Turco-British relations in all dimensions (21
July 2001 Turkish Daily News)
The relationship between Turkey and the United Kingdom began with the establishment of diplomatic relations in the 16th century. The first steps towards free trade between England and the Ottoman Empire in Ottoman territory were made by Anthony Jenkinson in 1553
In the 19th century Sultan Abdulaziz becomes the first Ottoman ruler to make an official state visit to another country. In 1867, he went to France from where he crossed over to England
Pars Tuğlacı
The relationship between Turkey and the United Kingdom began with the establishment of diplomatic relations in the 16th century. The first steps towards free trade between England and the Ottoman Empire in Ottoman territory were made by Anthony Jenkinson in 1553. The first person accredited to the Ottoman Court as the representative of Queen Elizabeth I was William Harborne, who set out from London and arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 28, 1578. Harborne carried out his duties successfully and was able to establish trade on the bases of national identity between the two countries, thus doing away with Venice as the middleman.
Meanwhile, in 1580 Sultan Murad III granted English merchants the right to trade on Ottoman soil. On Sept. 11, 1581, a “Turkey Company” was set up in London by English merchants there.
During the five years he stayed in Turkey as ambassador, Harborne established sound diplomatic relations between the two countries and opened consulates in Egypt, Syria and Morocco and on the Islands of Chios and Patras in order to develop the right to trade and explore its potential.
When Sultan Mehmet III succeeded Sultan Murad III as Ottoman ruler, Queen Elizabeth I presented him with a mechanical organ. The first Turkish permanent ambassador sent to England by the Ottoman state was Yusuf Agah Efendi.
When we consider the historical dimensions of the relationship between England and Turkey, we can see proof of this in the works of Elizabethan writers Marlowe, Kydd and Shakespeare, who mention works in a variety of ways. The power of the Ottoman state and its system of governing are described not only in Marlowe’s “Tamerlane the Great” but also in Kydd’s “Solomon and Persada” and Shakespeare’s “King Henry IV.”
The first work in English about Ottoman Turkey was printed in 1573. A French treatise about the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans in 1570 was translated from French into English by William Mallin and presented to the Earl of Leicester. Following this Anthony Jenkinson, F. Osborne, Thomas Gainsford, Peter Mundy, Sir Henry Blount, Edward Webbe, Fynes Moryson, John Sanderson, and Thomas Dallam give considerable space to Turkey in their memoirs and journals of their travels. At the beginning of the 17th century again there are a number of entries concerning Ottoman Turkey in the memoirs and travel accounts of Sandys, Robert Withers, Paul Pindar, Richard Knolles, Paul Rycaut, Dudley North, Thomas Smith, Dr. John Covel, William Seaman, John Greaves, James Dallaway, Lord Baltimore, Charles Thompson, Pococke, Chandler, Elizabeth, Lady Craven and Aaron Hill.
In 1809, Lord Byron travelled to Turkey, and following his return to England on July 14, 1811, wrote five long fragments of poem to be called “A Turkish Tale.”
During the Crimean War the Turks and the British were allies and brothers in arms. In November 1854, great interest was aroused by an exhibition opened in London by Armenian Serope Aznavour in order to make the social life of the Ottomans better known to the people of the England. This exhibition showed the social life of the Turks and great care was taken over the costumes, older examples of which were displayed on wax mannequins made specially in Istanbul.
Beautiful pictures of the Bosporus are to be found in the book called “Beauties of the Bosporus,” illustrated by English artist and photographer William Henry Bartlett and printed in London in 1840. Another English painter, John Frederick Lewis, visited Istanbul and in 1842 published tree volumes of engravings of the paintings he had made while travelling around Asia Minor.
Many intellectuals, travellers and artists, as well as men of science, visited Turkey in the 19th century. The names of some of these people are Charles Corville, Frankland, Adm. Robert Walsh, Thomas Allom, Stratford Canning, James Webster, Charles MacFarlane, Austin Henry Layard, Col. Charles White, Kingslake, Thomas Thornton, William George Brown, John MacDonald Kinnear, George Keppel, Adolphus Slade, Miss Julia Pardoe and John Reid, and geologists William John Hamilton, W.W. Smith, J. H. Skene, Charles Fellows, Albert Smith, General Hobart, J. Lewis Ferley, Henry Tozer, Edward Stephen Creasy, Sir William Ramsay, and Francis Elliot. All of these later had their travel journals published in London. Among these, mention must be made of linguist Sir James William Redhouse, whose Turkish-English, English-Turkish Dictionaries were published in Istanbul.
Twentieth century travellers and researchers who had their works published in London are Charles Roden Buxton, De Bunsen, J. J. Spry, Cap. F. Townshend, Sir Edwin Pears, Stanley Lane Poole, Sir Charles Eliot, William Miller, Lord Eversley, Professor Toynbee, Sir Telford Waugh, T. L. Jarman, John Parker, Charles Smith, H. C. Armstrong and Harold Bowen.
In 1830, 150 students who had graduated from the Officers Training School and the Imperial School of Geometry went on to complete their studies at Cambridge. In 1848, the teaching of English was begun at military training schools.
Between the years 1836-91, works in English were translated into Turkish -- works by Shakespeare, Young, Swift, Miss Ann Radclyffe and Miss Pardoe. Meanwhile, in London newspapers, Muhbir (1857) and Hürriyet (1868), were published in Turkish. So cultural relationships between Turkey and Great Britain attained another dimension.
Sultan Abdulaziz visits England
In the 19th century Sultan Abdulaziz became the first Ottoman ruler to make an official state visit to another country. In 1867, he went to France from where he crossed over to England. On July 10, the Sultan boarded a special cross-channel train and was greeted when it arrived at Dover with a salute from the British Navy. The Ottoman sultan was ceremoniously welcomed to England in the name of Queen Victoria by her son Edward, Prince of Wales. After an official lunch prepared in a mansion by the sea, the sultan boarded a private train for the journey to London where he was again given an official welcome at Charing Cross Station. Among those there to greet him were the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Steward and other members of Parliament. Accompanied by an impressive military escort, the sultan left the station for Buckingham Palace, where a suite had been specially prepared. After spending the night in the Belgian Suite, on the 13th on the steps at the entrance to the palace for the first time in history an Ottoman sultan and British sovereign met.
After meeting in private with the queen for some time, the Ottoman sultan took part in a luncheon given in his honor and then he left to return to Buckingham Palace. On the evening of July 15 the Sultan went to the opera accompanied by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, and attended a gala performance of the opera “Masaniello” or “The Dumb Girl of Portici”, by Auber at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. During the performance an ode which had been specially written for the Ottoman sultan was recited.
On July 16 the sultan went to the Arsenal at Woolwich where he was officially welcomed by the Prince of Wales and the commander in chief of the British Army. After watching manoeuvres there, the sultan subsequently visited a munitions factory. On the completion of his visit the sultan returned to London and was presented at a concert given in his honour at the Crystal Palace that evening. The Sultan had donated a sum of 1,000 English pounds towards repairs to the Crystal Palace, which had been damaged by fire during the winter.
On July 17 there was a parade of the British Navy at Spithead near Portsmouth. Sultan Aziz sailed to Spithead on the cruiser “Osborne” accompanied by Queen Victoria in her yacht “Helicon”. The sovereigns of the two countries then boarded the yacht “Victoria and Albert” which had been prepared for them for watching the naval manoeuvres. On the same day the queen conferred on the sultan the Order of the Garter, the highest honour of the English Crown.
On July 18 the Sultan attended a reception given in his honour at the Mansion House. Some 3,000 people were present, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Prince and Princess of Saxe-Coburg, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Mechlenburg-Strelitz. After the concert which followed, the sultan once more returned to Buckingham Palace where he took part until the early hours in a ball for 3,000 people given in his honour.
On July 19 Sultan Aziz was taken for a trip on the River Thames during which he visited the Tower of London, the Armoury, and the City, one of the financial centers of the world, as well as banks, post offices, and other social institutions.
Only one of the speeches given by the Sultan during these ceremonies was mentioned by the press. During this speech, which was translated into English by Musurus Pasha, the Ottoman ambassador to London at that time, the Sultan declared: “My journey to this and other parts of Europe has two aims. The first of these is to see in these centers of civilization what works of ours have been begun and what is still left to be finished. The second is to show that nothing other than brotherly love can be the basis for the honor of our age and for the advancement of mankind, not only among our own nation but among all the European nations.” These sentiments of the Ottoman sultan were greeted with applause.
During the 12 days he spent in London, the sultan was involved in a great number of activities. On his last day he was led by a priest from the palace and left London from Charing Cross on the special train put at his disposal. The impressive farewell ceremony at the station was attended by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge. Before his departure the Sultan presented the mayor of London with a purse of 2,000 pounds to be distributed among the officials and workers on the railway. Meanwhile, Queen Victoria sent a telegraph to the Ottoman sultan on his departure from the country, wishing him every happiness and a safe voyage.
Development of sports in Turkey
England played an important role in the establishment and development of sports in Turkey. Modern football had its birth in the British Isles and it is believed that the first football match took place in England in 1848. The British are so obsessed with football that it becomes a part of their lives wherever they go.
It seems that the first football match in Turkey was played on the meadows of Bornova in Izmir by the English families there. The first football club in Turkey was organized and set up by Englishmen, James Lafontaine and Horace Armitage, under the name of “Cadikeuy Football Club”. A year later the Moda Football Club was set up in the same area, again by the English. From 1948 onwards Queens’ Park Rangers and from 1949, Charlton Athletic, two professional English football clubs went to Turkey and played various matches there.
In 1950, with the visit of the famous professional English team, Sunderland, Turco-British sports connections reached a new turning point. Following this, for the first time a Turkish football team was invited to Britain and played Queens’ Park Rangers, Coventry and Brighton. After this time, matches were arranged and played between Turkish and English teams either in Turkey or in England, a practice which continues to this day.
English families living in Istanbul in the suburbs of Kadikoy or Moda began to organize swimming races among themselves, thus establishing swimming as a sport in Turkey. In 1986 the crews of the Oxford and Cambridge rowing eights went to Istanbul to take part in rowing races on the Golden Horn, after which Turco-British relationships in this sports also increased in importance.
Modern sailing as a sport in Turkish waters is known to have once again been begun by the English. Between 1914-18 the English families living in Istanbul established the first yacht club and arranged the first sailing competitions among themselves between the Bay of Kalamis and the Princes Islands.
The sport of tennis, which was popular in Europe and had become established in Turkey by 1910, was first organized by the English merchant-trader families there. A court built by the English in Küçük [Little] Moda, a suburb of Kadıköy, was the scene of the first tennis match between Edward Whittall and the Norwill brothers.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Turkish wrestlers made their debut in Europe and brought the exciting sport of wrestling to England. From May 17, 1885, until November of the same year the foremost Turkish wrestlers performed at the Alhambra in London, and the Hoxton Theatre of Varieties. In 1896, the famous Turkish wrestler Filiz Nurullah won the admiration of the English spectators at the Royal Harbon in London with his prowess in wrestling. From Jan. 1, 1903, until August of the same year Turkish wrestlers competed in tournaments at the London Pavilion or New Brighton; in September they were in Edinburgh. They also won great acclaim in the wrestling competitions at the Britannia, Hoxton, near London.
Turco-English rivalry on the basketball court is known to have begun with a match between the two countries in 1955. Horse-racing in Turkey begun in Izmir in 1900 under the patronage of an English businessman, Mr. Patterson. This individual and his friends set up the Smyrna Racing Club in Izmir. Racing began at this first hippodrome, which can be said to have been modern in appearance according to the standards and conditions of the day, with the participation of horses and jockeys brought there from England.
After the foundation of the Turkish Republic social and cultural connections between Turkey and England developed side-by-side with political relationships.
On April 8, 1935, the Moda Sports Club was established by the English and has continued its activities until this day.
King Edward VIII visits Turkey
King Edward VIII, the first British monarch to pay a state visit to Turkey, arrived in Istanbul on the royal yacht Nahlin, on the morning of Sept. 4, 1936. He was welcomed by a salute of guns from the Selimiye Barracks. Following this, a launch took him to the quay at Tophane where he was officially greeted by the president of Turkey, during which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk took hold of king's right hand in order to assist him to land. Later the visiting king and Ataturk went to Dolmabahce Palace in an open car along a road filled with crowds cheering in welcome. As well as visiting the sights, the King met with Ataturk four times during his stay. King Edward toured, among other things, the Byzantine basilica of Holy Wisdom (Haghia Sophia) and applauded Ataturk's decision to turn this one time basilica, which had become a mosque after the conquest of Istanbul into a museum.
He remarked: “I have enjoyed my visit very much. In particular, I find it very fitting that the Church of Holy Wisdom, one time a mosque, has now been turned into a museum.”
Then the king went by car to the Covered Bazaar and was given an enthusiastic reception by the bazaar merchants and people when he began to go around it on foot. Later at an antique shop owned by an Armenian who had been informed of the king's visit, the king was seated in an historic and valuable chair. The shop owner had also prepared a wonderful selection of the precious stones available in the market to show to the king of England. King Edward was present at the rowing and sailing races organized in his honour in Moda Bay and together with Ataturk watched the races from the stern deck of the presidential yacht, Ertuğrul.
British-Turkish cultural developments
In the field of international relationships the cultural organization known as the British Council was established in London in 1934 with the aim of developing exchange of information between universities, assisting in the training of teachers, setting up libraries and record centres, giving conferences and holding art and cultural exhibitions in developing countries. In 1940, the first branch of the British Council in Turkey was established in the capital, Ankara, under the auspices of professor Michael Grant, Kasim Gülek and Sir Malcolm Robertson. Following this, other branches were set up in Istanbul, Izmir, Mersin, Samsun, and Bursa. The British Council has been especially active in establishing English language courses in Turkey. The council worked mainly through the Turkish social and educational centres and in a large number of other Turkish institutes -- 150 centres of instruction in all. There were eight British professors in Istanbul University and six at Ankara. Several English classes were arranged for Turkish Army officers. The council is devoting the largest proportion of its budget to support English language teaching in schools and universities. The council is continuing to develop new activities and to reshape its programs to meet changing needs in Turkey.
The Anglo-Turkish Music Festival, arranged by the Turkish education minister and the council, was held at the newly opened State Opera House in Ankara on April 11-17, 1948. The visiting British musicians were Dr. Arthur Bliss, Mr. George Weldon and Mr. Novel Mewton-Wood.
The festival was the first of its kind ever to be organized between the two countries.
The second Anglo-Turkish Music Festival was held in Ankara on April 24-29, 1949. Four orchestral concerts were given by the Presidential Philharmonic Orchestra in the State Opera House, with Clarence Raybould as the guest conductor and Frederick Riddle, viola, the guest soloist. The programs, which were mainly composed of Turkish and British music, included Walton's Viola Concerto, Vaughan Williams Suite for Viola and Orchestra.
The first major exhibition of British books to be held in Turkey for many years was opened in the exhibition hall of the Girls' Institute in Istanbul by the governor of Istanbul on June 7, 1949. Some 1,600 books published in the last three years were on show. The exhibition remained open for 15 days and was visited by 16,199 people.
On July 18, 1951, England put forward a proposal that Turkey should become a member of NATO, which was accepted on Sept. 20 of the same year, and the protocol for this was signed in London on Oct. 17.
Celal Bayar, the Turkish president, went to England for the funeral of King George VI which took place on Feb. 12, 1952 and was received by the new Queen of England, Elizabeth II, in a half-hour audience on Feb. 14. In the following year, 1953, Adnan Menderes, the Turkish prime minister, who had come to England for the coronation, met with Winston Churchill on May 11. Together with Foreign Minister Fuat Köprülü, he attended the coronation ceremony on June 2 and were subsequently presented to the Queen on June 5.
A cultural agreement signed between England and Turkey on March 12, 1956, gave a special atmosphere and impetus to cultural relationships between the two countries. Under the terms of the agreement the Turco-British Cultural Centre became particularly successful in its efforts to foster the teaching of English in Turkey. Within the framework of this agreement, Turkey opened a reciprocal institution in London under the name of Turkish People's Institute (Halkevi).
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, having set sail from London on the yacht of ship-owner Aristotle Onassis, arrived in Istanbul on Aug. 5, 1959, and had friendly talks with the prime minister of Turkey.
Queen Elizabeth II visits Turkey
Queen Elizabeth II became the second British sovereign to pay a state visit to Turkey. Together with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, and her daughter, Princess Anne, she arrived in Turkey on Oct. 18, 1971, for an eight-day official visit. On her visit to pay her respects to Ataturk and lay a wreath in his honour at the Ataturk Mausoleum in the capital, Ankara, the queen wrote these words in the official Book of Remembrance: “I pay my respects to a hero in war and in peace, the father of the Turkish nation, a sincere friend, Elizabeth.”
Later, on meeting Ismet İnönü, the queen remarked: “İnönü is a part of history. It gives me great pleasure to meet Ataturk's closest comrade-in-arms and political companion.” The Queen was welcomed to Istanbul on Oct. 23 by a military ceremony on the quay at Dolmabahçe, following which she visited Dolmabahçe Palace, including the room in which Ataturk died.
The relationship between Turkey and the United Kingdom began with the establishment of diplomatic relations in the 16th century. The first steps towards free trade between England and the Ottoman Empire in Ottoman territory were made by Anthony Jenkinson in 1553
In the 19th century Sultan Abdulaziz becomes the first Ottoman ruler to make an official state visit to another country. In 1867, he went to France from where he crossed over to England
Pars Tuğlacı
The relationship between Turkey and the United Kingdom began with the establishment of diplomatic relations in the 16th century. The first steps towards free trade between England and the Ottoman Empire in Ottoman territory were made by Anthony Jenkinson in 1553. The first person accredited to the Ottoman Court as the representative of Queen Elizabeth I was William Harborne, who set out from London and arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 28, 1578. Harborne carried out his duties successfully and was able to establish trade on the bases of national identity between the two countries, thus doing away with Venice as the middleman.
Meanwhile, in 1580 Sultan Murad III granted English merchants the right to trade on Ottoman soil. On Sept. 11, 1581, a “Turkey Company” was set up in London by English merchants there.
During the five years he stayed in Turkey as ambassador, Harborne established sound diplomatic relations between the two countries and opened consulates in Egypt, Syria and Morocco and on the Islands of Chios and Patras in order to develop the right to trade and explore its potential.
When Sultan Mehmet III succeeded Sultan Murad III as Ottoman ruler, Queen Elizabeth I presented him with a mechanical organ. The first Turkish permanent ambassador sent to England by the Ottoman state was Yusuf Agah Efendi.
When we consider the historical dimensions of the relationship between England and Turkey, we can see proof of this in the works of Elizabethan writers Marlowe, Kydd and Shakespeare, who mention works in a variety of ways. The power of the Ottoman state and its system of governing are described not only in Marlowe’s “Tamerlane the Great” but also in Kydd’s “Solomon and Persada” and Shakespeare’s “King Henry IV.”
The first work in English about Ottoman Turkey was printed in 1573. A French treatise about the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans in 1570 was translated from French into English by William Mallin and presented to the Earl of Leicester. Following this Anthony Jenkinson, F. Osborne, Thomas Gainsford, Peter Mundy, Sir Henry Blount, Edward Webbe, Fynes Moryson, John Sanderson, and Thomas Dallam give considerable space to Turkey in their memoirs and journals of their travels. At the beginning of the 17th century again there are a number of entries concerning Ottoman Turkey in the memoirs and travel accounts of Sandys, Robert Withers, Paul Pindar, Richard Knolles, Paul Rycaut, Dudley North, Thomas Smith, Dr. John Covel, William Seaman, John Greaves, James Dallaway, Lord Baltimore, Charles Thompson, Pococke, Chandler, Elizabeth, Lady Craven and Aaron Hill.
In 1809, Lord Byron travelled to Turkey, and following his return to England on July 14, 1811, wrote five long fragments of poem to be called “A Turkish Tale.”
During the Crimean War the Turks and the British were allies and brothers in arms. In November 1854, great interest was aroused by an exhibition opened in London by Armenian Serope Aznavour in order to make the social life of the Ottomans better known to the people of the England. This exhibition showed the social life of the Turks and great care was taken over the costumes, older examples of which were displayed on wax mannequins made specially in Istanbul.
Beautiful pictures of the Bosporus are to be found in the book called “Beauties of the Bosporus,” illustrated by English artist and photographer William Henry Bartlett and printed in London in 1840. Another English painter, John Frederick Lewis, visited Istanbul and in 1842 published tree volumes of engravings of the paintings he had made while travelling around Asia Minor.
Many intellectuals, travellers and artists, as well as men of science, visited Turkey in the 19th century. The names of some of these people are Charles Corville, Frankland, Adm. Robert Walsh, Thomas Allom, Stratford Canning, James Webster, Charles MacFarlane, Austin Henry Layard, Col. Charles White, Kingslake, Thomas Thornton, William George Brown, John MacDonald Kinnear, George Keppel, Adolphus Slade, Miss Julia Pardoe and John Reid, and geologists William John Hamilton, W.W. Smith, J. H. Skene, Charles Fellows, Albert Smith, General Hobart, J. Lewis Ferley, Henry Tozer, Edward Stephen Creasy, Sir William Ramsay, and Francis Elliot. All of these later had their travel journals published in London. Among these, mention must be made of linguist Sir James William Redhouse, whose Turkish-English, English-Turkish Dictionaries were published in Istanbul.
Twentieth century travellers and researchers who had their works published in London are Charles Roden Buxton, De Bunsen, J. J. Spry, Cap. F. Townshend, Sir Edwin Pears, Stanley Lane Poole, Sir Charles Eliot, William Miller, Lord Eversley, Professor Toynbee, Sir Telford Waugh, T. L. Jarman, John Parker, Charles Smith, H. C. Armstrong and Harold Bowen.
In 1830, 150 students who had graduated from the Officers Training School and the Imperial School of Geometry went on to complete their studies at Cambridge. In 1848, the teaching of English was begun at military training schools.
Between the years 1836-91, works in English were translated into Turkish -- works by Shakespeare, Young, Swift, Miss Ann Radclyffe and Miss Pardoe. Meanwhile, in London newspapers, Muhbir (1857) and Hürriyet (1868), were published in Turkish. So cultural relationships between Turkey and Great Britain attained another dimension.
Sultan Abdulaziz visits England
In the 19th century Sultan Abdulaziz became the first Ottoman ruler to make an official state visit to another country. In 1867, he went to France from where he crossed over to England. On July 10, the Sultan boarded a special cross-channel train and was greeted when it arrived at Dover with a salute from the British Navy. The Ottoman sultan was ceremoniously welcomed to England in the name of Queen Victoria by her son Edward, Prince of Wales. After an official lunch prepared in a mansion by the sea, the sultan boarded a private train for the journey to London where he was again given an official welcome at Charing Cross Station. Among those there to greet him were the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Steward and other members of Parliament. Accompanied by an impressive military escort, the sultan left the station for Buckingham Palace, where a suite had been specially prepared. After spending the night in the Belgian Suite, on the 13th on the steps at the entrance to the palace for the first time in history an Ottoman sultan and British sovereign met.
After meeting in private with the queen for some time, the Ottoman sultan took part in a luncheon given in his honor and then he left to return to Buckingham Palace. On the evening of July 15 the Sultan went to the opera accompanied by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, and attended a gala performance of the opera “Masaniello” or “The Dumb Girl of Portici”, by Auber at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. During the performance an ode which had been specially written for the Ottoman sultan was recited.
On July 16 the sultan went to the Arsenal at Woolwich where he was officially welcomed by the Prince of Wales and the commander in chief of the British Army. After watching manoeuvres there, the sultan subsequently visited a munitions factory. On the completion of his visit the sultan returned to London and was presented at a concert given in his honour at the Crystal Palace that evening. The Sultan had donated a sum of 1,000 English pounds towards repairs to the Crystal Palace, which had been damaged by fire during the winter.
On July 17 there was a parade of the British Navy at Spithead near Portsmouth. Sultan Aziz sailed to Spithead on the cruiser “Osborne” accompanied by Queen Victoria in her yacht “Helicon”. The sovereigns of the two countries then boarded the yacht “Victoria and Albert” which had been prepared for them for watching the naval manoeuvres. On the same day the queen conferred on the sultan the Order of the Garter, the highest honour of the English Crown.
On July 18 the Sultan attended a reception given in his honour at the Mansion House. Some 3,000 people were present, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Prince and Princess of Saxe-Coburg, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Mechlenburg-Strelitz. After the concert which followed, the sultan once more returned to Buckingham Palace where he took part until the early hours in a ball for 3,000 people given in his honour.
On July 19 Sultan Aziz was taken for a trip on the River Thames during which he visited the Tower of London, the Armoury, and the City, one of the financial centers of the world, as well as banks, post offices, and other social institutions.
Only one of the speeches given by the Sultan during these ceremonies was mentioned by the press. During this speech, which was translated into English by Musurus Pasha, the Ottoman ambassador to London at that time, the Sultan declared: “My journey to this and other parts of Europe has two aims. The first of these is to see in these centers of civilization what works of ours have been begun and what is still left to be finished. The second is to show that nothing other than brotherly love can be the basis for the honor of our age and for the advancement of mankind, not only among our own nation but among all the European nations.” These sentiments of the Ottoman sultan were greeted with applause.
During the 12 days he spent in London, the sultan was involved in a great number of activities. On his last day he was led by a priest from the palace and left London from Charing Cross on the special train put at his disposal. The impressive farewell ceremony at the station was attended by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge. Before his departure the Sultan presented the mayor of London with a purse of 2,000 pounds to be distributed among the officials and workers on the railway. Meanwhile, Queen Victoria sent a telegraph to the Ottoman sultan on his departure from the country, wishing him every happiness and a safe voyage.
Development of sports in Turkey
England played an important role in the establishment and development of sports in Turkey. Modern football had its birth in the British Isles and it is believed that the first football match took place in England in 1848. The British are so obsessed with football that it becomes a part of their lives wherever they go.
It seems that the first football match in Turkey was played on the meadows of Bornova in Izmir by the English families there. The first football club in Turkey was organized and set up by Englishmen, James Lafontaine and Horace Armitage, under the name of “Cadikeuy Football Club”. A year later the Moda Football Club was set up in the same area, again by the English. From 1948 onwards Queens’ Park Rangers and from 1949, Charlton Athletic, two professional English football clubs went to Turkey and played various matches there.
In 1950, with the visit of the famous professional English team, Sunderland, Turco-British sports connections reached a new turning point. Following this, for the first time a Turkish football team was invited to Britain and played Queens’ Park Rangers, Coventry and Brighton. After this time, matches were arranged and played between Turkish and English teams either in Turkey or in England, a practice which continues to this day.
English families living in Istanbul in the suburbs of Kadikoy or Moda began to organize swimming races among themselves, thus establishing swimming as a sport in Turkey. In 1986 the crews of the Oxford and Cambridge rowing eights went to Istanbul to take part in rowing races on the Golden Horn, after which Turco-British relationships in this sports also increased in importance.
Modern sailing as a sport in Turkish waters is known to have once again been begun by the English. Between 1914-18 the English families living in Istanbul established the first yacht club and arranged the first sailing competitions among themselves between the Bay of Kalamis and the Princes Islands.
The sport of tennis, which was popular in Europe and had become established in Turkey by 1910, was first organized by the English merchant-trader families there. A court built by the English in Küçük [Little] Moda, a suburb of Kadıköy, was the scene of the first tennis match between Edward Whittall and the Norwill brothers.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Turkish wrestlers made their debut in Europe and brought the exciting sport of wrestling to England. From May 17, 1885, until November of the same year the foremost Turkish wrestlers performed at the Alhambra in London, and the Hoxton Theatre of Varieties. In 1896, the famous Turkish wrestler Filiz Nurullah won the admiration of the English spectators at the Royal Harbon in London with his prowess in wrestling. From Jan. 1, 1903, until August of the same year Turkish wrestlers competed in tournaments at the London Pavilion or New Brighton; in September they were in Edinburgh. They also won great acclaim in the wrestling competitions at the Britannia, Hoxton, near London.
Turco-English rivalry on the basketball court is known to have begun with a match between the two countries in 1955. Horse-racing in Turkey begun in Izmir in 1900 under the patronage of an English businessman, Mr. Patterson. This individual and his friends set up the Smyrna Racing Club in Izmir. Racing began at this first hippodrome, which can be said to have been modern in appearance according to the standards and conditions of the day, with the participation of horses and jockeys brought there from England.
After the foundation of the Turkish Republic social and cultural connections between Turkey and England developed side-by-side with political relationships.
On April 8, 1935, the Moda Sports Club was established by the English and has continued its activities until this day.
King Edward VIII visits Turkey
King Edward VIII, the first British monarch to pay a state visit to Turkey, arrived in Istanbul on the royal yacht Nahlin, on the morning of Sept. 4, 1936. He was welcomed by a salute of guns from the Selimiye Barracks. Following this, a launch took him to the quay at Tophane where he was officially greeted by the president of Turkey, during which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk took hold of king's right hand in order to assist him to land. Later the visiting king and Ataturk went to Dolmabahce Palace in an open car along a road filled with crowds cheering in welcome. As well as visiting the sights, the King met with Ataturk four times during his stay. King Edward toured, among other things, the Byzantine basilica of Holy Wisdom (Haghia Sophia) and applauded Ataturk's decision to turn this one time basilica, which had become a mosque after the conquest of Istanbul into a museum.
He remarked: “I have enjoyed my visit very much. In particular, I find it very fitting that the Church of Holy Wisdom, one time a mosque, has now been turned into a museum.”
Then the king went by car to the Covered Bazaar and was given an enthusiastic reception by the bazaar merchants and people when he began to go around it on foot. Later at an antique shop owned by an Armenian who had been informed of the king's visit, the king was seated in an historic and valuable chair. The shop owner had also prepared a wonderful selection of the precious stones available in the market to show to the king of England. King Edward was present at the rowing and sailing races organized in his honour in Moda Bay and together with Ataturk watched the races from the stern deck of the presidential yacht, Ertuğrul.
British-Turkish cultural developments
In the field of international relationships the cultural organization known as the British Council was established in London in 1934 with the aim of developing exchange of information between universities, assisting in the training of teachers, setting up libraries and record centres, giving conferences and holding art and cultural exhibitions in developing countries. In 1940, the first branch of the British Council in Turkey was established in the capital, Ankara, under the auspices of professor Michael Grant, Kasim Gülek and Sir Malcolm Robertson. Following this, other branches were set up in Istanbul, Izmir, Mersin, Samsun, and Bursa. The British Council has been especially active in establishing English language courses in Turkey. The council worked mainly through the Turkish social and educational centres and in a large number of other Turkish institutes -- 150 centres of instruction in all. There were eight British professors in Istanbul University and six at Ankara. Several English classes were arranged for Turkish Army officers. The council is devoting the largest proportion of its budget to support English language teaching in schools and universities. The council is continuing to develop new activities and to reshape its programs to meet changing needs in Turkey.
The Anglo-Turkish Music Festival, arranged by the Turkish education minister and the council, was held at the newly opened State Opera House in Ankara on April 11-17, 1948. The visiting British musicians were Dr. Arthur Bliss, Mr. George Weldon and Mr. Novel Mewton-Wood.
The festival was the first of its kind ever to be organized between the two countries.
The second Anglo-Turkish Music Festival was held in Ankara on April 24-29, 1949. Four orchestral concerts were given by the Presidential Philharmonic Orchestra in the State Opera House, with Clarence Raybould as the guest conductor and Frederick Riddle, viola, the guest soloist. The programs, which were mainly composed of Turkish and British music, included Walton's Viola Concerto, Vaughan Williams Suite for Viola and Orchestra.
The first major exhibition of British books to be held in Turkey for many years was opened in the exhibition hall of the Girls' Institute in Istanbul by the governor of Istanbul on June 7, 1949. Some 1,600 books published in the last three years were on show. The exhibition remained open for 15 days and was visited by 16,199 people.
On July 18, 1951, England put forward a proposal that Turkey should become a member of NATO, which was accepted on Sept. 20 of the same year, and the protocol for this was signed in London on Oct. 17.
Celal Bayar, the Turkish president, went to England for the funeral of King George VI which took place on Feb. 12, 1952 and was received by the new Queen of England, Elizabeth II, in a half-hour audience on Feb. 14. In the following year, 1953, Adnan Menderes, the Turkish prime minister, who had come to England for the coronation, met with Winston Churchill on May 11. Together with Foreign Minister Fuat Köprülü, he attended the coronation ceremony on June 2 and were subsequently presented to the Queen on June 5.
A cultural agreement signed between England and Turkey on March 12, 1956, gave a special atmosphere and impetus to cultural relationships between the two countries. Under the terms of the agreement the Turco-British Cultural Centre became particularly successful in its efforts to foster the teaching of English in Turkey. Within the framework of this agreement, Turkey opened a reciprocal institution in London under the name of Turkish People's Institute (Halkevi).
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, having set sail from London on the yacht of ship-owner Aristotle Onassis, arrived in Istanbul on Aug. 5, 1959, and had friendly talks with the prime minister of Turkey.
Queen Elizabeth II visits Turkey
Queen Elizabeth II became the second British sovereign to pay a state visit to Turkey. Together with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, and her daughter, Princess Anne, she arrived in Turkey on Oct. 18, 1971, for an eight-day official visit. On her visit to pay her respects to Ataturk and lay a wreath in his honour at the Ataturk Mausoleum in the capital, Ankara, the queen wrote these words in the official Book of Remembrance: “I pay my respects to a hero in war and in peace, the father of the Turkish nation, a sincere friend, Elizabeth.”
Later, on meeting Ismet İnönü, the queen remarked: “İnönü is a part of history. It gives me great pleasure to meet Ataturk's closest comrade-in-arms and political companion.” The Queen was welcomed to Istanbul on Oct. 23 by a military ceremony on the quay at Dolmabahçe, following which she visited Dolmabahçe Palace, including the room in which Ataturk died.