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| 1923, July 24 |
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| THE TREATY OF LAUSANNE. Turkey formally won recognition for its independence within almost all its current borders. Other terms of the treaty included the abolition of the Capitulations, guarantees for the security of the minorities, and the demilitarization of the straits (except if Turkey were at war). Though Turkey was not required to pay reparations, the country was saddled with two-thirds of the old Ottoman debt, the remainder being divided among the states that had been provinces of the empire in 1914. The Turkish portion of the debt was finally liquidated in 1948. | 1 |
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| Aug |
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| Formation of the People's Party under Mustafa Kemal. It later changed its name in Nov. 1924 to the Republican People's Party. The party immediately established itself as the center of political power in Turkey and ruled single-handedly until 1950. | 2 |
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| Oct. 2 |
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| Departure of the last Allied troops from Istanbul. | 3 |
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| Oct. 13 |
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| Transfer of the Turkish capital from Istanbul to Ankara. The move was an open symbol of the government's desire to break with, and if possible to bury, the Ottoman past. | 4 |
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| Oct. 29 |
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| DECLARATION OF THE TURKISH REPUBLIC. This act put an official end to the Ottoman Empire. MUSTAFA KEMAL (1881–1938), who later took the name ATATÜRK, became the first president of the Republic. | 5 |
| Atatürk's decisive leadership in Turkey's war of independence and his program of modernizing reforms established him as the most important figure in 20th-century Turkish history. His policies were largely responsible for defining the shape of the future Turkish state. Instead of diverting resources toward campaigns to reclaim former Ottoman lands, he contained Turkish ambitions within Anatolia and eastern Thrace and concentrated on building a distinctly Turkish state within these borders. He left his imprint not only on politics but also on the direction and spirit of society and culture. He dreamed of creating a fully modernized and secular society, and in pursuing this goal he ruthlessly imposed social reforms whose main objective was to sweep away the Ottoman past. | 6 |
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