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CHAPTER 2 – HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 
55 
the institutions of statehood, inaugurating an assembly on 23 April, which elected 
Mustafa Kemal president on the following day, and rushed to vote coercive powers 
in the form of a treason law on 29 April even before appointing a ministry at the 
beginning of May
88
, the mobilising effect of statehood was still undeveloped and, 
measured by the unpopularity of exactions and the numbers of desertions from the 
army
89
, still had far to go even in 1921. And despite the appeal to Muslim Ottoman 
solidarity in general and the declarations of loyalty to the Sultanate, the nationalists 
were compelled to fight their own: in the north-west between April and May 1920 
and again from July to September; in Yozgat between May and August
90
. 
A nationalist attack on British positions at İzmit on 14/15 June 1920 put the British 
on the extremely sharp horns of their dilemma: the only troops available to protect 
the allied position in Constantinople and the Straits were Greek. Accordingly, the 
Greeks were given permission to garrison İzmit and advance to the Straits; the 
military operation concluded against minimal opposition within about a fortnight on 
8 July with the capture of Bursa. Later in July the Greeks cleared eastern Thrace, 
capturing Edirne on 26 July
91
. The sequel to these operations exemplified the 
incoherence of Anglo-Greek strategy taken together. The Greek commander in chief, 
elated by the ease with which the operations had been carried out, proposed 
proceeding with further blows against the nationalists, a course which at that stage of 
their development might have caused them severe disruption. Venizelos insisted on a 
standstill until the peace treaty was signed, because he wanted the Turks to be shown 
88
Mango, 277-280 
89
Gawrych, 148, 183 
90
Gawrych, 111-112; Mango, 282-283 
91
Gawrych, 114-116; Llewellyn Smith, 126-128 

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