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Mustafa Kemal Pasha went to Ankara on 27 December 1919 with some friends and members of the representatives. The national battle was now fought from Ankara. Many patriots and soldiers in Istanbul who had heard of it also went to Ankara to participate in the War of Independence. After a while, on March 16, 1920, Istanbul was actually occupied by Allied powers and placed under military control. On the same day, British soldiers went to the parliament and arrested several MPs. Under these circumstances, the Parliament, opened on 12 January 1920, recognised that it could not function and decided to suspend its activities.

After the occupation of Istanbul, Mustafa Kemal Pasha ordered the governors and corps commanders on 19 March 1920 to convene a parliament with extraordinary powers in Ankara. The elections ended quickly and on April 23, 1920 representatives from all regions of the country came to open the Great National Assembly of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal Pasha was in every respect the military, political and social leader of the Turkish independence struggle. The conditions in which the country found itself, the duty imposed on his shoulders, were really difficult, because he was the leader of the struggle for survival, of the struggle for the independence of a nation that was to be removed from history.

The opening of the National Assembly in Ankara, the establishment of a national government had the aim to make the power of the Sultan and the Government of Istanbul to nonexistent. The armies of the Caliph and the Sultan were sent to Anatolia to crush the national forces. The heroes of the National Struggle, especially Mustafa Kemal Pasha, were found guilty and sentenced to death. In some parts of Anatolia, such as Anzavur, Çopur Musa, Postacı Nâzım, Delibaş, the people were deceived, but the uprising continued. On the other hand, the Greeks who had come to Izmir had prepared an attack on inner Anatolia from the west. With the armistice of Mondros, the organized army was officially disbanded, and the weapons were captured - only the local armed forces and voluntary departments resisted the enemy in the occupied territories.

All the internal and external challenges, despite the difficult conditions of the government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, were met with success in a short period of time. On several fronts enemy forces were combed and brought under control. The Turkish troops under the command of Kazim Karabekir, the 15th commander of the army corps on the Eastern Front, attacked the Armenians who had occupied Oltu, Sarikamis and Kars. The 15th Army Coprs attacked the Armenians on 28 September 1920 and defeated the Army of the Armenian Republic in Yerevan. On October 30, 1920, Kars was taken back. At the request of the Armenians, the Treaty of Gümrü was signed on 2 and 3 December 1920 and the war with Armenia ended. Ardahan and Artvin, who occupied them in Georgia, were evacuated.

In the southeastern regions, Adana, Urfa, Antep and Marash, there were violent clashes between the French troops and the local troops. As a result, the French had to withdraw from Maraş on 12 February 1920 and from Urfa on 11 April 1920. On October 20, 1921, the Treaty of Ankara with the French achieved the liberation of Adana, Mersin, Antep and some other cities.

On June 22, 1920, the Greeks attacked from the west front because they considered the difficult conditions of the Ankara government as a good opportunity. On July 8, 1920 they took Bursa and on July 29, 1920, Uşak. At the same time, the Sultan and the government of Istanbul signed a treaty with the Allied powers and the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920, and in a sense, they made common cause with the Allied powers.

Due to the success of the Greeks on the Western front, the President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, decided to exchange the local rebells with an army because of the lack of counterforces. For the events showed that the success of the National Struggle could only be achieved through the accumulation of all scattered forces under one authority; for this purpose the national departments, the militia and the voluntary organizations had to become regular departments within the army. A war that was waged almost exclusively with rebels was to end, and all national departments and voluntary forces were to be subordinated to the disciplined trained army.

On the basis of this decision, the President of the Great National Assembly Mustafa Kemal Pasha had chosen Minister. Fevzi Cakmak Pasha was responsible for the National Defence. Chief of Staff and also for the Western Front was Commander Colonel Ismet Pasha. They all gave up their work for the realization of a regular army.

This time was truly the most crisis-prone and hardest month in the history of the national struggle.

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