Kuva - yi Inzibatiye The Kuvâ - i İnzibâtiyye ( Ottoman Turkish : قوا انضباطيّه , literally " Forces of Order " ; , or " Caliphate Army " ) was an army established on 18 April 1920 by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire in order to fight against the Turkish National Movement in the aftermath of World War I . It was commanded by Süleyman Şefik Pasha . Establishment . Sensing the situation , the Sultan handed over his minister of war , Şevket Süleyman Pasha , the establishment of an irregular force to exterminate the nationalists . Realizing it could no longer count on the title ' Sultan " alone to influence the Turks , he considered it necessary to use the timeless and spiritual title of " Caliph " for the leader of the army . Thus , depicting Nationalists as not only the enemies of the Sultanate ; but also , as the enemies of God . The Kuvâ - i İnzibâtiyye was supported by the British so as to enforce British policy in the region and stabilize the remnants of the Ottoman Empire . Supported by the British , Sultan began a propaganda war throughout the country . Relayed by Hoxha and priests , he urged the Turks to take up arms against the Nationalists of General Kemal , presented as the enemies of God . Conflicts . A civil war broke out between the then Army led by Caliph Chevket Soliman Pasha and the Turkish nationalists led by General Mustafa Kemal . Across the country , farmers will raise against nationalists , supporters of Mustafa Kemal trying hard to suppress the insurgents , but they are a little more every day in the minority . In Konya , insurgents pull nails and écartèlent officers sent by Mustafa Kemal in the city . The answer is immediate nationalists , they maim all the notables of the city , and the facts hang over the market place . The nationalists are rapidly lost speed , and defenders of Sultan is perilously close to Ankara . Soldiers nationalists who were scheduled to resume the town of Hendek supporters of the sultan , fraternisent with them . A few days later , a division is exterminated by the army of Caliph . The army had captured a dozen major Turkish cities . Of desertions took place among the troops most loyal to Mustafa Kemal . Then follows a mutiny in a nationalist militia which passes under the control of the sultan . For its part the General Kazım Karabekir had trouble holding his army . With the government militias , Mustafa Kemal folds with his bodyguards in buildings of a former agricultural school , he lives in a state of permanent alert , to protect officers of the Sultan wanting to assassinate him . But following the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres which enshrines the skin of the Empire , the soldiers of the army of Caliph decide the fighting has stopped . With the signing of this treaty , the Sultan lost his influence with the Turks who now support the nationalists . Mustafa Kemal immediately is a government of Public Hi , and instructs generals to organize national defense . The army of Caliph disintegrates itself , in some units , heads are slaughtered by their own men who feel have been betrayed . After one week the army of Caliph has virtually disappeared , except Ismit where she serves as a cover the British garrison . Dissolution . The defeat of the Army of the Caliph , a sign of the end of the influence of the sultan in Turkey , ended the civil war and heralded the beginning of the war of independence against the occupying nations .