TASARIDAN HAREKÂTA: İNGİLTERE’NİN 1906 TARİHLİ GELİBOLU’YU İŞGAL TASARISI İLE 1915’TEKİ AMFİBİ HAREKÂTI ARASINDAKİ MÜNASEBETE DAİR
FROM PLANNING TO ACTING: ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 1906 BRITISH REPORT ON THE OCCUPATION OF GELIBOLU AND THE 1915 AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION

Summary/Abstract: Britain, through the Foreign Office in 1877, its military attachés in Istanbul between 1889 and 1910, the Naval Intelligence Department in 1906, the General Staff and the War Office, produced detailed reports on Rumelia, Istanbul and the Dardanelles/Gallipoli peninsula. The result of these reports, produced at different times by foreign intelligence services, was the concentration of British efforts on a single proposal, particularly in 1906. This is the occupation of Gallipoli and the expulsion of Turks from Istanbul. The report entitled ‘War with Turkey’, prepared by the British General Staff and the War Office in 1906, is extremely important in Turkish history as it is one of the most detailed invasion plans prepared by the British before the Gallipoli amphibious operation in 1915. 1906 was the most important turning point in Turkish-British relations after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The first part of the report, which was prepared by the British General Staff and the War Office, contains important information and statistics on the historical geography and demographic structure of Rumelia, Gallipoli and Dardanelles during the reign of Abdülhamid II, and the strength of the Turkish army in March 1906. The second part is a highly detailed guide to the occupation of the Gallipoli Peninsula by British naval and land forces in an amphibious operation, consisting of twenty-seven items. After translating the 1906 report into Turkish, this article discusses the similarities and differences between the 1906 plan and the 1915 operation. It seeks to show that the British landing at Gallipoli in 1915 was not a sudden decision taken during the First World War, but part of a deep-rooted plan that had its roots in the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-78, matured to the point of implementation in 1906, and was finally realised in 1915.

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