 died of wounds or other non-combat causes[32] 35,000 wounded[31] 7,000 prisoners[33][f]
24,240 killed[34] 18,095 missing 48,880 wounded 4,878 died outside of combat 13,740 prisoners[34][35][note 2] Template:Country data Democratic Republic of Armenia 1,100+ killed[43] 3,000+ prisoners[44] ~7,000
264,000 Greek civilians killed[45] 60,000–250,000 Armenian civilians killed[46][47] 15,000+ Turkish civilians killed in the Western Front[48] 30,000+ buildings and 250+ villages burnt to the ground by the Hellenic Army and Greek/Armenian rebels.[49][50][51][52][53]
Notes
^ a. Kuva-yi Milliye came under command of the Grand National Assembly after 4 September 1920.
^ b. Italy occupied Constantinople and a part of southwestern Anatolia but never fought the Turkish army directly. During its occupation Italian troops protected Turkish civilians, who were living in the areas occupied by the Italian army, from Greek troops and accepted Turkish refugees who had to flee from the regions invaded by the Greek army.[54] In July 1921 Italy began to withdraw its troops from southwestern Anatolia.
^ c. The Treaty of Ankara was signed in 1921 and the Franco-Turkish War thus ended. The French troops remained in Constantinople with the other Allied troops.
^ d. The United Kingdom occupied Constantinople, then fought directly against Turkish irregular forces in the Greek Summer Offensive with the Greek troops. However, after this the United Kingdom would not take part in any more major fighting.[55][56][57][58] Moreover, the British troops occupied several towns in Turkey such as Mudanya.[59] Naval landing forces had tried to capture Mudanya as early as 25 June 1920, but stubborn Turkish resistance inflicted casualties on British forces and forced them to withdraw. There were many instances of successful delaying operations of small Turkish irregular forces against numerical superior enemy troops.[60] The United Kingdom, which also fought diplomatically against the Turkish National Movement, came to the brink of a great war in September 1922 (Chanak Crisis).
^ e. The Ottoman controlled Kuva-yi Inzibatiye ("Caliphate Army") fought the Turkish revolutionaries during the Greek Summer Offensive and the Ottoman government in Constantinople supported other revolts (e.g. Anzavur).
^ f. Greece took 22,071 military and civilian prisoners. Of these were 520 officers and 6,002 soldiers. During the prisoner exchange in 1923, 329 officers, 6,002 soldiers and 9,410 civilian prisoners arrived in Turkey. The remaining 6,330, mostly civilian prisoners, presumably died in Greek captivity.[33]
Template:Theaters of the Turkish War of Independence
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned by the victorious Allied Powers. The Treaty of Sèvres, signed in 1920, stripped the Ottoman Empire of its territories and imposed severe restrictions on its sovereignty. In response, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a former Ottoman military commander, led a national movement to resist foreign occupation and defend Turkish independence.
The Turkish National Movement fought a successful campaign against the Allied Powers and their local proxies, including the Armenian, Greek, and French forces. The conflict was marked by several key battles, including the Battle of Sakarya in 1921 and the Battle of Dumlupınar in 1922.
In 1922, the Turkish National Movement launched a major offensive that pushed the Greek forces out of western Anatolia. This victory paved the way for the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which recognized the independence of the Republic of Turkey and established its modern borders. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became the first president of Turkey and oversaw a series of sweeping reforms to modernize the country and transform it into a secular, democratic state.
The Turkish War of Independence is a significant event in Turkish history, as it marked the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of a new era in Turkish history, characterized by secularism, modernization, and a strong sense of national identity.
