Today in History – 25 May

İsmet Bey’s pessimism over independence

The last page of May 1919 in İsmet İnönü’s journal carries this undated entry:

Dark days of May. The Greeks have invaded İzmir. They are spreading. There is word of absolute collapse. They are moving us out of İstanbul. There is no resistance. There are no possibilities. The government does not even have an idea!

These pessimistic words signaled that the hopes of the young colonel were truly beginning to fade. As İsmet Bey was still in İstanbul, it would be some time before he would realize how that hope was emerging out of Anatolia. When the time came; however, he, too would assume his place in the resistance and witness, step by step, the birth of a new Turkey.