Treaty of Sèvres (1920); World War, 1914-1918 -- Territorial questions -- Turkey; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
An “Anatolian and Rumelian League for the Defence of the National
Rights” was formed, which later on was called the “National
Organisation.” According to what has become known about the sittings
of the Congress, the principles that were to control the action of
the National Organisation and to constitute its programme were the
following: (1) Grouping of the various Moslem nationalities of the
Empire into a whole politically and geographically indivisible and
administered so as to ensure the respect of their ethnic and social
differences. (2) Equality of rights for non-Moslem communities so
far as consistent with the principle of the political unity of the
State. (3) Integrity of the Empire within the boundaries of Turkish
sovereignty as they were in September, 1918, when the armistice was
concluded—which are almost the same as the ethnic boundaries of Turkey.
(4) No infringement whatever on the sovereignty of the Turkish Empire.
A special article expressed the sincere wish on the part of the Turkish
nation, with a view to the general restoration of Turkey, to accept the
support of any Western country, providing the latter did not aim at an
economic or political subjection of any kind.
This programme was sanctioned in the course of a second Congress which
was held at Sivas at the beginning of September, 1919, to allow the
local committees which had not been able to send delegates to Erzerum
to give their approbation to it and to adhere to the national movement.
The executive functions of the Congress were entrusted to a
representative committee presided over by Mustafa Kemal, and consisting
of members chosen by the Congress, who were: Reouf Bey, Bekir Sami Bey,
Hoja Raif Effendi, Mazhar Bey, once vali of Bitlis, and later on Ahmed
Rustem Bey, once Turkish ambassador at Washington, Haidar Bey, once
vali of Kharput, and Hakki Behij Bey.
The local militias which had been raised took the name of national
forces; and when they had been linked with the regular army, they were
put by Mustafa Kemal under the command of Kara Bekir Kiazim Pasha, who
became commander-in-chief in Eastern Anatolia, and Ali Fuad Pasha, who
had the command of the forces of Western Anatolia.
Two delegates of the “Liberal Entente,” some leaders of which group
seemed open to foreign influence, were sent to Constantinople to ask
the Central Committee what attitude was to be taken, and were prudently
ordered to enjoin the supporters of the Liberal Entente to be most
careful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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