The Last Ottoman Fleet: How Germany Took the Navy That Changed History

The Last Ottoman Fleet: How Germany Took the Navy That Changed History

In August 1914, the Ottoman Empire still controlled a formidable navy. But two powerful warships — the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau — were racing across the Mediterranean, pursued by the British Royal Navy. Their escape to Constantinople and subsequent transfer to the Ottoman flag effectively dragged the Empire into World War I. This episode tells the story of how German ships became the Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midilli, the Ottoman admiral who secretly welcomed them, and how these ships later shaped both the Gallipoli campaign and the final collapse. Lucas and Luna explore the geopolitical chess game, the legal fiction of the sale, the crew's fez-wearing charade, and the long afterlife of these vessels — including the Yavuz's last voyage in 1950. A tale of naval brinkmanship, alliance politics, and the fateful decisions that ended an empire. #YavuzSultanSelim #SMSGoeben #OttomanNavy #WilhelmSouchon #AhmedCemalPasha #EnverPasha #Gallipoli #MudrosArmistice #NavalHistory #WorldWarI #Dardanelles #Constantinople #TreatyOfSevres #EmpireCollapse #History #FexingoHistory #MiddleEast #NavalWarfare Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Ottoman Officer Who Became a Guerrilla: Kuva-yi Milliye

After the Armistice of Mudros, the Ottoman army was disbanded—but some officers refused to accept the Allied occupation. In this episode, Lucas and Luna follow the story of Yüzbaşı Cemil and other commanders who smuggled weapons from Constantinople to the Turkish interior, laying the foundations of the Turkish War of Independence. They explore the shadowy network of the Karakol Society, the Ohrl brothers, and the secret shipments of rifles and ammunition from the Harbiye Ministry arsenal. How did a few hundred pistols and machine guns spark a national resistance? And what happened when the Sultan's government cooperated with the Allies? This is the story of the Kuva-yi Milliye—the National Forces—and the officers who chose guerrilla war over surrender. #OttomanEmpire #Kuva-yiMilliye #TurkishWarOfIndependence #KarakolSociety #MudrosArmistice #YuzbasiCemil #OhrlBrothers #HarbiyeMinistry #WeaponsSmuggling #NationalResistance #MustafaKemal #Ankara #1920 #History #FexingoHistory #WorldWarI #MiddleEast #GuerrillaWar Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Last Ottoman Caliph's Daughter: Princess Dürrüşehvar's Unlikely Life

In 1924, when the Turkish Grand National Assembly abolished the caliphate, the last Ottoman caliph Abdülmecid Efendi and his family were exiled overnight. His daughter, Princess Dürrüşehvar Sultan, was just ten years old. This episode follows her extraordinary journey from the palaces of Istanbul to a marriage in Hyderabad, India, where she became a patron of education and women's rights. We explore how the abolition of the caliphate scattered the Ottoman dynasty across the globe, and how Dürrüşehvar navigated her role as a princess without a throne. Along the way, we touch on the Indian Khilafat Movement, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the complex legacy of the Ottoman family's dispersal. A personal, intimate look at the human aftermath of empire's end. #History #FexingoHistory #OttomanEmpire #Caliphate #DürrüşehvarSultan #AbdülmecidEfendi #KhilafatMovement #Hyderabad #Nizam #Exile #1924 #TurkishHistory #WomenInHistory #IndianHistory #Dynasty #Empire #LastCaliph #OttomanPrincess Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Last Ottoman Parliament: 1920 Dissolution

In this episode, we uncover the dramatic story of the Ottoman Parliament's final session in 1920. When British forces occupied Constantinople on March 16, 1920, they dissolved the Chamber of Deputies and arrested key deputies including Rauf Orbay and Kara Vasıf. The surviving members fled to Ankara, forming the core of Mustafa Kemal's Grand National Assembly. We trace how the last Ottoman parliamentarians, from the Speaker Celaleddin Arif to the Kurdish deputy Abdullah Azmi, navigated occupation, exile, and the birth of a new state. The episode explores the parliament's last laws, the Karakol Society's underground resistance, and the fate of the deputies who refused to go to Ankara. It's a window into the fragile moment between empire and republic, when a parliamentary tradition stretching back to 1876 finally gave way to armed struggle. Tense, intimate, and full of personal stories of deputies who had to choose between oath and survival. #OttomanParliament #1920 #Constantinople #MustafaKemal #GrandNationalAssembly #RaufOrbay #KaraVasıf #CelaleddinArif #Karakol #TurkishHistory #Occupation #SublimePorte #MudrosArmistice #Ankara #TBMM #FexingoHistory #History #MiddleEastHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Ottoman Empire's Last Battle: Gallipoli's Forgotten Aftermath

While the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 is often remembered as a costly Allied failure, its aftermath reshaped the Ottoman Empire in ways that are rarely discussed. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the Ottoman victory at Çanakkale (Gallipoli) became a double-edged sword: it boosted morale and cemented Mustafa Kemal's reputation, but also lulled the empire into strategic overconfidence. They trace the overlooked consequences: the diversion of resources away from critical fronts, the strain on medical infrastructure (already underfunded after the Balkan Wars), and the rise of a new military elite that would later challenge the sultan's authority. The episode also revisits the early use of aircraft for reconnaissance by both sides, the role of German military advisors like Otto Liman von Sanders, and the devastating cholera outbreak that followed the campaign. Through the eyes of a fictional Ottoman artillery officer, listeners gain a ground-level view of the siege warfare that defined the peninsula. This is a story not just of a battle, but of how an empire's greatest victory planted the seeds of its own dissolution. #Gallipoli #Çanakkale #OttomanEmpire #MustafaKemal #LimanVonSanders #WorldWarI #Dardanelles #SiegeWarfare #MilitaryHistory #Cholera #AerialReconnaissance #GermanMilitaryMission #BalkanWars #FexingoHistory #History #MiddleEast #WWI #SublimePorte Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]