Erzurum Congress
[2] Mehmed VI appointed Ahmed Izzet Pasha to the position of Grand Vizier and tasked him with the assignment of seeking an armistice with the Allied Powers and ending Ottoman involvement in the war.
The armistice ended Ottoman participation in the war and required the Empire's forces to stand down although there still remained approximately one million soldiers in the field and small scale fighting continued in the frontier provinces into November.
The Anatolian province of Antalya was occupied by the Italians and the area of Cilicia and the Adana Vilayet were under the control of French forces advancing from Syria.
[6] The turning point in the Turkish National Movement began on 14 May 1919 when Greek occupation forces landed in the city of Smyrna in the Province of İzmir.
Greek forces almost immediately met with fierce protest and resistance from the Turkish population, many of whom had attained small arms from local caches.
As Greek forces were trying to cement their holdings in İzmir, a young Ottoman military officer named Mustafa Kemal (later to be known as Atatürk) was headed for his assignment as Inspector of the Eastern Provinces.
Raouf Bey and one or two others are getting very busydown Panderma way, and there are symptoms which seem to point to the Ministry of War here at Constantinople being the organizing center of the disturbances.In June 1919, Kemal held a secret meeting with several prominent Turkish statesman and military leaders including Ali Fuat Pasha and Hüseyin Rauf (Rauf Orbay) in the town of Amasya.
The Amasya meeting kept in remote communication with Turkish General Kâzım Karabekir Pasha who was in command of the 15th Army Corps stationed at Erzurum at the time.
Below is the opening statement of the so-called Amasya Circular Meanwhile, General Kâzım Karabekir began issuing invitations for a gathering of Turkish Eastern Anatolian delegates to be held in the city of Erzurum.
Although the Sivas congress expressed support for the Sultan, they made it clear that they believed the government and Grand Vezir in Constantinople was incapable of protecting the rights and territory of the Empire's Turkish citizens.
1) The motherland is a whole, and cannot be divided.
2) The nation will defend itself and resist against any kind of foreign invasion and intervention.
3) The basic principle is to do everything with the power of the nation's people and to hold the people's will above all .
4) Mandate and patronage cannot be accepted.