Allies in Constantinople

On the morning of 13 November 1918, at about 8 a.m., an Allied fleet under the British Vice-Admiral Somerset Gough-Calthorpe dropped anchor off Constantinople. It was led by his flagship, the battleship Superb. The day before, 12 November, the ships had passed through the Dardanelles, which had been closed to the Entente fleet throughout the war and which in 1915 a great Anglo-French squadron had failed to force. Now the forts were silent, and under the Armistice of Mudros their garrisons were to hand them over to the Allies. The British chronology of the war records the fleet’s arrival at Constantinople under 13 November.

Minesweepers first had to clear the way, because the strait was heavily mined and the armistice obliged the Turks to indicate the minefields and help remove them. According to The Times diary of the war, the British destroyer Shark and the French Mangini had already passed through the Dardanelles towards the capital on 10 November. The main force numbered, according to various sources, from about 50 to more than 60 warships: British, French, Italian and Greek. Among them was the British battleship Lord Nelson, which had bombarded the Dardanelles forts in 1915, and the Greek armoured cruiser Georgios Averof. Her arrival was greeted with enthusiasm by the city’s large Greek community. For the Turks the same sight was a humiliation.

The ships anchored at the entrance to the Bosporus. That same day Mustafa Kemal arrived from Adana at Haydarpaşa station on the Asian side of the strait, recalled after the dissolution of the Yıldırım Army Group he had commanded. According to Turkish tradition, on seeing the Allied ships on the waters of the Bosporus he said: “They will go as they have come.” The government was helpless at the time. The cabinet of Ahmed İzzet Pasha had resigned on 8 November, and on 11 November Ahmed Tevfik Pasha, who was determined to seek an understanding with the victors, became the new grand vizier.

The French in Constantinople

When the armistice was signed, Calthorpe had assured the Turks that the Allies did not intend to occupy Constantinople, and the text of the armistice spoke only of the forts on the straits. He also gave them a promise, not included in the text of the armistice, that the forts would be garrisoned only by British and French troops. Nevertheless, soldiers began arriving in the city together with the fleet. According to most accounts, Turkish ones included, the first French brigade entered Constantinople as early as 12 November and the first British units a day later. The British chronology of the war records the landing of French troops in Constantinople only under 21 November, but no landing on that day is attested in the available sources. In the following weeks further units arrived in the capital.

France did not want to leave the capital of the empire to the British alone. The armistice had been negotiated and signed by Calthorpe himself, who had kept the French commander of the Aegean squadron out of the talks, and the prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, protested sharply. Calthorpe was appointed British High Commissioner in Constantinople, and according to The Times diary of the war, on 18 November Vice-Admiral Amet was appointed French High Commissioner. General Louis Franchet d’Espèrey, commander of the Allied Armies of the Orient, who had crushed the Bulgarians in September, believed that the occupation should come under his command, which led to disputes with the British.

The Allies set up their own military administration in the city and in time divided it into zones. The French took the old city south of the Golden Horn, the British the districts of Galata and Pera, and the Italians, who arrived only in February 1919, Üsküdar on the Asian side of the Bosporus. On 8 February 1919 Franchet d’Espèrey made a ceremonial entry into the city. Many books state that he rode in on a white horse, imitating Sultan Mehmed II conquering Constantinople in 1453, but recent research regards this story as a legend. Constantinople was the only capital of the Central Powers that the victors occupied for several years: it remained under occupation until the autumn of 1923.