THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF YÜZBAŞI SÜLEYMAN SÜRURİ (EMEKÇİL) BEY TO THE FOUNDATION OF KUVA-YI MİLLİYE MOVEMENT IN THE WES-TERN ANATOLIA

At the end of the First World War, the Allies began to occupy Anatolia and this triggered a nationalist movement. Civilians took up arms and Kuva-yı Milliye movement (Turkish National Forces) was formed. The success of Turkish National Movement against Greek occupation in the Western Anatolia caused Kuva-yı Milliye movement to receive growing support from the public and to spread country-wide.Yüzbaşı Süleyman Süruri Bey served in places like Alaşehir, Ahmetli, Salihli, Uşak, Eskişehir, Kütahya during when the Greek occupation was expanding. He worked for Kuva-yı Milliye movement to gain strength and motivated people to take up arms against the occupations. Due to the propagandas of the Istanbul govern-ment and the Allies, the public’s support of armed struggle was not high yet, there-fore Yüzbaşı Süleyman Süruri Bey had to take initiative and because of the harsh measures he took, he was occasionally subjected to public’s complaints. When he exacted money from people, but did not hand over this money, he was dismissed from active duty and was retired on disability in 1922.In this study, we tried to give information on the life and works of Yüzbaşı Süleyman Süruri Bey, who played an important role in the emergence of Kuva-yı Milliye movement in the Western Anatolia between May 1918 and November 1918, by using archival records, memoirs, articles and other available sources. A detailed study on the life of Yüzbaşı Süleyman Süruri Bey, who sometimes came under criti-cism due to the harsh measures he took, will enable us to understand the emergence of Kuva-yı Milliye movement and the conditions of the period better.