Malta exiles

Malta exiles (Turkish: Malta sürgünleri) (between March 1919 – October 1920) is the term for politicians, high ranking soldiers (mainly), administrators and intellectuals of the Ottoman Empire who were sent into exile on Malta after the armistice of Mudros during the Occupation of İstanbul by the Allied forces. Malta exiles become inmates in a British prison where various Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) officials were held in the hopes that Malta Tribunals would be held at a future date.

These Ottoman politicians, generals, and intellectuals were taken out of Istanbul jails and deported to Malta, where they were held for some three years, while searches were made of archives in Istanbul, London, Paris and Washington to find proof of their guilt.^[1]. Cooperation of the Sultan was seen necessary to prevent a harsher peace settlement for the Ottoman Empire (partition of territories).

At that time Turkey had two competing governments in Istanbul and Ankara.The government in Istanbul supported the inquiries with more or less seriousness depending on the current government. While grand vizir Damad Ferid Pasha (4 March - 2 October 1919 and again 5 April - 21 October 1920) stood behind the prosecuting body the government of grand vizir Ahmed Riza Pasha (2 October 1919 - 2 March 1920) made barely a mention of the legal proceedings against the war criminals.^[2] The trials helped the Liberal Union party to expel the Committee of Union and Progress from the political arena.^[3]

The competing Ankara government was strictly opposed to trials against war criminals. Mustafa Kemal reasoned about the detainees in Malta on the occasion of the congress in Sivas 4 September 1919: "...should any of the detainees either already brought or yet to be brought to Istanbul be executed, even at the order of the vile Istanbul government, we would seriously consider executing all British prisoners in our custody." From February 1921 the military court in Istanbul begun releasing prisoners without trials. ^[4]

Process of roundups

The first to be exiled was Ali İhsan Pasha, the successful commander at the Iraq front during the First World War. Ali Ihsan Pasha organized mass killings of unarmed Christians soldiers in the Ottoman army as well as Christian civilians in the Iranian-Ottoman border region (Lake Urmiyeh). His orderly accompanied him to exile voluntarily. Both departed on 29 March 1919.

On 28 May 1919 was a large round-up of about thirty persons also covering, in absentia, Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

On 2 June 1919 came the turn of the members of the Council of Kars (Kars Surası) The exiles from Kars to Malta comprised 11 persons, eight Turks, including the Republic's president Cihangirzade Ibrahim Bey, two ethnic Greeks and one Russian, all members of the Council.

On 21 September 1919, a dozen personalities who had been in utmost prominence during the Second Constitutional Era in the Ottoman Empire were also exiled. The names included the former grand vizier Said Halim Pasha (who was at first sent to Moudros), his brother Abbas Halim Pasha, the writer-ideologue Ziya Gökalp and others.

Reasons for roundups

The 145 personalities arrested and exiled included people from with different backgrounds and causes. Some of the decisions for arrests involved personalities who were outside the reach of Allied authorities and were physically absent.

Some of the arrests were directly related to British policy between 1918–1920 to become an effective force in Caucasia. Besides the British military existence in the strategic points, it was necessary that 9th Ottoman Army was discharged/disarmed and the military and civil servants were to be taken away from their duties. Roundups connected to this policy were Yakup Sevki Subası (# 120), Mehmet Rıfat (# 129), Mürsel Bakû (# 137), from the 9th Army and Council of Kars of Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus (# 60-70).

Government

See also: Imperial Government of the Ottoman Empire and Committee of Union and Progress

The party Committee of Union and Progress was in the government. There were Committee of Union and Progress secretary (#18) members (#40, #58, #75, #111)

House of Osman

There were members of the Ottoman Divan which was linked to dynasty; Vizier (#80), bookkeeper (#34).

Council of Kars

See also: South West Caucasian Republic

Members of the Council of Kars (Kars Surası) who had set up the South West Caucasian Republic (Cenubî Garbî Kafkas Hükümet-i Cumhuriyesi) in Kars following the departure of Ottoman troops from that city after the Armistice of Mudros. After the British occupation of Kars, the formation, in several stages and under successive names, of this short-lived republic, although viewed at first rather benignly by the British, had been discontinued abruptly in April 1919, and its prominent members were arrested, and sent to İstanbul and then to Malta, while the region of Kars was handed over to the First Republic of Armenia.

The resistance

See also: Turkish national movement and Outpost Societies

Turkish National Movement was a threat to the allied administration. A large round-up of about thirty persons included, in absentia, Mustafa Kemal Pasha or Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu. The trials had blurred the crime of participation in the National Movement with the crime of the genocide^[5] and resulted in increasing support for Atatürk.

Outpost was mainly a resistance organization against the occupation forces. Most of the Outpost members belonged to or would in time turn to Turkish national movement. However, at the initial stage, or during the establishment of Turkish national movement Outpost members were not members of this movement. Outpost members were ideologically connected to the Sultan rather than a national movement.

Khilafat Movement

See also: Khilafat Movement

The Khilafat movement (1919-1924) was a political campaign launched mainly by Muslims in British India to influence the British government and to protect the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of World War I. Maulana Mehmud Hasan was arrested in Makkah when details of Khilafat Movement leaked. He was imprisoned for more than three years before his release in 1920.

Aftermath

The exiled later returned to Turkey in stages during 1921–1922.

Exiles

The Malta exiles include the following people:

Name	Roundup date	Roundup ID	Function in the Ottoman Empire	Aftermath
Mustafa Kemal Pasha (in his absence)	May 28, 1919
Ali Fethi Bey	May 28, 1919	26 80
Hasan Fehmi Bey	May 28, 1919	26 88	Sinop deputy
Şükrü Bey	May 28, 1919	27 38	Civil inspector
Ağaoğlu Ahmed Bey	September 21, 1919	27 64	Kara Hisar-i Sâhib deputy, ideologue of the Committee of Union and Progress, author
Mahmud Kâmil Pasha	September 21, 1919	27 58	Former Fifth Army commander
Ziya Gökalp	September 21, 1919	27 59	Ergani-Maden deputy, ideologue of the Committee of Union and Progress,
Hussein Rauf Bey	March 22, 1920	27 76	Former Minister of Navy, Sivas deputy
Djevat Pasha	March 22, 1920	27 73
"Kel" Ali Bey	27 March 1920	27 87	Former Afyon deputy
Süleyman Nazif	27 March 1920	27 84	Former Musul and Baghdad governor
Mustafa Abdülhalik	June 7, 1920		former Bitlis Governor
Kâzım Bey			Colonel, Enver Pasha's brother-in-law
Yunus Nadi			Journalist, owner of Yeni Gün newspaper

Further reading

• Simsir, B. Malta Surgunleri (The Malta Exiles). Istanbul, 1976.

Footnotes

1. ^ Klaus-Detlev Grothusen:"Türkei", Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1985
2. ^ Taner Akçam: A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Metropolitan Books, New York 2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-7932-6, p. 296
3. ^ Klaus-Detlev Grothusen:"Türkei", Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1985, page 35
4. ^ Taner Akçam: A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Metropolitan Books, New York 2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-7932-6, p. 354
5. ^ Taner Akçam: A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Metropolitan Books, New York 2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-7932-6, p. 351

See also