Abstract:

After the Armistice of Mudros signed between the Ottoman Government and the Allied Powers at the end of the World War I, the occupation of Anatolia took place based on the armistice. The scattered and disjointed resistance and organization efforts of the Turkish people against the occupations prepared the birth of both a leader and a new state. Mustafa Kemal Pasha aimed to gather the reactions started in Anatolia against the invasions within the framework of a certain program on common ground after he set foot in Samsun on 19 May 1919. And this plan was put into practice starting with the Amasya Circular. While doing this, he tried to ensure the legitimacy of the movement he started. The source of legitimacy was to rely on people. Chain of representation was established from villages to province centers from Erzurum Congress. All resistance groups upon a decision which was taken in Sivas Congress were merged under the roof of Association for the Defence of Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia. One year after the opening of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Association for the Defence of Rights Group was established through the initiatives of Mustafa Kemal Pasha in order to eliminate the disruptions in the parliamentary work. The group acted like a political party. After the War of Independence, group turned into a political party. It was named as People’s Party. It is understood that just after Mustafa Kemal announced the idea of founding the People’s Party on 6 December 1922, the activities to establish Association for the Defence of Rights started in the liberated regions. In this study, after evaluating the conditions and developments which prepared the foundation of the Association for the Defence of Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia, the documents about the Salihli Association for the Defence of Rights in 1923 were examined and evaluated.