What Happened to Ottoman POWs in World War I

The Ottoman Secret Police That Spied on the Sultan's Own Subjects

In the dying years of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdülhamid II built an elaborate secret police network—the Yıldız Intelligence Service—that spied not on foreign enemies, but on the Sultan's own subjects. This episode takes you into the shadowy world of Ottoman espionage, informants, and paranoia. We explore how Abdülhamid, haunted by the deposition of his uncle Sultan Abdülaziz, created a sprawling surveillance system with tens of thousands of spies, secret files, and coded telegrams. We discuss the infamous 'Red Files'—records of suspect citizens—and how this apparatus targeted journalists, officers, and even palace servants. We also examine how the network collapsed after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, and what its legacy meant for the empire's final years. Featuring figures like the spymaster Ahmed Celâleddin Pasha, and the tragic story of the journalist Ali Kemal. A glimpse into the paranoid heart of a fading empire. #OttomanEmpire #AbdulhamidII #SecretPolice #YildizIntelligence #Espionage #SurveillanceState #YoungTurkRevolution #AhmedCelaleddinPasha #AliKemal #RedFiles #Istanbul #History #FexingoHistory #MiddleEastHistory #WWI #OttomanHistory #Sultan #Spies Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

How the Mudros Armistice Ended Ottoman WWI

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Armistice of Mudros, signed on October 30, 1918, on the deck of HMS Agamemnon off the Greek island of Lemnos. They unpack the key terms that dismantled the Ottoman war machine: the immediate surrender of all remaining garrisons, the opening of the Straits and the Allied right to occupy any strategic point, the demobilization of the army, and the surrender of the Ottoman fleet. The conversation examines how vague wording in Article 7 allowed the Allies to later occupy Istanbul and Anatolia, sparking the Turkish War of Independence. They discuss the signatories—Hüseyin Rauf Orbay for the Ottomans and Admiral Somerset Gough-Calthorpe for the British—and the bitter context: the simultaneous collapse of the Macedonian front, the British capture of Damascus and Aleppo, and the erosion of Ottoman control in the Hejaz. The episode also touches on the armistice's immediate aftermath: the occupation of the Dardanelles forts, the internment of Ottoman warships, and the beginning of Allied administration in Istanbul. No prior episode has focused solely on the Mudros Armistice, making this a fresh angle that contextualizes the empire's final military collapse. #MudrosArmistice #OttomanEmpire #WorldWarI #HMSAgamemnon #HüseyinRaufOrbay #SomersetGoughCalthorpe #Article7 #OttomanSurrender #TurkishWarOfIndependence #AlliedOccupation #Dardanelles #Istanbul #Lemnos #WWIHistory #MiddleEast #FexingoHistory #History #OttomanCollapse Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Ottoman Empire's Last Emperor: Mehmed VI in Exile

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the final chapter of the Ottoman sultanate through the lens of its last reigning sultan, Mehmed VI. After the armistice of Mudros in 1918, Mehmed VI faced an impossible task: preserving an empire already carved up by Allied powers. We trace his reluctant cooperation with the British occupation of Istanbul, his condemnation of Mustafa Kemal's nationalist movement, and the dramatic moment in November 1922 when the Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate. Fleeing aboard the HMS Malaya, Mehmed VI died in exile in Sanremo, Italy, in 1926 — a lonely end for a man once styled as the "Shadow of God on Earth." We also examine the fate of his son, Şehzade Ertuğrul, and the lingering debate over whether Mehmed VI was a tragic figure or a collaborator. This episode draws on Ottoman archival records, memoirs, and recent scholarship to offer a nuanced portrait of a ruler caught between empire and nation-state. #MehmedVI #LastSultan #OttomanEmpire #WWI #MudrosArmistice #TreatyOfSevres #TurkishWarOfIndependence #HMSMalaya #Sanremo #Caliphate #OttomanHistory #EmpireCollapse #20thCenturyHistory #MiddleEastHistory #FexingoHistory #History #Podcast #Exile Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Ottoman Empire's Last General: Fakhri Pasha's Defense of Medina

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the remarkable story of Fakhri Pasha, the Ottoman commander who refused to surrender Medina even after the Armistice of Mudros ended World War I. For 72 days after the war officially ended, Fakhri Pasha held the holy city under siege by Arab forces loyal to Sharif Hussein, defying orders from Istanbul and even the Sultan himself. Using the Hijaz Railway as his lifeline, he maintained discipline among his starving troops while protecting the Prophet's Mosque and its relics. Lucas unpacks Fakhri's background as a military attaché in Berlin, his role in the Ottoman war effort, and the bizarre coda where he was arrested by his own men and extradited to Malta. The episode also touches on the symbolic weight of Medina's defense as the last gasp of Ottoman sovereignty in the Hejaz, and how Fakhri's stubborn loyalty to the sultan-caliph became a legend among Turkish nationalists and a footnote for historians. #FakhriPasha #OttomanEmpire #Medina #HijazRailway #WorldWarI #SiegeOfMedina #MudrosArmistice #SharifHussein #Hejaz #TurkishHistory #TE Lawrence #ArabRevolt #OttomanArmy #MaltaExile #ProphetMosque #MiddleEastHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Hijaz Railway: How the Last Ottoman Ambition Failed

Lucas and Luna explore the story of the Hijaz Railway — the Ottoman Empire's ambitious, last-ditch infrastructure project to bind the empire together during World War I. Built under Sultan Abdülhamid II and pushed forward by Enver Pasha, the railway aimed to connect Damascus to Medina and ultimately Mecca, shoring up Ottoman control over the holy cities and transporting troops and supplies. But it became a target: T.E. Lawrence, the Bedouin irregulars of Sharif Hussein, and British explosives expert Herbert Garland used guerrilla tactics to sabotage the line, derailing trains and destroying bridges. The episode covers the railway's construction by German engineers and forced labor, the Palestinian train stations that still bear Ottoman tiles, the heroic defense by Fakhri Pasha, and how the railway's failure symbolized the empire's inability to modernize and hold its provinces. It ends with a reflection on how infrastructure built for empire survives in fragments, now a memory of what almost held together. #HijazRailway #OttomanEmpire #WWI #MiddleEast #TELawrence #ArabRevolt #Damascus #Medina #Mecca #FakhriPasha #EnverPasha #AbdulhamidII #RailwayHistory #GuerrillaWarfare #BritishEmpire #FexingoHistory #History #IndustrialWarfare Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]