How The Khilafah Was Destroyed by Abdul Qadeem Zallum

Having achieved this victory, Mustafa Kemal attempted once again to seize power through legitimate means through parliament. Preparations for the new parliamentary elections were set in motion, but they were on the old basis, namely an Ottoman parliament subordinate to the Khaleefah’s government. However, the Prime Minister Ali Ridha was weak and he sensed people’s drift towards Mustafa Kemal. Thus he deemed it wise to come to terms with him. Accordingly he sent Salih Pasha, the Navy minister to Anatolia, where on 18th October 1919, he held with the Parliamentary Committee a meeting which became later known as the “Amasia Conference”. The conference lasted several days and Salih Pasha succeeded in reconciling between the deputies and the government. The first motion to be proposed at the conference and to be instantly agreed upon by the two parties was the “non infringement of the Sultanate and the Khilafah”.

The Istanbul delegate then endorsed all the resolutions adopted at the “Ardh-Rum” conference and the Sivas conference. A heated argument broke out pertaining the issue of dissolving the Parliamentary Committee, and after the debate intensified, the issue was left unsettled and it was decided that it would remain suspended until the members of the new parliament could meet to settle it.

Then Mustafa Kemal moved to Ankara to take up residence there and to use it as his centre. Arrangements were made to greet him and on the morning of his scheduled arrival, the local residents were up early and the whole city waited in anticipation. The farmers left their farms to take part in greeting him and the dervish came out in a large procession, carrying large green banners bearing the exalted Qur’anic Verses. When he arrived people cheered, women shrilled, and chants of Takbir and acclaim reverberated; he entered the city as a hero and took up residence.

Fresh elections took place and Mustafa Kemal was elected as a member of parliament for Ankara. Several deputies then flocked to Ankara and held a preliminary meeting to discuss their affairs. During the meeting, a proposal was put forward to convene parliament in the capital and to dissolve the conference now that its members had become official deputies.

However, Mustafa Kemal opposed both ideas vehemently and persistently by saying : “The conference must continue until the extent of parliament’s adherence to justice becomes manifest and until its policy becomes clear.

As for moving to the capital, this could only be regarded as sheer idiocy.

If you did this, you would be under the mercy of the Western enemy, for the British are still in control of the country and the authority would interfere in your affairs, and you might be arrested. Therefore, parliament should be convened here in Ankara, so that it remains free and independent.” However, all the deputies insisted that the inauguration of parliament should take place in the capital Istanbul and in the house of parliament, so that they could be there under the wing of the legitimate ruler of the country, Sultan Wahid-ud-Deen, the Khaleefah of the Muslims. Upon this Mustafa Kemal kept silent and accepted it. However, he did not go to Istanbul but remained in Ankara. Prior to this, he had held a parliamentary meeting with the Ankara deputies and had given them the necessary instructions. He requested from them to vote for him as speaker of parliament in his absence.

On 11th November 1919, parliament was inaugurated by a speech of the throne then the election of a speaker took place. The deputies refused to elect Mustafa Kemal as speaker and they opted for Ra’uf Beik instead.

Then on 28th January 1920, parliament ratified the national charter known as the famous “Milli Charter”, which confirmed the resolutions of the “Ardh-Rum” and Sivas conferences. The charter called for the total independence and freedom of all the provinces inhabited by a Turkish majority, including Istanbul and its suburbs, stretching alongside the sea of Marmara, provided that the fate of all parts of the Empire would be decided through a referendum.

Meanwhile, the European countries informed the Ottoman government through an official memorandum that Istanbul and the straits must remain under the disposal of the Sultan. The followers of Mustafa Kemal interpreted this as a victory to their policy and that it would be possible to come to terms with the Europeans over fairer truce terms. Therefore, Mustafa Kemal started to work towards bringing down the government of Ali Ridha Pasha and towards replacing it by an outright nationalist government. He persisted and pressed the deputies vehemently to undertake this initiative and exhausted all his efforts, but the deputies recoiled and refused to listen to Mustafa Kemal. Thus he became enraged and realised that his plan to seize power through legitimate means and to replace the Khilafah system by a republican system was inevitably doomed to failure. Therefore, he set about rekindling the rebellion in order to seize power by force.