Türkiye marks 101st anniversary of Victory Day

Türkiye is celebrating the 101st anniversary of Victory Day, which commemorates the decisive defeat of the occupying Greek army in the Battle of Dumlupinar in 1922.

The Great Offensive was launched by the Turkish Armed Forces on August 26, 1922, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Türkiye, and ended on September 18 that same year.

The victors of World War I — also known as the Entente Powers — landed in present-day Türkiye in 1919, occupying large areas based on the provisions of the Armistice of Mudros.

French troops took over the region around Adana, now in southern Türkiye, while British soldiers entered Urfa, now Sanliurfa, and Maras, now Kahramanmaras, further to the east, as well as Samsun and the town of Merzifon, Amasya in the Black Sea region.

The Italians, meanwhile, occupied large tracts of the Mediterranean coastline, including Antalya and other southwestern Anatolian cities.

On May 15, 1919, the Greek army landed in Izmir with the permission of the Entente Powers, triggering what would become a full-fledged uprising and campaign against the rule of occupying forces in the country.

Decisive plan

Turks, left with only one choice, banded together as the Kuvayi Milliye, or National Forces, to take on the invaders.

The Turkish Grand National Assembly, or parliament, was launched in Ankara in 1920, as the occupiers focused their repressive policies on the Turkish leadership while the Turkish Army moved to the Western Front.

The following year, Turkish soldiers would repel Greek forces that advanced within 70 kilometres of the parliament.

After roughly one year of preparation, commander-in-chief Ataturk launched the Great Offensive on August 26, 1922, to expel the occupiers. Moving further west, he led the battle with his top commanders, among them Fevzi Cakmak.

At dawn, the offensive began with artillery fire as Turkish soldiers pushing forward seized Tinaztepe, Belentepe, and Kalecik Sivrisi near the town of Afyonkarahisar, which the Turkish army would liberate on August 27.

On the night of August 29, the commanders made a situation assessment and agreed to act immediately and decisively.

Ataturk ordered the Turkish army to move to the western Kutahya region on August 30, dealing a decisive blow to Greek troops in Anatolia.

Following the victory, Ataturk, Cakmak and Inonu set out to expel the remaining Greek soldiers from Anatolia with an offensive on the city of Izmir on the Aegean coast and liberated Izmir on September 9.

Two years later, on August 30, 1924, Ataturk attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Martyr Sancaktar Soldier Monument.

"The Turkish nation has once again engraved this truth in the bosom of history with a steel pen with the victory it has won, the power it showed and its will," he said in an address that remains etched in the annals of history.