Porto Santo

RIAT has a fondness for themes, this was "securing the skies" then and now. The Spitfire obviously from WWII and the Typhoon currently the UK QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) aircraft. Also showing how slowly the Typhoon can fly, massive angle of attack and computer fly by wire.

Listed as Synchro 75 which I don't recall being explained.

Typhoon FGR4 from RAF from No29(R) Squadron Coningsby and a Supermarine Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The Typhoon carries WWII paint camouflage scheme.

Location: Grid Square K20, Polis Massa

Names: Finn Crux, Vice Admiral Crait, Spy, Scout, Blaster, Hunter, Heavy and Mechanic (the whole clan)

Species: Human/Near Human

Faction: Mando'ade

 

After Finn and his team departed from The Eclipse, the transports landed in an abandoned landing pad. It was said that it had been an old Republic base, an Imperial Research base and more recently, an unknown operations hub. Finn supposed that was where the yellow stripes came from...

 

When they first landed, everything was quiet. Too quiet.

 

Finn Crux: "What is this place?" he spoke to the hologram of Vice Admiral Crait.

 

Vice Admiral Crait: "This is where it will begin. Scout the surface of this area, and if you deem it to be safe, we will send more transports down with supplies and find a space to dock the cruiser. If it isn't safe, feel free to exterminate any hazards along the way. We will then arrange support. If you require immediate assistance, just tap the comms link." The hologram blinked out.

The back cover of the backing cardboard is opened by pulling out the tabs along the edges of the cover. We can then access the various fasteners securing the doll to the backing. We also see a peek of the Certificate of Authenticity, with its corners sticking through slots in the backing.

 

Deboxing my newly purchased DL60 Limited Edition Aurora Doll. First the front cover is taken off the the cardboard backing and base, by cutting the seals around the edges of the cover, and pulling the cover's tabs out of the cardboard slots in the backing. The doll is attached to the backing and base by wires, thread, rubber bands and plastic T-tabs. Her hands are also tied together by a rubber band, and her necklace is secured to her neck by a rubber band. Her cape is tacked to her skirt by T-tabs, and draped over the right side of her skirt, to show it off, and also to get it out of the way of the wire around her waist. There is a small plastic piece behind her head, and her head is tacked to it by two larger T-tabs. Her skirt is securely tacked down to the base, so you can't peek under the skirt to see her shoes.

 

Detailed photos of the Disney Parks Limited Edition Aurora Doll, part of the Disneyland Resort 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration. She was released on Monday July 13, 2015 at the Disneyland Resort. She was officially announced by the Disney Parks Blog on Friday July 10, 2015, although there was a photo of the doll that was leaked to the internet on Friday June 26, 2015. She is a 17'' doll, with an edition size of 3000, costs $119.95, and is exclusive to Disneyland Resort.

 

There is no mention on the outside of the box of the edition size or Certificate of Authenticity. However after deboxing the doll, I found out that the CoA is attached to the front of the cardboard backing (facing the back of the doll). My doll is #1367 of 3000.

 

She appears to be same base doll as the Disney Store 17'' Aurora singing and LE dolls. In particular she has the same head mold and has wrist and elbow joints. She has the body of the older version of DS LE dolls, with no ankle joints, but with an upper torso joint, as well as external hinged knee joints.

 

Her outfit is completely new, made of satin, velour and organza. She also has jeweled satin fingerless gloves (like detached sleeves). Her crown and necklace are silver plastic with a capital D for Disneyland, but are not jeweled. Her dark blue satin bodice is jeweled. Her organza pleated skirt is divided in to light blue and dark blue sections. It is glittering but without jewels. She has a full length cape of glittering navy blue velour lined with light blue satin.

 

She has long gently curled hair, and has her signature bangs. She has an open mouthed smile with bright pink lips. She is glancing to her left. She has long gently curled rooted eyelashes. Her eyeshadow and eyeliner is bluish silver.

 

Her box is a unique design made to look like a long cut diamond. It is six sided, with only the back side being made of cardboard. The other sides are thin plastic, which makes it more fragile than the LE Disney Store boxes. The box of this doll has a small dent on one of the edges of the plastic on the top right. There is a silver rope carrying handle on the top.

 

After deboxing her, I find out various features of the doll that are not obvious in her boxed pose. It turns out that she has a full length cape of glittering navy blue velour lined with light blue satin. It is attached to the back of her dress by velcro. The cape tends to stick to the glittery organza skirt. Her bodice is separate from her skirt, and the peplum is attached to it. The skirt is pleated and oversized. It is stiff enough to allow her to free stand stably, which partly makes up for the fact that she doesn't come with a doll stand. She is wearing polished silver high heels. She has no ankle joints, but otherwise has the body of a 17 inch Disney Store Limited Edition princess doll. In particular, she has a chest joint that allows her to tilt her upper body slightly back and forth, and side to side. Her hair is a little thin in the back, but her hair can be combed to cover the bald spot. Her long curls are easy to make even, by using your fingers. They are stiffened by hair product. The box can be taken apart without damaging it for deboxing the doll. The doll can then be put back into the box, and the box closed up without too much difficulty.

 

She is about a quarter the price of the Harrods Blue Aurora 17'' Doll, but compares favorably to that $400 LE 100 doll. She is a very beautiful, well designed and well made doll that is a worthy addition to the Disneyland Diamond Celebration merchandise.

7834fs .....on the Lady Nelson

  

Some rusting farm equipment in Fonda, NY.

 

From my abstract set.

Walkie talkies from the Man from UNCLE attache set from the mid 60's. This 'high tech' system was based on two tin cans connected with a bit of string but hey, you could always get a signal!

 

Please do not download, copy, edit, reproduce or publish any of my images in whole or in part. They are my own intellectual property and are not for use without my express written permission.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, also known as Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 until the Surname Law of 1934 (c. 1881 – 10 November 1938), was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressive reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism.

 

Atatürk came to prominence for his role in securing the Ottoman Turkish victory at the Battle of Gallipoli (1915) during World War I. During this time, the Ottoman Empire perpetrated genocides against its Greek, Armenian and Assyrian subjects; while not directly involved, Atatürk's role in their aftermath has been controversial. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, he led the Turkish National Movement, which resisted mainland Turkey's partition among the victorious Allied powers. Establishing a provisional government in the present-day Turkish capital Ankara (known in English at the time as Angora), he defeated the forces sent by the Allies, thus emerging victorious from what was later referred to as the Turkish War of Independence. He subsequently proceeded to abolish the sultanate in 1922 and proclaimed the foundation of the Turkish Republic in its place the following year.

 

As the president of the newly formed Turkish Republic, Atatürk initiated a rigorous program of political, economic, and cultural reforms with the ultimate aim of building a republican and secular nation-state. He made primary education free and compulsory, opening thousands of new schools all over the country. He also introduced the Latin-based Turkish alphabet, replacing the old Ottoman Turkish alphabet. Turkish women received equal civil and political rights during Atatürk's presidency. In particular, women were given voting rights in local elections by Act no. 1580 on 3 April 1930 and a few years later, in 1934, full universal suffrage. His government carried out a policy of Turkification, trying to create a homogeneous, unified and above all secular nation under the Turkish banner. Under Atatürk, the minorities in Turkey were ordered to speak Turkish in public, but were allowed to maintain their own languages in private and within their own communities; non-Turkish toponyms were replaced and non-Turkish families were ordered to adopt a Turkish surname. The Turkish Parliament granted him the surname Atatürk in 1934, which means "Father of the Turks", in recognition of the role he played in building the modern Turkish Republic. He died on 10 November 1938 at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, at the age of 57; he was succeeded as president by his long-time prime minister İsmet İnönü and was honored with a state funeral.

 

In 1981, the centennial of Atatürk's birth, his memory was honoured by the United Nations and UNESCO, which declared it The Atatürk Year in the World and adopted the Resolution on the Atatürk Centennial, describing him as "the leader of the first struggle given against colonialism and imperialism" and a "remarkable promoter of the sense of understanding between peoples and durable peace between the nations of the world and that he worked all his life for the development of harmony and cooperation between peoples without distinction". Atatürk was also credited for his peace-in-the-world oriented foreign policy and friendship with neighboring countries such as Iran, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Greece, as well as the creation of the Balkan Pact that resisted the expansionist aggressions of Fascist Italy and Tsarist Bulgaria.

 

The Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns and a revolution waged by the Turkish National Movement, after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following its defeat in World War I. The conflict was between the Turkish Nationalists against Allied and separatist forces over the application of Wilsonian principles, especially national self-determination, in post-World War I Anatolia and Eastern Thrace. The revolution concluded the collapse of the Ottoman Empire; the Ottoman monarchy and the Islamic caliphate were abolished, and the Republic of Turkey was declared in Anatolia and Eastern Thrace. This resulted in a transfer of vested sovereignty from the sultan-caliph to the nation, setting the stage for Republican Turkey's period of nationalist revolutionary reform.

 

While World War I ended for the Ottoman Empire with the Armistice of Mudros, the Allied Powers continued occupying and securing land per the Sykes–Picot Agreement, as well as to facilitate the prosecution of former members of the Committee of Union and Progress and those involved in the Armenian genocide. Ottoman military commanders therefore refused orders from both the Allies and the Ottoman government to surrender and disband their forces. In an atmosphere of turmoil throughout the remainder of the empire, sultan Mehmed VI dispatched Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk), a well-respected and high-ranking general, to Anatolia to restore order; however, Mustafa Kemal became an enabler and eventually leader of Turkish Nationalist resistance against the Ottoman government, Allied powers, and separatists.

 

In an attempt to establish control over the power vacuum in Anatolia, the Allies agreed to launch a Greek peacekeeping force into Anatolia and occupy Smyrna (İzmir), inflaming sectarian tensions and beginning the Turkish War of Independence. A nationalist counter government led by Mustafa Kemal was established in Ankara when it became clear the Ottoman government was appeasing the Allied powers. The Allies soon pressured the Ottoman government in Constantinople to suspend the Constitution, shutter Parliament, and sign the Treaty of Sèvres, a treaty unfavorable to Turkish interests that the "Ankara government" declared illegal.

 

In the ensuing war, Turkish and Syrian forces defeated the French in the south, and remobilized army units went on to partition Armenia with the Bolsheviks, resulting in the Treaty of Kars (October 1921). The Western Front of the independence war is known as the Greco-Turkish War, in which Greek forces at first encountered unorganized resistance. However, İsmet Pasha (İnönü)'s organization of militia into a regular army paid off when Ankara forces fought the Greeks in the First and Second Battle of İnönü. The Greek army emerged victorious in the Battle of Kütahya-Eskişehir and decided to drive on the Nationalist capital of Ankara, stretching their supply lines. The Turks checked their advance in the Battle of Sakarya and eventually counter-attacked in the Great Offensive, which expelled Greek forces from Anatolia in the span of three weeks. The war effectively ended with the recapture of İzmir and the Chanak Crisis, prompting the signing of another armistice in Mudanya.

 

The Grand National Assembly in Ankara was recognized as the legitimate Turkish government, which signed the Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923), a treaty more favorable to Turkey than the Sèvres Treaty. The Allies evacuated Anatolia and Eastern Thrace, the Ottoman government was overthrown and the monarchy abolished, and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (which remains Turkey's primary legislative body today) declared the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. With the war, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, and the abolition of the sultanate, the Ottoman era came to an end, and with Atatürk's reforms, the Turks created the modern, secular nation-state of Turkey. On 3 March 1924, the Ottoman caliphate was also abolished.

 

The ethnic demographics of the modern Turkish Republic were significantly impacted by the earlier Armenian genocide and the deportations of Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian Rum people. The Turkish Nationalist Movement carried out massacres and deportations to eliminate native Christian populations—a continuation of the Armenian genocide and other ethnic cleansing operations during World War I. Following these campaigns of ethnic cleansing, the historic Christian presence in Anatolia was destroyed, in large part, and the Muslim demographic had increased from 80% to 98%.

 

Following the chaotic politics of the Second Constitutional Era, the Ottoman Empire came under the control of the Committee of Union and Progress in a coup in 1913, and then further consolidated its control after the assassination of Mahmud Shevket Pasha.[citation needed] Founded as a radical revolutionary group seeking to prevent a collapse of the Ottoman Empire, by the eve of World War I it decided that the solution was to implement nationalist and centralizing policies. The CUP reacted to the losses of land and the expulsion of Muslims from the Balkan Wars by turning even more nationalistic. Part of its effort to consolidate power was to proscribe and exile opposition politicians from the Freedom and Accord Party to remote Sinop.

 

The Unionists brought the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, during which a genocidal campaign was waged against Ottoman Christians, namely Armenians, Pontic Greeks, and Assyrians. It was based on an alleged conspiracy that the three groups would rebel on the side of the Allies, so collective punishment was applied. A similar suspicion and suppression from the Turkish nationalist government was directed towards the Arab and Kurdish populations, leading to localized rebellions. The Entente powers reacted to these developments by charging the CUP leaders, commonly known as the Three Pashas, with "Crimes against humanity" and threatened accountability. They also had imperialist ambitions on Ottoman territory, with a major correspondence over a post-war settlement in the Ottoman Empire being leaked to the press as the Sykes–Picot Agreement. With Saint Petersburg's exit from World War I and descent into civil war, driven in part from the Ottomans' closure of the Turkish straits of goods bound to Russia, a new imperative was given to the Entente powers to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war to restart the Eastern Front.

 

World War I would be the nail in the coffin of Ottomanism, a monarchist and multicultural nationalism. Mistreatment of non-Turk groups after 1913, and the general context of great socio-political upheaval that occurred in the aftermath of World War I, meant many minorities now wished to divorce their future from imperialism to form futures of their own by separating into (often republican) nation-states.

 

In the summer months of 1918, the leaders of the Central Powers realized that the Great War was lost, including the Ottomans'. Almost simultaneously the Palestinian Front and then the Macedonian Front collapsed. The sudden decision by Bulgaria to sign an armistice cut communications from Constantinople (İstanbul) to Vienna and Berlin, and opened the undefended Ottoman capital to Entente attack. With the major fronts crumbling, Unionist Grand Vizier Talât Pasha intended to sign an armistice, and resigned on 8 October 1918 so that a new government would receive less harsh armistice terms. The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918, ending World War I for the Ottoman Empire. Three days later, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)—which governed the Ottoman Empire as a one-party state since 1913—held its last congress, where it was decided the party would be dissolved. Talât, Enver Pasha, Cemal Pasha, and five other high-ranking members of the CUP escaped the Ottoman Empire on a German torpedo boat later that night, plunging the country into a power vacuum.

 

The armistice was signed because the Ottoman Empire had been defeated in important fronts, but the military was intact and retreated in good order. Unlike other Central Powers, the Allies did not mandate an abdication of the imperial family as a condition for peace, nor did they request the Ottoman Army to dissolve its general staff. Though the army suffered from mass desertion throughout the war which led to banditry, there was no threat of mutiny or revolutions like in Germany, Austria-Hungary, or Russia. This is despite famine and economic collapse that was brought on by the extreme levels of mobilization, destruction from the war, disease, and mass murder since 1914.

 

Due to the Turkish nationalist policies pursued by the CUP against Ottoman Christians by 1918 the Ottoman Empire held control over a mostly homogeneous land of Muslims from Eastern Thrace to the Persian border. These included mostly Turks, as well as Kurds, Circassians, and Muhacir groups from Rumeli. Most Muslim Arabs were now outside of the Ottoman Empire and under Allied occupation, with some "imperialists" still loyal to the Ottoman Sultanate-Caliphate, and others wishing for independence or Allied protection under a League of Nations mandate. Sizable Greek and Armenian minorities remained within its borders, and most of these communities no longer wished to remain under the Empire.

 

On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I, bringing hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I to an end. The Ottoman Army was to demobilize, its navy and air force handed to the Allies, and occupied territory in the Caucasus and Persia to be evacuated. Critically, Article VII granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Turkish Straits and the vague right to occupy "in case of disorder" any territory if there were a threat to security. The clause relating to the occupation of the straits was meant to secure a Southern Russian intervention force, while the rest of the article was used to allow for Allied controlled peace-keeping forces. There was also a hope to follow through punishing local actors that carried out exterminatory orders from the CUP government against Armenian Ottomans. For now, the House of Osman escaped the fates of the Hohenzollerns, Habsburgs, and Romanovs to continue ruling their empire, though at the cost of its remaining sovereignty.

 

On 13 November 1918, a French brigade entered Constantinople to begin a de facto occupation of the Ottoman capital and its immediate dependencies. This was followed by a fleet consisting of British, French, Italian and Greek ships deploying soldiers on the ground the next day, totaling 50,000 troops in Constantinople. The Allied Powers stated that the occupation was temporary and its purpose was to protect the monarchy, the caliphate and the minorities. Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe—the British signatory of the Mudros Armistice—stated the Triple Entente's public position that they had no intention to dismantle the Ottoman government or place it under military occupation by "occupying Constantinople". However, dismantling the government and partitioning the Ottoman Empire among the Allied nations had been an objective of the Entente since the start of WWI.

 

A wave of seizures took place in the rest of the country in the following months. Citing Article VII, British forces demanded that Turkish troops evacuate Mosul, claiming that Christian civilians in Mosul and Zakho were killed en masse. In the Caucasus, Britain established a presence in Menshevik Georgia and the Lori and Aras valleys as peace-keepers. On 14 November, joint Franco-Greek occupation was established in the town of Uzunköprü in Eastern Thrace as well as the railway axis until the train station of Hadımköy on the outskirts of Constantinople. On 1 December, British troops based in Syria occupied Kilis, Marash, Urfa and Birecik. Beginning in December, French troops began successive seizures of the province of Adana, including the towns of Antioch, Mersin, Tarsus, Ceyhan, Adana, Osmaniye, and İslâhiye, incorporating the area into the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration North while French forces embarked by gunboats and sent troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli commanding Turkey's coal mining region. These continued seizures of land prompted Ottoman commanders to refuse demobilization and prepare for the resumption of war.

 

The British similarly asked Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) to turn over the port of Alexandretta (İskenderun), which he reluctantly did, following which he was recalled to Constantinople. He made sure to distribute weapons to the population to prevent them from falling into the hands of Allied forces. Some of these weapons were smuggled to the east by members of Karakol, a successor to the CUP's Special Organization, to be used in case resistance was necessary in Anatolia. Many Ottoman officials participated in efforts to conceal from the occupying authorities details of the burgeoning independence movement spreading throughout Anatolia.

 

Other commanders began refusing orders from the Ottoman government and the Allied powers. After Mustafa Kemal Pasha returned to Constantinople, Ali Fuat Pasha (Cebesoy) brought XX Corps under his command. He marched first to Konya and then to Ankara to organise resistance groups, such as the Circassian çetes he assembled with guerilla leader Çerkes Ethem. Meanwhile, Kazım Karabekir Pasha refused to surrender his intact and powerful XV Corps in Erzurum. Evacuation from the Caucusus, puppet republics and Muslim militia groups were established in the army's wake to hamper with the consolidation of the new Armenian state. Elsewhere in the country, regional nationalist resistance organizations known as Şuras –meaning "councils", not unlike soviets in revolutionary Russia– were founded, most pledging allegiance to the Defence of National Rights movement that protested continued Allied occupation and appeasement by the Sublime Porte.

 

Following the occupation of Constantinople, Mehmed VI Vahdettin dissolved the Chamber of Deputies which was dominated by Unionists elected back in 1914, promising elections for the next year. Vahdettin just ascended to the throne only months earlier with the death of Mehmed V Reşad. He was disgusted with the policies of the CUP, and wished to be a more assertive sovereign than his diseased half brother. Greek and Armenian Ottomans declared the termination of their relationship with the Ottoman Empire through their respective patriarchates, and refused to partake in any future election. With the collapse of the CUP and its censorship regime, an outpouring of condemnation against the party came from all parts of Ottoman media.

 

A general amnesty was soon issued, allowing the exiled and imprisoned dissidents persecuted by the CUP to return to Constantinople. Vahdettin invited the pro-Palace politician Damat Ferid Pasha, leader of the reconstituted Freedom and Accord Party, to form a government, whose members quickly set out to purge the Unionists from the Ottoman government. Ferid Pasha hoped that his Anglophilia and an attitude of appeasement would induce less harsh peace terms from the Allied powers. However, his appointment was problematic for nationalists, many being members of the liquidated committee that were surely to face trial. Years of corruption, unconstitutional acts, war profiteering, and enrichment from ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Unionists soon became basis of war crimes trials and courts martial trials held in Constantinople.[citation needed] While many leading Unionists were sentenced lengthy prison sentences, many made sure to escape the country before Allied occupation or to regions that the government now had minimal control over; thus most were sentenced in absentia. The Allies encouragement of the proceedings and the use of British Malta as their holding ground made the trials unpopular. The partisan nature of the trials was not lost on observers either. The hanging of the Kaymakam of Boğazlıyan district Mehmed Kemal resulted in a demonstration against the courts martials trials.

 

With all the chaotic politics in the capital and uncertainty of the severity of the incoming peace treaty, many Ottomans looked to Washington with the hope that the application of Wilsonian principles would mean Constantinople would stay Turkish, as Muslims outnumbered Christians 2:1. The United States never declared war on the Ottoman Empire, so many imperial elite believed Washington could be a neutral arbiter that could fix the empire's problems. Halide Edip (Adıvar) and her Wilsonian Principles Society led the movement that advocated for the empire to be governed by an American League of Nations Mandate (see United States during the Turkish War of Independence). American diplomats attempted to ascertain a role they could play in the area with the Harbord and King–Crane Commissions. However, with the collapse of Woodrow Wilson's health, the United States diplomatically withdrew from the Middle East to focus on Europe, leaving the Entente powers to construct a post-Ottoman order.

 

The Entente would have arrived at Constantinople to discover an administration attempting to deal with decades of accumulated refugee crisis. The new government issued a proclamation allowing for deportees to return to their homes, but many Greeks and Armenians found their old homes occupied by desperate Rumelian and Caucasian Muslim refugees which were settled in their properties during the First World War. Ethnic conflict restarted in Anatolia; government officials responsible for resettling Christian refugees often assisted Muslim refugees in these disputes, prompting European powers to continue bringing Ottoman territory under their control. Of the 800,000 Ottoman Christian refugees, approximately over half returned to their homes by 1920. Meanwhile 1.4 million refugees from the Russian Civil War would pass through the Turkish straits and Anatolia, with 150,000 White émigrés choosing to settle in Istanbul for short or long term (see Evacuation of the Crimea). Many provinces were simply depopulated from years of fighting, conscription, and ethnic cleansing (see Ottoman casualties of World War I). The province of Yozgat lost 50% of its Muslim population from conscription, while according to the governor of Van, almost 95% of its prewar residents were dead or internally displaced.

 

Administration in much of the Anatolian and Thracian countryside would soon all but collapse by 1919. Army deserters who turned to banditry essentially controlled fiefdoms with tacit approval from bureaucrats and local elites. An amnesty issued in late 1918 saw these bandits strengthen their positions and fight amongst each other instead of returning to civilian life. Albanian and Circassian muhacirs resettled by the government in northwestern Anatolia and Kurds in southeastern Anatolia were engaged in blood feuds that intensified during the war and were hesitant to pledge allegiance to the Defence of Rights movement, and only would if officials could facilitate truces. Various Muhacir groups were suspicious of the continued Ittihadist ideology in the Defence of Rights movement, and the potential for themselves to meet fates 'like the Armenians' especially as warlords hailing from those communities assisted the deportations of the Christians even though as many commanders in the Nationalist movement also had Caucasian and Balkan Muslim ancestry.

 

With Anatolia in practical anarchy and the Ottoman army being questionably loyal in reaction to Allied land seizures, Mehmed VI established the military inspectorate system to reestablish authority over the remaining empire. Encouraged by Karabekir and Edmund Allenby, he assigned Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) as the inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate –based in Erzurum– to restore order to Ottoman military units and to improve internal security on 30 April 1919, with his first assignment to suppress a rebellion by Greek rebels around the city of Samsun.

 

Mustafa Kemal was a well known, well respected, and well connected army commander, with much prestige coming from his status as the "Hero of Anafartalar"—for his role in the Gallipoli Campaign—and his title of "Honorary Aide-de-camp to His Majesty Sultan" gained in the last months of WWI. This choice would seem curious, as he was a nationalist and a fierce critic of the government's accommodating policy to the Entente powers. He was also an early member of the CUP. However Kemal Pasha did not associate himself with the fanatical faction of the CUP, many knew that he frequently clashed with the radicals of the Central Committee like Enver. He was therefore sidelined to the periphery of power throughout the Great War; after the CUP's dissolution he vocally aligned himself with moderates that formed the Liberal People's Party instead of the rump radical faction which formed the Renewal Party (both parties would be banned in May 1919 for being successors of the CUP). All these reasons allowed him to be the most legitimate nationalist for the sultan to placate. In this new political climate, he sought to capitalize on his war exploits to attain a better job, indeed several times he unsuccessfully lobbied for his inclusion in cabinet as War Minister. His new assignment gave him effective plenipotentiary powers over all of Anatolia which was meant to accommodate him and other nationalists to keep them loyal to the government.

 

Mustafa Kemal had earlier declined to become the leader of the Sixth Army headquartered in Nusaybin. But according to Patrick Balfour, through manipulation and the help of friends and sympathizers, he became the inspector of virtually all of the Ottoman forces in Anatolia, tasked with overseeing the disbanding process of remaining Ottoman forces. Kemal had an abundance of connections and personal friends concentrated in the post-armistice War Ministry, a powerful tool that would help him accomplish his secret goal: to lead a nationalist movement to safeguard Turkish interests against the Allied powers and a collaborative Ottoman government.

 

The day before his departure to Samsun on the remote Black Sea coast, Kemal had one last audience with Sultan Vahdettin, where he affirmed his loyalty to the sultan-caliph. It was in this meeting that they were informed of the botched occupation ceremony of Smyrna (İzmir) by the Greeks. He and his carefully selected staff left Constantinople aboard the old steamer SS Bandırma on the evening of 16 May 1919.

 

On 19 January 1919, the Paris Peace Conference was first held, at which Allied nations set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers, including the Ottoman Empire. As a special body of the Paris Conference, "The Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey", was established to pursue the secret treaties they had signed between 1915 and 1917. Italy sought control over the southern part of Anatolia under the Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne. France expected to exercise control over Hatay, Lebanon, Syria, and a portion of southeastern Anatolia based on the Sykes–Picot Agreement.

 

Greece justified their territorial claims of Ottoman land through the Megali Idea as well as international sympathy from the suffering of Ottoman Greeks in 1914 and 1917–1918. Privately, Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos had British prime minister David Lloyd George's backing not least from Greece's entrance to WWI on the Allied side, but also from his charisma and charming personality. Greece's participation in the Allies' Southern Russian intervention also earned it favors in Paris. His demands included parts of Eastern Thrace, the islands of Imbros (Gökçeada), Tenedos (Bozcaada), and parts of Western Anatolia around the city of Smyrna (İzmir), all of which had large Greek populations. Venizelos also advocated a large Armenian state to check a post-war Ottoman Empire. Greece wanted to incorporate Constantinople, but Entente powers did not give permission. Damat Ferid Pasha went to Paris on behalf of the Ottoman Empire hoping to minimize territorial losses using Fourteen Points rhetoric, wishing for a return to status quo ante bellum, on the basis that every province of the Empire holds Muslim majorities. This plea was met with ridicule.

 

At the Paris Peace Conference, competing claims over Western Anatolia by Greek and Italian delegations led Greece to land the flagship of the Greek Navy at Smyrna, resulting in the Italian delegation walking out of the peace talks. On 30 April, Italy responded to the possible idea of Greek incorporation of Western Anatolia by sending a warship to Smyrna as a show of force against the Greek campaign. A large Italian force also landed in Antalya. Faced with Italian annexation of parts of Asia Minor with a significant ethnic Greek population, Venizelos secured Allied permission for Greek troops to land in Smyrna per Article VII, ostensibly as a peacekeeping force to keep stability in the region. Venizelos's rhetoric was more directed against the CUP regime than the Turks as a whole, an attitude not always shared in the Greek military: "Greece is not making war against Islam, but against the anachronistic [İttihadist] Government, and its corrupt, ignominious, and bloody administration, with a view to the expelling it from those territories where the majority of the population consists of Greeks." It was decided by the Triple Entente that Greece would control a zone around Smyrna and Ayvalık in western Asia Minor.

 

Most historians mark the Greek landing at Smyrna on 15 May 1919 as the start date of the Turkish War of Independence as well as the start of the "Kuva-yi Milliye Phase". The occupation ceremony from the outset was tense from nationalist fervor, with Ottoman Greeks greeting the soldiers with an ecstatic welcome, and Ottoman Muslims protesting the landing. A miscommunication in Greek high command led to an Evzone column marching by the municipal Turkish barracks. The nationalist journalist Hasan Tahsin fired the "first bullet"[note 4] at the Greek standard bearer at the head of the troops, turning the city into a warzone. Süleyman Fethi Bey was murdered by bayonet for refusing to shout "Zito Venizelos" (meaning "long live Venizelos"), and 300–400 unarmed Turkish soldiers and civilians and 100 Greek soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded.

 

Greek troops moved from Smyrna outwards to towns on the Karaburun peninsula; to Selçuk, situated a hundred kilometres south of the city at a key location that commands the fertile Küçük Menderes River valley; and to Menemen towards the north. Guerilla warfare commenced in the countryside, as Turks began to organize themselves into irregular guerilla groups known as Kuva-yi Milliye (national forces), which were soon joined by Ottoman soldiers, bandits, and disaffected farmers. Most Kuva-yi Milliye bands were led by rogue military commanders and members of the Special Organization. The Greek troops based in cosmopolitan Smyrna soon found themselves conducting counterinsurgency operations in a hostile, dominantly Muslim hinterland. Groups of Ottoman Greeks also formed contingents that cooperated with the Greek Army to combat Kuva-yi Milliye within the zone of control. A massacre of Turks at Menemen was followed up with a battle for the town of Aydın, which saw intense intercommunal violence and the razing of the city. What was supposed to be a peacekeeping mission of Western Anatolia instead inflamed ethnic tensions and became a counterinsurgency.

 

The reaction of Greek landing at Smyrna and continued Allied seizures of land served to destabilize Turkish civil society. Ottoman bureaucrats, military, and bourgeoisie trusted the Allies to bring peace, and thought the terms offered at Mudros were considerably more lenient than they actually were. Pushback was potent in the capital, with 23 May 1919 being largest of the Sultanahmet Square demonstrations organized by the Turkish Hearths against the Greek occupation of Smyrna, the largest act of civil disobedience in Turkish history at that point. The Ottoman government condemned the landing, but could do little about it. Ferid Pasha tried to resign, but was urged by the sultan to stay in his office.

 

Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his colleagues stepped ashore in Samsun on 19 May and set up their first quarters in the Mıntıka Palace Hotel. British troops were present in Samsun, and he initially maintained cordial contact. He had assured Damat Ferid about the army's loyalty towards the new government in Constantinople. However, behind the government's back, Kemal made the people of Samsun aware of the Greek and Italian landings, staged discreet mass meetings, made fast connections via telegraph with the army units in Anatolia, and began to form links with various Nationalist groups. He sent telegrams of protest to foreign embassies and the War Ministry about British reinforcements in the area and about British aid to Greek brigand gangs. After a week in Samsun, Kemal and his staff moved to Havza. It was there that he first showed the flag of the resistance.

 

Mustafa Kemal wrote in his memoir that he needed nationwide support to justify armed resistance against the Allied occupation. His credentials and the importance of his position were not enough to inspire everyone. While officially occupied with the disarming of the army, he met with various contacts in order to build his movement's momentum. He met with Rauf Pasha, Karabekir Pasha, Ali Fuat Pasha, and Refet Pasha and issued the Amasya Circular (22 June 1919). Ottoman provincial authorities were notified via telegraph that the unity and independence of the nation was at risk, and that the government in Constantinople was compromised. To remedy this, a congress was to take place in Erzurum between delegates of the Six Vilayets to decide on a response, and another congress would take place in Sivas where every Vilayet should send delegates. Sympathy and an lack of coordination from the capital gave Mustafa Kemal freedom of movement and telegraph use despite his implied anti-government tone.

 

On 23 June, High Commissioner Admiral Calthorpe, realising the significance of Mustafa Kemal's discreet activities in Anatolia, sent a report about the Pasha to the Foreign Office. His remarks were downplayed by George Kidson of the Eastern Department. Captain Hurst of the British occupation force in Samsun warned Admiral Calthorpe one more time, but Hurst's units were replaced with the Brigade of Gurkhas. When the British landed in Alexandretta, Admiral Calthorpe resigned on the basis that this was against the armistice that he had signed and was assigned to another position on 5 August 1919. The movement of British units alarmed the population of the region and convinced them that Mustafa Kemal was right.

 

By early July, Mustafa Kemal Pasha received telegrams from the sultan and Calthorpe, asking him and Refet to cease his activities in Anatolia and return to the capital. Kemal was in Erzincan and did not want to return to Constantinople, concerned that the foreign authorities might have designs for him beyond the sultan's plans. Before resigning from his position, he dispatched a circular to all nationalist organizations and military commanders to not disband or surrender unless for the latter if they could be replaced by cooperative nationalist commanders. Now only a civilian stripped of his command, Mustafa Kemal was at the mercy of the new inspector of Third Army (renamed from Ninth Army) Karabekir Pasha, indeed the War Ministry ordered him to arrest Kemal, an order which Karabekir refused. The Erzurum Congress was a meeting of delegates and governors from the six Eastern Vilayets. They drafted the National Pact (Misak-ı Millî), which envisioned new borders for the Ottoman Empire by applying principles of national self-determination per Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and the abolition of the capitulations. The Erzurum Congress concluded with a circular that was effectively a declaration of independence: All regions within Ottoman borders upon the signing of the Mudros Armistice were indivisible from the Ottoman state –Greek and Armenian claims on Thrace and Anatolia were moot– and assistance from any country not coveting Ottoman territory was welcome. If the government in Constantinople was not able to attain this after electing a new parliament, they insisted a provisional government should be promulgated to defend Turkish sovereignty. The Committee of Representation was established as a provisional executive body based in Anatolia, with Mustafa Kemal Pasha as its chairman.

 

Following the congress, the Committee of Representation relocated to Sivas. As announced in the Amasya Circular, a new congress was held there in September with delegates from all Anatolian and Thracian provinces. The Sivas Congress repeated the points of the National Pact agreed to in Erzurum, and united the various regional Defence of National Rights Associations organizations, into a united political organisation: Anatolia and Rumeli Defence of Rights Association (A-RMHC), with Mustafa Kemal as its chairman. In an effort show his movement was in fact a new and unifying movement, the delegates had to swear an oath to discontinue their relations with the CUP and to never revive the party (despite most present in Sivas being previous members).[120] It was also decided there that the Ottoman Empire should not be a League of Nations mandate under the United States, especially after the U.S Senate failed to ratify American membership in the League.

 

Momentum was now on the Nationalists' side. A plot by a loyalist Ottoman governor and a British intelligence officer to arrest Kemal before the Sivas Congress led to the cutting of all ties with the Ottoman government until a new election would be held in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. In October 1919, the last Ottoman governor loyal to Constantinople fled his province. Fearing the outbreak of hostilities, all British troops stationed in the Black Sea coast and Kütahya were evacuated. Damat Ferid Pasha resigned, and the sultan replaced him with a general with nationalist credentials: Ali Rıza Pasha. On 16 October 1919, Ali Rıza and the Nationalists held negotiations in Amasya. They agreed in the Amasya Protocol that an election would be called for the Ottoman Parliament to establish national unity by upholding the resolutions made in the Sivas Congress, including the National Pact.

 

By October 1919, the Ottoman government only held de facto control over Constantinople; the rest of the Ottoman Empire was loyal to Kemal's movement to resist a partition of Anatolia and Thrace. Within a few months Mustafa Kemal went from General Inspector of the Ninth Army to a renegade military commander discharged for insubordination to leading a homegrown anti-Entente movement that overthrew a government and driven it into resistance.

 

In December 1919, an election was held for the Ottoman parliament, with polls only open in unoccupied Anatolia and Thrace. It was boycotted by Ottoman Greeks, Ottoman Armenians and the Freedom and Accord Party, resulting in groups associated with the Turkish Nationalist Movement winning, including the A-RMHC. The Nationalists' obvious links to the CUP made the election especially polarizing and voter intimidation and ballot box stuffing in favor of the Kemalists were regular occurrences in rural provinces. This controversy led to many of the nationalist MPs organizing the National Salvation Group separate from Kemal's movement, which risked the nationalist movement splitting in two.

 

Mustafa Kemal was elected an MP from Erzurum, but he expected the Allies neither to accept the Harbord report nor to respect his parliamentary immunity if he went to the Ottoman capital, hence he remained in Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal and the Committee of Representation moved from Sivas to Ankara so that he could keep in touch with as many deputies as possible as they traveled to Constantinople to attend the parliament.

 

Though Ali Rıza Pasha called the election as per the Amasya Protocol to keep unity between the "Istanbul government" and "Ankara government", he was wrong to think the election could bring him any legitimacy. The Ottoman parliament was under the de facto control of the British battalion stationed at Constantinople and any decisions by the parliament had to have the signatures of both Ali Rıza Pasha and the battalion's commanding officer. The only laws that passed were those acceptable to, or specifically ordered by the British.

 

On 12 January 1920, the last session of the Chamber of Deputies met in the capital. First the sultan's speech was presented, and then a telegram from Mustafa Kemal, manifesting the claim that the rightful government of Turkey was in Ankara in the name of the Committee of Representation. On 28 January the MPs from both sides of the isle secretly met to endorse the National Pact as a peace settlement. They added to the points passed in Sivas, calling for plebiscites to be held in West Thrace; Batum, Kars, and Ardahan, and Arab lands on whether to stay in the Empire or not. Proposals were also made to elect Kemal president of the Chamber;[clarification needed] however, this was deferred in the certain knowledge that the British would prorogue the Chamber. The Chamber of Deputies would be forcefully dissolved for passing the National Pact anyway. The National Pact solidified Nationalist interests, which were in conflict with the Allied plans.

 

From February to April, leaders of Britain, France, and Italy met in London to discuss the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and the crisis in Anatolia. The British began to sense that the elected Ottoman government was under Kemalist influence and if left unchecked, the Entente could once again find themselves at war with the Empire. The Ottoman government was not doing all that it could to suppress the Nationalists.

 

Mustafa Kemal manufactured a crisis to pressure the Istanbul government to pick a side by deploying Kuva-yi Milliye towards İzmit. The British, concerned about the security of the Bosporus Strait, demanded Ali Rıza Pasha to reassert control over the area, to which he responded with his resignation to the sultan.

 

As they were negotiating the partition of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies were growing increasingly concerned about the Turkish National Movement. To this end, the Allied occupational authorities in Istanbul began to plan a raid to arrest nationalist politicians and journalists along with occupying military and police installations and government buildings. On 16 March 1920, the coup was carried out; several Royal Navy warships were anchored in the Galata Bridge to support British forces, including the Indian Army, while they carried out the arrests and occupied several government buildings in the early hours of the morning.

 

An Indian Army operation, the Şehzadebaşı raid, resulted in 5 Ottoman soldiers from the 10th Infantry Division being killed when troops raided their barracks. Among those arrested were the senior leadership of the Turkish National Movement and former members of the CUP. 150 arrested Turkish politicians accused of war crimes were interned in Malta and became known as the Malta exiles.

 

Mustafa Kemal was ready for this move. He warned all the Nationalist organisations that there would be misleading declarations from the capital. He warned that the only way to counter Allied movements was to organise protests. He declared "Today the Turkish nation is called to defend its capacity for civilization, its right to life and independence – its entire future".

 

On 18 March, the Chamber of Deputies declared that it was unacceptable to arrest five of its members, and dissolved itself. Mehmed VI confirmed this and declared the end of Constitutional Monarchy and a return to absolutism. University students were forbidden from joining political associations inside and outside the classroom. With the lower elected Chamber of Deputies shuttered, the Constitution terminated, and the capital occupied; Sultan Vahdettin, his cabinet, and the appointed Senate were all that remained of the Ottoman government, and were basically a puppet regime of the Allied powers. Grand Vizier Salih Hulusi Pasha declared Mustafa Kemal's struggle legitimate, and resigned after less than a month in office. In his place, Damat Ferid Pasha returned to the premiership. The Sublime Porte's decapitation by the Entente allowed Mustafa Kemal to consolidate his position as the sole leader of Turkish resistance against the Allies, and to that end made him the legitimate representative of the Turkish people.

 

The strong measures taken against the Nationalists by the Allies in March 1920 began a distinct new phase of the conflict. Mustafa Kemal sent a note to the governors and force commanders, asking them to conduct elections to provide delegates for a new parliament to represent the Ottoman (Turkish) people, which would convene in Ankara. With the proclamation of the counter-government, Kemal would then ask the sultan to accept its authority. Mustafa Kemal appealed to the Islamic world, asking for help to make sure that everyone knew he was still fighting in the name of the sultan who was also the caliph. He stated he wanted to free the caliph from the Allies. He found an ally in the Khilafat movement of British India, where Indians protested Britain's planned dismemberment of Turkey. A committee was also started for sending funds to help the soon to be proclaimed Ankara government of Mustafa Kemal. A flood of supporters moved to Ankara just ahead of the Allied dragnets. Included among them were Halide Edip and Abdülhak Adnan (Adıvar), Mustafa İsmet Pasha (İnönü), Mustafa Fevzi Pasha (Çakmak), many of Kemal's allies in the Ministry of War, and Celalettin Arif, the president of the now shuttered Chamber of Deputies. Celaleddin Arif's desertion of the capital was of great significance, as he declared that the Ottoman Parliament had been dissolved illegally.

 

Some 100 members of the Chamber of Deputies were able to escape the Allied roundup and joined 190 deputies elected. In March 1920, Turkish revolutionaries announced the establishment of a new parliament in Ankara known as the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNA) that was dominated by the A-RMHC.[citation needed] The parliament included Turks, Circassians, Kurds, and one Jew. They met in a building that used to serve as the provincial headquarters of the local CUP chapter. The inclusion of "Turkey" in its name reflected a increasing trend of new ways Ottoman citizens thought of their country, and was the first time it was formally used as the name of the country. On 23 April, the assembly, assuming full governmental powers, gathered for the first time, electing Mustafa Kemal its first Speaker and Prime Minister.

 

Hoping to undermine the Nationalist Movement, Mehmed VI issued a fatwa to qualify the Turkish revolutionaries as infidels, calling for the death of its leaders. The fatwa stated that true believers should not go along with the Nationalist Movement as they committed apostasy. The mufti of Ankara Rifat Börekçi issued a simultaneous fatwa, declaring that the caliphate was under the control of the Entente and the Ferid Pasha government. In this text, the Nationalist Movement's goal was stated as freeing the sultanate and the caliphate from its enemies. In reaction to the desertion of several prominent figures to the Nationalist Movement, Ferid Pasha ordered Halide Edip, Ali Fuat and Mustafa Kemal to be sentenced to death in absentia for treason.

 

On 28 April the sultan raised 4,000 soldiers known as the Kuva-yi İnzibatiye (Caliphate Army) to combat the Nationalists. Then using money from the Allies, another force about 2,000 strong from non-Muslim inhabitants were initially deployed in İznik. The sultan's government sent the forces under the name of the Caliphate Army to the revolutionaries to arouse counterrevolutionary sympathy. The British, being skeptical of how formidable these insurgents were, decided to use irregular power to counteract the revolutionaries. The Nationalist forces were distributed all around Turkey, so many smaller units were dispatched to face them. In İzmit there were two battalions of the British army. These units were to be used to rout the partisans under the command of Ali Fuat and Refet Pasha.

 

Anatolia had many competing forces on its soil: British troops, Nationalist militia (Kuva-yi Milliye), the sultan's army (Kuva-yi İnzibatiye), and Anzavur's bands. On 13 April 1920, an uprising supported by Anzavur against the GNA occurred at Düzce as a direct consequence of the fatwa. Within days the rebellion spread to Bolu and Gerede. The movement engulfed northwestern Anatolia for about a month. On 14 June, Nationalist militia fought a pitched battle near İzmit against the Kuva-yi İnzibatiye, Anzavur's bands, and British units. Yet under heavy attack some of the Kuva-yi İnzibatiye deserted and joined the Nationalist militia. Anzavur was not so lucky, as the Nationalists tasked Ethem the Circassian with crushing Anzavur's revolt. This revealed the sultan did not have the unwavering support of his own men and allies. Meanwhile, the rest of these forces withdrew behind the British lines which held their position. For now, Istanbul was out of Ankara's grasp.

 

The clash outside İzmit brought serious consequences. British forces conducted combat operations on the Nationalists and the Royal Air Force carried out aerial bombardments against the positions, which forced Nationalist forces to temporarily retreat to more secure missions. The British commander in Turkey, General George Milne—, asked for reinforcements. This led to a study to determine what would be required to defeat the Turkish Nationalists. The report, signed by French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, concluded that 27 divisions were necessary, but the British army did not have 27 divisions to spare. Also, a deployment of this size could have disastrous political consequences back home. World War I had just ended, and the British public would not support another lengthy and costly expedition.

 

The British accepted the fact that a nationalist movement could not be defeated without deployment of consistent and well-trained forces. On 25 June, the forces originating from Kuva-i İnzibatiye were dismantled under British supervision. The British realised that the best option to overcome these Turkish Nationalists was to use a force that was battle-tested and fierce enough to fight the Turks on their own soil. The British had to look no further than Turkey's neighbor already occupying its territory: Greece.

 

Eleftherios Venizelos, pessimistic of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Anatolia, requested to the Allies that a peace treaty be drawn up with the hope that fighting would stop. The subsequent treaty of Sèvres in August 1920 confirmed the Arab provinces of the empire would be reorganized into new nations given to Britain and France in the form of Mandates by the League of Nations, while the rest of the Empire would be partitioned between Greece, Italy, France (via Syrian mandate), Britain (via Iraqi mandate), Armenia (potentially under an American mandate), and Georgia. Smyrna would hold a plebiscite on whether to stay with Greece or Turkey, and the Kurdistan region would hold one on the question of independence. British, French, and Italian spheres of influence would also extend into Anatolia beyond the land concessions. The old capital of Constantinople as well as the Dardanelles would be under international League of Nations control.

 

However, the treaty could never come into effect. The treaty was extremely unpopular, with protests against the final document held even before its release in Sultanahmet square. Though Mehmed VI and Ferid Pasha loathed the treaty, they did not want Istanbul to join Ankara in nationalist struggle. The Ottoman government and Greece never ratified it. Though Ferid Pasha signed the treaty, the Ottoman Senate, the upper house with seats appointed by the sultan, refused to ratify the treaty. Greece disagreed on the borders drawn. The other allies began to fracture their support of the settlement immediately. Italy started openly supporting the Nationalists with arms by the end of 1920, and the French signed another separate peace treaty with Ankara only months later.

 

Kemal's GNA Government responded to the Treaty of Sèvres by promulgating a new constitution in January 1921. The resulting constitution consecrated the principle of popular sovereignty; authority not deriving from the unelected sultan, but from the Turkish people who elect governments representative of their interests. This document became the legal basis for the war of independence by the GNA, as the sultan's signature of the Treaty of Sèvres would be unconstitutional as his position was not elected. While the constitution did not specify a future role of the sultan, the document gave Kemal ever more legitimacy in the eyes of Turks for justified resistance against Istanbul.

 

In contrast to the Eastern and Western fronts, it was mostly unorganized Kuva-yi Milliye which were fighting in the Southern Front against France. They had help from the Syrians, who were fighting their own war with the French.

 

The British troops which occupied coastal Syria by the end of World War I were replaced by French troops over 1919, with the Syrian interior going to Faisal bin Al-Hussein's self-proclaimed Arab Kingdom of Syria. France which wanted to take control of all of Syria and Cilicia. There was also a desire facilitate the return of Armenian refugees in the region to their homes, and the occupation force consisted of the French Armenian Legion as well as various Armenian militia groups. 150,000 Armenians were repatriated to their homes within months of French occupation. On 21 January 1920, a Turkish Nationalist uprising and siege occurred against the French garrison in Marash. The French position untenable they retreated to Islahiye, resulting in a massacre of many Armenians by Turkish militia. A grueling siege followed in Antep which featured intense sectarian violence between Turks and Armenians. After a failed uprising by the Nationalists in Adana, by 1921, the French and Turks signed an armistice and eventually a treaty was brokered demarcating the border between the Ankara government and French controlled Syria. In the end, there was a mass exodus of Cilician Armenians to French controlled Syria, Previous Armenian survivors of deportation found themselves again as refugees and families which avoided the worst of the six years violence were forced from their homes, ending thousands of years of Christian presence in Southern Anatolia.[146] With France being the first Allied power to recognize and negotiate with the Ankara government only months after signing the Treaty of Sèvres, it was the first to break from the coordinated Allied approach to the Eastern question. In 1923 the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon under French authority would be proclaimed in former Ottoman territory.

 

Some efforts to coordinate between Turkish Nationalists and the Syrian rebels persisted from 1920 to 1921, with the Nationalists supporting the Faisal's kingdom through Ibrahim Hanunu and Alawite groups which were also fighting the French. While the French conquered Syria, Cilicia had to be abandoned.

 

Kuva-yi Milliye also engaged with British forces in the "Al-Jazira Front," primarily in Mosul. Ali İhsan Pasha (Sabis) and his forces defending Mosul would surrender to the British in October 1918, but the British ignored the armistice and seized the city, following which the pasha also ignored the armistice and distributed weapons to the locals. Even before Mustafa Kemal's movement was fully organized, rogue commanders found allies in Kurdish tribes. The Kurds detested the taxes and centralization the British demanded, including Shaykh Mahmud of the Barzani family. Having previously supported the British invasion of Mesopotamia to become the governor of South Kurdistan, Mahmud revolted but was apprehended by 1919. Without legitimacy to govern the region, he was released from captivity to Sulaymaniyah, where he again declared an uprising against the British as the King of Kurdistan. Though an alliance existed with the Turks, little material support came to him from Ankara, and by 1923 there was a desire to cease hostilities between the Turks and British at Barzanji's expense. Mahmud was overthrown in 1924, and after a 1926 plebiscite, Mosul was awarded to British-controlled Iraq.

 

Since 1917, the Caucasus was in a chaotic state. The border of newly independent Armenia and the Ottoman Empire was defined in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918) after the Bolshevik revolution, and later by the Treaty of Batum (4 June 1918). To the east, Armenia was at war with the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic after the breakup of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, and received support from Anton Denikin's White Russian Army. It was obvious that after the Armistice of Mudros (30 October 1918) the eastern border was not going to stay as it was drawn, which mandated the evacuation of the Ottoman army back to its 1914 borders. Right after the Armistice of Mudros was signed, pro-Ottoman provisional republics were proclaimed in Kars and Aras which were subsequently invaded by Armenia. Ottoman soldiers were convinced not to demobilize lest the area become a 'second Macedonia'.[149] Both sides of the new borders had massive refugee populations and famine, which were compounded by the renewed and more symmetric sectarian violence (See Massacres of Azerbaijanis in Armenia (1917–1921) and Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan). There were talks going on with the Armenian Diaspora and Allied Powers on reshaping the border. Woodrow Wilson agreed to transfer territories to Armenia based on the principles of national self-determination. The results of these talks were to be reflected on the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920).

 

Kâzım Karabekir Pasha, commander of the XV corps, encountered Muslim refugees fleeing from the Armenian army, but did not have the authority to cross the border. Karabekir's two reports (30 May and 4 June 1920) outlined the situation in the region. He recommended redrawing the eastern borders, especially around Erzurum. The Russian government was receptive to this and demanded that Van and Bitlis be transferred to Armenia. This was unacceptable to the Turkish revolutionaries. However, Soviet support was absolutely vital for the Turkish Nationalist movement, as Turkey was underdeveloped and had no domestic armaments industry. Bakir Sami (Kunduh) was assigned to negotiate with the Bolsheviks.

 

On 24 September 1920, Karabekir's XV corps and Kurdish militia advance on Kars, blowing through Armenian opposition, and then Alexandropol. With an advance on Yerevan imminent, on 28 November 1920, the 11th Red Army under the command of Anatoliy Gekker crossed over into Armenia from Soviet Azerbaijan, and the Armenian government surrendered to Bolshevik forces, ending the conflict.

 

The Treaty of Alexandropol (2—3 December 1920) was the first treaty (although illegitimate) signed by the Turkish revolutionaries. The 10th article in the Treaty of Alexandropol stated that Armenia renounced the Treaty of Sèvres and its allotted partition of Anatolia. The agreement was signed with representatives of the former government of Armenia, which by that time had no de jure or de facto power in Armenia, since Soviet rule was already established in the country. On 16 March 1921, the Bolsheviks and Turkey signed a more comprehensive agreement, the Treaty of Kars, which involved representatives of Soviet Armenia, Soviet Azerbaijan, and Soviet Georgia.

 

Throughout most of his life, Atatürk was a moderate-to-heavy drinker, often consuming half a litre of rakı a day; he also smoked tobacco, predominantly in the form of cigarettes. During 1937, indications that Atatürk's health was worsening started to appear. In early 1938, while on a trip to Yalova, he suffered from a serious illness. He went to Istanbul for treatment, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis. During his stay in Istanbul, he made an effort to keep up with his regular lifestyle, but eventually succumbed to his illness. He died on 10 November 1938, at the age of 57, in the Dolmabahçe Palace.

 

Atatürk's funeral called forth both sorrow and pride in Turkey, and 17 countries sent special representatives, while nine contributed armed detachments to the cortège. Atatürk's remains were originally laid to rest in the Ethnography Museum of Ankara, but they were transferred on 10 November 1953 (15 years after his death) in a 42-ton sarcophagus to a mausoleum overlooking Ankara, Anıtkabir.

 

In his will, Atatürk donated all of his possessions to the Republican People's Party, provided that the yearly interest of his funds would be used to look after his sister Makbule and his adopted children, and fund the higher education of İsmet İnönü's children. The remainder was willed to the Turkish Language Association and the Turkish Historical Society.

A clone captain communicating with command while his squad begins to prepare the perimeter.

 

This build started out as an empty frame to give myself an “empty canvas”. I like that approach a lot and I think it’s fun to see what you can squeeze into a small space to tell a story. Then I built the terrain and experimented for a few days on where to go from there. I decided on the water way eventually and it all snowballed from there.

 

I hope you enjoy feel free to leave any feedback.

this idea popped up monday morning whilst i was sipping my coffee, looking out at the trees in my backyard. finally, after hours in photoshop and many hours of lost sleep, it's finished! a big thank you to kitty Gallennaugh for her lovely "magicians sleeve" curve. perfection :)

Staff Sgt. Matthew Boyd and Airman 1st Class Sheridyn Webb review an airfield map during a simulated security incident on the flightline Aug. 28, 2013, at Altus Air Force Base, Okla. Boyd is a flight sergeant assigned to the 97th Security Forces Squadron and Webb is a 97th SFS response force member. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Kenneth W. Norman/Released)

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Time for a little Halloween fun. Creepy enough for ya?

 

While walking around the grounds of the medieval German church shown in Here's the Church; It is in Stiepel, we stumbled upon a rather startling art installation tucked away in a corner of the property. All of the heads seem to be looking directly at the church. I've done a bit of research into the installation, but came up with nothing to explain this curious expression of creativity.

 

The fact that the installation is not far away from some ancient headstones makes it all the more oogie.

 

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HDR processed from three hand-held exposures, processed with a combination of Nik/Google's Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, and Viveza.

 

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Rochdale canal, Manchester.

 

See where this picture was taken. [?]

All locked up an nowhere to go

It has been nine years since we were last here.

 

We had come really for dragonflies, but as we park near the church, it seemed only right to go in.

 

I now see it for so much more, especially the south chapel, with wooden chest and table.

 

At the end of a six mile dead end lane, on the way to the ferry that used to like Harty with Faversham, now traffic uses the two bridges at Swale.

 

No mails electricity or water, you have to drive through a farm to get here.

 

Is peaceful.

 

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Harty is a small island adjoining the south-eastern corner of the Isle of Sheppey. The church is small and rustic, consisting of nave, north aisle, chancel and south chapel. There is evidence of the Norman period in a tufa arch high in the north wall. The south chapel was built in the fifteenth century and now contains the greatest treasure of the church - a fourteenth-century wooden chest or Flemish Kist, carved on the front with two jousting knights. Following a recent theft and the chests subsequent much celebrated return a superb metal screen has been installed that now secures the chapel whilst allowing visitors to view this venerable object. A further modern addition is the south nave window which shows the grazing sheep which gives the Isle of Sheppey its name. The rood screen is fourteenth century and returns along the north wall of the nave and into the north aisle and the original entrance to the loft is still visible. In the sanctuary is a fifteenth-century image niche which may well have held a statue of St Thomas Becket - for this church was on the pilgrim route by boat from London to Canterbury.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Harty

 

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HARTY

IS another small island adjoining to that of Shepey south eastward. opposite to Leysdown. It adjoins to the island of Emley towards the west, being separated both from that and the island of Shepey by a very small narrow water; on the south side of it is the water called the Swale, which slows between it and the main land of the county. It is about two miles in length, and one and an half in breadth, and consists of one parish, of the same name as the island itself. It is within the bounds of the hundred of Faversham, and a borsholder is annually chosen for the borough of it (which extends over the whole island) at the court-leet for that manor and hundred; but being in a manner part of the island of Shepey, the description of it seems more proper to be inserted here, than to be deserred to the description of that hundred hereafter.

 

It is called in antient records Harteigh, which name seems to be derived from the Saxon words Heord-tu, which signifies the island filled with herds of cattle, a name well suited to the antient and present state of it.

 

The island lies opposite to the parish of Ore on the main land of the county, the waters of the Swale slowing between them, over which there is a ferry. The grounds sengers and cattle, called Harty ferry. The grounds are entirely pasture, on which are constantly feeding about 4000 sheep. The centure of it is rising ground. The church stands nearly in the middle of it. There is no village, and only six lookers cottages in the whole of it, these people, about twenty in number, being the only inhabitants, the unhealthiness of the air deterring all others from attempting to dwell in it. About twothird of the island are the property of Mr. Sawbridge.

 

It appears by the pleas of the crown, in the 21st year of king Edward I. taken before the justices itinerant, that there was formerly a bridge leading from hence into Shepey, then called Tremseth bridge, which had been broken down by a violent inundation of the sea, and the channel thereby made so deep, that a new one could not be laid; and therefore the inhabitants of Shepey, who before repaired it, maintained in the room of it two ferry-boats, to carry passengers to and fro.

 

There is now no bridge here, and the fleet which divided this island from that of Shepey is become so very narrow, and has for several years past been so much filled up, that, excepting at high tides and overflow of the waters, Harty has ceased to have any appearance of an island. There is no highway duty, and scarce any roads in it.

 

THE MANOR OF HARTY, otherwise Saye's court, was, in the reign of king Henry III. part of the possessions of the family of Champion, who wrote themselves in Latin, De Campania, and were seated at Champions court, in Newnham. Robert de Campania held this manor in the above reign, as half a knight's see, of John de St. John. (fn. 1) his descendant John de Campania died possessed of it in the reign of Edward II. and king Edward III. in his 1st year, directed his writ to Robert de Kendal, late constable of Dover castle, &c. to restore to the lady of the island of Herty, sister of Thomas Roscelyn, her lands forfeited in Kent, in the reign of his father, on account of the prosecutions of Hugh le Despencer, the elder and younger. They lest three daughters and coheirs, of whom Catherine married Robert Corbet, and Thomasine married Thomas Chevin. They divided his estates among them, but to whom this manor passed, I have not found; but the next name that I have discovered to be possessed of it, was Whalley, whose heirs sold it to Cheney, in which name it continued to Sir Thomas Chency, knight of the garter, &c. who died possessed of it in the 1st year of queen Elizabeth, as will be further mentioned hereafter.

 

ANOTHER ESTATE in this island, called LE LONG HOUSE, was parcel of the possessions of the abbey of Faversham, of whom it was held as part of a knight's fee, by John de Criol, (fn. 2) in the reign of Edward I. as it was afterwards by the family of Champion, or De Campania, one of whom, John de Campania possessed it in the reign of king Edward II. whose widow Mary paid aid for it in the 20th year of that reign, as parcel of the manor of Westwood.

 

After which this estate passed into the family of Poynings, whose heir-general, Alianore, daughter of Richard de Poynings, carried it in marriage to Sir Henry Percy, lord Percy, afterwards earl of Northumberland, in whose descendants it continued till at length it was alienated to Cheney, and Sir Thomas Cheney, knight of the garter, &c. died possessed of it in the 1st year of queen Elizabeth, as will be further mentioned hereafter.

 

THE MOTE was another part of Harty manor, and was parcel of the estate in this island belonging to the family of Champion likewise, which was carried in marriage by Thomasine, daughter and one of the coheirs of John de Campania or Champion, in the reign of king Edward III. to Thomas Chevin, of Sholand, in Newnham, in whose descendants it continued down to John Chevin, who, in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, by conveyance and fine, sold it to Mr. Thomas Paramour, by the description of a manor and lands, in the parish of St. Thomas, in the isle of Harty, of the fee of William, marquis of Winchester, capital lord of it.

 

But it being alledged by John Chevin, that he was under age at the time of the before-mentioned alienation, the fine was reversed, and he having again passed it away in the mean time to John Kyne and Simon Lowe; they, in the 13th year of that reign, brought a writ of right for the recovery of it against Thomas Paramour, but they were nonsuited, and the desendant was confirmed in his possession of it by the court. Upon this writ of right a trial by battle was demanded by Paramour, and awarded by the court, of which a pompous account is given in our law books, much too long for insertion here. It is sufficient to inform the reader, that the champions of each party, properly accourtred, met, at the appointed time, in Tothill-fields, Westminster, before the justices of the court of common pleas, who were to be judges of the duel (when upwards of 4000 people were present); where, after much formal solemnity, and proclamation being made, the non-appearance of the demandants, Kyne and Lowe, was recorded, and a nonsuit prayed, which was made, and the land was adjudged to Paramour, with costs of suit: for the queen had so ordered, that they were not to fight; but every part of this form was adjudged necessary to ascertain the desendant's right; and the judges themselves would, no doubt, have been well pleased to have ousted the parties of this barbarous method of trial, had the custom warranted them so to do, and it shews how much the example of it was disliked, since the queen thought fit to interpose and accommodate the matter; and this is one of the last instances in our books of battle joined in a writ of right. (fn. 3) How long this estate continued in the name of Paramour, I do not find; but it seems to have been in the possession of Henry, lord Cheney, in the 12th year of queen Elizabeth, as will be further mentioned hereafter.

 

THE ABBOT AND CONVENT OF FAVERSHAM, besides the fee held of them as before-mentioned, were in the possession of an estate here called ABBATS-COURT, and in the reign of Henry VII. their tenant of it was Thomas Colepeper, esq. but it did not continue in the possession of that monastery till the final dissolution of it, for king Henry VIII. in his 29th year, granted his licence to John, then abbot of Faversham, to alienate this manor of Abbots-court and its appurtenances, to Sir Thomas Cheney, knight of the garter, &c. in this parish, and he died possessed of this estate in the 1st year of queen Elizabeth, holding it at the yearly sum of forty shillings and eight-pence, in the name of tenths, as will be further mentioned hereafter.

 

THE DEAN AND CANONS of the collegiate chapel of St. Stephen, in Westminster, were possessed of an estate in this island called PERY MARSH, which they continued in the possession of till the 1st year of king Edward VI.'s reign, when this chapel being dissolved, among others, by the act then passed, all the lands and possessions of it were surrendered up into the king's hands, (fn. 4) where it did not remain long, for the king in his 3d year, granted it, among other premises, to Sir Thomas Cheney, knight of the garter, &c. beforementioned, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he died possessed of it in the 1st year of queen Elizabeth's reign, as will be further mentioned hereafter.

 

The Benedictine nunnery of Davington was possessed of lands in this parish, as well as the church or parsonage of Harty; the former, in the 17th year of king Edward III. consisted of one hundred and forty acres of pasture, which were then valued, over and above the chief rent paid for it, fifteen pounds yearly.

 

This nunnery being left without prioress or nuns, escheated to the crown in the 27th year of Henry VIII. and this estate in Harty remained there, till the king, in his 35th year, granted it, among other possessions of the nunnery, to Sir Thomas Cheney, knight of the garter, &c. to hold in capite by knight's service, and he died possessed of it in the 1st year of queen Elizabeth, as will be further taken notice of hereafter.

 

Sir Thomas Cheney dying possessed of all the beforementioned manors and estates in the 1st year of queen Elizabeth, as has been mentioned before, under the several descriptions of them, was succeeded in them by his son and heir Henry Cheney, esq. afterwards knighted and created Lord Cheney of Tuddington, who had possession granted of them in the 3d year of that reign, and that year levied a fine of all his lands.

 

After which he, together with Jane his wife, anno 12 Elizabeth, by conveyance and fine levied, alienated the manor of Harty, and the rectory of St. Thomas the Apostle, in the isle of Hartye, called Stanger, alias Stangarde, alias the parsonage of Hartie, together with the advowson and right of patronage of the vicarage; and the manor or farm called Abbattes court, with Pery marsh, and the farm called the Long House, and the tenement called the Mote, with all their lands and appurtenances in this island, and all other premises in it, which the above-mentioned Sir Thomas Cheney was possessed of in it, at the time of his death, or which Henry Cheney, or Jane his wife had a right to in it, to the use of Richard Thornhill, esq.

 

His grandson alienated that part of the above-mentioned premises called Abbats court, since known by the name of Hall farm, with Pery marsh, and other lands, to Robert Cole, esq. who in 1662 settled this estate on his sole daughter and heir Jane, on her marriage with Sir Thomas Darcy, of St. Clere hall, in Effex, who had been created a baronet in 1660, (fn. 5) he afterwards sold it to Mr. Thomas French, who by his will devised it to be sold, and it was purchased in 1701 by Thomas Clark, merchant, of London, whose heirs sold it in 1765 to Mr. Thomas Buck, of Faversham, on whose death in 1779, it became the property of his son of the same name, who is the present possessor of it. This estate claims and exemption from the payment of all king of tithes.

 

BUT THE REMAINING PART of the several estates of Henry, lord Cheney, continued in the descendants of Richard Thornhill, esq. down to Richard Thornhill, esq. of Ollantigh, who in the fourth year of queen Anne, anno 1704, having obtained an act for that purpose, sold the manor of Harty, the rectory or parsonage of the church, and the advowson of the vicarage, the estate called the Long House, the Mote, since called the Church farm, a farm called Elliots, a parcel of marshlands called Napletons, with divers lands, marshes, &c. part of the above-described premises, to Mr. Jacob Sawbridge, of London, who died possessed of them in 1748, and his great grandson, Samuel-Elias Sawbridge, esq. of Ollantigh, in this county, is the present possessor of them.

 

The company of oyster dredgers of Faversham hire of Mr. Sawbridge, the right or privilege of laying oysters on some part of the shore of this island, and the like of Mr. Buck on another part of it.

 

There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly relieved are about six, casually three.

 

HARTY is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.

 

¶The church, which is a small building, consisting of a body, chancel, and two side chantries, with a pointed turret at the west end, is dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle. It was formerly part of the possessions of the Benedictine nunnery of Davington, to which it was appropriated before the 8th year of king Richard II. anno 1384, and it continued part of the possessions of it at the time of its escheating to the crown in the reign of Henry VIII. when it was esteemed as a parsonage appropriate, with the advowson of the vicarage of the church annexed. It was afterwards granted to Sir Thomas Cheney, and by his son Henry sold to Richard Thornhill, esq. whose descendant sold it to Jacob Sawbridge, esq. whose great-grandson, Samuel-Elias Sawbridge, esq. of Ollantigh, is now entitled to it, of all which a more ample account has already been given.

 

In the 35th year of Henry VIII. the yearly stipend to the curate of Harty was 6l. 13s. 4d.

 

This church is set down in the king's books as a rectory, and valued at 20l. 6s. 0½d. the tenths of which, being 2l. 0s. 7¼d. are paid to the crown receiver, and not to the archbishop. The cure of it has been many years esteemed as a vicarage; the vicar has a stipend of twenty pounds per annum paid to him, in lieu of tithes, and divine service is performed here, except in very severe weather, once in a fortnight.

 

In 1578 there were communicants here forty-seven; in 1640 communicants fifty.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol6/pp276-283

Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) vehicle display during Telok Blangah Preparedness Day 2018 at the Telok Blangah Drive Market.

Here's Quigley, looking out the window making sure all his territory is secure. No invading cats or mailmen shall pass without hearing his bark!

Securely locked into the corner for a reflective few hours time-out

Kline Creek Farm - DuPage County, IL. Fence post shot with a Nikon N80 on CineStill 400D color film. Scanned with slight adjustments in Photoshop.

Inside the guard booth at the main entrance to the Forensic Building, for the criminally insane, at Mayview State Hospital.

 

Sadly, most of this campus is now demolished.

 

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U.S. Air Force security forces trainees practice handcuffing techniques on each other during a lesson of the field operations block of training at the U.S. Air Force security forces apprentice course at Joint Base San Antonio-Chapman Annex, Texas, March 2, 2023. The field operations course is designed to teach basic skills necessary to new security forces Airmen. (U.S Air Force photo by Jerome S. Tayborn/RELEASED)

Yashica T5, Ilford XP2

I secured my first Odonata photos of the year this afternoon with this Blue-tailed Damselfly adjacent to the Broadmead Cut of the River Wey.

 

Send, Surrey

8th May 2022

  

20220508 2I8A 0295 sm ta da

Protecting someone

273/365-5

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers assist Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol in providing security at the Georgia State Capitol to ensure demonstrations remain peaceful May 31, 2020. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Maj. William Carraway)

You'd have to release the release on the release to drop anchor!

My Dad was a pioneer in keeping us safe when in a car.

 

This is my younger sister sitting in a KL Automotive Products 'Jeenay' car seat sometime in the mid to late 1970s (she is in her early 40's now!). In keeping with his philosophy at the time this was a British made product.

 

In those days rear seat belts were not mandatory. Cars simply didn't have them fitted.

 

To fit this seat I can remember Dad removing the rear seat and drilling the body to accept the belt fasteners secured by bolts. The car was an Austin A40 Farina that he originally bought brand new in 1963. The car was in constant use until it was replaced by a FIAT Uno 60S in 1987.

 

If my Dad was a car he'd be a Volvo - not a new curvy one, but one of those boxy safe, practical and secure ones before safety was fashionable. He recently passed away at 77 years of age.

 

Original marketing photos:

 

www.paulburt.co.uk/public/KL_JeenayPOS.jpeg

 

vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=58883&sos=0

 

vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=57281&sos=0

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