BÜYÜK TAARRUZ ÖNCESİNDE YUNANİSTAN’IN ANADOLU’DATUTUNMA ÇABALARI: İSTANBUL’UN İŞGALİ PROJESİ VE ANADOLU’DA MUHTARİYET İLANLARI

Abstract

Until 1922 the Turkish Army won a great victory against the Greeks on the Western Front of the Turkish War of Independence. Before the Great Offensive the Greek Army in Anatolia thought that Turks could not make an attack and sent some of its troops in Eskişehir to Çatalca. Having no strength to fight and hoping for peace as soon as possible, the Greeks put into action plans to occupy Istanbul in order to put pressure on the Allied Powers and to deal a final fight to the Turks. The Greeks made their intentions known to the Allies on July 29, 1922. The Greeks' project was not accepted by the Allies, the Ankara Government and the Ottoman authorities. The fact that this project came to the agenda caused a great tension between the Allies and the Greeks. Greeks gathered their soldiers from Anatolia to Çatalca for this project and this made it easier to launch the Great Offensive in the future. With the Turkish success in the Great Offensive this project was ended. The second project of the Greeks, who realized that they could not hold on in Anatolia, was to establish autonomous administrations. On 30 July 1922, under the protection of the Greek government, an autonomous government was declared in Izmir. Afterwards, autonomous administrations were established in Balıkesir and Bursa. While the Greeks suggest that the project preserves peace in Anatolia, the world perceived it differently. There were perceptions that the Greeks would enlist the Anatolian people and taxes would be taken from the people of the region in order to improve their own finances. These administrations were not accepted by any authority. Faced with the objections of the Allies, Greeks had to withdraw from these projects as well. With the start and success of the Great Offensive, the plan of Greeks to maintain in Anatolia came to an end.
 In the source of this study, newspapers published in 1922, talks in the Turkish and British parliaments, and the publications written by experts in the field were used. The aim of the study is to shed light on how the two plans developed by the Greeks to stay in Anatolia were implemented and how they were received by the international public. The study will also be useful to see how was the military, financial and moral strength of the Greek side before the Great Offensive.