During the Turkish War of Independence, the United Kingdom sought to undermine and contain the Turkish National Movement. London hoped the defeated Ottoman Empire would play a subservient role in its new Middle Eastern order drawn up over several diplomatic agreements during World War I, culminating with the Treaty of Sèvres. Another goal of the British was to prosecute Ottoman war criminals, whom they believed Constantinople/Istanbul was not taking seriously.
In addition to diplomatic initiatives against the Istanbul and Ankara governments, British Empire forces directly fought the Nationalist Forces on the Al Jazira front and in scattered actions among Anatolian occupation garrisons. They also provided support for Greece in the Greco-Turkish War and to the Istanbul government. At the end of the conflict, the United Kingdom almost declared war against the Ankara government during the Chanak Crisis. Its conclusion led to the Allies abandoning Constantinople to Ankara forces and the fall of the David Lloyd George cabinet.
De-facto occupation of Constantinople
The de facto occupation of Constantinople commenced on 13 November 1918. On 7 November, under the pretext of clearing mines, the Allies' navy passed through the Dardanelles and reached the city. The Allies' navy, consisting of 61 warships, anchored in front of the capital. With the addition of 11 warships and a Greek battleship, the number of ships anchored in front of Constantinople totaled 73. 3,626 soldiers, the majority British from the Allied Fleet, landed. They were stationed in various official and unofficial buildings in Constantinople. Beyoğlu/Pera and the Rumelian coast were left under the control of the British, the Fatih district under the control of the French, and the Anatolian coast under the control of the Italians. Occupation Commander Maitland Wilson established a headquarters at the British Girls' High School in Beyoğlu. The number of ships anchored in front of Constantinople increased to 167 by 15 November.
Politics in Constantinople
The National Pact and the start of the occupation
Ali Rıza Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier on 3 October 1919, following the resignation of Damat Ferit Pasha. The nationalist tendencies of some members of this cabinet were known to the Allied representatives in Constantinople. Chief among these members was the Minister of War, Mersinli Cemal Pasha. Cemal Pasha was quick to enter into a conflict over the Allies' military control in Anatolia, in accordance with the Armistice of Mudros.
As soon as Rıza's cabinet was established, he announced elections to be held for the Chamber of Deputies. Following the elections, the Chamber of Deputies held its first meeting on 12 January 1920, which was dominated by nationalist deputies loyal to Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk). Parliament secretly passed the National Pact (Misak-ı Millî) on January 28, which became a political manifesto for the Turkish Nationalists. The Turkish Nationalists challenged the Allies at a time when the Allies were preparing peace terms and the Turks themselves were determining the peace terms they would accept. Moreover, Sultan Mehmed VI was far from being in control of all these events.
The National Pact was declared to the public on 17 February 1920, which angered the Allies. They pressed the Ottoman government for the declaration to be reversed. Failure to revoke the decision resulted in the British raiding the Şehzadebaşı barracks. The British high commissioner announced that they would fully occupy Constantinople at 10 A.M. According to W. S. Edmons, the only way to punish the Turks was "invading Constantinople fully".
Under full occupation
Until September 1922, no serious events occurred in Constantinople. But in Constantinople, some Turkish secret services were founded, such as "M. M. Grubu" (M. M. Organization). The British also learned of the Karakol group.
Before the Battle of the Sakarya, the position of the Turkish army was not good. All the supplies that the Ankara army needed were stored in depots in Constantinople, which were now guarded by Allied soldiers. The secret organizations that were founded by Turkish nationalists raided those depots and brought those materials to the Ankara government.
The Chanak Crisis
After the Great Offensive, the Turkish army advanced on the Dardanelles. The British Councils of Ministers met on 15 September 1922 and said that British soldiers must defend their positions. The next day, in the absence of Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon, some cabinet ministers threatened Turkey with a declaration of war by Britain and its dominions on the grounds that Turkey had violated the Treaty of Sèvres. Curzon, who returned to his country after discussing this issue in France on 18 September, was recalled by French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré. Poincaré informed Curzon, who returned to France on 20 September, that the French troops in Chanak had started to withdraw immediately and harshly rebuked him for the ceasefire.
The British people did not want to go to war with the Turks again in the Dardanelles. The Dominions announced that they would not send any forces after Prime Minister David Lloyd George did not consult on the issue. Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King announced that the situation was different from World War I, which broke out 8 years ago, and that the Canadian Parliament must decide whether to send troops.
The UK Council of Ministers, meeting on 23 September, decided to leave Constantinople and Eastern Thrace to Turkey. Thereupon, the commander-in-chief of the Turkish armies, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, ordered the army to stop. He offered to negotiate in Mudanya for a ceasefire. The parties met in Mudanya on October 3. On October 11, the terms of the ceasefire were accepted by the United Kingdom with a 2-hour delay after the British received reinforcements. The Ankara Government was convinced that this reinforcement would not cause any resistance.
The Conservative Party left the government with the Carlton Club meeting on 19 October 1922 and declared that it would enter the next elections separately from the Liberal Party. Thus, Lloyd George was left without significant support. Additionally, Lord Curzon announced that he was withdrawing his support from Lloyd George. Lloyd George subsequently resigned as prime minister, never to return as a key figure in British politics.
Al Jazira front
While the Turkish War of Independence was continuing in Anatolia, Mustafa Kemal expressed interest in the Al Jazira front (Turkish: El Cezire Cephesi), also known as the Mosul front. An example of this is the appointment of Cevat (Çobanlı) Pasha to the Al Jazira Front. Cevat Pasha, who served on the Mesopotamian Front in World War I, was appointed to the position because he knew the region well. Cevat immediately went to Diyarbakır to set up a headquarters. Özdemir Bey and many Turkish officers were sent to Revandiz (Rawandiz) by Mustafa Kemal to manage the ongoing resistance in the region.
Sulaymaniyah erupted in revolt on 26 May 1919, four days before the Battle of Ayvalık, it is there that the Turkish resistance began and ended. The Al Jazira front was the longest-lasting front of the Turkish War of Independence.
Mahmud Barzanji's revolt of May–June 1919
On 23 May 1919, Mahmud Barzanji, a Kurdish sheikh, revolted against British forces with 300 men. During the first stages of the rebellion, Barzanji had some success. Sheikh Mahmud was previously appointed by Halil Kut Pasha to manage Suleymaniye, an Ottoman sanjak.
Mustafa Kemal and Barzanji were in correspondence during this time. This resistance, which started in Sulaymaniyah, took Kemal Pasha's attention. After the Erzurum Congress, Kemal congratulated Sheikh Mahmud, who was carrying out military activities in the region, but the message could not reach him. Mahmud and his men were ambushed and captured by the British in the Bazyan Pass between Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk.
The British, who were worried that Mosul would be completely occupied by the Turks after the Battle of Derbent, brought Sheikh Mahmut back to Sulaymaniyah and officially established the Kingdom of Kurdistan as a British mandate on 10 October 1922. The British wished to prevent Mosul and its surroundings from being connected to Turkey and wished to maintain their economic interests in the region. However, the Sheikh again revolted; in 1924 the kingdom was forcibly dissolved, and the region became part of Mandatory Iraq.
Tal Afar Uprising (1920)
With the capture of Sheikh Mahmud and his exile to Kuwait, the first period of the Kuva-yi Milliye movement in Sulaymaniyah in 1919 ended. After this, resistance efforts shifted to Mosul. Various organizations, including the Cemiyet-i Hilaliye, were established, which gained the support of Arabs that were opposed to British occupation. Many uprisings took place in 1920; one such uprising was the Tal Afar uprising, which took place in late June. Due to the leadership's ties with the Ankara government, this rebellion and the following ones were known as the "Hareketü'l-Kemaliye" (Movement of Kemal).
Tel Afar was captured by a group of Iraqi Turkmen rebels led by Lieutenant Colonel Cemil Muhammed Halil Efendi. With the delay in the reinforcements coming from Anatolia, a forward operation to retake Mosul remained inconclusive. Learning about the situation, British troops entered Tal Afar with the support of the RAF Iraq Command and recaptured the town, putting an end to the rebellion.
Revandiz Rebellion
After the uprising in Tal Afar, the resistance continued in Revandiz. On 1 May 1920, Mustafa Kemal Pasha drew attention to the National Pact and Mosul in a speech before the Grand National Assembly. According to him, Turkey's national borders began south of Iskenderun and extended east, including Mosul, Sulaymaniyah, and Kirkuk. The British were concerned that Mustafa Kemal Pasha would target Mosul after defeating the Greeks. Tribes in the Revandiz region asked for help from the Ankara government for their rebellion against the British, and Ankara sent a company of three officers and 100 privates to Mosul; on 9 August 1921, Major Şevki Bey was appointed as the commander of Sulaymaniyah. This force was ordered to avoid conflict with the British unless necessary. Despite this order, the company united with the forces of Revandiz Turkmen and raided the British whenever the opportunity arose. Babaçiçek suffered great losses in the strait to the British, who attacked Revandiz with a large force with air support on 16 December 1921.
The Özdemir expedition
As the attacks by the British against Erbil and Revandiz increased in January 1922, Mustafa Kemal Pasha ordered a militia unit to be sent to Mosul. The General Staff focused on the appointment of a commander who knew the local terrain, tribal relations, traditions, and banditry. They appointed Militia Lieutenant Colonel Şefik Özdemir Bey, who was the commander of the National Forces in Antep, to the position. Mustafa Kemal, as speaker of the Ankara government, delivered a personal instruction to Özdemir, ordering him to undertake the mission as a private individual for the sake of legal fiction.
Özdemir Bey organized a successful insurgency in the Mosul region. Departing from Ankara to Revandiz with a skeleton staff, he hoped to recruit Turkish and tribal soldiers loyal to the Turkish administration. He also sought Tunisian and Algerian soldiers who escaped from the French army in Nizip and took refuge with the Turks. Özdemir arrived in Diyarbakır on 22 April, where he met with Al Jazira Front commander Cevat Pasha. The detachment reached Revandiz on 22 June 1922 and was welcomed by the residents. Festivities were held, and nearby tribes came to the city to greet Özdemir and the detachment. Özdemir established a government in the region and acted in line with the general wishes of the people. The Revandizians, who had been without a functioning government, accepted Özdemir as the representative of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, affectionately calling him Özdemir Pasha.