Mustafa Kemal Leads Turkish Nationalists ca. 1920s

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The Treaty of Sevres, signed on August 10, 1920, ended World War I between the Allied Powers and Turkey. Before the treaty, the Turkish Ottoman Empire controlled the Middle East; as a result of the treaty, most of the Middle East was divided up between the Allies, with Turkey only keeping control of Constantinople (Istanbul) and Anatolia in Asia Minor. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish National Party, raised an Army in opposition and named himself the provisional president of Turkey. Ataturk set up his capital in Ankara and waged a civil war against the sultanate and Greek occupation of Turkey. By 1922 Ataturk had defeated the Greeks so soundly that they withdrew from Turkey, ending the Allied plan for the partitioning of Turkey. Ataturk was formally elected president in 1923 and set about modernizing his country, transforming it from an Islamic state into a secular Western republic. He served until his death in 1938. Copyright The WPA Film Library.