The Turkish Grand National Assembly abolished the Ottoman sultanate in Ankara, ending an institution that had lasted for more than six centuries. Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman sultan, left Constantinople aboard a British warship. The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed the following year.

The empire's end reshaped Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Armenian and Balkan literary identities. Poets confronted exile, lost homelands, nationalism and language reform as imperial multilingual culture gave way to modern nation-states.