Chapter 15: Naval Resurgence, and Armored Pride
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“After the acquisition of the four light cruisers for the Ottoman Navy, the tow dreadnoughts were the only real warships left for the Ottoman Navy to acquire to end the warship portion of their 1910 Naval Program. After that the program highlighted a number of logistical operations that would take place under the authority of the Naval Ministry. Ottoman Naval Minister Ciballi Mehmed Bey was proud to announce in early June that the dreadnoughts that had been ordered from Britain were ready to be sent to the Ottoman Empire, to which there was a feeling of elation.
a portrait of Cibali Mehmed Bey
Many in the Ottoman Empire believed that the Ottomans had been invaded and attacked by the Italians due to the degraded state of the Ottoman Navy before the 1911 war, and as such saw the return to having a formidable navy as a good breather for the navy as well. Mehmed Bey himself enthusiastically ordered the preparations for the commissioning ceremony as the two dreadnoughts left Bristol harbor en route to the Ottoman Empire.
A week later the two dreadnoughts arrived in Constantinople, and the people looked at the new two flagships of the navy with unhidden pride and feelings of joy, for it truly symbolized the return to having an Ottoman Navy which would be a formidable power in of itself. Truthfully, the Ottoman Navy at this point in time was a modern coastal defense force more than anything, however unlike the previous two or more decades, it was modern, which made all the difference in the minds of the admirals and policy makers in the Sublime Porte.
The two Dreadnought Battleships were based on the British Orion Class Dreadnought Battleships, and had been installed with all that the Italian money could equip them with. This is because the two dreadnoughts were bought with the Italian war reparations and the Italian debt that had been defaulted by the Ottomans during the Italo-Ottoman War in 1911-12. To many it was an irony as Italian money was being used to further and build up the Ottoman Navy. The first of the dreadnoughts was named Yavuz Selim and the second one was named Sultan Osmaniye and both were commissioned into the Ottoman Mediterranean Fleet, adding a new dimension to the Ottoman Navy. The basic features and characteristics of these two dreadnoughts in service of the Ottomans were:-
Displacement: 21,922 long tons (22,274 tons)
Length: 581 feet (177.1 meters)
Beam: 88 feet (27 meters)
Draught: 31 feet (9.5 meters)
Installed power: 27,000 installed horsepower, and 18 water tube boilers
Propulsion: 4 shafts and 2 steam turbine sets
Speed: 21 knots (39 kilometers/hour or 24 miles/hour)
Range: 6,730 nautical miles or 12,460 kilometers at 10 knots speed
Complement: 738 – 1,107 men
Armament: 5 x twin 13.5 inch (343 mm) guns
16 x single 4 inch (102 mm) guns
3 x 21 inch (533 mm) Torpedo tubes
Armor: Belt: 12 inch (305 mm)
Deck: 4 inch (102 mm)
Turrets: 11 inch (280 mm)
Barbettes: 10 inch (254 mm)
Bulkheads: 6 and 10 inches (152 and 254 mm)
Conning Tower: 11 inch (280 mm)
The Sultan Osmaniye during sea training in 1915.
The ships represented a new era for the Ottoman Navy and the crews of the new ships boarded their new ship for the first time on June 9th, 1914 amidst roaring crowds in Constantinople.” The Ottoman Navy, NavalEncyclopedia.net
“As a part of the New Economic Plan made by Grand Vizier Ali Kemal and Ottoman Minister of Finance Mizanci Murat were ambitious, of that there is no doubt. As the Ottoman Navy received a lot of attention in the year of 1914, let us delve into the New Economic Plan’s naval portion, for the port facilities and the port development that the NEP conducted throughout the Empire created valuable income for the Ottoman Empire in its own right in the future.
The NEP recognized five ports in the Ottoman Empire that could be used to further encourage commercialization, and industrialization within the empire, and these were deemed to be the ports of Smyrna, Salonika, Sinope, Mersin, and Jeddah.
The NEP in regards to the port of Smyrna wished to make Smyrna the premier port city of the Ottoman Empire. In order to do this the empire had to tackle the problem of congestion and overcrowding in the port of Smyrna, which while important for the empire, had been left to its own devices in the past, becoming horribly small and inefficient and lacking in many modern supplies as well. In order to combat this, the NEP called for the expansion of the port facilities and new dockyards and slipyards were being constructed in Smyrna to offset the congestion in the area. The extra port facilities would allow more trade to take place in the port, which would in return aid the economy of the empire. After the expansion took place, the port of Smyrna experienced a commercial increase of 12%, making the money spent on expansion well worth it.
Smyrna port circa 1910s.
The port of Salonika was large, and important for the empire as well. However engineers pointed out that the port was insufficiently dredged up, and extra dreading would have to take place. Architects and civilian engineers also found storage problems in Salonika, and as a result, the NEP report called for the construction of new storage facilities in Salonika as well, alongside the dredging works of the port. Salonika’s economic fruits were less immersive and much less than the benefits the expansion of Smyrna produced. In of itself, the dreading and the expansion of port storage facilities saved around 4% of the budget of the port, as the port had been going into deficit at times before the dredging and expansion of port facilities. The port in Sinope, which was perhaps the most important Ottoman port in the Black Sea, (Trabzon is arguable in this regards), too had a similar fate like that of Salonika. The port slipways were upgraded, a few were added, and the port facilities of the port, including its storage facility was expanded to become more encompassing and allowing greater amount of storage.
The port in Mersin was an important port for the Ottoman Empire however it had an unsecure anchorage, and several independent companies of the empire such as Royal Constantinople Dockyards, and Imperial Smyrna Standards were contracted by the government to construct a secure anchorage in the port of Mersin, which after construction allowed more heavy goods to pour into the port. This was especially crucial economically as now heavy goods no longer had to be transported to Smyrna from where they could be transported to the rest of the empire through rail. Now the heavy goods could go directly to Mersin, saving a good amount of transportation money and cost. The expansion of the port of Jeddah was straightforward. Jeddah’s port was not up to the Empire’s standards, and the port was simply built up to normal standards so that larger amount of trade could take place from the port.
the construction of the Port of Basra started in 1914 and ended in 1916.
The NEP also called for the construction of a new port on the Persian Gulf, to allow the Ottoman Empire to expand its maritime resources, especially in the hotly contested Persian Gulf. The perfect area for a new port was deemed to be the city of Basra. The Port of Basra began construction in 1914 and would become the main commercial port of the Ottoman Empire on the Persian Gulf.
As a result of the NEP, the overall trading power of the Ottoman Empire was augmented by their investment and development into their port facilities and general port development.” An Economic History of Ottoman Economics, 1988.
“The Qajar Civil War continued to rage on in Persia even after Sheikh Jabir switched sides and declared Arabistan for the Zia government, calling in his own formidable army of 8,000 men to fight for the Zia government based at Bandar Abbas. However the Zia government were in for a small shock as they tried to push north. Reza Pahlavi tried to move north, and attacked a Qajar loyalist contingent at the Battle of Kerman, and managed to take the city, however with massive difficulties. Pahlavi reported back to the government that the troops were better trained, and the weapons used by the troops at Kerman were more modern as well, worrying the Zia government to no ends.
The British government, who was supporting the Zia government was also worried by these reports and started to send its infamous spy networks into the Qajar loyalist domain to find out how the new loyalist troops were fighting with more coherence than before. British spies sprawled around in Tehran and Qoms, in Ardabil and Isfahan before they found out and reported back to the British government, who in return handed the information to the Zia government. The Russians had been supplying the loyalists with modern weapons, and had sent advisors to Tehran to conduct the strategy of the ongoing conflict as well. The British government in retaliation, allocated around 10,000 modern rifles, and their associated ammunition to be sent to the Zia government, and also handed over some 20 bonds to Bandar Abbas to shore up the economic and military situation of the Zia government.
Russian Imperial Troops in Iran.
The Ottomans during this situation played on both sides. It was decided that around 8,000 modern rifles and their associated material and ammunition would be sent to Tehran as a form of ‘aid’ whilst a clique of capable generals from the Ottoman Empire were sent to Bandar Abbas to become advisors and military supervisors as well. This played well into the Ottoman strategy of playing both sides of the Qajar Civil War, and the Ottoman aid to both sides would be very consequential. The Ottomans would provide a lot of aid to both sides throughout the duration of the war, providing invaluable aid.” Factions of the Qajar Civil War, Imperial University of Qoms, 2007.
“In early to mid 1914, the Ottoman Empire was starting to find a problem in its mainland provinces. Its economic progress was being dampened by the nomadic culture of many Bedouin and Kurdish tribes in Mesopotamia and Syria. These nomads accepted no other authority other than the religious temporal authority of the caliph. This meant that they didn’t accept the governmental central administration of Constantinople. Unlike the Bedouins of Libya who were kind people who didn’t commit much crimes, the Bedouins and Kurdish nomads of the empire were notorious for their many raids and the trail of destruction they left behind in their wake within the empire.
The Armenians, and the Mashrique Iraqis were already petitioning the Ottoman government to do something about the constant raids the Kurdish nomads were conducting against the urban towns and villages. The Ottoman government had long turned a blind eye to the antics of these nomads not wishing to attack them, however events forced the hand of the Ottoman Empire when Bedouin nomads attacked Hajj pilgrims on their way to Hejaz. The riches of the pilgrims were stolen and looted by the Bedouin nomads, and these complaints reached the personal desk of the Sultan himself.
On June 15th, the government ordered the gendarmerie of the Syria Vilayet and the Kurdish Vilayets to begin policing measures and to conduct anti-nomadic attacks against rogue nomadic tribes amongst the Bedouins and the Kurds. A peaceful solution was wanted by the government and the people however the stubborn tribes refused to give up their looting and attacking ways, forcing the hand of the government.
Anti-nomadic raids took place in Syria and Ottoman Kurdistan, forcing the nomads to settle down in the cities, and in order to subconsciously make the nomads settle down in the cities, and urbanize themselves, the Ottomans began providing more economic incentives to settle down in the cities and towns. This was partially successful as a good many tribes settled down permanently in urban centers, however a good amount still stayed with their nomadic ways and opposed the centralizing influence of Constantinople, calling it against Islam. Of course this isn’t true, however these nomads clutched every excuse they could find.
A bedouin nomad in Syria during the Looting War.
Truth be told, many in the Ottoman government had not wished to use force of arms to get rid of nomadism, however the looting and thieving ways of the nomads had made domestic and civilian tensions rise exponentially in the empire, and the empire had to respond properly.
As such for the rest of the decade, a low level guerilla war commenced between the Kurdish and Bedouin tribes and the central authority of Constantinople. In the end, the central authority of the Ottoman Empire would be successful, but not before around 458 Ottoman civilian gendarmerie troopers and 2000 Bedouins and 2100 Kurds lost their lives in what became known as the ‘Looting War’. The name is derived from the fact that the Ottomans triggered the small conflict based on nomadic looting and the nomads believed that the ottomans ‘looted’ their culture.” The Looting War: An Enigma of Positives and Negatives. Osprey Publishing, 1997.
“Samos was an island in the Ottoman Aegean that contributed 1 deputy to the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies. It was an autonomous region of the empire called the Principality of Samos. Samos always had an autonomous and independent thought and behavior, and had joined the Greeks during the Greek War of Independence, however being so close to Ottoman Anatolia, the rebellion in Samos had been crushed. Nonetheless, the sultan of the time, Mahmud II did not wish to have new concerns in the Aegean and granted Samos extra autonomy becoming a semi-independent principality. The title of ‘Prince of Samos’ was made for the principality and a clause was made to make the Prince a native of Samos. This manner of conducting day to day administration with autonomy was well-liked by the inhabitants of Samos, and many constitutionalists during the 1908 revolution had been from Samos as well. The 1908 revolutionaries re-affirmed the autonomy of Samos, and as such the people of Samos were more than content with the status quo.
flag of the principality of Samos.
However in 1908, one Andreas Kopasis was made the Prince of Samos. Though Kopasis himself was from Samos, and was a native greek by his tongue, he was an ardent member of many Turkish nationalist brotherhoods, and imposed tyrannical laws and policies intent on turkifying the island of Samos. He used brutal methods to meet the end goals of turkification and ethnic riots and massacres became common place on the island under his rule. Finally both the Ottoman Parliament and the Samos Parliament could not bear to watch the carnage unfolding in front of their eyes and the ottoman parliament sent a group of delegates to ask the Samos parliament to draw up a vote of no confidence. The vote of no confidence passed with an overwhelming majority of 67-13 out of the 80 seat Samos parliament and Kopasis was then with the authority of the Sultan, who was the head of state of Samos, and the authority of the Samos parliament, which was the governing body of Samos fired from his position as Prince of Samos.
Before a new Prince of Samos could be appointed however, the parliament of Samos opened a new dialogue with the central government. They wished to make the position of Prince of Samos an elected position after which the sultan would ceremonially ‘appoint’ him. Sultan Mehmed V was surprisingly a supporter of the bill and asked the government to take the reform and make it a part of the Samos Charter. Ali Kemal, who was more than happy with more reforms acquiesced and the reform bill was accepted by the Ottoman government, and the Samos Charter was amended to make the position of Prince of Samos an elected position.
The by-elections for the position took place for the first time on June 27th, 1914 and an independent Grigorios Vegleris who represented the moderate faction of the island (wishing to retain the status quo) was elected to become the Prince of Samos.” Samos: The Peculiar Principality, Samos Publishing, 1997.
“The Ottoman Empire was once a hotspot for scientists and innovators. However as the empire turned into the Sick Man of Europe, innovation started to become extremely rare in the empire. However as the empire began to recover in the early 1910s, the tradition of innovation was starting to make a small comeback. The production of locally designed warplanes was proof for this.
During the Italo-Ottoman War, the Italians had used a small amount of armored cars which had been used in deadly effect by Italian generals. Thankfully for the Ottomans, armored cars had not been brought by the Italians in large amounts into Libya and the Ottomans defeated these new items of war using sheer numbers most of the time. However the Ottomans hadn’t forgotten these new weapons. And instead as the small military industries of the empire grew, the engineers turned their attention to make their own armored car designs.
Ottoman engineers on June 12, 1914 handed the Ministry of War a design scheme of a new armored car alongside its prototype which the engineers believed was possible to built in Ottoman industries. Mehmed Shevket Pasha had wanted an armored car corps in the army and seized this opportunity for the army and accepted the proposal, and a first batch of around 5 armored cars could be built by the end of august.
This armored car was named Duvar or wall by the Ottomans, an appropriate name indeed. It was based on the Austro-Daimler armored car, and a four wheel drive armored vehicle equipped with a 360 degree rotatable turret. It consisted of a crew of 4 to 5 men, and its overall length was 4.86 meters whilst its width was 1.76 meters. Its height was 2.74 meters and its total dimensions weighed around 2.5 tons. It’s armor was 4 mm thick and its main armament was a 7.92 mm machine gun arranged on rotating turret. It was equipped with a 4 cylinder engine with 40 horsepower and a 4.4 litre engine. It had a top speed of 45 kilometers per hour and could provide a range of 250 kilometers at 20 kilometers per hour.
Imperial maneuvers in the army were ordered for the Duvar and were planned to begin in early September.” A History of the Ottoman War Machine, University of Salonika, 2009.
“The position of mayor of Constantinople which was established in 1910 was an important political position within the empire, and had earned the nickname, Mayor of Mayors, and for a good reason. It was here that the main bodies of the government of the empire could be found and it would come under the administrative jurisdiction of the mayor. As such the 1914 Mayoral Elections in Constantinople which was held on May 14, 1914 was contested heavily between the political parties of the empire.
The Committee of Union and Progress and the Ottoman Democratic Party’s delegations were eliminated in the first preliminary elections pretty early on, and much to the surprise of many, the socialist candidate, Baha Tevfik managed to gain the nomination of the mayoral constituency of Constantinople. He would be competing against Aristidi Pasha, the incumbent mayor of Constantinople and a member of the Liberal Union.
Tevfik ran his platform and campaign for the mayoral position based on the growing economic development of the empire. Tevfik pointed out that whilst the rest of the empire was going through unprecedented economic reform and progress, the capital city itself lagged behind, and had not seen any real reform other than the maintenance of the current status quo economically. He also appealed to the merchant class of the capital by pointing out that the growing port development in Smyrna, Sinope and Salonika together would be capable of overshadowing the commercial importance of Constantinople’s own port facilities. As a socialist (monarchist socialist he may be, however he was still a socialist) he also ran on a platform on reducing wealth inequality which was growing under the growing economic industrialization of the capital.
The incumbent, Aristidi Pasha ran his platform on the anti-corruption measures he had taken as Mayor of Constantinople. He had launched massive anti-corruption raids and programs and had made the bureaucracy of the city much more efficient and more economically wise. He also pointed out that socialists were normally agnostics and atheists and used this to smear Tevfik’s reputation amongst the religious muslim community of the city. Tevfik for his part rebutted this by publically going to the mosque and praying in it. Aristidi Pasha also ran his campaign on a basis and ideology of stability believing that long term office holders provided stability to the position they were looking after and this appealed to many moderate voters in the city who wished to keep the status quo.
Finally on May 31st, the results of the election were released and it was found that Tevfik had won 331,982 votes whilst Aristidi Pasha won 275,529 votes. All in all Tevfik had won 55% of the votes whilst Aristidi Pasha won 45% of the votes of the electorate. Pasha stepped down as mayor of Constantinople and Tevfik became the new mayor in a ceremony held on June 15th, 1914.
This was a major victory for the Socialist party which had managed to finally gain a representation in the mayoral committees of the nation, and fortunately for them, they managed to gain it in the most important mayoral constituency in the nation. This would simply be the first step in a long path to premiership for the Socialist Party within the Ottoman Empire.” The Ottoman Socialist Party: An Illustrious Political History. University of Smyrna, 1998.
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