Local History of the National Struggle 1918-1923 (Vol 3): Bilecik - Bursa - Çanakkale - Kocaeli - Sakarya - Yalova

Greek Assault and South Marmara

he occupation of the Greek army in Western Anatolia expanded to the Bursa-Uşak line with the forward operating on 22 June 1920. Meanwhile, the Turkish army was in an effort to transition from the Kuvâ-yı Milliye troops to the regular army. On 24 October 1920, the failure of the Gediz Assault revealed that the occupation could not be ended with irregular troops, and the Western Front was divided into two on 9 November 1920 by accelerating the regular army efforts. İsmet Bey was appointed as the Western Front Commander and Refet Bey was appointed as the Southern Front Commander. It was aimed to turn the Kuvâ-yı Milliye troops into a regular army as soon as possible. During the efforts to integrate the forces of Çerkez Ethem into the regular army, the Greeks took advantage of this complicated situation and took action. With the First Battle of Inönü, which took place on 6-10 January 1921, the Greek army was stopped, and then the transition to the regular army was completed by going against Çerkez Ethem. The London conference convened after the First Battle of Inönü did not yield any results, but it served to recovery the Greek army. As the Turkish delegation was on its way back, the Greek army went on the offensive again. The fact that they were once again stopped by the Second Battle of Inönü angered the Greek forces. After this battle, the intensity of Greek oppression increased in the regions under their occupation. Then, another offensive was planned in order to force the Ankara Government to accept the Treaty of Sèvres by leaving the Ankara Government in a difficult situation, which was the main purpose of the Greek occupation in Anatolia. In line with this plan, the Greek army gathered its forces for an assault along the Kütahya-Eskişehir line. As a result of the battle that took place between 10-24 July 1921, the Turkish army was forced to retreat east of the Sakarya River. The Turkish army has been following Mustafa Kemal Pasha's words: "There is no defense line, but defense territory. This territory is the whole of the motherland." gathered its forces east of the Sakarya River and stopped the Greek army in the battle that took place between 23 August and 13 September 1921. The Turkish army, which recovered its military and financial strength within a period of approximately one year, started the offensive on 26 August 1922. As a result of this offensive, the Greek occupation of Anatolian cities ended. However, as the Greek army retreated, it caused great destruction in Western Anatolia. In this section, the process of ending the occupation of the Greek forces in the cities of Southern Marmara by the Turkish army and the destruction caused by the Greek forces will be explained.

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Prof. Dr. Adnan Sofuoğlu, Prof. Dr.Taner Bilgin
DOI: 10.53478/TUBA.978-625-8352-65-8.ch06