Part 18
In November 1, 1922, the Saltanate and the Khilafat were separated and removed by the decision of the Great National Assembly of Turkey.
On this day Mustafa Kemal Pasha spoke the following words in the Assembly:
"The nation now takes its own destiny into its own hands and represents its national sovereignty of a free state. This is done with selected members from existing representatives and not by an owner. This is done by the great Turkish parliament. This great national assembly is the highest parliament of Turkey. The national sovereignty and authority of the government of Turkey will be only regulated by the Great National Assembly and from now on it is the parliament."
After this historical decision of the assembly the last Ottoman sultan Vahdettin fled abroad with a British warship.
Now it was time for the Peacetalks. The peace negotiations took place on 20 November 1922 in Lausanne. These talks were very intensive and lasted several months and the new Turkish government was represented by Ismet (Inönü) Pasha.
On 24 July 1923 the treaty was finally signed. This new treaty with the new Turkish state confirmed the independence to the whole world, the national borders were drawn, new treaties were negotiated in the economic field and old disagreements that still existed from the Ottoman Empire were settled. This result in the field of diplomacy was really important, because this treaty was, as Atatürk said, "an expression that made the Treaty of Sevres too null and void, because the treaty of Sevres was prepared from the beginning against the Turkish nation". For this reason, this was a work of political glory not seen in the Ottoman period.
On 13 October 1923, the great national assembly, which was now the parliament of Turkey, decided that Ankara would become the capital. The name of the current administration was now clearly required.
Finally, on October 29, 1923 the republic was announced with a constitutional amendment. Members of the Parliament celebrated this great event with the words "Long live the law of the new republic".
After this result, the presidential election announced and on this day Ankara's representative Mustafa Kemal Pasha was unanimously elected to the first President of the Republic of Turkey.
