Ali Fuat Cebesoy - War of Independence

War of Independence

Ali Fuat Pasha organized the resistance in Western Turkey against the Greek invasion and thus actually started the National Independence War. He contributed to the resistance forces against the Greek army that had begun to occupy Western Anatolia. He signed Amasya Protocol and at the end of the Sivas Congress in 1920, he was appointed as the general commander of the National Forces by the Board of Representatives. The presence of him and his army in Ankara is the reason behind Atatürk's choice of this city as the center of Turkish War of Independence.

The same year, he was elected as a deputy at the First Parliament. He was appointed ambassador to Moscow, Soviet Union in 1921, as he had quarrels with Ismet Inonu, who was appointed by Atatürk as the Commander of the Western Front although Inonu had failed against Greek invasion at Kutahya-Altıntas in 1921. By personally negotiating with Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in Moscow, he signed the Treaty of Moscow (1921) along the lines of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty as the representative of the Ankara government, which provided financial and military support from the Soviet Union to the Turkish Independence War, in exchange for the return of Batum back to Soviet Union. After finishing his duty as an ambassador, he was elected as the second spokesman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.