In July 1908, army officers and activists linked to the Young Turk movement forced Sultan Abdülhamid II to restore the 1876 constitution. The change increased the political role of reform-minded officers and brought military affairs closer to parliamentary politics. This set the stage for major debates about how to modernize the Ottoman Army and state institutions.
In April 1909, a revolt in Istanbul challenged the new constitutional order. Units loyal to the Committee of Union and Progress formed the “Action Army” (Hareket Ordusu) and marched on the capital to suppress the uprising. The crisis showed how unstable civil–military relations were and reinforced the idea that the army would act as a decisive political force.
The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 stripped the empire of most of its remaining European territories. The defeats highlighted problems in training, logistics, command, and mobilization. Military and political leaders treated the losses as proof that deeper reform and reorganization were urgent.
After the Balkan defeats, the Ottoman government sought a powerful new military advisory mission from Germany. General Liman von Sanders arrived in late 1913, and the “mission crisis” drew strong foreign reactions because it affected the defense of Istanbul and the Straits. The mission became a key channel for reorganizing training and command practices before World War I.
On 30 October 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros, ending its role in World War I. The terms allowed Allied occupation of strategic points and required the Ottoman army to be demobilized. This dismantling of the wartime force created a security vacuum and directly shaped the conditions under which new armed groups formed in Anatolia.
On 15 May 1919, Greek forces occupied Izmir (Smyrna), accelerating fears that Anatolia would be partitioned. In many areas, local defense groups and irregular fighters began organizing as Kuvâ-yi Milliye (“National Forces”). These militias became an early bridge between the collapsing Ottoman military system and the later regular army tied to the nationalist movement.
On 23 April 1920, the Grand National Assembly (GNA) convened in Ankara as an alternative center of authority to the occupied capital. It claimed to act on national sovereignty and directed the war effort. The assembly’s creation provided a political framework for transforming scattered militias into a state-directed military force.
On 3 May 1920, the Ankara-based government created a General Staff structure to coordinate operations and planning. This helped shift armed resistance from local, irregular units toward centralized command. It marked an institutional step from late Ottoman-era staff traditions toward a new national army system.
On 10 August 1920, representatives of the Ottoman government signed the Treaty of Sèvres with the Allied powers. The treaty aimed to dismantle the empire and was rejected by the nationalist movement in Ankara. Its proposed settlement, including military constraints, strengthened nationalist arguments that a new army and new state were necessary.
From 23 August to 13 September 1921, Turkish nationalist forces fought Greece at the Battle of Sakarya. The fighting stopped the Greek push toward Ankara and gave the Ankara government time to strengthen regular army organization. The battle is widely treated as a turning point in moving from improvised resistance to sustained, centrally planned operations.
On 26 August 1922, Turkish forces launched the Great Offensive, the final large-scale campaign of the war against Greece. The offensive led to rapid Greek retreat and collapse of the front in early September. The outcome cemented the authority of the Ankara government and its regular army over Anatolia.
On 11 October 1922, Turkey (represented by the GNA) signed the Armistice of Mudanya with Britain, France, and Italy; Greece accepted shortly afterward. The agreement ended active hostilities and set terms for Greek withdrawal from Eastern Thrace. It created the immediate diplomatic space for a final peace settlement and a transition from wartime command to peacetime state-building.
On 1 November 1922, the Grand National Assembly abolished the Ottoman sultanate. This removed the dynasty’s claim to command and legitimacy over the military and state. It clarified that the emerging armed forces would be tied to a new sovereign political order rather than to the Ottoman court.
On 24 July 1923, Turkey and several Allied states signed the Treaty of Lausanne, replacing the rejected Treaty of Sèvres. The treaty recognized the boundaries and sovereignty of the modern Turkish state and removed many external controls that had been proposed earlier. This gave the new government greater freedom to build national military institutions under its own authority.
On 29 October 1923, Turkey proclaimed itself a republic, completing a major regime change from empire to nation-state. The wartime “Army of the Grand National Assembly” became the core around which the republic organized its armed forces. This shifted military loyalty and identity away from an imperial, multi-ethnic framework toward a republican national structure.
On 3 March 1924, Law No. 429 abolished the Ministry of General Staff, ending the practice of placing the chief of staff as a cabinet minister. This helped separate day-to-day military command from routine party politics and cabinet bargaining. The change was part of a broader postwar effort to create stable republican institutions, including a more professional military staff system.
In April 1924, Turkey adopted a new constitution that placed supreme command under the Grand National Assembly, represented by the president. It also specified that command in peacetime would be entrusted, under special law, to the chief of staff. These rules formalized how the armed forces would fit into the republic’s constitutional order, replacing older imperial patterns.
In the mid-1930s, officer education increasingly aligned with Ankara as the center of the new state. On 25 September 1936, the Turkish Military Academy relocated from Istanbul to Ankara and began instruction in new facilities. The move supported a long-term transition from Ottoman-era military schooling in the imperial capital to republican institutions designed for a national army.
Transformation of Ottoman military institutions into the Turkish Armed Forces (1908–1939)