What does the brave İnebolu remind you of?

There are iconic names and iconic dates. Sometimes names and dates intertwine, gaining meaning together. İnebolu and June 9 are interesting examples of this intertwining.  

The navy of the Allied powers, the victors of World War I, would anchor in the Bosphorus on November 13, 1918, and land troops. Starting from this date, for 5 years, not only the pavements of Istanbul but also the honor and dignity of the Turkish Nation would be trampled by the boots of the occupying armies. 

While the Caliphate and the Sultanate chose submission, Ankara, the administrative, political, and legal center of the Turkish War of Independence, chose the struggle with the motto “Either independence or death!” The British-led occupying forces were pursuing a multi-faceted policy of isolation against Ankara. Patriotic civilian and military cadres, as well as intellectuals, were not allowed to pass from Istanbul to Ankara, and internal and external aid was prevented from reaching Ankara.

Because the areas around İzmit, Adapazarı, Hendek, Düzce, and Bolu were under the control of British and Palace-backed anti-National Struggle rebels, this route was not safe. The safe passage that gave breath to Ankara and the front could only be provided via the İnebolu-Kastamonu-Ilgaz-Çankırı line. The safest route (the Road of Independence) through which the civilian and military cadres of the National Struggle, as well as weapons, ammunition, and all kinds of logistics, could reach Ankara and the front, began in İnebolu!

The villages, districts, towns, cities, and people on the İnebolu-Kastamonu-Ankara line were in favor of the National Struggle. The region's civilian and military cadres were in line with the Defense of Rights (Müdafaa-i Hukuk) and followed Ankara's orders. After the weapons and ammunition smuggled from Istanbul and received from the Soviets were brought ashore by the sea wolves of the İnebolu Lightermen's Guild using cargo boats, their transport from this challenging geography to Ankara (since the region's adult men were at the front) was carried out by oxcart convoys managed and directed by women.

Because the demographic structure of this line was not problematic, despite all the efforts of British and Greek intelligence (even though the separatist Pontus Society was founded by Priest Kalimatyus in 1840 at the monastery in İnebolu), a Pontus rebellion similar to those in the Central and Eastern Black Sea regions could not be carried out!

During the most difficult days of the National Struggle, the people of İnebolu made extraordinary efforts and sacrifices to ensure that all kinds of weapons, ammunition, and supplies unloaded from ships reached the front as quickly as possible. On June 9, 1921, despite the threat and bombardment by the Panter and Kilkis ships of the Greek Navy, they did not return the weapons and ammunition they had brought ashore the day before; on the contrary, they displayed epic bravery in moving them out of the enemy's firing range and securing them.

The brave children of İnebolu undoubtedly know the historical and symbolic meaning of the date June 9 and the word İnebolu much better than we do. The brave children of İnebolu, which holds the Medal of Independence, possess more than enough knowledge and sensitivity regarding the deep mission of the Fener Greek Patriarchate, which Atatürk defined as a hotbed of sedition and treason that incited and organized the Pontus uprising! 

If someone had said to the Veterans and Martyrs of the War of Independence from İnebolu: "The day will come when some people from İnebolu will go to the feet of the person at the head of the Greek Patriarchate for the restoration of the monastery on Geriş Hill, where the foundations of the Pontus Society, a hotbed of sedition and treason in İnebolu, were laid," do you think they would have believed it?