Girit Jandarma Teşkilatının Organizasyonu 1896-1897
Organization of the Cretan Gendarmerie 1896-1897

Summary/Abstract: Due to its strategic location, Crete has become an important crisis center between the Ottoman Empire and the great powers, especially since the second half of the XIXth century. The Ottoman Empire had to grant wide rights to the island with the 1878 Halepa Convention could no longer withstand the pressures of the great powers over Crete. The most important decision of the convention was the establishment of a gendarmerie regiment in Crete, provided that its needs were met by the local people. However, Greece’s external interventions, the rebel committees on the island, which were emboldened by this, and at the same time the deficiencies in the financial field were the main factors that made the task of the gendarmerie difficult. The rebellion that took place in 1895 could be suppressed in the summer of 1896 as a result of the interventions of the great powers, and finally, with the pressure of these states, some new decisions were taken in August that would closely affect the future of the island. In this sense, despite all the warnings of the Babıali, it was decided to establish a new gendarmerie organisation in Crete under the command of a foreign commander, consisting mostly of Christians and non-Ottoman citizens. This study, based on British and Ottoman archival documents, examines the process of the establishment of this organisation, the developments between the great powers and the Ottoman Empire, and finally the reasons for the failure of the organisation.

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