The Sykes-Picot Agreement That Carved Up the Middle East

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]

How the Armistice of Mudros Dismantled an Empire

On October 30, 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros aboard the British battleship HMS Agamemnon. This episode unpacks the terms that carved up the empire: the surrender of all garrisons in Hejaz, Yemen, Syria, and Mesopotamia; the occupation of the Straits; the right to occupy any strategic point in the 'Six Vilayets' (Eastern Anatolia). We follow the treaty's architect, British Admiral Somerset Gough-Calthorpe, and the Ottoman signatory, Rauf Orbay. Why did the Sublime Porte accept such harsh terms? What was the secret clause about the Caucasus? And how did the armistice's vague language allow the Allies to later occupy Istanbul and Izmir? A story of diplomatic collapse and the seeds of the Turkish War of Independence. #MudrosArmistice #RaufOrbay #GoughCalthorpe #HMSAgamemnon #OttomanEmpire #WorldWarI #MiddleEastHistory #SixVilayets #Caucasus #Dardanelles #SublimePorte #TurkishWarOfIndependence #MustafaKemal #Lausanne #Sevres #AlliedOccupation #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Ottoman Empire's Last Newspaper: How the Press Died in 1922

In the final years of the Ottoman Empire, the press became a battlefield. Newspapers like İkdam, Tanin, and Vakit were shut down, editors exiled or executed, and printing presses smashed. This episode follows the story of the last Ottoman newspaper, the brief-lived 'Son Telgraf', which tried to report on the 1922 Chanak Crisis before being shuttered by the Ankara government. Lucas and Luna explore how the empire's vibrant, chaotic press culture — born in the 1860s, choked by war and censorship — gave way to a single, state-controlled narrative in the early Republic. They trace the journey of journalist Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu from Istanbul's independent dailies to the new regime's propaganda arm, and ask whether the death of the Ottoman press was a casualty of war or a deliberate political choice. Along the way, they touch on the 1908 Young Turk press boom, the 1913 censorship crackdown, and the last printed edition of 'İkdam' on September 11, 1922 — the day the empire's free press effectively ended. #OttomanEmpire #OttomanPress #SonTelgraf #İkdam #YakupKadriKaraosmanoğlu #ChanakCrisis #Tanin #Vakit #PressCensorship #YoungTurks #1922 #Istanbul #Ankara #TurkishHistory #FexingoHistory #History #JournalismHistory #MiddleEastHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]