How did Atatürk Save Turkey Turkish War of Independence Part 2

The Turkish revolutionaries found themselves at odds with their Greek neighbors and their own countrymen in Istanbul. They were tasked with fighting a war and a rebellion simultaneously, but if they won, it would mean ultimate freedom. The Ottoman government in Istanbul looked to a Circassian hero to save their sinking ship. This man went by the name of Ahmet Anzavor, and he was a staunch foe of Mustafa Kemal and the rebellion. According to Anzavor, Kemal's men were wicked unionists and freemasons that must be put down. He thus joined the Sultan in the fight against the nationalists, with the British initially right alongside them. The dynamic changed, however, when the Brits began to see the effort it would take to truly quell the growing revolution. War-weary and hesitant to upset their population back home, the Entente ringleader began to look to their Greek friends to tap in. It was clear by now that Turkey was home to two unmoving government authorities, one in Istanbul and the other the nationalists in Ankara. If left to their own devices, the Western powers believed that the rebels would overthrow the Ottoman government in only a matter of time, and this was problematic for them, considering the fact that a huge part of why the war broke out rested on the nationalists' intolerance of Entente supervision. The Sultan and his officials could be managed, but Kemal and his men couldn't. Thus, there was a motive for nations like Britain to assist the Istanbul government, even if that must be done through the use of the Greeks. By the summer of 1919, Greek troops had already landed in Smyrna, and clashes between them and the local Turks had erupted at the time. The Greeks had since been moving to expand their zone of occupation in the face of violent nationalist resistance. As the season turned to fall in 1920, they pushed more easterly into Anatolia, with the goal of pressuring the Turks into signing the thus far-failed Treaty of Sevres, which would begin the process of partitioning the Ottoman Empire. The agreement had only further inflamed the nationalists, who still saw themselves in a position worth fighting for. The aims of both sides collided on January 9th, 1921, when the outbreak of the First Battle of Nönü saw the Turks manage to halt the Greek advance and force their opponent to turn back two days after the battle had begun. It's believed that the success of İsmet's men at this clash is directly responsible for the possibility of the Turkish Constitution of 1921 being ratified less than two weeks later. The Conference of London hosted the Triple Entente over the following months and allowed the Allies to discuss their proposed reactions to these Turkish developments. Still determined to push the nationalists into signing the Treaty of Sevres, the Entente mulled over their options in the face of continued Turkish refusal. The Ankara government disdained the idea of entering negotiations with the Istanbul government and the use of the Treaty of Sevres as the basis of negotiations was intolerable. By March, the Second Battle of İnönü was launched by the Greeks, who were again bested by the Turkish defenders. Deals had since been made between the nationalists and the Italians, French and Soviet Union, and when attempted adaptations to the Treaty of Sevres were offered by the Entente, Greece resisted. The Greeks thus found their way headed toward the river Sakarya with another army ready for war. The river location was less than 100 miles from the rebellious Turks in Ankara and forced Mustafa Kemal's men into a direct confrontation. The Battle of Sakarya would last for a grueling three weeks in total, until the Greeks were beaten down to the point of another withdrawal as a new fall season rolled around. This would be their last attempt to assault the Ankara government directly, as their attention now shifted to protecting the lands they had already successfully captured, such as Smyrna. With the Entente unwilling to send manpower in their support and the Soviets backing the Turks, Greece was losing its will to fight this war. All the Western nations would do to half-heartedly aid their Greek friends was to propose another modified version of the Treaty of Sevres. But this still stood in opposition to the values and beliefs of the Grand National Assembly, and thus it was declined once more. The ongoing stalemate begged the question, why didn't the Turks set in motion their own offensive? So they did. Agreements had thus far been made with important Western nations. This left only the Istanbul government and the Greeks for the nationalists to take on, and the former was less ambitious when it came to a want for battle. The Greeks though, taking a more defensive stance around Smyrna, had yet to call off the war. Thus, Mustafa Kemal, now commander-in-chief, nurtured his revolutionary forces into an army strong enough to give it one good go against their British-supported neighbor. The men were readying for what would be deemed the Great Offensive. The kickoff would come at the Battle of Dumlupinar on August 26th, 1922. It would be a four-day clash between the fighters of Mustafa Kemal and Giorgios Hatzianestis. The Greeks were already tired, demoralized, and fighting under the command of a man Hatzianestis, regarded by many as mentally unstable at the very least. The Turkish attack quickly folded the Greek defense force, and pushed the occupiers into a disorganized retreat. Heading toward Izmir, the nationalists chased their fleeing opponents with new poise and burning excitement. The following weeks would see each of Greece's holdings in Turkey fall like dominoes until everything was Turkish once more. The British, now watching their Greek friends evacuate the lands they so hoped to possess, began to question if military intervention of their own would be necessary. The problem was that back home in Britain, the general public strongly opposed entering another war on foreign soil, whilst the government under David Lloyd George hoped to put a stop to the GNA fighters, once and for all. Both sides of the spectrum were met in the middle by Mustafa Kemal himself, as he agreed to enter negotiations at Modania. These talks, despite the great hesitation of the Greeks, were to culminate in the Armistice of Modania on October 11th, 1922. The agreement required the Greeks to finish withdrawing their troops from eastern Thrace and put temporary restrictions on Turkish forces, which by now were the nationalists alone. The Istanbul government and the Ottoman Empire as a whole had disappeared into the wind with the Sultan's abdication at the nudge of the nationalist forces before the war's end. The ultimate end to the Turkish War of Independence and subsequent Greco-Turkish War would come on July 24th, 1923 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Treaty of Lausanne confirmed the new existence of a Turkish state, the successor to the Ottoman Empire. It would take a year past its signed date for the agreement to go into effect. Eight months of negotiations birthed 143 articles and a consensus concerning the Turkish Straits, Turkey's new borders, regional trade, and more. The agreement ensured the birth of the new Republic of Turkey in place of the expired Ottoman Empire. The new Turkish state, though fully independent and self-determining, was set to lose various Ottoman lands. Public debts once owned by the Ottoman Empire were divided between Turkey and the former Ottoman states. As the articles came together, Turkey became ever more a legitimate and sovereign state in the eyes of the world. On October 29th, 1923, Mustafa Kemal officially declared the foundation of the Republic of Turkey and he would serve as its first elected president. In 1934, the new Turkish Parliament bestowed upon President Mustafa Kemal the name Atatürk. The great revolutionary and Turkish leader was now deemed the father of the Turks. For all that he had done to birth the fully independent, sovereign state of Turkey, he had gone from a military man of the Ottoman Empire to a renowned hero, willing to go toe-to-toe with the empire he served for the sake of his people and his country. And he succeeded. Atatürk and the brave Turkish people fought a war against anyone and everyone who stood in their way of ultimate freedom, and they won.