Why?

Why 26 August?

After the Battle of Sakarya, the Turkish Army needed to launch a major offensive to drive the enemy completely out of Anatolia. The armies were reinforced, troops and weapons were sent to the front, and the decision to attack was taken on the initiative of Commander-in-Chief Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha. The plan was to encircle the enemy armies from southwest of Afyonkarahisar towards the north, cut their connection with İzmir and defeat them. The Great Offensive began at Kocatepe on the morning of 26 August 1922. The Turkish Army’s superior fighting ability brought victory at the Battle of the Commander-in-Chief on 30 August.

While touring the battlefield on 31 August, Commander-in-Chief Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha saw a fallen standard-bearer among the dead at a place called Beberçamı in Zafertepe Çalköy. The soldier lay in a crater made by an enemy artillery shell, yet his stiffened arm, still above ground, held the flag upright. Deeply moved, the commander-in-chief wanted this scene to become the symbol for the “Martyr Standard-Bearer Mehmetçik Monument” to be built after the war.

On 1 September 1922, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha gave his historic order to the troops advancing towards İzmir in pursuit: “Armies, your first objective is the Mediterranean. Forward!”

Following this order, the Turkish Army pursued the enemy to İzmir. The original account describes the Turkish War of Independence, begun in response to the occupations after the First World War, as ending in victory when the enemy was driven into the sea at İzmir on 9 September 1922.

As Gazi Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK said, the successful conclusion of the Great Offensive that began on 26 August 1922 laid the foundations of the new Turkish state. That is why, on 26 August—the day that marked the beginning of the great victory on which the Republic of Türkiye was founded—we are at ANITKABİR, the final resting place of our great leader Gazi Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, for this event.