Turkish War of Independence

From 1919 to 1923 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk organized resistance to the Allied partition of Anatolia and founded the Republic of Turkey.

Overview

The 1920 Treaty of Sevres would have dismembered the Ottoman state, and the Greek landing at Izmir in 1919 ignited national resistance. Kemal organized congresses at Erzurum and Sivas, assembled a Grand National Assembly at Ankara, and built a regular army that stopped the Greek advance at the battle of Sakarya in 1921 and shattered it in the great offensive of 1922. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne recognized the new state, and the sultanate and then the caliphate were abolished. Ataturk reforms replaced religious law with a civil code, adopted the Latin alphabet, and extended rights to women. The war became the founding epic of modern Turkey and a rare fully successful anticolonial resistance by arms.