The Grand National Assembly Proclaims the Republic of Turkey
Ankara replaces Constantinople as capital, and Mustafa Kemal becomes the republic's first president
Quick facts
- Proclaimed
- 29 October 1923
- Capital
- Ankara
- First president
- Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk)
- Caliphate abolished
- March 1924
What happened
On 29 October 1923, the Grand National Assembly proclaimed the Republic of Turkey, naming Ankara its capital instead of the former Ottoman seat at Constantinople, and elected Mustafa Kemal as the republic's first president. The proclamation formally ended the Ottoman dynasty's political role, following the Assembly's earlier 1922 abolition of the sultanate, and set up Kemal's government to press ahead with the sweeping legal, cultural, and religious reforms that would follow in the next several years. The office of caliph, the last surviving institution connected to the House of Osman, was abolished separately the following March.
Why it matters
This is the formal birth date of the state whose history the rest of this timeline follows: not a continuation of the Ottoman Empire under new management but a deliberate, self-conscious break from it, built on a new capital, a new government structure, and within a few years a fundamentally different legal and cultural order. Everything from the Latin alphabet to Turkey's NATO membership to its current government traces back to the choices made in Ankara starting this day.
How we know
The 29 October 1923 proclamation and Mustafa Kemal's election as president are documented in the Grand National Assembly's own records and corroborated by contemporary international press coverage and diplomatic recognition of the new Turkish state.
Sources
- Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. Turkey: A Country Study (Library of Congress Country Studies), Ch. 4 · General sourcecountrystudies.us · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- SUNY, Lumen Learning World History. Ataturk and Turkish Independence · General sourcecourses.lumenlearning.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Ottoman Empire → · See the Ottoman Empire timeline for the republic's proclamation from the perspective of the empire it formally replaced.