Atatürk and the proclamation of the Turkish Republic

With Allied troops occupying Istanbul after the First World War, Mustafa Kemal and his supporters opened a Grand National Assembly in the small Anatolian town of Ankara in April 1920. They led the war of independence that drove out Greek forces, abolished the sultanate and, on 29 October 1923, proclaimed the Republic of Turkey, with Ankara as its capital and Kemal as its first president.