I agree, it hits all the notes just perfectly. And I don't know how the artist looked at an Ottoman map and was creative enough to see that bird and its relation to the new borders. It's an admirable composition altogether.

Re: the Republican chronology. You are correct, it would have been odd to see such a presumptuous or premature labeling perhaps a month or two ago, but by this time most people were pretty sure that the form of government would be a Republic (or that, at least it needed to be something because yes, there was no longer a sultan). Now, what people did not expect was the abolition of the Caliphate 4 months later in March 1924. That one was a surprise.