Turkey to honor year 97 since Independence War victory

ANKARA

Turkey will celebrate its Victory day on Friday, the anniversary of when Turkish armies succeeded in the Great Offensive under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk against occupying Greek forces.

In 1919, the victors of World War I -- also known as the Ententes States -- landed in present-day Turkey, occupying large swathes based on the provisions of the recently-inked Armistice of Mudros.

As British, French, Italian and Greek warships anchored in the Bosphorus, French troops took over the region around Adana -- now in southern Turkey. The British soldiers entered Urfa and Maras further east as well as the Black Sea towns of Samsun and Merzifon. Italians occupied large strips of the Mediterranean coastline including Antalya and other southwestern Anatolian cities.

On May 15, 1919, the Greek Army landed in Izmir with the permission of the Entente States, sparking what would become a full-fledged uprising and campaign against the rule of occupying forces in the country.

Forming the National Forces (Kuvayi Milliye) as a means of armed resistance against the invaders, Turks knew that there were only two possible choices: either surrender to the occupation forces or fight against them.

The Turkish Grand National Assembly was launched in Ankara in 1920, as the occupiers focused their repressive policies on Ataturk and his colleagues and the Turkish Army moved to the western front. The next year, Turkish soldiers would repel Greek forces that advanced within 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) of the young parliament.

After roughly one year of preparation, Commander-in-Chief Mustafa Kemal launched the Great Offensive on Aug. 26, 1922 to expel the enemy.

Moving further west, Mustafa Kemal commanded the battle with top commanders Fevzi Cakmak and Ismet Inonu.

At dawn, the offensive began with artillery fire and Turkish soldiers pushing forward seized Tinaztepe, Belentepe and Kalecik Sivrisi near the town Afyonkarahisar, which the Turkish army would seize on Aug. 27.

On the night of Aug. 29, the commanders made a situation assessment and agreed to act immediately and conclude the attack in a short time.

Mustafa Kemal ordered the Turkish army to move on to western Kutahya on Aug. 30 in a decisive blow to the Greek troops in Anatolia.

Following the victory, Ataturk, Cakmak and Inonu set to sweep the remaining Greek soldiers out of Anatolia in an offensive on the city of Izmir on the Aegean coast.

"Armies, your first goal is the Mediterranean. Forward!" Ataturk ordered the army which would move out from western Kutahya on Sept. 1.

On Aug. 27, the Turkish Army liberated Afyonkarahisar from the Greek Army, Kutahya on Aug. 30, and Izmir on Sept. 9.

Two years later on Aug. 30, 1924, Ataturk attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Martyr Sancaktar Soldier Monument.

Addressing the audience, Ataturk said: "The Turkish nation has once again engraved this truth in the bosom of history with a steel pen with the victory it has won, the power it showed and its will.”

*Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur