History of Bilateral Relations between Britain and Turkey

[Menydh]

A short history of the relations between the British and the Ottomans from the British Embassy webpage, with a few comments inserted by me.

History of Bilateral Relations between Britain and Turkey

Relations between Britain and Turkey go right back to the early 16th Century, when the first strong contacts between our two countries developed as trading interests in Britain sought new market outlets in the East.

Commercial beginnings: the Levant Company

In 1578 two London merchants sent their agent William Harborne, to Constantinople in the hope of obtaining for English merchants the right to fly their own flag in Turkish waters, a concession previously granted only to the French.

Queen Elizabeth I exchanged letters with the Sultan in 1579 and in 1580 Harborne obtained ''capitulations" granting to English merchants in Turkey privileges similar to those accorded to the French.

Soon afterwards the Levant Company was formed in London. In 1583 Harborne returned to Constantinople bearing gifts from the Queen and was received by the Sultan, thus becoming in effect England's first official diplomatic representative.

Among Harborne's gifts was a clock valued at more than £500 sterling, an enormous sum for those days. A later gift from the Queen was an automatic organ also featuring an elaborate clock which was presented to the Sultan in 1599. Clocks were greatly prized in Turkey at that time, because their manufacture there was forbidden and it was not permitted to display them in public places. All these rich gifts were paid for by the Levant Company, which for many years also paid the salaries of the English Ambassadors to Turkey.

For the next two centuries the history of British relations with Turkey is mainly the history of the Levant Company, which remained a power in the eastern Mediterranean until it was taken over by the British Government in 1821.

[comment: There were previous contacts and letters with the Sultan to aid him against Spain and the Holy League which were fighting the Turk against its expansion in Europe. English (and Dutch) pirates were commissioned in the Mediterranean to attack Spanish vessels, at the same time as the North African Barbary pirates on behalf of the Ottoman Empire]

A developing relationship

Commercial contacts were the main channel by which information about Turkey was transmitted to Britain. Tulips and coffee were particularly popular imports, and coffee drinking became a fashionable craze in the 17th century.

The establishment of coffee houses in London as centres for news and gossip, and their subsequent development into meeting places for those interested in scientific or political questions, was an important aspect of English intellectual life at this time.

Later, other Turkish imports became popular, notably hamam (Turkish baths) and lokum (Turkish delight).

Fascination with the customs and manners of a civilisation perceived as exotic and different drew many European travellers to the Ottoman Empire, as the Turkish Empire in Europe, Asia and Africa was known.

Among the distinguished Britons who have left us lively accounts of their impressions are Sir Paul Rycaut, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the Countess of Elgin (wives of British Ambassadors appointed to Constantinople) and the English poet Lord Byron. Less is known about traffic in the other direction, although a Turkish envoy, Mustafa Cavus, is known to have visited the Court of King James 1 of England in 1607. The first Turkish account of England seems to have been written by an official in the suite of the first resident Turkish Ambassador to Britain, appointed in 1793. He reached London in 1795. Needless to say, he found the British weather disagreeable! This appointment ushered in a period of: particularly close relations between Britain and Turkey. British concern to protect Ottoman territorial integrity against Russian encroachment prompted Britain's intervention with the French against Russia on behalf of the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War of 1854-56. The bond was strengthened in July 1867 when Sultan Abdulaziz paid a State Visit to Britain. This was a splendid occasion, described at the time as among the events which "will render the year 1867 memorable in English annals", the many festivities marred only by occasional bouts of "tempestuous weather". Ten years later, with other European powers, Britain intervened to soften the harsh terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, signed after the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78.

[comment: Britain and Austria-Hungary compelled Russia to modify the Treaty of San Stefano, which was replaced by the Treaty of Berlin (1878) in a congress dominated by the German chancelor Otto von Bismarck, which allowed to maintain the Ottoman Empire as a power in Europe, at the expense of Russia. The British support to the Ottoman Empire during the Congress of Berlin was a prevarication agreed in a secret alliance of British Prime Minister Disraeli with the Turks, by which the British will get Cyprus from where they would help Turkey from any possible attack from Russia. Disraeli even threatened Russia with a war if they did not accept the Turkish demands. Austria obtained Bosnia and Herzegovina]

From a parting of the ways to new alliances

Towards the end of the 19th century Britain and Turkey drifted apart. The policies of Sultan Abdulhamit II were not popular in Britain, and Turkey resented Britain's occupation of Egypt in 1882. Turkey fought alongside Germany against Britain in the First World War and the tenacious Turkish defence of Gallipoli against British forces is still remembered in Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Perhaps because the earlier relationship with the Ottoman rulers had been so close.

Britain was slow to recognise the political changes taking place in Turkey as the Republic of Turkey emerged from the Ottoman Empire in the years immediately after World War I. But the policies and leadership of Kemal Ataturk, architect of the modern Turkish Republic, saw to it that relations with the West, including in particular with Britain, continued to develop and prosper.

In 1930s Britain and Turkey discovered a common interest in checking the ambitions of the Italian dictator, Mussolini, in the Mediterranean. This renewed warmth in relations was sealed in 1936 when King Edward VIII announced that he wished to extend his Mediterranean cruise eastward to visit the President of Turkey in Istanbul. This visit was enormously successful. President Ataturk and the King established an excellent relationship, and the visitors were received with great warmth and enthusiasm by ordinary Turks.

In the disturbed state of Europe at the time, Britain naturally hoped for Turkish support in the coming war against Hitler's Germany. In the event, Turkey chose to remain neutral until almost the end of World War II, although Winston Churchill did not give up hope of enlisting Turkish, support and to this end paid a visit to Adana to meet President Inonu in January 1943. Two years later, in February 1945, Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan. Shortly afterwards the Soviet Union renewed old claims to Turkish territory. Thereafter Turkey's relations with the western Allies, including Britain, became increasingly close.

In July 1950 Turkey sent troops to Korea to fight alongside British, American and other NATO troops, becoming a full member of the Alliance in February 1952. Occasional disagreements over the future of Cyprus in the 1950s were put to rest with the Cyprus settlement of 1960.

In September 1963 in Ankara Turkey signed an Association Agreement with the European Economic Community.

In October 1971 the British Royal Family renewed its Turkish connection when Queen Elizabeth II paid a highly successful State Visit to Turkey.


HistoryBritish Embassy, Turkey

[BeornWulfWer]

It is funny reading this post as I have never genuinely known of Britain's and Turkey's close past together.

Such a close vibrant past, but if you were to ask Joe Bloggs on the streets of England he would tell you what he really thinks of Turks and Turkey.

[Llywarch Hen]

Originally Posted by Menydh

Ten years later, with other European powers, Britain intervened to soften the harsh terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, signed after the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78.

[comment: Britain and Austria-Hungary compelled Russia to modify the Treaty of San Stefano, which was replaced by the Treaty of Berlin (1878) in a congress dominated by the German chancelor Otto von Bismarck, which allowed to maintain the Ottoman Empire as a power in Europe, at the expense of Russia. The British support to the Ottoman Empire during the Congress of Berlin was a prevarication agreed in a secret alliance of British Prime Minister Disraeli with the Turks, by which the British will get Cyprus from where they would help Turkey from any possible attack from Russia. Disraeli even threatened Russia with a war if they did not accept the Turkish demands. Austria obtained Bosnia and Herzegovina].

As an English Russophile, I can never grieve enough for the part my Government played in preventing an Orthodox cross returning to the dome of Hagia Sophia. Disraeli's role should be emphasised in this crime, him agitating to send the Fleet to Bezirka Bay, and using media distortion to sway public opinion from earlier responses of sympathy and horror at the plight of Bulgars and Armenians at the hands of the Turk, as was orchestrated by Gladstone. Familiar themes to the present day, actually.

I would be interested to hear of speculations as to the course of events that would have followed a Russian conquest of Constantinople.

Do you believe that the Russian Empire was strong enough to maintain a hold on the area at the time? Might it not have gone the way of Alyaska, and merely been sold to Greece or Bulgaria or the like? Was the Russian Empire not yet so consumed with internal strife as to overreach itself here (as with Japan and WWII) and risk Revolution, or would the glory of recovering the Orthodox Holy of Holies have bolstered Tsardom for decades to come?

Would the Balkans have settled into a normality that they have sadly missed out on due to Great Power intrigues? Or would Austria and Russia have entered into the same rivalries that precipitated Sarajevo 1914 even earlier? Might it all have sparked off an even bloodier rerun of the Crimean War, drasticallyy altering the alliance system of Europe from the one we're familiar of with the Triple Entente encircling the Central Powers?