The Transformation of the 20th Corps into the 5th Corps in the National Struggle and the Emerging Influence Struggle

Abstract

The area of responsibility of the 20^th Corps stationed in Ankara during the Armistice Period was strategically located, connecting many regions of Anatolia. In addition to this importance, the fact that the Corps Commander Ali Fuad Pasha was one of the leading figures of the National Struggle revealed the effective activities of the Corps for the expansion of the national movement in and around Western Anatolia. Undoubtedly, this disturbed the government of Damat Ferid Pasha in Istanbul and as a result Fuad Pasha was dismissed. However, since Fuad Pasha did not transfer his duty and the corps remained under his command, Ahmed Hamdi Pasha, who was appointed in his place, could not go to Ankara and started to wait in Eskişehir. When Ali Fuad Pasha moved to Eskişehir to take some measures, the government disbanded the 20^th Corps and established the Eskişehir-based 5^th Corps, but the existence of this Corps remained on paper. Therefore, the efforts of the government and the National Struggle Movement to maintain its authority in the region made the 20^th Corps the subject of the struggle for influence between Istanbul and Anatolia.

This article examines in detail the military organization arrangement that the government tried to put into practice with the aim of maintaining its authority in the critically important 20^th Corps area, while also examining the struggle between Istanbul and Anatolia in this context. Thus, it is aimed to reveal the government’s efforts to restructure the army at the expense of breaking the effectiveness of the national movement and, in contrast, the determination of the 20^th Corps to implement its own decisions and the measures it took, even against the government. The sources of the study, which focuses on the military phase of the events, consist of original documents in the Ottoman, ATASE and TİTE archives, published archival documents and research on the period in order to deepen the research on the subject. The findings of the qualitative analysis method are evaluated within the framework of the political and military conditions of the period and the approach of both sides to the events.