Remarks on Some Correspondence Between Ankara and Yemen Concerning the Last Ottomans at Yemen in the Early 1920s

Abstract

As is historically known well, the part and parcel of Yemen, albeit so remote, has come and been under Ottoman control and/or influence for some 400 years. It was such a continual presence that, though intermittently, persisted from somewhere in the 16th century till the early decades of the 20th century. It was such a presence, again, during which many Ottoman citizens resided in Yemen and served as incumbents, of civilian or military background. It needs, accordingly, to be emphasized that although formally administrative relations may have ceased with the obvious defeat and de facto end of the Ottoman political power, after the termination of the First World War, the relations would be far from over in yet another aspect, that is, for the human element: those numerous civilians and military officials of Ottoman- Turkish stock who had remained behind, fortunately still surviving. Accordingly, its focus being on that specified human aspect, this paper will attempt to reopen a scarcely explored leaf in history, within the multi-faceted outline of Yemeni history under the Ottoman governance, with the special aid of a series of documents found (as untouched and thus unknown for the public till the attempt of making them open by this paper) in the Republican Archives of the Turkish Prime Ministry, pertaining to the fate of the remnants of Ottomans stranded there in the aftermath of the First World War and during the subsequent period of the National Struggle, a time when while the Ottoman Empire vanishes and ultimately relinquishes control of Yemen, a totally new, different Turkey appears on the same stage of the worldsubject matter.

Keywords

• the (last) Ottomans at Yemen
• Imām Yaḥyā
• Maḥmūd Nadīm
• Governor(ate) of Yemen
• Turkish National Assembly

References

1. Bayur, Yusuf Hikmet (1983), Türk İnkılabı Tarihi [The History of Turkish Revolution], vol. II/1, (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları).
2. Ehiloğlu, Zeki (2001), Yemen'de Türkler (Tarihimizin İbret Levhası) [Turks in Yemen (A Lesson from Our History)] (Istanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları).
3. Gn.Kur. (1978), Birinci Dünya Harbinde Türk Harbi, VI. Cilt: Hicaz, Asir, Yemen Cepheleri ve Libya Harekatı [The Turkish War in the World War I, vol. VI: Ḥijāz, ʿAsīr, and Yemen Fronts and Libya Operation] (Ankara: Askeri Tarih ve Stratejik Etüd Başkanlığı (ATASE) Yayınları).
4. Hourani, Albert H. (1991), A History of the Arab Peoples (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press).
5. Karal, Enver Z. (1983), Osmanlı Tarihi [Ottoman History], vol. VI and vol. VIII, (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları).
6. Mehmet Tevfik (Biren) (1993), 'Bir Devlet Adamının' Mehmet Tevfik Bey'in (Biren) II. Abdulhamid, Meşrutiyet ve Mütareke Devri Hatıraları ['A Statesman' Mehmed Tawfīq Beg (Biren)'s Memories of the Periods of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd II, Constitutionalism, and Armistice], vol. I, (ed. F. Rezan Hürmen; Istanbul: Arma Yayınları).
7. Seyhun, Mehmet Arif (1997), "Yemen Savaş Anıları [Yemen War Memoirs]," Askeri Tarih Bülteni [Bulletin of Military History] 22/42, 1-51.
8. Sırma, İhsan S. (1994), Osmanlı Devletinin Yıkılışında Yemen İsyanları [Revolts in Yemen in the Decay of the Ottoman State] (2nd ed., Is-tanbul: Beyan Yayınları).

9. TC. BCA [Republic of Turkey, the Republican Archives of the Turkish Prime Ministry] - several folders of documents, whose respective numbers are referred to throughout the paper.
10. Uzunçarşılı, İsmail H. (1983), Osmanlı Tarihi [Ottoman History], vol. II and vol. III/1, (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları).