Postcard: İzmir's Gündoğdu Square and the city's Liberation Day, 9 September

Between the Kordon, the harbor side park that separates Izmir from the harbor, and the neighborhood of Alsancak, lies this amazing starue.

Horsemen race along the shore, an artistic mix of balance and exuberance. Arms raised, they gesture toward Izmir's city center, about a kilometer away. Some hold instruments in their hands--they may be riding crops, when I look at them, they look like pens or paint brushes.

The sculpture is called Tree of the Republic, and its sculptor, Ferit Özşen, captured a key moment in the founding of the Turkish Republic--and that moment happened exactly 100 years ago.

Ten days ago, I wrote about the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Alıören, the moment when Greece was forced back from the gates of Ankara into headlong retreat towards the Aegean Coast. The Greco-Turk War (1919-1922) had begun with the Greek occupation of Smyrna, a city that, at the time, had twice as many Greek residents as Athens. 

The ten days that followed that victory were very simple. Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk, had told his soldiers, "Gentlemen, your goal is the sea," and they had raced off after the Greeks who fled pel-mel towards the Port of Smyrna, where transport ships awaited.

On September 9, the first Turkish cavalry entered the city. It is still celebrated here as "Liberation Day." It is this dramatic entrance that, I believe, Özşen's statue depicts.

Let me share an excerpt from Giles Milton's Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922. I feel like he captures the scene vividly.

"The Turkish cavalry presented a magnificent spectacle as it cantered along the waterfront. The horsemen st high in their saddles, their scmitars unsheathed and glinting in the sun. On their heads they wore black Circassian fezzes adorned with the crescent and star. As they rode, they cried out, "Korkma! Korkma!" "Fear not! Fear not!"

Their entry into the city of Smyrna on 9 September 1922 was watched by thousands of anxious inhabitants. On the terrace of the famous Sporting Club, a group of British businessmen rose to their feet in order to catch a better view of the historic scene. From the nearby Greek warehouses, the packers and stevedores spilled out onto the quayside. "Long Live Kemal," they cried nervously, prising the man who would soon acquire the sobriquet Ataturk.

News of the troops' arrival quickly spread to the American colony of Paradise, where Dr Alexander MacLachlan, director of the American International College, was keeping a watchful eye for signs of trouble. He ran up the Stars and Stripes over the college building as a precaution and jotted down some contingency plans. Yet he remained sanguine in the face of the day's events. When the British consul, Sir Harry Lamb, had offered to help with the evacuation of American citizens, MacLachlan politely declined. "I felt we were not taking any risk by remaining at our post," he later wrote.

Throughout the course of the day, Smyrna held its breath....

The war wasn't yet over. As the Turkish cavalry entered the city, Greek troops were still loading onto transports--others were fighting their way to the coast, hoping against hope for escape. Should the Turks take them prisoner, they faced reprisals for crimes Greek troops had committed against the populace.

So that's what this anniversary is. Yet another victory in the war that founded the Turkish Republic; an important fulfillment of a promise that Ataturk and other Turkish nationalists had made during the dark days of Smyrna's occupation; a day worth celebrating.

But there is another, more ominous anniversary coming next Tuesday. I won't spoil the fun. 

It is Liberation Day!

Added on:

I found this painting on Twitter today (@Turkey_Pics). "The Turkish Army's Entrance into Izmir" shows the clock tower and the Khadifekale fortress in the background. Kemal Ataturk salutes from the front row as the Turks celebrate around him. In reality, the parade and entrance of the generals happened days after the initial foray by Turkish cavalry on September 9th.