Erzurum Congress Building
Erzurum Congress is the congress convened in Erzurum between 23 July and 7 August 1919. The Erzurum Congress convened by the Erzurum branch of the Vilâyât-ı Şarkıye Müdâfaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti on 17 June is also known as the Erzurum General Congress or the General Erzurum Congress. 62 delegates, most of whom came from the occupied 5 eastern provinces of Trabzon, Erzurum, Sivas, Bitlis and Van, attended the congress; The decisions taken in the congress, which lasted for 2 weeks, were significantly decisive in the line followed in the liberation struggle. Hodja Raif Efendi, one of the Erzurum delegates, opened the congress as the temporary chairman, and after the roll call, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was appointed as the chairman of the congress. In fact, it was foreseen that the congress negotiations would start on 10 July[3], and due to the fact that some of the delegates could not come to Erzurum on the aforementioned date, they were postponed and the negotiations started on 23 July. As the representative of Maçka to the local congress organized by the Erzurum branch of the Vilâyât-ı Şarkiyye Müdâfaa-i Hukûk-ı Milliye Cemiyeti, headquartered in Istanbul, and Trabzon Conservation-i Hukûk-ı Milliye Cemiyeti, between 23 July and 7 August 1919. İzzet Eyüboğlu attended. In this congress, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was elected as the chairman with a majority of votes, and Macka representative İzzet Bey and Hoca Raif Efendi from Erzurum were elected as the vice chairman.
