various groups based and fighting in Anatolia, the National Forces, had many supporters in Istanbul, among whom was Bediuzzaman, many of the Deputies in the Parliament, the Sultan [^286] and a number of prominent statesmen and 'ulema opposed it, believing the interests of the Ottoman State would be best served by co-operation and collaboration with the occupying Powers. The supporters of the National Forces gaining strength in Istanbul, notably in the new parliament opened in January 1920, led to a reoccupation of the city by British troops in March, and large-scale arrests and deportations. Under considerable pressure from the British, the Sultan dissolved the parliament the following month, and a fatwa was extracted from a specially installed Seyhü'l-İslam declaring the nationalists to be rebels and the killing of them a duty. [^287] An army was then formed to fight them.

[^286]:Writers sympathetic to the Ottoman dynasty disclaim the official view that Sultan Vahideddin was "a base traitor" and state that on the contrary, he laid the foundations of the War of Independence and used every means at this disposal to further its cause. See, Kadir Mısıroğlu, Sarıklı Mücahitler, Istanbul 1980, 40 ff.

[^287]:Ibid., 297-8.

In Ankara, which became the centre of the national movement, a new representative assembly was formed, and on 23 April 1920, the Turkish Grand National Assembly had its formal opening. But it was only on the Istanbul government's agreeing to sign the Treaty of Sévres in August 1920 that the nationalist cause obtained the almost total support of the Turkish people. Enraged by the signature of this ill-gotten and vengeful document, which purported to legitimize the carving up of Turkey itself between the Powers mentioned above, they determined to liberate their country from its foreign invaders. [^288]

[^288]:Y. Bahadıroğlu, Osmanlı Padişahları Ansiklopedisi, iii, 778.

It is beyond the scope of this book to describe the course of the War of Independence, but it may be noted that up to the Armistice, the Turks had been engaged in various wars since 1909, and in 1920 were exhausted and impoverished, with the male population decimated. On their defeat the Ottoman army had been disarmed and disbanded by the victors. Against the heaviest odds, inspired and sustained by their faith in God and the religion of Islam, the Turks won a truly remarkable victory. Indeed, religion and men of religion played a role of the greatest importance in the war, which was proclaimed a jihad, and one of the main aims of which was considered by all, including the Ankara government, to be the saving of the Caliph and Sultan from enemy hands. [^289] Their victory was recognized by

[^289]:Niyazi Berkes, Türkiye'de Çağdaşlaşma, Istanbul, 465; B. Lewis, Emergence, 251.