Uşak During the National Struggle

The Turkish people living on the lands of the Ottoman Empire, which was among the empires that collapsed after World War I, fought for independence against the Entente states under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. After the occupation of Izmir on May 15, 1919, Uşak came to the forefront as a settlement that gave serious support to the activities of the Kuvâ-yı Milliye in Western Anatolia behind the front until it was occupied by Greek forces on August 29, 1920. The activities carried out by the Uşak Central Committee had a very important place in strengthening the resistance of the people behind the front against the Greek forces advancing towards the interior of Western Anatolia. In this process, while the spirit of the Kuvâ-yı Milliye was getting stronger and stronger, it is a remarkable development that a congress affiliated with the Bolsheviks was established in Uşak. The fact that non-Muslims, especially ethnic Greeks, acted together with the Greeks against the people of Uşak, who were subjected to occupation despite providing important services behind the front line against the advance of Greek troops, caused deep scars among the people who had lived together with them for centuries. While the Greeks, who were defeated with the Great Offensive launched from Afyon, could not hold on in Uşak and retreated towards İzmir, the Greek Commander-in-Chief General Trikupis, who was taken prisoner with his entourage, was brought before Mustafa Kemal Pasha, which was the clear sign of the end of the War of Independence. It was not easy to heal the wounds of this occupation period, which deeply shook the people of Uşak socially and economically, during the Republican period. In this study, archives, memoirs and printed works will be used to examine the socio-cultural and economic events that the local people experienced during this period.

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