İsmet İnönü
Mustafa İsmet was born on the 24th of September 1884 in Smyrna, now known as İzmir. His father Hacı Reşit served as a director within the War Ministry before retiring from that post. The family moved frequently due to his father's assignments across different cities. İsmet completed primary education in Sivas and graduated from the Sivas Military Junior High School in 1894. He then studied at the Sivas School for Civil Servants for one year before entering military engineering school. He graduated from the Imperial School of Military Engineering in 1904 as a lieutenant gunnery officer. On the 26th of September 1906 he became a first-rank staff captain after graduating from the Military Academy. He started duty in the Second Army based in Adrianople on the 2nd of October 1906. This position placed him in the 3rd Battery Command of the 8th Field Artillery Regiment. As part of his platoon officer staff internship he gave lessons in military strategy and artillery. Captain İsmet also participated in Ottoman, Bulgarian commissions. Through Ali Fethi Okyar he briefly joined the Committee of Union and Progress in 1907. This political group wished to overthrow Sultan Abdul Hamid II. During the 31st of March Incident he was on the staff of the Second Cavalry Division. The division mobilized to join the Action Army and marched on Constantinople to depose the Sultan. Returning to Adrianople following the suppression of the mutiny he left the committee in the summer of 1909.
After the military occupation of Constantinople on the 16th of March 1920 İnönü decided to escape to Anatolia. He and his chief of staff Major Saffet Arıkan escaped Maltepe on the evening of the 19th of March. They arrived in Ankara on the 9th of April. He joined the Grand National Assembly which opened on the 23rd of April 1920 as a deputy of Edirne. Like many others in the Turkish National Movement he was sentenced to death in absentia by the Ottoman government on the 6th of June 1920. In May 1920 he was appointed chief of the general staff. The next year he became commander of the Western Front of the Army of the GNA. This position remained during the Turkish War of Independence. He was promoted to the rank of Mirliva after winning the First and Second Battles of İnönü. When the 1934 Surname Law was adopted Atatürk bestowed İsmet Pasha with the surname İnönü. The battles took place at that location. After the war he was appointed chief negotiator for both the Armistice of Mudanya and the Treaty of Lausanne. The Lausanne conference convened in late 1922 to settle terms for a new treaty replacing the Treaty of Sèvres. İsmet turned off his hearing aid during speeches by British foreign secretary Lord Curzon. When Curzon finished İsmet reiterated his position as if Curzon had never spoken. Bulgarian diplomat Nadejda Stancioff served as an intermediary between them. He secured recognition of the Turkish victory by the Allies. This replaced the imposed Treaty of Sèvres with the Treaty of Lausanne.
İnönü managed the economy with heavy-handed government intervention especially during the Great Depression. He implemented an economic plan inspired by the Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union. In doing so he took much private property under government control. To this day more than 70% of land in Turkey is still owned by the state. While dealing with the Sheikh Said revolt he proclaimed a Turkish nationalist policy. He encouraged the Turkification of the non-Turkish population. Following the suppression of the Sheikh Said rebellion he presided over the Reform Council for the East. This council prepared the Report for Reform in the East which recommended impeding the establishment of a Kurdish elite. It also forbade non-Turkish languages and created regional administrative units called Inspectorates-General. These were to be governed by martial law. He stated that they must Turkify the inhabitants of their land at any price. Three Inspectorate-Generals were established in the Kurdish areas comprising several provinces. Under his regime thousands of Kurdish civilians died in the Zilan Valley of Van Province on the 12th and the 13th of July 1930. Nation building was codified into law when a new settlement regime was enacted in 1934. This resettled Albanians Abkhazians Circassians and Kurds in new areas to create a homogeneous Turkish state.
World War II broke out in the first year of his presidency. Both the Allies and the Axis pressured İnönü to bring Turkey into the war. The Germans sent Franz von Papen to Ankara in April 1939 while the British sent Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen. On the 23rd of April 1939 Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu told Knatchbull-Hugessen of fears regarding Italian claims to the Mediterranean. In May 1939 during the visit of Maxime Weygand he told French Ambassador René Massigli about an alliance with France Britain and the Soviet Union. The signing of the Molotov, Ribbentrop Pact on the 23rd of August 1939 drew Turkey away from the Allies. With France's defeat in June 1940 İnönü abandoned pro-Allied neutrality. A major embarrassment occurred in July 1940 when Germans captured documents showing awareness of Operation Pike. İnönü pulled out of the tripartite pact signed with Britain and France. He signed the German, Turkish Treaty of Friendship instead. In January 1943 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill traveled to Ankara for a conference. Churchill met secretly with İnönü inside a railroad car at Yenice Station near Adana. By the 4th to the 6th of December 1943 İnönü felt confident enough to meet openly with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference. Until 1941 both Roosevelt and Churchill thought Turkey's continued neutrality served Allied interests. But early Axis victories caused them to re-evaluate Turkish participation. In August 1944 İnönü broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. On the 5th of January 1945 he severed diplomatic relations with Japan. On the 25th of February 1945 he declared war on Germany and Japan.
In an opening speech to the Grand National Assembly on the 1st of November 1945 İnönü expressed the country's need for an opposition party. He welcomed Celâl Bayar establishing the Democrat Party which separated from the CHP. However due to anti-Communist hysteria new leftist parties were swiftly banned. Rural development initiatives such as Village Institutes and People's Rooms were closed. Even with pressure on the left he established the Ministry of Labour in 1945. Universities were given autonomy and his title of unchangeable chairman was abolished. İnönü allowed for Turkey's first multiparty elections to be held in 1946. These elections were not free and fair as voting occurred under the gaze of onlookers. Free and fair national elections had to wait until 1950. On that occasion İnönü's government was defeated. The leading figures of the Democrat Party used the slogan Geldi İsmet kesildi kısmet meaning İsmet arrived and fortune left. CHP lost the election with 41% of the vote against DP's 55%. Due to the winner-takes-all electoral system DP received 85% of seats in parliament. İnönü presided over the peaceful transfer of power to DP leaders Bayar and Adnan Menderes.
The Turkish Armed Forces overthrew the government as a result of the military coup on the 27th of May 1960. After one year of junta rule elections were held once the military returned to their barracks. İnönü returned to power as Prime Minister after the 1961 election. His governments were defined by an effort to deescalate tensions between radical forces in the army and former Democrats. He formed coalition governments with the neo-Democrat Justice Party and others until 1965. Colonel Talât Aydemir twice attempted to overthrow the government in 1962 and 1963. Aydemir decided to let the group go which foiled the coup. While in coalition with the far-right Republican Villagers Nation Party he renounced the Greco-Turkish Treaty of Friendship of 1930. The Turkish government strictly enforced laws barring Greek nationals from 30 professions. Fifty thousand more Greeks were deported due to growing anti-Greek sentiment. American President Lyndon Johnson sent a memorandum effectively vetoing Turkish intervention. A subsequent meeting at the White House on the 22nd of June 1964 meant Cyprus' status quo continued for another ten years. İnönü's governments established the National Security Council and TÜBİTAK. Turkey signed the Ankara agreement the first treaty of cooperation with the European Economic Community. He survived an assassination attempt from a Menderes supporter in 1964.
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Common questions
When and where was İsmet İnönü born?
Mustafa İsmet was born on the 24th of September 1884 in Smyrna, now known as İzmir. His father Hacı Reşit served as a director within the War Ministry before retiring from that post.
What role did İsmet İnönü play during the Turkish War of Independence?
İnönü became commander of the Western Front of the Army of the GNA and held this position throughout the Turkish War of Independence. He was promoted to the rank of Mirliva after winning the First and Second Battles of İnönü.
How did İsmet İnönü handle economic policy during the Great Depression?
Inönü managed the economy with heavy-handed government intervention especially during the Great Depression. He implemented an economic plan inspired by the Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union and took much private property under government control.
Why did İsmet İnönü declare war on Germany and Japan in 1945?
On the 25th of February 1945 he declared war on Germany and Japan after breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany in August 1944 and severing ties with Japan on the 5th of January 1945. This decision followed Axis victories that caused Allied leaders to re-evaluate Turkish participation.
When did İsmet İnönü lose his first multiparty election?
Free and fair national elections had to wait until 1950 when İnönü's government was defeated by the Democrat Party. The CHP lost the election with 41% of the vote against DP's 55%.