Eskişehir İstiklâl Mahkemesi Karar Defterine Geçmiş Bazı Suç Çeşitleri

Abstract

It was on 23 April 1920 that the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was founded. During those days, the country was under big internal and external threats. The external threat was that most parts of the country were occupied by the Entente States. Another aspect of the issue, equally dangerous with external threat, was internal threat. Internal threat was coming from the rebellions in various regions of Anatolia, where such actions were desired to be turned out to be a civil war with the support of the Entente States. Thus a very serious national security weakness appeared in Anatolia. The banditry and brigandage cases became uncontrollable. Especially military deserters played a major role in the formation of such turmoil and insecure environment. The army suffered serious deserting problems. Turkish army, which had already been made of only main staff due to the agreement of the armistice of Montrose, was bleeding with these escapes. A serious amount of the banditry and brigandage cases belonged to military deserters. Turkish Assembly enacted some laws related to internal security to resolve this problem. However, these laws could not give the desired results for the solution of problems related to internal security and especially military deserters. In the end, the Assembly made a Law on Military Deserters on 11th September 1920, which also paved the way to the establishment of Independence Courts. Following this development, the Assembly established the 1st Term Independence Courts of Independence War to enact the mentioned Law. One of these Courts established was in Eskisehir. The current study aimed to determine some crime types written in the agreement book of Independence Court in Eskisehir. In the study, considering the conditions of the period, it was also aimed to contribute, to some extent, to perception of crime sociology of the period.