On November 1, 1922, deputies in Ankara abolished the Ottoman sultanate. These six archival photographs trace the institutions and people around that decision. They were taken between 1918 and 1923; none is presented as a photograph of the abolition vote itself.
Topic: Ottoman sultanate
01 / 06
The rival government already at work
Mustafa Kemal addresses the assembly on March 1, 1921, well before the abolition vote. The photograph shows the institution that was claiming national sovereignty while the Ottoman government still operated in Istanbul. It provides the setting for the confrontation, not a photograph of the November 1922 decision itself.
Photo details
Date
March 1, 1921
Location
Ankara, Turkey
Photographer
Unknown photographer
Archive / collection
Archive photograph; Wikimedia Commons record linked to hdl.handle.net/11543/1021
Unknown photographer / Wikimedia Commons; public domain.
02 / 06
Mehmed VI before the break
Sébah & Joaillier photographed Mehmed VI in 1918, the year he became sultan. The formal portrait preserves the monarchy’s public face before Ankara stripped the office of political authority. Four years later, after the abolition vote, he left Istanbul under British protection. This is a studio portrait, not a record of that departure.
Sébah & Joaillier / Library of Congress, ppmsca.04928; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
03 / 06
Authority in a low building in Ankara
Frédéric Gadmer made this view on December 24, 1922, less than two months after the sultanate ended. The building housed the assembly that asserted its right to speak for the country. Its modest frontage is a useful physical counterpoint to the elaborate court portrait of the displaced ruler.
Photo details
Date
December 24, 1922
Location
Ankara, Turkey
Photographer
Frédéric Gadmer
Archive / collection
Département des Hauts-de-Seine, musée Albert-Kahn, A36958
Frédéric Gadmer / Département des Hauts-de-Seine, musée Albert-Kahn, A36958. CC BY-SA 4.0.
04 / 06
The room after the decision
Gadmer photographed the chamber on December 27, 1922. The benches and platform belong to the first assembly building, where deputies had abolished the sultanate the previous month. No vote is taking place in this view. The quiet room records the working space behind a change usually described through leaders and proclamations.
Photo details
Date
December 27, 1922
Location
Ankara, Turkey
Photographer
Frédéric Gadmer
Archive / collection
Département des Hauts-de-Seine, musée Albert-Kahn, A37024S
Frédéric Gadmer / Département des Hauts-de-Seine, musée Albert-Kahn, A37024S. CC BY-SA 4.0.
05 / 06
A caliph without a sultanate
Abdülmecid II appears in a portrait dated 1923, after the assembly elected him caliph on November 18, 1922. The religious office survived the abolition of the monarchy, but it no longer carried the right to govern. The archive reproduction has been cropped and tonally adjusted; it remains a historical photograph.
Jean Pascal Sébah / Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-105915; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
06 / 06
One delegation at the peace table
İsmet Pasha sits at the center of the Turkish delegation in this photograph cataloged to 1923. The Lausanne invitations had helped bring the conflict between Ankara and Istanbul to a head. By the negotiations, there was no Ottoman cabinet sending a competing delegation. The catalog does not establish the photograph’s exact day or location.
Photo details
Date
1923; exact day not recorded
Location
Lausanne delegation; photographic location not specified
Photographer
Unknown photographer
Archive / collection
Library of Congress, Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection; LC-USZ62-102035
