Direct Translation via Google Translate Edited.
by Oleg Airapetov
[REGNUM] As for Turkey, the worst was yet to come.
Continued from Page 5
In World War I, the Ottoman Empire was defeated. On October 14, 1918, realizing the consequences of the defeat of the army, the Young Turk government turned to President Wilson through the Spanish ambassador with a proposal to start peace negotiations. On October 30, 1918, representatives of the Ottoman Empire were forced to sign a truce aboard the English battleship HMS Agamemnon, which was stationed in Mudros Bay on the island of Lemnos.
From 12:00 on October 31, hostilities ceased, the Turkish government undertook to demobilize the army, transfer warships to the allies, withdraw troops from Cilicia, Syria, Yemen, Mesopotamia, and transfer strategically important tunnels in the Taurus mountain range to the allies. The Entente countries also received the right to occupy a number of territories, including the Armenian vilayets, etc. For a truce that looked more like surrender followed by the disintegration and dismemberment of Turkey. Members of the Young Turk government fled to Germany.
"The long years of world war," recalled the first president of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, "tired and ruined the Turkish people. Those who involved him in the war and were the perpetrators of the ruin of the country, disappeared, caring only about their own lives. MyselfVaheddinMehmed VI Vahedin, the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1918-1922). In 1922 he left Turkey aboard a British battleship., this degenerate, discrediting the throne of the Sultan and the Caliph, was only busy saving, at the cost of at least the lowest means, his person and the throne, the only object of his care."
The country had been at war with short breaks since 1911 and was terribly ruined. Financial, human and territorial losses were colossal.
The Ottoman Empire was divided into zones of occupation, the British General George Milne was placed at the head of the occupation forces of the Entente, and the British Admiral Somerset Calthrop also became the High Commissioner. The occupation of Constantinople and the region of the Straits opened the Black Sea for the Allied fleet and the possibility of active intervention in the Civil War in southern Russia.
As for Turkey, the worst was yet to come. Greece, having found itself after the victory in the World War in the camp of the winners, decided to take advantage of this circumstance. At stake was the question of the revival of Byzantium. Before the outbreak of hostilities, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos turned to the hero of the Balkan Wars, Colonel Ioannis Metaxa for advice.
He gave the answer - Greece is not ready for war and without the active and large-scale support of the allies in Anatolia cannot count on success. Nevertheless, the enemy seemed so weakened, and the goal that many generations of Greeks had dreamed of was so close ... Athens nevertheless decided to speak out, especially since in March 1919 an Italian landing force landed in Attelia (modern Antalya).
The Greek fleet was actually under the control of the British naval mission, Greece was energetically supported by France, who wanted to receive in her face a counterbalance in the eastern Mediterranean of Italy. The strengthening of the Italian fleet and the constant rivalry with Rome in North Africa and the Balkans - all this caused fear in Paris.
Since 1921 Royal Navy of Italy began to be considered in France as a potential enemy on a par with the German fleet. Hope for the support of the allies was created by the laudatory reviews of the French press about the merits of the Greek army, and its participation in the intervention in southern Russia. At various times from January to June 1919, the Greek expeditionary force occupied positions in Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa, Berezovka, Perekop and Sevastopol - its total number was 23,351 people. It was not a pleasure trip at all.
For 6 months, the total losses of the invaders - killed, wounded and missing - amounted to 58 officers and 1,007 privates and non-commissioned officers. The Greeks began to withdraw their troops from Russia already in March, but remained there until June 1919, when the transfer of expeditionary forces to Asia Minor was completed.
On May 15, 1919, Greek troops landed in Smyrna. Thousands of local Greeks were waiting for them in the harbor. They were jubilant. The troops were blessed by Metropolitan Chrysostom. Massacres began against the Turkish population. The war immediately began to take the form of an interethnic conflict. The Greeks gradually increased their forces in the occupied territories. The landings were carried out with the support or direct participation of the British fleet.
In February 1920, six Greek divisions were already operating in Asia Minor. On June 9, they went on the offensive. The landing Greek troops terrorized the Turkish population, which immediately complicated the situation. The partisan movement began. The actions of the Greeks in Smyrna, according to Frunze, caused "particular anger among the Turkish nationalists."
On July 23, 1919, a congress of Turkish nationalists was convened in Erzurum, at which General Mustafa Kemal Pasha (since 1934 - Atatürk), one of the best top commanders of the Ottoman army in the past war, spoke. He formulated a course for a national revolution, advocated the preservation of national borders and categorically opposed the transformation of Turkey into a mandated territory.
On January 28, 1920, the parliament convened in Constantinople, unexpectedly for Sultan Mehmed and his patrons, took the National Vow. Its provisions became the basis of a new Turkish nationalism: the division of Arabs and "Ottomans" along ethnic lines on the basis of free voting:
(Art. 1), the return to Turkey of the Kars, Ardagan and Batumi pashaliks, whose population "from the day of his release, by a solemn vote, he confirmed his will to return to the bosom of his motherland" (in extreme cases, a second vote was allowed in these territories,
Art. 2), a plebiscite in Western Thrace
(Art. 3), the security of Constantinople
(Art. 4), the rights of minorities will be guaranteed in the same way as in other countries
| ...that one was more respected in the breach, unless they were thinking of the Boers in South Africa... |
(Art. 5), the rejection of capitulations
In response to this, in March 1920, the Allies sent troops to the Turkish capital and established martial law there. Parliament was dispersed. On April 23, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was convened in Ankara, which elected Mustafa Kemal Pasha as its chairman. The day before, the general called on the troops and authorities to submit only to the authority of this Assembly.
On May 2, in opposition to the Sultan's government, a new revolutionary government was created in Ankara, which at first did not put forward anti-monarchist slogans. It was headed by Mustafa Kemal Pasha. The Sultan's government, which at that time remained legitimate, was in the capital under the control of the Entente, or rather, Great Britain. It did not recognize the GNT and passed a death sentence on Mustafa Kemal.
The first foreign policy act of the general was an appeal to the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR V.I. Lenin with a proposal for mutual recognition and the establishment of diplomatic relations. The Turkish delegation to Moscow was headed by the Foreign Minister of the Ankara government, Bekir Sami Bey.
Moscow hoped that the restoration of Turkey in the Straits would lead to their closure to the Entente fleets and would help improve the position of the RSFSR on the Black Sea. In addition, certain hopes were pinned on the Kemalist nationalist movement as a battering ram of the Anglo-French colonial system in the Middle East. The revolution in the East could contribute to the revolution in the West, on which the Soviet leadership placed great hopes. At the Second Congress of the Comintern, Lenin paid special attention to the problem of dependent countries and peoples:
"A billion and a quarter oppressed colonies; countries that divide alive like Persia, Turkey, China; countries that are defeated and thrown into the position of colonies."
The decision of the Congress contained the following provision:
"The destruction of colonial rule, together with the proletarian revolution in the mother countries, will overthrow the capitalist system in Europe."
The Communist Parties of all countries received an appeal to render all possible assistance to "the revolutionary movement in dependent or unequal nations (for example, in Ireland, among the Negroes of America, etc.) and in the colonies."
The Middle East and Asia Minor represented a very obvious battlefield for the revolutionary movement against Western imperialism. As early as January 31, 1916, England and France concluded an agreement regarding the division of the possessions of the Ottoman Empire after the victory over it. It was signed by Mark Sykes and François Picot. The British and French had to spend a lot of effort to establish control over these territories in the Middle East.
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