British Occupation in Istanbul

British soldiers at Istanbul hills during the years of occupation.




March 16th, 1920: the Headquarters, Harbiye Nezareti, was occupied by the British soldiers.




The British soldiers on the Galata Bridge during the occupation of Istanbul




British soldiers parading in Beyoğlu during the years of occupation.




Occupant British troops marching in Beyoglu.





The British forces marching at the Galata pier (1920)




During the British occupation of Istanbul the navy band and the British mariners passed the Galata Bridge (February 1920)




The Galata Post Office during the British Occupation of Istanbul The British used the post-office to gather intelligence




The British warships anchored beside the Galata Bridge by the British occupant forces.




English MI submarine anchored beside Galata bridge to intimidate the people of Istanbul.




English MI submarine anchored beside Galata bridge to intimidate the people of Istanbul. British intelligence officers perceived the terms the Galata Tower and the Galata Bridge a kind of code.



A British Navy submarine located right beside the Galata Tower to intimidate the people of Istanbul.




The British warships closed the entrance of the Galata bridge at the Golden Horn.




The British war ships anchored on the Bosphorus during the occupation of Istanbul: HMS Ajax, HMS Ramillies armed ships and three destroyers.




During the years when Istanbul was under occupation Britain imposed a strict censorship to the Turkish press. That is why a reliable record could not be kept about the tortures carried out by the British. Before the newspapers were published, they were first checked by the British censorship officers. Those photographs, newspapers, journals and books that were not approved by the British were not allowed to be published.



W.S. Edmonds, the East Desk Chief of the British Department of State, said that the only way to make Turks come to their senses was to invade Istanbul. On November 13th, 1918, the war ships of the occupation forces anchored on the Bosphorus.


On March 18th, 1920, the British surrounded the Parliament with machine guns, arrested some of the Parliament Members and took them by force, in some cases dragging them. In other words, the final Ottoman Parliament was shut down by enemy forces under threat of guns.




A Turkish soldier that was martyred by British occupation forces, on the morning of March 16, 1920, during the Istanbul Sehzadebasi Mizika Police Station raid. He was still sleeping when he was shot. The British didn't refrain from shooting even the sleeping soldiers during their occupation of Istanbul. On March 1920, a British unit of 50-60 troops, broke into the Sehzadebasi police station early in the morning, and martyred 61 Turkish soldiers that were still sleeping.