THE LEADERSHIP OF MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATATURK: TURKISH INDEPENDENCE WAR

Although the Sevres Treaty was a pathetic document of submission, these heavy conditions benefited the national leadership. First of all, it proved to the whole country that the independency of the OttomanState could not be mentioned any more. The Ottomans had officially admitted their difficulties in representing Anatolia and the people. The people felt that this treaty was full of injustices; and the people finally understood the indifferent attitude of the Allied States toward Turkey and that everything that had been told to the people by the Istanbul governments were all lies. Now even intellectuals who had seemed determined not to anger the Allied States had started to see the hope in the Anatolian movement. The angry voices rising throughout the country had given Ankara, who had been waiting for this moment, a great opportunity. Mustafa Kemal had proven to be right once more. Mustafa Kemal had told his friends that France, England, and Italy had suffered great losses in the Great War and would not want to engage in an Anatolian adventure full of uncertainties; these states could not send even one extra soldier to Turkey. The war would be limited with Greece, who could not ignore the one million Rums living in Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal was confident that he could thwart the Greek military measures. All these factors proved that the Sevres Treaty had no validity from the beginning. Likewise, the national movement’s struggle, amid many troubles, would confirm this fact; the allied bloc would fall into disagreement and disband, and the occupation forces would have to give up their goals about Turkey