Today in History – 28 January

 

Misak-ı Milli is declared

Originally known as Ahd-ı Milli Beyannamesi (Declaration of the National Oath), Misak-ı Milli (National Oath) was declared at the secret session of the last term of the Ottoman Parliament on 28 January 1920. A kind of “peace program” offered to the Allied Powers after World War I, Misak-ı Milli included the peace conditions Turkey was willing to accept. On 17 February 1920, the Ottoman Parliament ruled to publicly announce the program to the press and to deliver it to the parliaments of all concerned nations.

Debates prevail over how and by whom the Misak-ı Milli text was shaped. However, the essence was based on the decisions taken at the Erzurum Congress of 23 July 1919 and several members of the Felâh-ı Vatan (Liberation of the Homeland) Group finalized the content. Comprised of six clauses, Misak-ı Milli asserted that territories that were not occupied at the time of the Armistice of Mudros and inhabited by an Ottoman-Islamic majority would comprise the homeland of the Turkish nation. The declaration was a crucial step in the transition from an empire into a nation-state.

Misak-ı Milli was neither an international treaty, not had any constitutional value; it was merely a set of principles outlining Turkey’s objectives in the aftermath of the war. However, already in İstanbul to enforce the Armistice of Mudros, the Allied Forces were discomforted by the presence of a parliament that blatantly opposed the stipulations of the armistice. Following the occupation of İstanbul on 16 March 1920, the Ottoman Parliament was dissolved. As of this date, the government in Ankara sought to enforce the decisions of Misak-ı Milli.