On October 29, 1923, the Grand National Assembly declared Turkey a republic and elected Mustafa Kemal president. The decision followed a wartime assembly, the abolition of the sultanate and the Lausanne settlement. This album follows those foundations through contemporary photographs and the announcement in print; none of the earlier images is presented as a photograph of the October vote.
Topic: Turkish Republic; constitutional history
01 / 06
An assembly already at work
Mustafa Kemal addresses deputies during the War of Independence. The assembly had opened the previous April and would continue to provide the institutional center of the nationalist government. This photograph predates the republic by more than two years; it records the legislature from which the new political order developed.
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
Rights / license
Public domain in Turkey, as cataloged by Wikimedia Commons.
Unknown photographer / Wikimedia Commons; public domain.
02 / 06
The parliament in Ankara
Frédéric Gadmer photographed the assembly building after the sultanate had been abolished but before the republic was proclaimed. The low building was the working home of a government reshaping the country. Its scale is a useful reminder of how far Ankara stood from the imperial setting of Istanbul.
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.
03 / 06
Inside the chamber
Gadmer’s interior view records the chamber ten months before the October 29 vote. Benches, a platform and the close arrangement of the room give a physical setting to the constitutional story. This is the first assembly building, not the later parliament building now associated with the Republic Museum.
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.
04 / 06
The men sent to Lausanne
İsmet Pasha sits at the center of the Turkish delegation sent to Lausanne. Negotiations produced the treaty signed on July 24, 1923, before Ankara became the capital and before the republic’s proclamation. İsmet moved from this diplomatic role to the premiership of the new republic in October.
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
Rights / license
Library of Congress rights advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Unknown photographer / Library of Congress, Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection, LC-USZ62-102035.
05 / 06
The republic’s first president
Mustafa Kemal appears in a civilian portrait from the year of the proclamation. The assembly elected him president after approving the constitutional amendments on October 29. He would receive the surname Atatürk in 1934. The portrait is contemporary context; its precise day and sitting location are not recorded here.
Photo details
Date
1923; exact day not recorded
Location
Turkey; exact location not recorded
Photographer
Unknown photographer
Archive / collection
Historical portrait reproduced by Encyclopaedia Britannica; Wikimedia Commons
Unknown photographer / Wikimedia Commons; public domain.
06 / 06
A republic reaches the printed page
Resimli Gazete’s November 3 issue presented the proclamation through text and portraits, placing Mustafa Kemal among other republican leaders. The page shows how the new government was introduced to readers after the parliamentary decision. It is a contemporary printed document, published five days after the event, rather than a photograph of the vote.
