The lessons of the War of Independence

The Turkish War of Independence was woven and matured through congresses extending from the local to the national level. It is an epic struggle waged against imperialism and its extensions by a people who became a nation while becoming a state, and became a state while becoming a nation. In the words of my late mentor, Prof. Dr. Bülent Tanör, it is a “just and popular war.” It began under wartime conditions with the people taking ownership of their homeland and the resistance of local assemblies. It was united and conducted under the roof of the National Assembly. This process, which took shape during the war, is, in Tanör's definition, a “war democracy.”  

Atatürk prepared and organized the War of Independence, which began on May 19, 1919, very well, and managed it with great determination and courage. Thanks to the War of Independence, which had sacred rebellion, national stubbornness, just claims, and resolute faith in its foundation, a secular and modern Republic based on national sovereignty was established in 1923, just 4 years after 1919. Because this Republic was born not from the defeat of the Great War, but from the victory of the War of Independence, it carried out the most ambitious and comprehensive revolutionary breakthrough in history. 

Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had three National Pacts (Misak-ı Milli). These are; the National Pact of Land, the National Pact of Education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat), and the National Pact of Labor. Atatürk was uncompromising regarding National Sovereignty, National Will, and National Forces. For this reason, the newspapers that served as the spokespersons of the War of Independence were named Hâkimiyeti Milliye (National Sovereignty) and İrade-i Milliye (National Will). The name of the movement was Kuvayı Milliye (National Forces); the name of the organization was the Society for the Defense of Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia. 

Atatürk was jealous regarding Complete Independence. Because if there is no national sovereignty and complete independence, there is no anti-imperialism. 

Atatürk was never mistaken, never deceived, and never misled. When he said, “The Republic of Turkey will be happy, successful, and victorious,” he trusted only and exclusively in his nation. 

WHAT WERE THE CONDITIONS OF 1919?

Let us go to 1919 for a moment. On May 15, the Greek Army occupied İzmir. The great hero Hasan Tahsin resisted. He fired his weapon. He fell as a martyr. The next day, on May 16, Mustafa Kemal Pasha set out from Istanbul with his delegation on the Bandırma Ferry. He arrived in Samsun on May 19.  

Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a very experienced and successful commander in warfare. He had participated in the Tripolitanian War (1911 – 1912). He was among the officers who organized the resistance, which was one of the first examples of irregular warfare in the world. He had gone there using his journalist identity and the name Mustafa Şerif. Later, he served as chief of staff in the Bolayır Corps during the Balkan Wars (1912 – 1913). During the First World War (1914 – 1918), he rushed from front to front; he undertook very important duties on the Gallipoli Front, the Caucasus Front, and the Syria-Palestine Front. In other words, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who arrived in Samsun on May 19, 1919, as the 9th Army Inspector, had a very brilliant military career. 

However, Atatürk did not rely solely on this career. He did not seek salvation only with his comrades-in-arms. He went to Anatolia. He convened congresses. He integrated with the nation. He managed the war with the will of the assembly, the administration of the assembly, and the legitimacy of the assembly. Along with the war, he led the way to becoming a state and becoming a nation. He made a revolution. He founded a state. 

THE ROADMAP FOLLOWED BY ATATÜRK

Mustafa Kemal Pasha knew both the importance of learning lessons from history and the value of meeting with the nation. He was aware of the accumulation created by the various small and large congresses held on a local scale in Anatolia after the Armistice of Mudros (October 30, 1918) was signed. In this context, the Kars Islamic Council established on November 5, 1918, and the subsequent nationalist, anti-occupation, and patriotic movements and congresses showed the reaction of the people. Mustafa Kemal Pasha gathered and organized all this accumulation, experience, energy, and enthusiasm in a single center. He took it beyond being local and instilled a national goal. With Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, reaction, anger, action, organization, determination, will, and struggle ceased to be regional. It evolved into the national. It went beyond being local. It became nationalized.  

All these movements that resisted the occupation and fought for independence with the National Struggle were participatory. A will rising from the grassroots to the top was coming to the fore. For that reason, shortly after arriving in Samsun, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha called on the people to raise their voices and react against the occupations with the Havza Circular on May 28, 1919. In addition to being the first national document of the War of Independence, this circular also signaled the path and method that Atatürk would follow. Later, with the Amasya Communiqué on June 22, 1919, he emphasized that the integrity of the homeland was in danger, and by drawing attention to the importance of the nation's determination and resolve for salvation, he called the nation to duty. He determined with whom the War of Independence would be fought and on which forces it would rely, and announced the purpose, scope, method, and justification of the war to the country and the world. 

This line and method of struggle matured with the Erzurum Congress (July 23 – August 7, 1919), which was regional in its delegates but national in its decisions, and the Sivas Congress (September 4 – 11, 1919), which was national in both its delegates and its decisions. It was crowned with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in Ankara on April 23, 1920. It reached its peak with the Constituent Assembly, the Veteran Assembly.

As a result of the participatory and revolutionary struggle and the anti-imperialist war led by Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Republic was founded on October 29, 1923. Its principles were; complete independence, national sovereignty, modernity, secularism, populism, equality, reason, science, and enlightenment. The War of Independence and the Republic became an example and inspiration to oppressed nations. That is why Atatürk and Atatürkism are still targeted by imperialism today. 

WHAT WAS ATATÜRK'S DIFFERENCE?

What made Atatürk important, a pioneer, original, and a leader in history, and what made him invincible, infallible, and just, is his intellectual preparation as a soldier, revolutionary, and state founder. It is his genius for timing. It is his determined, consistent, and courageous actions. It is his populist, collectivist, egalitarian, enlightenment-oriented political line, and his struggle for complete independence and anti-imperialism. When he said, “The Republic is especially the protector of the unprotected,” he emphasized the social and class dimension of the Republic. When he said, “The Republic is a virtue,” he meant to state that he founded the Republic to govern Turkey from within Turkey, and that he carried out the revolutions so that we would never again be subjects, never be taken captive, and never be occupied. 

There is more…

Atatürk was different in scope. The difference in scope was that in an environment where the people of Kars were trying to save Kars and the people of Edirne were trying to save Edirne, and where patriotic organizations resisting the occupation remained local and regional, he showed a national goal to all national forces. He made every patriot responsible for every part of the homeland. The person from Trabzon is responsible for Maraş, the person from Diyarbakır for Tekirdağ. Just as he said on the front, “There is no line of defense, there is a surface of defense. That surface is the entire homeland.” 

Atatürk was different in method. In a period when many patriots were debating “American mandate or British protection?”, Atatürk reminded everyone of this bronze law of history: “What is built by war is destroyed by war.” He said that the National Struggle would be fought with weapons. Just as he said during the Gallipoli Battles, “I do not order you to attack, I order you to die.” 

Atatürk was different in purpose. He did not set out to save the Caliphate and the Sultanate, but for an independent republic based on national sovereignty. In this regard, he was different from many of his comrades-in-arms. Indeed, this divergence surfaced with the opening of the Assembly, and became evident in the abolition of the sultanate and caliphate, the proclamation of the Republic, the attempts at multi-party life, the process of revolutions, and the understanding of secularism. 

Therefore, one must know the value of Atatürk and the Republic.