The Republic of Turkey Is Proclaimed

On 29 October 1923, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara formally proclaimed that the form of government of the Turkish state was a republic. The measure replaced the institutional remnants of the Ottoman Empire with a constitutional republic led by an elected president. This decisive step followed years of political transformation that began during the collapse of the imperial monarchy in the aftermath of World War I. While discussions regarding popular representation and administrative modernization had circulated since the Tanzimat era, Ottoman intellectuals of the nineteenth century had sought constitutional monarchy rather than the abolition of dynastic rule.

The trajectory toward republican governance accelerated after the occupation of Istanbul and the dissolution of the Ottoman parliament prompted the convening of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara on 23 April 1920. Asserting that sovereignty belonged unconditionally to the nation, the assembly assumed extraordinary powers under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal. The Turkish Constitution of 1921 established that representative authority resided in this body, and on 1 November 1922, the assembly voted to abolish the Ottoman sultanate, severing formal ties with the old imperial government in Istanbul.