The Armistice of Mudanya (Mudania) was an agreement between Turkey, Italy, France and Britain on 11 October 1922. Greece acceded to the armistice on 14 October. Under the terms agreed eastern Thrace as far as the Maritsa River and Adrianople were handed by Greece to Turkey and Turkish soverignty over Istanbul and the Straits at Chanak was recognized. The final settlement between the parties was worked out at the Conference of Lausanne from 21 November 1922 to 24 February 1923 and from 23 April to 24 July 1923. October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in Leap years). ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in Leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Thrace (Greek Θρᾴκη ThrákÄ“, Bulgarian Тракия Trakija, Turkish Trakya) is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe spread over southern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and European Turkey. ... The Maritsa or Evros (Bulgarian: Марица, Greek: Εβρος, Romanized as Hebrus, Turkish: Meriç) river is ca . ... Edirne is a city in (Thrace), the westernmost part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. ... Shows the Location of the Province Ä°stanbul Istanbul (Turkish: Ä°stanbul; a contraction of Greek εις την πολιν into the city, the former Constantinople, Κωνσταντινούπολις) is the largest city in Turkey, and arguably the most important. ... The Conference of Lausanne was a 1922--23 peace conference held in Lausanne, in order to write a new treaty with Turkey, which, under the new government of Kemal Pasha, did not recognise the Treaty of Sèvres. ... November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). ... July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Background

The British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was deeply influenced by the Greek Premier Eleftherios Venizelos and agreed to allow the Greeks to carve out considerable territory in both Eastern Thrace and Asiatic Turkey as part of the postwar settlement.The Allies, notably France and Italy, were lukewarm about the scheme but were dragged in by Lloyd George to support it. The incursion of the Greeks aroused Turkish nationalism and was a major factor behind the success of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk in rallying the Turkish Army and the Anatolian people behind him. The Right Honourable David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM , PC (January 17, 1863 – March 26, 1945) was a British statesman and the last Liberal to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ... Eleftherios Venizelos Eleftherios Venizelos (Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος) (August 23, 1864 - March 18, 1936) was probably the most significant politician of modern Greece. ... Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 – November 10, 1938), Turkish soldier and statesman, was the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey. ...

Greek internal politics in late 1920 took a turn favouring Kemal's plan to evict the Greeks from Asiatic Turkey . Venizelos lost in the elections , and the death of King Alexander saw the restoration by plebiscite of King Constantine, disliked by the Allies for pro-German leanings. The French and the Italians seized this opportunity to shift their sympathies away from the Greeks and towards the Turks.Even Britain turned cool and declined to provide further financial aid to Greece.Though the conference in London in February 1921 to discuss modification of the terms of the Treaty of Sevres, the Turkish nationalist envoy Bekir Sami succeeded in working out unpublicised modus vivendi with the French and the Italians, detaching them from the Greeks. The Italians and the French later pulled out of their occupation zones in Southern Turkey. The Treaty of Sèvres of August 10, 1920, made peace between the Allied and Associated Powers1 and the Ottoman Empire after World War I. The treaty was signed by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI who was trying to save his throne but was rejected by the independence movement in...

Kemal decided it was time to take on the Greeks.In the Second Battle of Inonu in March-April 1921, Turkish Generals Ismet Inonu and Refet pushed back Greek forces under their new C-in-C Papoulas.The Greeks prepared for one big effort and attacked in July 1921, winning back lost territory and reaching up to the Sakarya River, only 40 miles from the provisional capital of Ankara.Kemal took over as C-in-C, had Fevzi appointed as CGS, and prepared to face the new Greek thrust North towards Ankara. The Greeks attacked on 23rd August 1921, winning initial successes, but the Turks hung on grimly under Kemal's eye. Despite capturing the important position of Mount Cal on 2nd September, Papoulas decided it was pointless to go on as the Greeks had reached their limit of endurance. The Turks, also contemplating retreat, were relieved to see the Greeks pulling out on 4th September.By the time the battle ended the Greeks were back to Eskisehir and Afyon Karahissar. Greater tenacity had triumphed in the twenty-one day long Battle of Sakarya. Ismet Inonu 1884-1973 Mustafa Ismet Inönü (1884 - December 25, 1973) was a soldier, statesman and the second President of Turkey. ... Ankara from the Atakule Tower, looking N-NE Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the countrys second largest city after Ä°stanbul. ... The Battle of Sakarya 1921 was an important engagement in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). ...

Kemal diplomatically maneuvred in 1922 to get the weakened Greeks out of Anatolia, but failed, mainly due to British intransigence. However , he stalled an Allied proposal for an armistice with the Greeks.In August 1922 Kemal decided at last that the time to attack had come. The Greeks had more men and more guns.The Turks had better generalship and more cavalry.The Turkish attack,under the eyes of Kemal , Fevzi and Ismet, was mounted by the reinforced 1st Army under Nureddin against the strongest sector of the Greek's 400 mile frontline.The Turks attacked at dawn on 26th August 1922 Northward against the mountainous salient stretching East to Afyon Karahissar.By the next day they had broken through, taking the high hill bastion of Erkmentepe, and sent the cavalry through to the Greek rear.The retreating 1st and 2nd Greek Corps were surrounded and destroyed at the small fortified town of Dumlupinar on 29/30 August, thus bringing the climactic Battle of Dumlupinar to an end. The Greeks did not lose many men, but their morale,already sapped by unending hostile occupation duty,disintegrated: they fled for Izmir on the coast, wreaking havoc in their rage.They evacuated their troops from Izmir, which fell to the pursuing Turks on 9th September, and was almost immediately afterwards burnt down.The last Greek troops in Western Anatolia were gone by 16th September 1922. The battle of Dumlupinar was the last battle of the Turkish War of Independence (1919—1922). ...

The discomfited British made threatening noises asking the Turks not to enter the neutral zone, a demilitarised area around Allied garrison positions at Istanbul and Chanak, but Kemal replied he did not recognise any such zone.Turkish troops gradually occupied the neutral zone, and moved up to the wire surrounding the British occupation zone at Chanak ( now Canakkale) on September 23rd. At the same time Kemal made it clear that he was all for a peaceful solution. Britain found no support for a new war against Turkey either at home or abroad : French and Italian contingents sent to support the British garrison at Chanak had been pointedly withdrawn to Istanbul on September 21st.Kemal cleverly isolated Lloyd George by not making any threatening moves towards areas under French and Italian occupation.

On 29th September the cornered British Government cabled the commander at Chanak, General Sir Charles Harington, to serve an ultimatum on the Turks that fire would be opened if they did not evacuate the neutral zone. Harington, a pragmatic man, did not deliver the ultimatum . Coming to it's senses,the British Government started planning for an armistice.

Discussions began in Mudanya, a port on the Sea of Marmara , on October 3rd, the Turkish delegation being led by the canny tactician Ismet Inonu, with Kemal prompting from behind the scene. Despite reluctance on the part of the British, they were forced to abandon their attempts to salvage something out of the wreckage of their pro-Greek policy, and Turkey substantially gained all she had asked for. Map of the Sea of Marmara Satellite view of the Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara (Turkish: Marmara Denizi, Modern Greek: Θάλασσα του Μαρμαρά or Προποντίδα) (also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea) is an inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating the... Ismet Inonu 1884-1973 Mustafa Ismet Inönü (1884 - December 25, 1973) was a soldier, statesman and the second President of Turkey. ...

References

• International Treaties of the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415141257
• ATATURK by Andrew Mango (ISBN 0-7195-6592-8)

External links

• The Ottoman Empire and the Armistice of Moudros