Demise of the Ottoman Caliphate: Encyclopedia II - Demise of the Ottoman Caliphate - The Turkish Nationalist Movement and the Caliphate

Demise of the Ottoman Caliphate - The Turkish Nationalist Movement and the Caliphate

This time, the nationalist movement reacted much more aggressively. On April 23, 1920, nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal, who had gained the reputation of a national hero for his leadership of the Ottoman resistance at Gallipoli, established the Turkish Grand National Assembly, a provisional government based at Ankara. The National Assembly repudiated the Sultan and affirmed a temporary constitution. The rival government seemed destined to replace the crumbling Ottoman regime once the Sultan signed the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920, which reduced the Empire to a fraction of its previous size and effectively rendered Turkey an Allied colony. Kemal and his supporters were incensed by the treaty. Though he cared little about its provisions that formally severed Arab and other non-Turkish lands from the Empire, he was outraged by the Sultan’s concessions that gave parts of western Anatolia to the Greeks, granted the Kurds an independent state in the southeast, and allowed the Allies to retain control over Turkey’s affairs. He and his government refused to recognize the treaty, and it would turn out to be the Ottoman dynasty’s death warrant.

With remnants of the Ottoman military at his command, Kemal reorganized Turkish forces, rallied more troops, and established a new army to confront Greek forces that had arrived to claim the land they had been promised. Over the next two years in what is now known in Turkey as the War of Independence, he and his army drove the Greeks out of Anatolia and reasserted Turkish control over the Kurdish areas, preventing the Kurds’ promised state from ever coming into existence. In the process, Kemal and the National Assembly consolidated their control over Turkey. Upon seizing Istanbul, Kemal abolished the sultanate on November 1, 1922, prompting Mehmed to flee the country under a British escort. The Sultan's departure led to the complete disintegration of the regime his ancestors had founded, and any semblance of authority the Ottomans had managed to retain over Turkey evaporated. The Armenian military tribunals were suspended, and the nationalists destroyed evidence of official Turkish complicity in the massacres. Exhausted by four years of war, the Allies did not wish to intervene, especially to suppress a nationalist movement of the kind they had supported elsewhere in the Empire’s former dominions. Kemal, now recognized as the de facto ruler of Turkey, secured formal recognition of the nation’s independence and new borders on July 23, 1923 through the Treaty of Lausanne, which revised some of the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres in Turkey’s favor. The National Assembly declared Turkey a republic on October 29 and proclaimed Ankara its new capital. After nearly 700 years, the Ottoman Empire had officially ceased to exist.

Initially, the National Assembly seemed willing to allow a place for the Caliphate in the new regime, agreeing to the appointment of Mehmed’s cousin Abdul Mejid II as Caliph upon Mehmed’s departure. But the position had been stripped of any authority, and Abdul Mejid’s purely ceremonial reign would be short lived. Mustafa Kemal had been a vocal critic of the Ottoman House and its Islamic orientation. A complete unbeliever himself, he detested Islam, blaming it for centuries of decline and pervasive "backwardness" in Turkey. Now that he controlled Turkey and had the people’s overwhelming support, he could run the nation as he pleased. When Abdul Mejid was declared Caliph, Kemal refused to allow the traditional Ottoman ceremony to take place, bluntly declaring, "The Khalifa has no power or position except as a nominal figurehead." In response to Abdul Mejid's petition for an increase in his allowance, Kemal wrote, "Your office, the Khalifate, is no more than an historic relic. It has no justification for existence. It is a piece of impertinence that you should dare write to any of my secretaries!" Still, for all the power he had already wielded in Turkey, Kemal did not dare to abolish the Caliphate outright, as it still commanded a considerable degree of support from the common people.

Then an event happened which was to deal a fatal blow to the Caliphate. Two Indian brothers, Maulana Muhammad Ali and Shawkat, leaders of the Indian-based Khilafat Movement, distributed pamphlets calling upon the Turkish people to preserve the Ottoman Caliphate for the sake of Islam. Under Turkey's new nationalist government, however, this was construed as foreign intervention, and any form of foreign intervention was labelled an insult to Turkish sovereignty, and worse, a threat to State security. Kemal promptly seized his chance. On his initiative, the National Assembly abolished the Caliphate on March 3, 1924. Abdul Mejid, who would turn out to be the last Caliph in a virtually unbroken line dating back to Muhammad, was sent into exile along with the remaining members of the Ottoman House, marking the official end of the Ottoman Dynasty. As the Republic of Turkey's first president, Kemal would complete the nation’s transition from Islamic empire to republican nation-state by embarking on an aggressive campaign of secularization. He formally abolished Shariah law, which had been in force only nominally since the Young Turk coup, and replaced it with European-based civil and penal codes. All political, social, and educational institutions were purged of Islamic influences and radical Western reforms were introduced into Turkish society. Turkey distanced itself from its Islamic past and began to emphasize European aspects of its culture and heritage.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Turkish Nationalist Movement and the Caliphate", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki