In July 1908 elements of the army revolted and demanded the restoration of the Constitution. Abdulhamid yielded to their demands, and a wave of enthusiasm, accompanied by demonstrations of solidarity between Turks and minority groups, swept the Empire. The Sultan was deposed after an unsuccessful counterrevolution in April 1909, and his brother Mehmed V (1909-18) was placed on the throne.

The Young Turks' primary concern was to strengthen the Empire and to prevent territorial losses. This concern led to an emphasis on Ottomanism, which could conceivably have led to either of two policies. On the one hand, the Empire could have been reorganized as a multi-ethnic state in which religious and ethnic minorities would have had full equality. On the other hand, the millet system, under which minorities were governed as more or less autonomous units, could have been abolished and assimilation into an Ottoman-Turkish community made the price of full Ottoman status. The Young Turks chose the latter, integration into the Turkish cultural pattern, and failed to develop it.

During this time Turkey was subjected to a number of serious external and internal threats that culminated in World War I. Austria had annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately after the 1908 revolution, and conditions in the Balkans were unsettled, as demonstrated by the two Balkan Wars (1912-13). Elsewhere, Turkey mounted an unsuccessful campaign (1911-12) against Italy in Libya.

The spread of nationalist feelings continued among ethnic groups in the Empire, but the Young Turk revolution did not result in the restoration of liberal rule. After a brief period of constitutional rule, the Committee of Union and Progress emerged as the governing body. The actions of the Committee prompted the formation of a new opposition. The Committee was forced to yield its powers to a new cabinet in 1912. In January 1913 Enver Pasha, one of the Young Turk leaders, led a coup d'état in the wake of the Ottoman defeat in the first Balkan War. It was soon apparent that real power lay in the hands of three men: Enver Pasha, Cemal Pasha, and Talat Pasha.

World War I

World War I brought final destruction to the Ottoman Empire. Entering the war on the side of Germany, the Empire sustained heavy territorial losses and found itself without a supporter among the victorious Allies in the immediate postwar period.

The triumvirate governing on the eve of war was pro-German, particularly Enver Pasha, who had served as military attaché in Berlin. This pro-German feeling was also widespread in the

bureaucracy and the military. Germany had played a large role in training the Ottoman armies, and German advisers also functioned in the government.

An incident involving Great Britain reinforced this sentiment. In 1914 two warships under construction in British shipyards, paid for by a popular subscription in Turkey, were confiscated by Britain as a possible threat to Greece and Russia. The Germans capitalized on the situation by selling to the Ottoman government two vessels, commissioned as the Selim Yavuz and the Midrilli. Later, in early August 1914 Enver Pasha concluded a secret treaty of alliance with Germany. Turkey remained publicly neutral for 3 months, until the Turkish Navy, under a German admiral, attacked the Russian Black Sea Fleet on October 29. Liman von Sanders, a German general, became commander-in-chief of the Turkish Army.

Turkish troops fought well but were unable to prevent Allied gains. The fate of the Ottoman Empire, moreover, was bound to that of Germany. A substantial victory was won at Gallipoli when the British failed to seize the Dardanelles. Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) was widely recognized for his important role in this victory. Nevertheless, by the end of the war Mesopotamia (Iraq), Palestine, and Syria were lost. The wartime government of Enver Pasha and his associates had been responsible for repressive measures during the war.

THE RISE OF MODERN TURKEY: MUDROS TO LAUSANNE The future of Turkey was not bright when Husein Rauf Bey (Orbay) signed the armistice with the Allies at Mudros. Secret wartime treaties among the Allies provided for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. Bolshevik Russia opposed these plans but could do little to thwart them. None of the leaders of the victorious powers was interested in the preservation of the Empire. In particular, Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain, emerged as a strong opponent to Turkish nationalism.

The Empire was in ruins. The Arab countries had joined the Allies to achieve freedom from Ottoman control, and the Armenians were claiming their independence. Sultan Mehmed VI Vahdeddin, who came to the throne in 1918, was incapable of rectifying the situation. British, French, and Italian troops occupied parts of the Empire, including the capital. General Franchet d'Esperey's entrance into Istanbul on a white horse in imitation of Mehmed II in 1453 symbolized the weakness of the Fallen Empire.

Only the resourcefulness of the Turks themselves prevented the partition of Anatolia. They found a leader in Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), the victor of Gallipoli, who fashioned a modern Turkish nation from the debris of Empire. A realistic goal of maintaining

the integrity of a Turkish nation in the Anatolian peninsula was defined and achieved against heavy odds. The military and diplomatic victories that arose out of the successful confrontation with Greece were followed by the formative years of the Turkish Republic, in which Atatürk promoted a series of widespread reforms.

While the diplomats bargained, the Turks were fighting for their independence. Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) became the leader of the national movement. He was sent by the Constantinople government to Anatolia to supervise the dispersal of the Turkish forces. On his arrival in Anatolia on May 19, 1919, however, he proceeded to rally men to the nationalist cause. Support grew in all sectors of the population in the face of foreign invasion. The Italians had landed on March 29, followed by the Greeks on May 15, 1919. Resistance gradually moved from guerrilla warfare to full-fledged military activities.

Care was taken to assure the greatest amount of legitimacy to the nationalist movement and to involve as many people as possible in the struggle. Thus, on July 23, 1919 a nationalist congress met at Erzurum in response to a call from the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Anatolia. After the Sivas Congress, on September 4, the group became the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia. The Sivas Congress voiced its loyalty to the Sultan-Caliph, but pledged to maintain the integrity of the nation. It adopted the six-point Milli Misak (National Pact), which defined the objectives of the nationalist movement that were not open to compromise.

Among the provisions of the National Pact were the renunciation of the Arab provinces, the absolute integrity of the remaining Ottoman territory inhabited by an Ottoman Moslem majority, a guarantee of minority rights, the retention of Constantinople and the Straits, and an a priori rejection of any restriction of the political, judicial, and financial rights of the nation.

Negotiations continued with the Constantinople government but no progress was made. Kemal resigned from the army when relieved of his duties; communication between the capital and Anatolia ceased. The naming of a grand vizier sympathetic to the nationalist cause, Ali Reza Pasha, brought a brief improvement. In January 1920 he called a Parliament, which approved the National Pact. These developments, reflecting a rising nationalism, brought Allied occupation of the capital and the seizure of public buildings on March 16. Numerous national leaders were sent to Malta for detention; Raza fell from power. Parliament was dismissed on April 11, and that same day the Şeyh-ul-Islam proclaimed that the killing of the nationalist rebels was a religious

duty. On May 11 Kemal and other nationalist leaders were sentenced to death in absentia.

The actions of the Constantinople government brought quick response from the nationalists. Parliament was summoned to Ankara (Angora), which became the nationalist headquarters. The Grand National Assembly assumed superior power on April 24 and expressed a desire to free the Sultan-Caliph. Mustafa Kemal was elected president of this body. Numerous religious leaders in Anatolia asserted that the fetva (proclamation) of the Şeyh-ulIslam was invalid because it had been issued under duress.

The Constantinople government severely compromised itself by accepting the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920 (see ch. 15, Foreign Relations). The nationalist cause was further strengthened by a series of military victories in 1921. Ismet Pasha (who later added Inönü to his name) defeated the Greeks twice at Inönü, once in January and later in April. The Turkish Army, under the personal leadership of Kemal, decisively defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Sakarya in September 1921. For this, Kemal was awarded the title of ghazi by the Grand National Assembly.

Improvement of the diplomatic situation of Turkey paralleled the military victories. A treaty was signed in March 1922 with the Soviet Union, the first European power to recognize the nationalists, while the French negotiated the evacuation of Cilicia in October.

The final drive against the Greeks began in August 1922. On September 9 the Turks moved into Izmir; the Turkish Army then turned its attention to Thrace, where the British barred the way. The Armistice of Mundanya (October 11, 1922), which averted a clash with the British, gave the Turks control of Thrace as far as Maritsa.

At the end of October the Allies invited both the Ankara and the Constantinople governments to a conference at Lausanne; but Kemal was determined that the nationalist government should be the only spokesman for Turkey. Earlier, on January 20, 1921 the Grand National Assembly had passed a "Law Of Fundamental Organization," which stated that "sovereignty belongs without reservation or condition to the nation." The action of the Allies prompted a resolution on November 1, 1922, which separated the offices of Sultan and Caliph and abolished the former. It further stated that the Constantinople government had ceased to be the government of Turkey when the Allies seized Istanbul on March 16, 1920. The essence of the latter statement was the abolition of the Ottoman Empire. Vahdeddin fled to Malta to avoid trial for treason, and his cousin Abdul Mecid was named Caliph. The

Proclamation of Republic on October 29, 1923 was the concluding act in the disintegration of the Empire.

Turkey was the only power defeated in World War I to negotiate with the Allies as an equal and to influence the provisions of the peace treaty. Ismet Pasha (Inönü) was the chief Turkish negotiator at the Lausanne Conference, which opened on November 21, 1922. The National Pact of 1919 was the basis for the Turkish negotiating position; in fact, all of the provisions in the pact were recognized in the treaty concluded on July 23, 1923 by Turkey, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. The United States, which had never been at war with Turkey, participated in the conference but did not sign the treaty.

The Treaty of Lausanne recognized the present territory of Turkey with two exceptions: the Mosul area and the Hatay district, which included the port of Iskenderun (Alexandretta). The Mosul boundary was settled by the League of Nations in 1926, and Iskenderun was added to Turkey in June 1939 (see ch. 2, Physical Environment; ch. 15, Foreign Relations).

Detailed provisions regulated the Straits, which were to be open to merchant vessels at all times. In peacetime or whenever Turkey would be neutral, warships could pass the Straits, within certain limitations. If Turkey were at war, it could close the Straits to all but neutral warships. General supervisory powers were given to a Straits Commission under the League of Nations. Represented on the Commission were Turkey, as president, the other signatories of the Treaty plus Russia and Bulgaria. The Straits area was to be demilitarized.

The capitulations and the Council of Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt, which infringed upon the sovereignty of Turkey, were abolished. Turkey, however, assumed 40 percent of the Ottoman debt, the remainder being apportioned among other former Ottoman territories.

The Treaty of Lausanne reaffirmed the equality of Moslem and non-Moslem Turkish nationals. In a separate treaty concluded January 30, 1923, Turkey and Greece agreed to a compulsory exchange of their respective Greek and Turkish minorities, with the exceptions of Greeks in Constantinople and Turks in western Thrace (see ch. 5, Ethnic Groups and Languages). Property left behind was to be credited to the new arrivals; compensation for the difference in the value of the abandoned properties was to be made. In 1930 Greece agreed to pay Turkey about $14 million as an offsetting payment. An estimated 1.3 million Greeks and 500,000 Turks moved.