Mustafa Kemal had already been building a new base of support to replace the authority he derived from his official position. On June 19, 1919, he met in Amasya with some of the men who were to join him in leading the nationalist movement: Rauf Orbay, former minister of the navy and Ottoman delegate to Mundros, Ali Faut Cebesoy, Commander at Ankara and Refet Bele, who commanded several corps near Samsun. On October 22, the three signed the Amasya Protocol[1], soon after Kazim too accepted, which became more or less the first call for a national movement against the occupation.
The message was a simple one.
1. The unity of the Fatherland and national independence is in danger.
2. The Istanbul government is unable to carry out its responsibilities.
3. It is only through the nation's effort and determination that national independence will be won.
4. It is necessary to establish a national committee, free from all external influences and control, that will review the national situation and make known to the world the people's desire for justice.
5. It has been decided to hold immediately a national congress in Sivas, the most secure place in Anatolia.
6. Three representatives from each province should be sent immediately to the Sivas Congress.
September 9, 1919 Ataturk’s letter to the American Congress announcing the decisions of the Sivas Congress: “We request that a group of Congressmen is sent to all corners of the Ottoman Empire to investigate the prevailing conditions and situation in the Empire with a clear conscience of a nation that has no special interest or relations. The investigation must be carried out before arbitrary decisions are taken for a peace treaty on the future of the Ottoman people and lands”.
Mavi Boncuk |
The Sivas Congress | Sivas Kongresi) was an assembly of the Turkish National Movement held for one week from 4 to 11 September 1919 in the city of Sivas, in central-eastern Turkey, that united delegates from all Anatolian provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which was defunct at the time in practical terms. At the time of the convention, the state capital (Constantinople) as well as many provincial cities and regions were under occupation. The call for the congress had been issued by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with his Amasya Circular three months before and the preparatory work had been handled during Erzurum Congress. The congress at Sivas took a number of vital decisions which were fundamentally to shape the future policy to be conducted in the frame of the Turkish War of Independence.
Although smaller than the Erzurum Congress (with 38 delegates), the delegates came from a wider geographical area than was the case with the Erzurum Congress. Along with the Erzurum Congress, the Sivas Congress determined the main points of the Misak-ı Millî (National Pact) that the Turkish National Movement made with other Turkish resistance movements against the Allies to work together, namely the imperial government in Constantinople. The two bodies signed the Amasya Protocol [1]the next month on October 22, 1919, calling for new elections after which the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies would consider the agreements of the Sivas Congress.
The Second Constitutional Era ended on 11 April 1920, when the General Assembly (Ottoman Parliament) was dissolved[2] during the occupation of Constantinople in the aftermath of World War I. Many members of the dissolved Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul later became members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara, which was established on 23 April 1920, during the Turkish War of Independence.
The building was originally a high school. It was built in 1892 by Mehmet Mazlum Bey, the governor of Sivas. Between 4 September–12 September 1919, the building was used by Turkish nationalists as a center for preparation of the Turkish War of Independence (see Sivas Congress). After the congress, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later Atatürk) and his friends stayed in this building until 18 December 1919, when they left for Ankara. Following their departure, the building returned to its former roll as a high school. In 1930, the building underwent a renovation. In 1984, the building was acquired by the Ministry of Culture. Following a restoration period, it was opened as the Museum of Congress in 1990.
[1] Amasya Protocol (Amasya Görüşmeleri) was a memorandum of understanding signed on 22 October 1919 in Amasya, Turkey between the Ottoman imperial government in Istanbul and the Turkish revolutionaries (the Turkish National Movement) aimed at seeking ways to preserve national independence and unity through joint efforts.It also signified a recognition by the Ottoman government of the rising Turkish revolutionary forces in Anatolia.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Rauf Orbay and Bekir Sami Kunduh on the one side, in their title of Delegation of Representatives (Heyeti Temsiliye) as attributed by the Sivas Congress, and the Ottoman Minister of Marine (later grand vizier himself) Hulusi Salih Pasha, who had come to Amasya to represent the short-lived Ottoman government of Ali Rıza Pasha on the other side, all signed the protocol just after the Sivas Congress in the same city of the Amasya Circular.
The protocol agreed that new elections would be held that year for the Chamber of Deputies (the popularly elected lower house of the Ottoman parliament), and the Chamber would convene outside Istanbul (at the time occupied by the Allies), consider passing the resolutions of the Sivas Congress and describes the new country as "The lands which Kurds and Turks inhabit" Although it did not convene outside Istanbul as promised, the new Chamber convened on 12 January 1920 and passed the Misak-ı Millî (National Pact) agreed to at the Sivas and Erzurum Congresses, after which the Allies, in an effort to stamp out the nascent Turkish National Movement, forced it to dissolve and declared martial law in Istanbul.
[2] The Ottoman Parliament met for the last time, from 12 January 1920 to 18 March 1920. On 28 January, it accepted the National Pact, formulated on the basis of the principles of the Erzurum and sivas Congresses. Thus, putting the parliament itself, on record, as expressing the will of the Turkish people, to regain full national integrity and independence.Once word reached the occupying Allies in Constantinople, however, they self dissolved the parliament, after which the remaining vestiges of the Ottoman imperial government would become antagonistic against the Turkish National Movement in Ankara.
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