To answer your question, we need to situate the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey on the 29th of October 1923 within a wider context. I shall begin with a brief introduction to the emergence of Mustafa Kemal as the leading figure in Turkish politics and then continue with events leading to the proclamation of the Republic as well as to the possibility of an armed response to it.

As is known, the Ottoman Empire lost the WW1 and as a result, the Allies invaded much of its land and ultimately tried to impose the Treaty of Sevres (1920) on them. A war hero during the WW1 and known to have his own problems with Enver Pasha’s group, Mustafa Kemal Pasha sought a role for himself in Istanbul in late 1918, early 1919. He found this role in the form of a military supervisor in Samsun. As part of this role, he was to identify allegations of crimes against local Greeks by Turkish paramilitaries and to put an end to the fights between Greek and Turkish paramilitary groups. Landing in Samsun on the 19th of May 1919, Mustafa Kemal quickly moved to establish a centralised, coordinated resistance movement in Anatolia, which was probably his plan all along. With the help of influential commanders like Kazım Karabekir Pasha, Refet Bey, Rauf Bey and Ali Fuat Pasha, he was able to set up a new Parliament in Ankara in 1920. Under his command, the forces that soon came to be called ‘the Kemalists’ in the West emerged victorious from the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923). The Treaty of Sevres was no more.

But, as Mustafa Kemal himself reportedly said after the entry of Turkish forces in İzmir (the 9th of September 1922), the true struggle only just began. Mustafa Kemal intended to transform Turkey into a Westernised nation-state of Turks. Not every participant to the War of Independence would agree with that. Further, young intellectuals around Mustafa Kemal (like Falih Rıfkı Atay) as well as Mustafa Kemal himself most likely, believed that the project of revolutionising Turkey was not possible without an enlightened despotism. It is difficult to establish since when Mustafa Kemal decided to ‘get rid of’ the obstacle represented by the monarchy. What is certain is that the actions of the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI Vahdeddin enormously helped him. During the War of Independence, Vahdeddin led/approved the formation of kuva-yı inzibatiye, a group of soldiers sent by the government in Istanbul to fight and disband the forces of the Kemalists. Though this ultimately did not result in any serious damage to the government in Ankara, it was one thing to remember. When the Kemalists of Ankara were at a particularly dangerous moment of their resistance, troubled as they were by the Greek progress to the west and rebellions all around the country, the Sultan made his side clear by sending armies against them. As the Caliph, Sultan encouraged Muslims to revolt against the Kemalists. Pamphlets including his invitation to revolt against Kemalists were distributed by Greek planes to Turkish villagers. Finally, when the Kemalists’ armies were busy fighting in the Battle of Sakarya (August 1921) against the Greeks, Vahdeddin was getting married once again! Whether Vahdeddin was right to do all these or not is none of our business. What matters is each and every single one of these made defending him and the monarchy more difficult for Turks, all to the delight of Mustafa Kemal who would much rather to become the undisputed President than a Prime Minister under a Monarch. Once the victory was obtained, Mustafa Kemal and his supporters did not lose much time to abolish the monarchy (the 1st of November 1922). Vahdeddin left the country seventeen days later. One chapter closed, one piece of the Ankara’s authority over Istanbul established.

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