Following Ottoman custom, Abdülmecid was confined to the palace until he was 40, during which time his father, Abdülaziz, and three of his cousins reigned. When his fourth cousin took the throne as Mehmed VI in 1918, Abdülmecid became crown prince. He was elected caliph by the Grand National Assembly on Nov. 18, 1922, after the sultanate was abolished; and he lost his title of crown prince after Mehmed left Constantinople on the assumption of power by the Young Turks under Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk, Kemal) (Atatürk). Although the caliphate was severed from all political power, Abdülmecid, a gentle and scholarly man, was the living symbol of Turkey's link to the Islāmic-Ottoman past. The forces of tradition and the opponents of Mustafa Kemal's regime rallied around him. Mustafa Kemal, determined to break with the Islāmic past, first proclaimed the Turkish Republic (Oct. 29, 1923), and on March 3, 1924, the Grand National Assembly abolished the caliphate. The next day Abdülmecid was exiled.