IF THE DARDANELLES HAD BEEN PASSED...

The Gallipoli battles, along with the Kut al-Amara battle on the Iraqi front, are considered the pride of the Turks in the First World War. In both cases, an unparalleled victory was achieved against a powerful enemy.

Whose Victory?

The Germans were expecting such an attack. For this reason, they established the most advanced defense system of the era. They fortified every part of the strait with strong fortifications and mined the strait using state-of-the-art equipment and technology. No navy, regardless of its strength, could pass through that strait. Therefore, the victory on March 18 was entirely the result of German technology and fortifications battling against the British and French navy.

Here, the role of the Turkish army was only supportive in nature. The fortifications were entirely set up by the Germans, and the command was also in their hands. They subjected the ships attempting to pass through to intense artillery fire, sinking them one after another. Since the strait was fully mined, those attempting evasive maneuvers hit mines and sank. The Allies struggled for a day but eventually withdrew.

Then, the British decided to launch a land invasion. The objective of this operation was not to march on Istanbul but to neutralize the fortifications and prevent the ships from being sunk by land-based fire. On April 25, they launched an operation to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula. However, the deployment of landing troops to Gallipoli was delayed by five weeks. Had this landing been carried out immediately after March 18, the opposing side would have had no chance. According to British sources, this delay was due to differences of opinion within the British government and armed forces.

Herbert Kitchener, the commander of the land forces, who had the final say in troop deployments, opposed this operation. He did not want to send even a single soldier from the Western Front, which was the main battlefield. The landing was the brainchild of First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill. He requested troops from Egypt, and as a result, forces were brought in from Australia and New Zealand. During this period, a massive troop buildup took place because it was evident that an invasion was imminent.

The Turkish forces amassed here stunned the British and the entire world with their energy and extraordinary performance, writing the epic of “Çanakkale Geçilmez” (Gallipoli is Impassable). The Allies encountered a resistance that was far more courageous and determined than they had expected. The Turks fought as if there were no tomorrow. They were willing to sacrifice an entire generation, determined that no one should pass through. Thus, Türkiye both won and lost at Gallipoli.

Due to the terrible casualties suffered at Sarıkamış and then at Gallipoli, by the end of 1915, Türkiye had virtually no military forces left. In both battles, an entire generation of young men was lost. What remained were a small number of poorly equipped and inexperienced soldiers. The chance of winning the war was now gone.

However, the Allies did not attempt another offensive against Türkiye until September 1918. The war had stagnated on both sides. Then, three years later, in late 1918, they suddenly launched a full-scale offensive on all fronts. On September 29, 1918, Bulgaria was defeated, leaving Istanbul defenseless. Meanwhile, the Syrian and Iraqi fronts collapsed. Within 40 days, the Allies (essentially the British) brought Türkiye to its knees.

A Lighter Price to Pay

Had the Dardanelles been passed in 1915 instead of 1918, the war would not have dragged on. The government would have been forced to seek a separate peace, and the Allies would not have treated it as a war criminal. There would have been no Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the Ottoman Empire might not have collapsed. However, the path to the Republic would not have been paved, a prominent leader like Mustafa Kemal would not have emerged, and Türkiye’s future would not have changed.

Some argue that the Allies did not actually see passing the Dardanelles as crucial; that they could have done so easily if they wished, but they remained stuck there intentionally to keep the Ottomans occupied. For instance, the memoirs of the American ambassador in Istanbul at the time, Morgenthau—translated into Turkish as well (Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, 2015)—and Martin Gilbert’s Churchill and the Jews (2007), based on Churchill’s family documents and his official biography, contain intriguing information on this subject.

The British considered pressuring the Dardanelles to relieve their ally, the Russians, who were struggling on the Caucasian front. First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill sent several outdated coal-powered ships to the front. Queen Elizabeth was the only new ship in the fleet, and this battle was meant to be a test. The target was not Istanbul but the Dardanelles fortifications. The ships bombarded the fortresses along the strait. Strangely, neither land nor air support was provided to the navy.

On March 18, Admiral Carden, who wanted to advance toward Istanbul, was relieved of duty. His replacement, Admiral Robeck, ordered an advance toward Istanbul. The fortresses had been subdued, but the mines had not been cleared. As a result, nearly all the ships were hit, and the naval operation was abandoned. The subsequent land campaign was disastrous for the Turkish side. Over nine months, the mines were never cleared, and Allied ships never attempted to pass through the strait.

Although the Allies appeared to be defeated, the ships that suffered losses were already outdated and due for decommissioning. However, with Turkish army casualties reaching 250,000, it was the Turkish side that suffered a real catastrophe. The objective had been achieved. Indeed, Churchill remarked, “British history will not end with this war. Look to the conclusion” (Gilbert).

We Did Our Best

The U.S. Ambassador in Istanbul, Morgenthau, was surprised that the Allies withdrew just as the Turks were running out of ammunition. The German Chief of Staff in Istanbul, Field Marshal von der Goltz, was more experienced. According to him, the British had no intention of capturing Istanbul. If they did, they would have to hand it over to the Russians, as they had promised, which was not in their interest (Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, pp. 229-230).

With the Germans being stopped at the Battle of the Marne, the outcome of the war was more or less determined. Britain did not want to share the spoils of war, including the Middle Eastern oil fields, with Russia, so they knowingly doomed Russia to revolution and collapse. By showing their losses, they wanted to tell Russia, “We did our best.”

As if he were living in an entirely different reality, Enver Pasha told the American ambassador: “Before the war, I spoke with Churchill. He said, ‘If you enter the war on the side of the Germans, we will attack the Dardanelles and take Istanbul.’ The reason for the attack was not to aid Russia but to carry out this threat” (Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, p. 206).

Churchill and Capital

Upon the threat to Istanbul, Talat Pasha's faction, even at the cost of undermining Enver Pasha, secretly sought a separate peace. Meanwhile, Prince Sabahaddin's faction offered to overthrow the government and make a separate peace with Britain. However, as Britain had not yet achieved its full objectives, it rejected both offers. If the goal had merely been to pass through the Dardanelles, Britain should have seized these opportunities.

Churchill, known for his longstanding sympathy toward Jews and his support for Zionism, as well as his close ties with the businessman Rothschild, was accused of prioritizing Jewish capital interests during World War I, including at Gallipoli. There were even claims that the defeat at Gallipoli was deliberate. The eccentric English noble and poet, Sir Alfred Douglas, openly accused Churchill of this, leading to his imprisonment for six months. Sir Douglas blamed Churchill for the mysterious withdrawal order that ended what he deemed a perfectly executed Gallipoli campaign—just when the Turks had only 13 shells left and were on the verge of surrender. The anti-Semitic lord also asserted that Jews were behind the events leading to the Bolshevik Revolution. (There is some degree of truth to this; given that Russia had long housed a large Jewish population, Jews frequently faced severe oppression, especially during pogroms. Many Bolshevik leaders were, in fact, dissenting Jewish intellectuals.)

It was even alleged that Churchill was responsible for the mysterious explosion of Admiral Kitchener's ship while en route to Russia to suppress these events. According to this claim, if the Dardanelles had been breached before Palestine was seized and Arab oil fields were secured, the Zionists would have been unable to establish a homeland.

Although the Dardanelles were not breached that year, the war ended in 1918 with Türkiye’s devastation. The Middle East and the Straits fell into the hands of Britain.

"Traveler, halt! The land you tread on unaware is where an era perished." This billboard highlights the role of the Dardanelles in history in an interesting way.