April 23 and its significance

April 23, 1920, is perhaps the most important turning point of the War of Independence. On this date, the parliament, which had closed in Istanbul on March 18, 1920, was reopened in Ankara, and thus the National Struggle initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on May 19, 1919, gained state status. Furthermore, with April 23, the debate over who held the true authority in the country ended, and the psychological superiority definitively shifted to the side of Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his supporters.

The process leading to the opening of the parliament in Ankara on April 23 began with the fall of the pro-Sultan Damat Ferit Pasha government on September 30, 1919, and the establishment of the pro-National Struggle Ali Rıza Pasha government on October 2. Ali Rıza Pasha and his followers accepted Mustafa Kemal Pasha as the commander of the Kuvayı Milliye (National Forces) and were in agreement with him on many issues. They also opposed a harsh and unjust imposition like the Treaty of Sèvres and defended the Misak-ı Milli (National Pact). The point where they diverged from Mustafa Kemal Pasha was the method. Ali Rıza Pasha and other nationalists in Istanbul believed that existing problems could be solved through dialogue and diplomacy. They thought that the Allied powers would eventually be convinced through passive resistance and would end the occupations. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, however, had realized by the spring of 1919 that the occupiers would not leave the country through persuasion and had moved to Anatolia on May 19 to initiate an armed struggle. However, in the period from May 19, 1919, to March 16, 1920, when the British occupied Istanbul, he had been able to convince very few people in Istanbul to join his movement.

With the establishment of the Ali Rıza Pasha government, the pessimistic atmosphere in Istanbul began to dissipate, and many people started to look to the future with hope. The police began to remove flags from the homes of Greeks who had hung Greek flags and stopped interfering with anti-occupation protests. On December 29, the parliament revoked the Damat Ferit Pasha government's decision to remove Mustafa Kemal Pasha from the army, returned his medals, and declared that Mustafa Kemal Pasha had left the army of his own volition. On January 12, the parliament would also officially condemn the Greek occupation of Izmir. Although these positive developments encouraged Turkish nationalists, they were, in reality, events that strained relations between the Allied powers and the Istanbul government and, contrary to what the Ali Rıza Pasha government had hoped, dynamited the possibility of reaching an agreement with the occupiers. The parliament's adoption of the Misak-ı Milli in a secret session on January 28 and its declaration on February 17 would be the final straw. With this development, the British decided to occupy Istanbul and began preparing the plan for the occupation from that date on.

The occupation began on the night connecting March 15 to March 16. The British seized various buildings and began arresting Turkish nationalists. Clashes broke out in some places, and a total of 5 Turkish soldiers were martyred. The Italians, who harbored hostility toward the British, had informed the Turks on March 11 that the occupation would take place. After the intelligence provided by the Italians, many nationalists who thought they would be arrested and who sympathized with Atatürk's movement left the city and set out for Anatolia. Some made plans to escape to Anatolia after the occupation began, and many succeeded in escaping. However, some, like Rauf Orbay, refused to flee and surrendered to the British, only to be sent into exile in Malta (the number of those captured on March 16 and sent to Malta was 18). On March 18, the Parliament met for the last time to protest the British occupation, and the parliament was adjourned indefinitely by unanimous vote. On April 11, it was officially dissolved by the Sultan.

By occupying Istanbul, the British had made exactly the move Mustafa Kemal Pasha desired. With the occupation, Mustafa Kemal Pasha's predictions had come true, and since there was no longer a platform in Istanbul where the independence struggle could be conducted, there was no need to convince anyone anymore. The movement initiated by Mustafa Kemal Pasha was now the only alternative for the independence struggle.

One day after the closure of the parliament, on March 19, Atatürk called for the opening of a new parliament in Anatolia. A few days later, he announced that the Grand National Assembly would open in Ankara. All deputies from the Istanbul parliament were invited to this assembly, and in addition, five representatives were to be elected from each province (sanjak). Although Atatürk emphasized the deputies in his call, what he actually meant was for everyone who would take a role in the national struggle to move to Anatolia, and Atatürk primarily desired for talented staff officers like İsmet Pasha and Fevzi Pasha to join the resistance as soon as possible. To this end, he issued a separate call on April 14 for officers in Istanbul to join the national struggle.

The parliament opened in Ankara on April 23 as intended, and on April 24, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was elected as the speaker of the parliament. With the opening of the parliament, the organization that Mustafa Kemal Pasha had been building since May 19, 1919, had now attained state status. Becoming a state or receiving the direct support of a state had been Mustafa Kemal Pasha's primary goal from the very beginning. Indeed, for the War of Independence to be managed effectively, it was essential for the Anatolian movement to sit on a legitimate foundation and possess the powers that a state holds.

Becoming a state was primarily critical in terms of internal issues. Without becoming a state, vital actions such as conscripting soldiers and collecting taxes could not be carried out. In the period leading up to April 23, tasks such as finding money, finding weapons, and finding men had been carried out only with the help of volunteers. Shortly after April 23, however, compulsory military service was brought back (compulsory military service had been abolished before the end of the First World War), and the process of transitioning to a regular army began. In this respect, it would not be wrong at all to point to April 23, 1920, as the true start date of the War of Independence and to define the period up to April 23 as the preparation period.

Secondly, becoming a state was critical in terms of external issues. The War of Independence could not be won without receiving aid from outside. When Mustafa Kemal Pasha landed in Samsun on May 19, there were neither proper weapons nor money on hand. Money and weapons needed to be found urgently. These resources were abroad. Before gaining the title of a state leader, Atatürk was not in a position to establish contact with other states on an official level. With the opening of the parliament, he gained this position and, without wasting any time, made the first contact with Russia. On Sunday, April 25, he sent a telegram of cooperation to Russia, and from this date on, the process of Russia sending us gold and weapons began. Although Russian weapons and gold would reach us quite a long time after this date, they would play a vital role in winning the War of Independence.

Thirdly, the debate over who held authority in the country ended almost completely. From the beginning of the War of Independence, there had been internal factions trying to undermine the struggle. Starting with the Sultan and his supporters, opponents of the national struggle tried to marginalize Mustafa Kemal Pasha and the Anatolian movement from the very beginning and incited armed rebellions. Until the British occupation of Istanbul, the propaganda of the Sultan and other opponents of the national struggle had largely succeeded and prevented large masses from joining Mustafa Kemal Pasha's movement. From April 23 onwards, psychological superiority shifted to Ankara, and for the most part, Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his supporters became the side that marginalized others, rather than being the ones marginalized. For example, the Sheikh-ul-Islam in Istanbul declared Atatürk and his followers as infidels on April 11, and a few days later, issued a fatwa stating that killing them was a religious duty (vacip). A few days after the opening of the parliament in Ankara, the mufti in Ankara issued a fatwa stating that the Sultan was a prisoner of the infidels and that the goal of the National Struggle was to save the Sultan and all Muslims from this captivity, instructing that statements coming from Istanbul should not be taken into account. While the statements of the Sultan and his followers were heeded by very few, the statements of Atatürk and his followers found an audience among a much larger mass. In addition to the fatwas, although the Sultan was still in a position to incite anti-Ankara rebellions, these rebellions were easily suppressed because the numerical superiority was now in Ankara. After April 23, the limited power remaining in the hands of the Sultan completely eroded with the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920, and from this date on, Ankara became the sole authority in the country.