The war that changed the destiny of a nation: Sakarya 1921

The Anatolian lands of the Ottoman Empire, which was defeated in the First World War, were occupied one by one, and the occupation of İzmir by the Greek soldiers on September 15, 1919, ignited the spark of the national liberation movement that would begin. The Turkish War of Independence officially started when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his entourage landed in Samsun on 19 May 1919. In the first years of the War of Independence, irregular units consisting of ephesians, local people and former soldiers made successful attacks against the Greek Army. However, although the irregular units achieved small successes, regular units were needed in order to throw the Greek Army out of Anatolia. As a matter of fact, after the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Kuvâ-yi Milliye units were replaced by a regular Turkish Army. This change gave its fruits in a short time against the Greek troops of the Turkish Army I. and II. He was victorious in the battles of İnönü. However, these victories could not break the will of the Greek Army to fight and the Turkish troops could not avoid being defeated in the KütahyaEskişehir battles. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk made a radical decision so that the Turkish Army would not completely disintegrate in the Kütahya-Eskişehir Battles and gave the order to withdraw the Turkish soldiers to the east of the Sakarya River. This decision of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave rise to two questions for Greece, to wait or to continue. The Battle of Sakarya, which lasted for 21 days and 21 nights, started when the Greek war council, which met shortly after, decided to continue the progress. This will also go down in history as the longest pitched battle in the world. The military, political and social factors of the Sakarya Pitched Battle are examined in the work.