How The Khilafah Was Destroyed by Abdul Qadeem Zallum

In the wake of the London conference failure, and the signing of the treaties between Mustafa Kemal and France, Italy and Russia, the only war related issue to remain unsettled was the Greek crisis. Hence, Mustafa Kemal was either given a free rein or inspired to settle the outstanding problems with Greece through war.

Therefore, Mustafa Kemal set about amassing weapons, equipment and ammunition, equipping the army and increasing his force. Weapons and ammunition started to flow towards him abundantly in a manner that indicated clearly that he was preparing for war, reaching him from Russia via the British lines in the Bosphorus and the Black Sea shores. France evacuated Cilicia and withdrew her troops from there, thus the Turkish forces stationed themselves there and an estimated 80,000 soldiers moved towards the Western front in order to reinforce and consolidate it.

Consequently, the Greeks became worried and realised that this military build-up was against them. The Greek government sensed that the European states were against them, that Britain had turned her back on them and began to suspect that she was inciting Turkey against them.

Therefore, Greece decided to initiate an attack against the Turks without seeking the permission of the Allies, for she became certain that they were against her. When the Allies sensed that Greece was on the verge of launching an attack on the Turks, they put forward a proposal to the Greeks and the Turks with the aim of reconciling them. However, it seemed that the Greeks sensed that this proposal was a delaying tactic aimed at giving the Turks a chance to prepare and equip their forces further. Hence, they initiated the fighting against the Turks before responding to the Allies’ proposal. Fighting broke out between the Greeks and the Turks, and this lasted for approximately a year and a half.

As soon as the hostilities had broken out, the Allies declared officially their neutrality. However, this neutrality seemed bizarre, for the Ottoman State was still under effective British occupation and was considered internationally to be occupied by the Allies. Hence, any fighting taking place in Turkey would undoubtedly affect the position of the occupiers.

So how could it be possible for them to remain neutral? The natural course of action would have been for them to support Greece, or to stand against her in order to prevent the fighting from taking place. But to take a neutral stand was unnatural, especially in this critical situation.

Nevertheless the neutrality did effectively occur and Greece was left wondering in confusion after being let down by her British ally. Naturally she should have surrendered and accepted negotiations, but she did not.

She rather insisted to continue the fight. As a result, the British government offered officially to act as a mediator between Greece and Turkey, but Greece rejected this categorically. It seemed that she was wary of this mediation, for she might have sensed Britain’s support of Mustafa Kemal.

Thus, she rejected Britain’s mediation and continued to fight.

The fighting between the two states had its ups and downs, and war changed from being a mere guerrilla war against the Greeks to an organised war with battles like any other war. On 23rd March 1922, the Greeks marched towards Eskisehir and Afyon Karahisar, these being considered to be strategic railway line junctions. The Greeks occupied Afyon Kara for a short spell, but they suffered a decisive defeat in the north at Ayn Otto during the first days of April 1922 and were forced to retreat to Brossa.

Then in July, the Greeks gathered their troops and decided to launch an attack on Istanbul. They attempted to occupy Istanbul but General Harrington, the Commander in chief of the allied Forces intercepted them and prevented them from doing so. They moved towards the east and reached the railway line, where they came face to face with the Turks.

Ismat Pasha was the Commander of the Turkish armed forces and he managed to repel the Greek onslaught for ten days. However, on the 11th day the Greek army managed to penetrate deeply into Kutahya which was regarded as a Turkish frontline. Ismat Pasha attempted to repel these offensives one after the other, but the Greek army was gradually tightening its grip around him. The Greek platoon deployed in the south managed to seize Afyon Karahisar and began looking to seize the northern parts. As the battles went on, the situation became more and more critical.

Nevertheless, the army commanders felt that their national duty was to keep up the fight until the last minute.

At this point, Mustafa Kemal arrived and the High Command broke the disturbing news to him. Having examined the whole situation, he issued his instructions to stop the fighting immediately and to withdraw to the Eastern front. The Turkish soldiers managed to retreat, having been near despair and having suffered heavy losses, abandoning large amounts of military hardware as a booty for their enemy. The chariots started to carry whatever could be carried, and women and children proceeded along with the chariots in a state of severe exhaustion. The Turkish soldiers’ retreat ended when they reached Sakarya.

As for Mustafa Kemal, he returned from Eskisehir to Ankara by train.

Negotiations with the Greeks took place, but they proved futile. Mustafa Kemal was prepared to give the Greeks a host of concessions which were all refused.

The morale of the Turks was depleted. The National Assembly held numerous boisterous meetings, in which the opposition used to pour out their anger on Mustafa Kemal and his commanders. The members who championed and supported Mustafa Kemal were shaken, becoming extremely worried and confused.

When Mustafa Kemal returned to his headquarters, he heard the commanders talking amongst themselves - they were in a very bad state.

He met with them and attempted to motivate them. To quote from what he said to them: “What is the importance of the railway line? What is the importance of Eskisehir or any other city? Nothing. The army is everything, and the army is still strong. In four weeks time we will have vanquished our enemies.” When the commander heard what he had to say, they looked at him in bewilderment, thinking that his talk was totally absurd.

However, the battle went on and the Greek troops continued their advance.

The platoons of General Papolas gathered west of Sakarya and the Turks were forced to surrender Kara. The right flank managed to escape with great difficulty. As for the left flank, no sooner was it forced to abandon one area, then it was forced to abandon another. The headquarters of Mustafa Kemal were in the village of Al-Ajwash, and he used to give instructions from his room which he never left, Ismat being the commander of the army. The Turkish army was yet again defeated and the General Commander was confused not knowing whether to order the troops to retreat or to stay put. Mustafa Kemal realised that if the troops remained where they were, the calamity might or might not happen, whereas if they retreated, it would undoubtedly befall them. Thus, he decided against the army’s retreat; the situation was extremely critical.

On 7th September 1922 at 2.00 am, news came that the Greek army had aborted its offensive and had started to withdraw. At this, the Turkish army turned on the Greeks and launched a counter attack while they were retreating; the Greeks retreated beyond Sakarya then back to their initial position near the Anatolian railway line. Along the way, they burnt the villages and wrecked wells with dynamite, carrying along cattle and killing anyone they encountered. They left behind hundreds of miles of destruction and finally evacuated Izmir. On 9th September, the Turks recaptured Izmir without even firing one single shot. However, they in turn burnt half the city in order to erase the last trace of the Greek occupation. Britain, France and Italy called for a truce, which was held on 11th September 1922 and the Greeks relinquished Trakya up to Marij.

Thus, the war between Greece and Turkey came to an end.

This was the summary of the war events which took place between Mustafa Kemal and the Greeks as they really occurred, not as the Western propaganda wanted to portray them at the time. These events indicate that the withdrawal of the Greeks and their retraction from the lands they had occupied was not as a consequence of a decisive battle that took place between them and Mustafa Kemal and which they lost. Contrary to this, at the time when the Greeks started to retreat and evacuate, they had the upper hand and the Turkish armed forces were the vanquished, and their morale was very low and despair had started to enfeeble them.

It is clear that the Greeks’ withdrawal in this manner indicates that an international pressure was applied upon the Greeks, which forced them to withdraw. There is no doubt in the fact that the pressure came from the Allies, because it was Britain, France, and Italy who called for the truce once the Greeks had already retreated and withdrawn. Thus, the truce was effectively held.

The British exploited these battles between the Turks and the Greeks as a means to enable Mustafa Kemal to abolish the Khilafah. Britain in particular, gave wing to the news and spread it widely throughout the Islamic world; she generated a huge publicity for Mustafa Kemal inside and outside Turkey until he became known everywhere as the victor who repelled the Greeks and fought all the allies and expelled them. He was even referred to as the Conqueror. This was what enabled Mustafa Kemal to firmly establish himself in the country and to deal the Muslims and the rule of Islam a fatal blow, reflected in the abolishment of the Khilafah and the removal of the authority of Islam from the face of the earth.

As for the issue of expelling the Greeks from Trakya, this was a flagrant farce manifested by the fact that once the Greek forces evacuated Asia Minor, the forces of Mustafa Kemal moved northwards in order to recapture Trakya from them. When France, Italy and Britain declared their neutral stand on 15th May 1921, they established a neutral zone which was composed of an area spread around the Bosporus and the Dardanelles shores, and they prevented the two warring factions from passing through this zone. In fact the Greeks had attempted to pass through the zone before when they were about to occupy Istanbul, but Harrington prevented them from doing so. Then Mustafa Kemal attempted to pass through it but Harrington also attempted to prevent him. However, Mustafa Kemal ignored this prevention and the army went on penetrating the area regardless. The Turkish armed forces gathered along the coast and stopped near the Dardanelles. Thus Harrington prepared for a showdown. He gathered the troops deployed in Istanbul and sent several platoons to protect Canak Kale and the Asian coastline.

His allies, the French and the Italians, found this strange. Then he sent a warning to Turkey, which the three states Britain, France and Italy had approved, stressing the prohibition of passing through the neutral zone.

However, Mustafa Kemal did not pay any attention to this and this prompted Britain to put her forces on high alert and order them to prepare for battle. She also asked France and Italy to put their forces on high alert but they refused. Then the French garrison pulled out of neutral zone Canak Kale and from the Asian coastline. Italy followed France’s example and Britain remained on her own.

The issue was no longer between Turkey and the Allies, but rather between Turkey and the British alone. The Turkish forces came face to face with the British forces. The British forces could have taken on the Turkish forces and prevented them from pursuing the Greeks, and if they had really wanted to fight the Turkish forces they would have been able to inflict upon them a crushing defeat with their land troops. Otherwise their navy and warplanes were on standby. Mustafa Kemal had no warplanes nor did he have any warships at the time, and his course of action was to penetrate the Dardanelles.

Some of Mustafa Kemal’s advisors did not want him to expose himself to a certain defeat before the British army, but he insisted on continuing his march to penetrate the neutral zone and reach the Greeks. Hence, the Turkish forces advanced and the British troops confronted them to halt their advance. However, no clashes took place between the two sides.

The British troops appeared confused and not knowing what to do.

Orders reaching them were ambiguous, instructing them to prevent the Turks from passing through and at the same time banning the firing of arms and the use of violence.

Meanwhile, France sent an envoy called Franklin Bouillon to negotiate with Mustafa Kemal on her behalf. The French envoy expressed his readiness to give the Allies’ undertaking that they would make the Greeks evacuate Triss and to return European Turkey to the Turks.

Upon this Harrington requested from Mustafa Kemal some time in order to consult his government, and ten days later a reply came from the British government agreeing to the Greek armies evacuation but rejecting the evacuation of the European forces. In fact no other forces were there apart from the British forces.

Mustafa Kemal agreed and ordered his troops to halt their advance and dispatched Ismat to meet Harrington in the village of Mudanya to work out the details. The allies agreed to expel the Greeks from Triss and effectively it was so. The Greek troops evacuated and the Ankara government took over the reins of administrative matters. Hence, no other foreign garrison was left in Turkey apart from the British army.

This was also regarded as a victory for Mustafa Kemal over the Allies for chasing them from Istanbul and the Straits. He was given wide publicity just like the publicity campaign pertaining the battles with the Greeks, though a little rational judgement would show that these theatrical acts were prearranged with the British, in order to alienate their Allies and remain on their own in the country.

By now, the phase of the domestic actions had ended and only the settlement of the issue of the peace conference was still pending.

Meanwhile, the politicians and officers sensed that Mustafa Kemal intended to abolish the Khilafah. An overwhelming majority was formed in the National Assembly to oppose him in this critical issue, and they made it clear to him that they were ready to stand against him in it. A large section of the armed forces also sensed this.

General Kathim Qara Bakir Pasha was the most ardent supporter of the Sultan among them; thus he warned Mustafa Kemal in a speech in which he said: “The new constitution could not be regarded from a legitimate angle as a sound law since the country has not been consulted and her opinion has not been sought regarding such a critical matter. Only the nation can decide on the type of ruling system she wants.” He then ended his speech with the following threatening words: “I have vowed to prevent any steps undertaken with the aim of transforming the country from a Sultanate to a republic, no matter how dear the sacrifice.” Since Kathim Qara Bakir was a respected personality among the whole army, and since the masses appreciated his sound reasoning and his foresight and trusted him, he was capable of inciting the nation and the army against Mustafa Kemal, who realised this and immediately moved to calm him. Thus he wrote to him saying: “ The constitution drafted by the National Assembly is not final. It is rather a host of general principles which have been drafted to act as leads and guidelines to those who wish to rule the country by a democratic system free of chaos. There is nothing in these laws to suggest that the sacred Sultanate and the sacred Khilafah would be undermined, or to suggest an incitement towards adopting a republican ruling system. Those who imagine that we wish to destroy the Sultanate and substitute the Sultanic rule by the republican rule are in fact living in another planet than the one we live in, that is the planet of fiction and imagination.” This letter had its effect upon Kathim Qara Bakir and upon everyone else. Thus, the storm was calmed and Mustafa Kemal realised that he would not be able to establish a republic unless he relied on a formidable force that would enable him to overwhelm these opponents. So, he set about preparing such a force with all his efforts. He was assisted by the huge publicity which the British had spread about him inside Turkey and throughout the Islamic world. Therefore, when he sensed that he had acquired the necessary force, and when he was able to rely upon a formidable force supporting him within the army, he set about executing the aims he had been harbouring for the Khilafah - he started thinking about abolishing it while the peace conference was being held to look into the country’s matters.