Photographs

 

Postcards

 

Documents

 

Viniculture and Wine

 

Seashells

 

Gallipoli 1915

 

Etnography

 

Gallipoli War - 1915

 

GALLIPOLI WAR AND TENEDOS

On 28 June 1914, the assassination of Austrian Crown-Prince Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist was enough to spark the war in Europe. Serbian and Austrian interests in ex-Ottoman land Bosnia-Herzegovina was an aged conflict that had already separated the main powers of Europe into two blocks and without further delay it led to declarations of war.

In 1912, “Navy Society” was established in Istanbul for fundraising purposes to establish a modern Ottoman navy. Funds collected from public, was paid to British government in gold for the construction of a new battleship, Resadiye. When Brazil could not pay for a ship that was already being constructed at the same dockyard, it was added to the Ottoman order as a second ship, Sultan Osman. Construction of the ships was completed right before the war and a Turkish naval envoy headed by Navy Captain Rauf (Orbay) was already sent to England for the handover. With the start of the war, British government officially declared that the ships would not be delivered to Turkish Navy. This incident raised an overwhelming anger in Turkey. Within a very short time, two German battleships, Göben and Breslau, being chased by the British ships, entered to Marmara Sea through Dardanelles Strait. Ottoman government renamed the ships to Yavuz and Midilli, raised the Turkish flag on them, even gave a fes (Turkish style hat of the time) to all German sailors, and announced that the ships were purchased for 80 million marks. The news of acquiring two new battleships in the aftermath of losing two already paid ships to British was well received by the public.

On 29 October 1914 an 11-ship Ottoman naval force under the command of Admiral Souchon, upon receiving permission from Ottoman Chief of Staff, General Enver, opened fire on Russian warships that were encountered to the north of Bosphorus Strait, and then bombarded the Russian ports Odessa and Sebastopol. On November 1st Russian army in Caucasus crossed the border and started the war on land. On the same day British bombarded Izmir port and Akabe port in Red Sea. Two days later on November 3rd, two British and two French war ships bombarded the fortifications in Dardanelles Strait. Bombardment of the Dardanelles fortifications continued until 18 March 1915. On that date British-French combined force suffered a severe defeat on a naval battle and withdrew. A decision was then reached to start a both land and naval assault on the strait to open the road to Ottoman capitol Istanbul. During the operations British and French have occupied Tenedos and built three aircraft landing strips at Ayazma Hill, Habbele Plain, and Habbele Hill. On 25 April 1915 French troops made deceptive assaults to Besige and Kumkale on the Anatolian coast to conceal the main landing at Seddülbahir. Fight at Seddülbahir front continued until 13 July 1915 during which casualties of British, French and ANZAC forces reached to tens of thousands. From that date on the front moved more towards Ariburnu, Anafartalar and Suvla. The French troops fighting at Seddülbahir were frequently visiting their base in Tenedos for resting, hospitalization, and shopping. The dates of about 300 postcards in our collection start from that period and ends shortly after 9 January 1915 when the front was ordered to be abandoned. First World War ended three years after the Gallipoli Campaign (Dardanelles Campaign) with the victory of the Allies. On 6 November 1918, less than a week after the signing of Moudhros Armistice (30 October 1918) British occupied Çanakkale and Dardanelles, and seized the weapons and fortifications that once turned their trenches to hell.

Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, on 24 July 1923 Turks reached to peace with Lausanne Agreement. Per this agreement on 20 September 1923 Tenedos was handed over to Turkey.