Secularism, Kemalist nationalism, Turkishness, and the minorities in the 1920s

The Greek-led Allied invasion of Turkey at the end of the Great War, the Armenian incursion into eastern Anatolia, and the French-coordinated Armenian foray into Cilicia all aimed to decapitate Turkey, but in vain. These assaults only added to the intensity of Turkish nationalism. They furthered the amalgamation of the Turkish-Muslim ethnie into a national community. While Armenian armies grabbed large parts of eastern Anatolia in 1918, French-led Armenian legions from Syria occupied the major cities of Cilicia in 1919. The Greek occupation, which started on the Aegean Coast in 1919, soon expanded into the Anatolian interior (Map 1). This put the peninsula, the centerpiece of the Turkish nationalist movement, at risk. ¹ In reaction, on January 28, 1920, the Ottoman parliament adopted the “Misâk-i Milli” (National Pact). This dictated that those areas of the Empire that were within the Mudros Armistice line of October 30, 1918 and “inhabited by the Ottoman-Muslim majority” were an “indivisible whole.” ² In retaliation, the Allies occupied Istanbul on March 16, 1920. Then, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and the nationalist cadres, who had fled to the Anatolian interior, started organizing a nationalist campaign. The bulk of the upper echelons of the imperial military joined the Kemalist struggle. ³ The leadership rallied the Anatolian-Turkish Muslims by emphasizing their common religion, shared history, and joint territory. ⁴ Now, the aforementioned aspects of ethnic mobilization, such as territorial and genealogical restoration, as well as cultural revival, became the guiding principles of the Turkish struggle. ⁵ The Kemalist appeal proved successful: the Anatolian Muslims united en masse behind Ankara to redeem Anatolia. ⁶ Map 1 Provinces of Turkey (1927) (Administrative divisions—boundaries approximate). https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203968925/70e38986-5b29-4884-bb62-467d12fc41ae/content/Map_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: Bütyük Atlas (1939).