Page 5 - DERGİ

Many factors like its geographical location, equal distance to the front lines,
ease of access to ports, railways and telegraph networks, that fact that 20
th
Corps under the command of Ali Fuat Pasha was in Ankara and the sincere
commitment of the local people to the beginning of the struggle, played an
important role in leading Mustafa Kemal Pasha determining Ankara as the
center for salvation.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the chairman of the Representative Committee and
his friends honored Ankara with their arrival on 27 December 1919 after a
journey under bad air conditions and with poorly maintained cars.

The people of the whole city welcomed Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his
delegation in Gölbaşı district with an extraordinary ceremony and they arrived
in front of the Ankara Government Office through the way of today’s Dikmen-
Yenisehir - Radio House - Railway Station and Ulus Square. The government
officials, the people of Ankara, the Seimeni regiment, the guilds of artisans, the
artisans, the students and thousands of cavaliers welcomed Mustafa Kemal
Pasha with great enthusiasm and sincere demonstrations of patriotism.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha and the Representative Committee used the Agricultural
School as both headquarters and place of residence. In addition to the
preparations for the meeting of the Parliament, which will be inaugurated in
Istanbul, many issues related to how the national struggle would be conducted
were discussed here. In the second circular issued on 29 December 1919, all
the deputies from Anatolia and Rumelia Association of Defense of Law were
summoned to Ankara and Turkey’s national policy was established through
these mutual meetings. In addition, the first manuscripts of the “National
Pact” that were discussed in the last Ottoman Parliament and accepted on
January 28, 1920 were written by Mustafa Kemal Pasha at Ankara Agricultural
School.

In the centenary of the commencement of National Struggle that started
with Mustafa Kemal Pasha’s setting foot in Samsun saying “they will go as
they came” and which lasted for complete four years with the determination
of “Either Independence! Or Death!” we respectfully commemorate Mustafa
Kemal Pasha and his comrades, our heroic martyrs, who made Anatolia our
homeland.