Mehmed VI

Mehmed VI Vahideddin ( ''Meḥmed-i sâdis'' or ''Vaḥîdü'd-Dîn''; or /; 14 January 1861 – 16 May 1926), also known as ''Şahbaba'' () among the Osmanoğlu family, was the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the penultimate Ottoman caliph, reigning from 4 July 1918 until 1 November 1922, when the Ottoman sultanate was abolished and replaced by the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923.

The half-brother of Mehmed V Reşâd, he became heir to the throne in 1916 following the death of Şehzade Yusuf İzzeddin, as the eldest male member of the House of Osman. He acceded to the throne after the death of Mehmed V on 4 July 1918 as the 36th ''padishah'' and 115th Islamic Caliph.

Mehmed VI's chaotic reign began with Turkey suffering defeat by the Allies Powers with the conclusion of World War I nearing. The subsequent Armistice of Mudros legitimized further Allied incursions into Turkish territory, resulting in an informal occupation of Istanbul and other parts of the empire. An ardent anglophile, Sultan Vahdeddin hoped a policy of close cooperation with Britain could result in a less harsh peace treaty. An initial process of reconciliation between the government and Christian minorities over their massacres and deportations by the government ultimately proved fruitless, when the Greeks and Armenians, via their patriarchates, renounced their status as Ottoman subjects by the end of 1918, spelling a definitive end of Ottomanism. During the Paris Peace Conference, Mehmed VI turned to Damat Ferid Pasha to diplomatically outflank Greek territorial demands on Turkey through Allied appeasement, but to no avail. Unionist elements within the military, discontent with the government's appeasement in the face of partition, and the establishment of war crimes tribunals, began taking actions into their own hands by establishing a nationalist resistance to resume war. Mehmed's most significant act as Sultan was dispatching Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) to reassert government control in Anatolia, which actually resulted in the further consolidation of anti-appeasement actors against the court, and consequently, the end of the monarchy.

With the Greek Occupation of Smyrna on 15 May 1919 galvanizing the Turkish nationalist movement and beginning the Turkish War of Independence, by October the sultan's government had to give in to nationalist demands with the Amasya Protocol. The Allies militarily occupied Istanbul on 16 March 1920, and pressured Sultan Mehmed VI to dissolve the Nationalist dominated Chamber of Deputies and suspend the Constitution, when the Turkish nationalists stood against Allied designs for a partition of Anatolia. Kemal Pasha responded by establishing a provisional government known as the Grand National Assembly based in Ankara, which dominated the rest of Turkey, while the Sultan's unpopular government in Istanbul was propped up by the Allied powers and effectively impotent. Mehmed VI condemned the nationalist leaders as infidels and called for their execution, though the provisional government in Ankara claimed it was rescuing the Sultan-Caliph from manipulative foreigners and ministers. The Sultan's so-called Istanbul government would go on to sign the Treaty of Sèvres, a peace treaty which would have partitioned the remainder of the empire, leaving a rump Turkish state.

With Ankara's victory in the independence war, the Sèvres Treaty was abandoned for their Treaty of Lausanne. On 1 November 1922, the Grand National Assembly voted to abolish the Sultanate and to depose Mehmed VI as Caliph and he subsequently fled the country. His cousin Abdul Mejid II was elected Caliph in his stead, though he too, and the entire Osmanoğlu family were soon exiled after the abolition of the Caliphate. On 29 October 1923, the Republic of Turkey was declared, with Mustafa Kemal Pasha as its first president, ending more than 600 years of Ottoman suzerainty. Mehmed VI died in exile in 1926 in San Remo, Italy, having never acknowledged his deposition.

Early life

Mehmed Vahdeddin was born in Dolmabahçe Palace on 14 January 1861. His father was Sultan Abdul Mejid I, who died five months after he was born. Abdul Mejid had 42 children and Vahdeddin was his last child, putting him tenth in line to the succession. All of his siblings were half-siblings from different consorts and concubines, but Vahdeddin had a full sister who lived to adulthood: Mediha Sultana. His mother Gülistû Kadın was of Georgian- Abkhazian origin, the daughter of Prince Tahir Bey Chachba. Vahdeddin became an orphan when she died from one of the many cholera outbreaks of the time when he was four years old.

After his mother's death, Vahdeddin Efendi was adopted by Şâyeste Hanım, another of his father's consorts. The Şehzade had a rough time with his overbearing adoptive mother, and at the age of sixteen he left his adoptive mother's mansion with the three servants who had been serving him since childhood. He grew up with nannies, servant girls, and tutors.

Vahdeddin educated himself by taking lessons from private tutors. He read a great deal, and was interested in various subjects, including the arts, which was a tradition of the Ottoman family. He took courses in calligraphy and music and learned how to write in the naskh script and to play the qanun. He became interested in Sufism and, unknown to the Palace, he attended courses at the madrasa of Fatih on Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic theology, interpretation of the Quran, and the Hadiths, as well as the Arabic and Persian languages. He attended the dervish lodge of Ahmed Ziyaüddin Gümüşhanevi, located not far from the Sublime Porte, where Ömer Ziyaüddin of Dagestan was the spiritual leader, and he became a disciple of the Naqshbandi order. Time to time, the Sheikh-ul-Islam would have to contend with Vahdeddin demanding an amendment on a fatwa which did not follow ''fiqh''.

Physically he had a weak constitution, something he may have inherited from his father. As he grew older he developed atrophy in one of his lungs and heart palpitations.

In his youth he collected pistols and carried one on him throughout his life. He enjoyed skeet shooting and was a good shot. His closest friend was Şehzade Abdul Mejid (to be proclaimed as Caliph Abdul Mejid II), the son of his uncle, Sultan Abdul Aziz. Their friendship went against the prevailing Mejidian–Azizian feud within the Ottoman family. Abdul Aziz's children believed their father was murdered following the 1876 coup d'état, and were suspicious Abdul Mejid I's children orchestrated it. They went on hunting trips together in the forests beyond the Bosphorus. Their bond would later be tied by marriage when Vahdeddin's daughter Sabiha married Abdul Mejid's son Ömer Faruk -the two fell in love before lobbying their parents for an uncommon cousin marriage. In the years to come however, the two cousins have an intense falling out over the politics of the Turkish War of Independence, reactivating the feud between their respective branches. Before moving to the Feriye Palace, the Şehzade had lived briefly in the mansion in Çengelköy owned by Şehzade Ahmed Kemaleddin.

During the 33-year reign of Abdul Hamid II, Vahdeddin was considered to be the sultan's closest half-brother. He gave him an allowance to supplement the money he received from the state, and gifted him his own mansion in Çengelköy which bore his name: the Vahdettin Pavilion. Vahdeddin built another house next to it on the estate for his adoptive mother Şâyeste. Sabiha explained her father's uncommonly close relationship with Abdul Hamid due to his distaste towards family intrigues, something in common with Abdul Hamid's personal paranoia. When he ascended to the throne, this closeness greatly influenced his political attitudes, such as his intense dislike of the Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), his sympathy for the British, and a wait-and-see policy to political problems.

Much of Vahdeddin's princedom, especially under Abdul Hamid II, was spend in luxurious peace, without care for politics or conflict. After all, during Abdul Hamid's reign, he was behind the dethroned Sultan Murad V, Reşad Efendi, Kemaleddin Efendi, Süleyman Efendi, and Yusuf İzzeddin Efendi in the succession. At Feriye he liked to host guests, and frequently organized music parties with his fasıl orchestra, which consisted of musician apprentices whom he personally took care of in training. Many of the most popular contemporary Ottoman musicians of the time frequented his Çengelköy Pavillion. While Vahdeddin was not one for pomp and flamboyancy, he did care for fashion. He was one of the best dressed princes of the royal family, and his first consort Nazikeda Hanım made sure their daughters dressed in the most contemporary styles, which invited compliments from Abdul Hamid and other members of the royal family.

In 1909, at the age of 46, he took his first steps outside of Istanbul when he accompanied his half-brother, the new Sultan Mehmed V Reşad on a tour of Bursa. He accompanied him for another royal tour of Edirne a year later.

One of his first conflicts with the CUP was when he harbored an anti-Unionist, Şaban Efendi, in his palace in the aftermath of the 1913 coup d'état. Mahmud Şevket Pasha obtained an arrest warrant for the man, and had Vahdeddin's palace surrounded. Vahdeddin didn't consent to the soldiers entering his palace, saying he would shoot dead anyone who attempted to enter in order to arrest an innocent man taking refuge in his palace. He was able to facilitate Şaban's escape to Egypt. Vahdeddin's attitude during this situation made Şevket Pasha furious, and their dispute could only be mulled over by Abdul Mejid's mediation. Nevertheless, under the Unionist dictatorship, Vahdeddin's happy-go-lucky life in Çengelköy moved on, save for the spies and surveillance officers which were reporting his activities to the CUP's Central Committee.

He held a quiet rivalry with his half-brother Crown Prince İzzeddin and repeatedly requested that Sultan Mehmed V retract İzzeddin as heir apparent. In the end İzzeddin unexpectedly committed suicide on 1 February 1916, putting Vahdeddin on track to succeed his brother upon his death.

Harem

One day in 1884, Vahdeddin visited his half-sister Cemile Sultana, where he discovered one of her ladies-in-waiting, Emine Nazikeda Hanım, an Abkhaz noblewomen from the Marshan family. It was love at first sight. But when he asked Cemile for Emine's hand in marriage, she flat out refused, for she treated Nazikeda like a daughter, and thought her company was irreplaceable during her daughter's tragic bout with tuberculosis. After more than a year pleading with Cemile she finally gave her blessing on the condition she would be Vahdeddin's only wife. Vahdeddin and Nazikeda's marriage was held on 8 June 1885. The groom was 24 and the bride 19. The couple was popular among the high society. They lived in one of the palaces of Feriye, but when it was destroyed in a fire they moved to the Çengelköy Pavilion. They enjoyed horseback riding together in the wilderness of their estate. Their first daughter was born three years after their marriage: Fenire Sultana, who died a few weeks later. They had two daughters that survived to adulthood: Fatma Ulviye Sultana, (1892–1967), and Rukiye Sabiha Sultana (1894–1971), who were gifted mansions known as the Twin Palaces in Nişantaşı. After Sabiha's birth Nazikeda was informed by doctors that she could not have any more children.

Even though Vahdeddin was far in the line of succession, he wanted a son on the off chance he could become Sultan and change the succession law to agnatic primogeniture. He took new wives with the consent of Nazikeda, breaking his oath to Cemile after 20 years of monogamy. In 1905 he married İnşirah Hanım but this marriage wasn't happy and he permitted her a divorce in 1909. In 1912 Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul was born from his second consort: Müveddet Kadın (m. 1911). In 1918 he married Nevvare Hanım -Müveddet's niece. Vahdeddin did not have a harem in Çengelköy, so when he moved to Dolmabahçe Palace and Yıldız, he chose to keep some of Mehmed V's '' kalfa''s and servents instead of establishing a new harem. One of these ''kalfa''s was Nevzad Hanım who he married soon after being officially deposed, though he never gave her a title.

When he did ascend to the throne in 1918, Vahdeddin's biological and adoptive mothers (Gülistû and Şâyeste) -who could have become Valide Sultanas- were already dead, leaving Nazikeda the most prominent lady of the court. Vahdeddin bestowed upon her the title BaşKadın and she was known as "The Last Empress".

Crown prince

As crown prince he represented Mehmed V at the funeral of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I in 1916. CUP leader Talât was concerned by Veliahd Vahdeddin's surprisingly popular conduct in the funeral.

When he was invited by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to make a state visit in 1917, he was accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk). They first met on 13 December 1917. Kemal Pasha was on leave after resigning from Yıldarım Army Group command due to his conflict with Erich von Falkenhayn and received the invitation to accompany the crown prince from Enver Pasha. Colonel Naci invited Mustafa Kemal to meet the crown prince at his palace. Kemal was immediately unimpressed by what can only be described by Vahdeddin's awkwardly egotistical and arrogant behavior towards his guests, such as closing his eyes the entire time, and when they departed from the train station the next day, Kemal had to remind him to wave to the army detachment. On the train, he was invited to another audience with Vahdeddin; this time he apologized for his behavior to Kemal the day before and expressed gratitude for his role in the Gallipoli campaign and the two had a long and fruitful conversation, making him cautiously optimistic of the veliahd. On the way back from Berlin, Kemal advised Vahdeddin to request a field command and that he could be his chief of staff if he wants to boost his popularity. The crown prince demurred at this request, giving the excuse that the government would refuse. Biographer Murat Bardakçı provides probable skepticism of these stories told in Falih Rıfkı Atay's accounts, who was Kemal's secretary, as Kemal would have breached several layers of protocol addressing an imperial crown prince this way. Nevertheless, this story generally corroborates other accounts of Vahdeddin's mannerisms. On the other hand, writing of this first encounter Vahdeddin described Mustafa Kemal as loyal and having a bright mind, who was fiercely anti-German and critical of Enver Pasha. Six years later, Mustafa Kemal would declare a republic after deposing his sovereign in 1922.

Enthronement

On 3 June 1918, Talât Pasha, now the Grand Vizier, called Vahdeddin to tell him of Sultan Reşad's death. Even though he was the crown prince and eligible to become the new Sultan as the eldest male of the Ottoman family, he was greatly shaken by the news and did not immediately accept his entitlement over this call. Later that day Talât, Enver, and Hayri, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, visited Vahdeddin in his palace, and he again wavered over becoming Sultan, suggesting they should focus on his half-brother's funeral, raising anxieties. Following a long night of contemplation, prayer, and even some sleep, Vahdeddin let Talât know he was ready to become Sultan during the funeral. They held an enthronement ceremony at Topkapı Palace. He delivered an oath to the National Assembly and Constitution, and he took the regal name Mehmed VI, though like his predecessor he was known by the people, and in modern Turkey, by his personal name, Vahdettin. He held his sword girding ceremony on 31 August.

Part of the reason for his hesitation was knowing that the Great War was going poorly for Turkey and her allies, and the compounding problems at home the CUP was inept at tackling. In addition, the last few sovereigns from his family had a bad track record ruling the empire: his uncle Abdul Aziz was deposed and died in suspicious circumstances, Murad V and Abdul Hamid II were also deposed, and Mehmed V never could wield power. He would later write that he decided to become Sultan because he believed it was his national duty and he didn't trust Abdul Mejid, but that this decision was a mistake. Sabiha recounted how her, her nurse, and her mother couldn't hold back their tears as they moved to the Dolmabahçe Palace, and had to be admonished by the foremen and eunuchs to compose themselves otherwise entering the palace may bring bad luck.

Reign

(1918 AD)
Mehmed Vahdettin ascended to the throne at the age of 57 with little experience in statecraft. Though he detested the Unionists and was ideologically an absolutist, for four months he had to maintain the Sultanate's subservience to the CUP. Vahdeddin reappointed Talât Pasha as Grand Vizier for another term. This awkward fact aside, he was happy to allow the Unionists to take responsibility for their crimes, troubles, and mishaps, and for now there wasn't too many problems between him and the CUP.

Mustafa Kemal's first audience with Vahdeddin as Sultan was on 5 August 1918, where he implored his sovereign to dismiss Enver Pasha as Deputy Commander-in-Chief and hinted that he should be his chief of staff. Vahdeddin would give vague and non-committal answers. Several more audiences of this nature later, and Kemal understood he was going nowhere. At some point he asked Vahdeddin for Sabiha's hand in marriage, but he told him off, telling him that she loved someone else. He was soon assigned to once again take command of Seventh Army (Ottoman Empire), Seventh Army on the crumbling Syrian front by the sultan himself, which seemed to be orchestrated by Enver. One small consolation for Kemal was that instead of serving under von Falkenhayn, it was Liman von Sanders as commander of Yıldırım Army Group, though his relations with him were not much better. All of his meetings with Sultan Vahdeddin came to crooked fruition when the Sultan took the title of Commander in Chief himself and installed his son-in-law İsmail Hakkı Pasha, a graduate of the Prussian War Academy, chief of a private staff organization attached to Yıldız Palace. Mustafa Kemal soon understood after arriving to his command that his troops, demoralized and badly under-equipped, stood no chance to repel a British attack. Three weeks after arriving to his assignment, on 19 September, the British attacked in the Battle of Megiddo and smashed through Turkish lines. Perhaps as a way to motivate him, Vahdeddin made Mustafa Kemal Pasha his honorary aid-de-camp on 22 September. Over the course of October, one major Levantine city after another fell to the British, while Istanbul attempted to negotiate ceasefire terms. With the tides of war turning against Turkey, Talât Pasha resigned, the CUP dissolved itself, and the Ottomans exited World War I with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, which was a turning point for Vahdettin's reign.

The First World War was a disaster for the Ottoman Empire. Turkey's entry into the war was initiated by the CUP dictatorship. British and Allied forces captured Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem during the war, and most of the Turkey was set to be partitioned amongst the Allies. As part of the armistice terms, much of the empire beyond the armistice lines was also to be under occupation, including the Sultan's own capital: Constantinople. Now dealing with an existential crisis over the Turkish state, Sultan Mehmed VI hoped to pursue the traditional policy of close cooperation with Britain and France in order to rehabilitate Turkey into the international community and sign a lighter peace treaty. He earnestly believed in a natural alliance between Britain, France, and Turkey, or, as he said: friendship with Britain, closeness with France, which had a precedence from the Crimean War. However this strategy did not turn out to be successful, as despite the leadership change, the Allies considered the participation of Turkey during the Great War -and its trend in the last decade towards political instability- akin to a rogue state that deserved punishment. Therefore, Entente statesmen sought to elevate Greece as a responsible Eastern Mediterranean Great Power in Turkey's place. The French leg of this strategy was abandoned due to the overwhelming British leverage over the Ottomans by the wars end. In an interview with ''The Morning Post'' in 21 June 1919, Sultan Vahdeddin said: "I have always been a friend of England, like my father Abdul Mejid. I believe that England will provide mercy and justice."

Mehmed VI witnessed many of the monarchies of Europe experiencing their demise or extreme shakeup with the end of the Great War. The German Hohenzollerns, Austrian Habsburgs, and Russian Romanovs all met their end due to the Great War, and Greece and Bulgaria's monarchies also experienced great instability due to the war. The highest priority for the Sultan was to safeguard his dynasty's interests, which soon came into conflict with his empire's national interest.

Domestically, he hoped to rely on Grand Viziers that were connected to the royal family by marriage ties. Damat Ferid Pasha was Vahdeddin's full-brother-in-law, or imperial '' damat'', for his marriage to his sister Mediha. Even though Ferid Pasha would eventually be appointed to the premiership five times, Vahdeddin had a terrible relationship with his ''damat''. He would write of Ferid "...he was very ignorant about domestic issues. He fell victim to the cunning of the British and Mustafa Kemal Pasha and led us to a complete defeat. Poor Ferid Pasha was looking at the world through the British glasses. May God forgive him." When asked by Abdul Mejid his thoughts of appointing Ferid Grand Vizier he answered "Brother, am I crazy? Neither his personality nor his disposition suits me. I would pay him a compliment for the sake of my sister. Otherwise, would I ever appoint him as Grand Vizier." But in a conversation with his daughters, the Sultan believed he no one else to appoint as Grand Vizier but him due to his supposedly good relations with the British. Ahmed Tevfik Pasha was his in-law through his son İsmail Hakkı's marriage to Vahdeddin's daughter Ulviye Sultana. He was a capable, though elderly, statesman from the Hamidian regime, who often had to "clean up" Ferid's mess.

Armistice era

With Talât Pasha's resignation and the CUP's self-liquidation at end of the Great War, Sultan Vahdeddin was given the opportunity to reassert the Sultanate, in contrast to his deceased half-brother who was accommodating to the CUP. He could now appoint a new Grand Vizier. His first choice was his in-law Ahmed Tevfik Pasha, a senile Hamidian that everyone objected to and couldn't present a government, so he dropped the matter. Mustafa Kemal Pasha sent a telegram to the Sultan, asking him to appoint Ahmed İzzet Pasha (the Sultan's new aide-de-camp) and make himself War Minister. İzzet Pasha wooed the Sultan by promising to 'secure the dynasty's 'legitimate rights' and restore justice in the nation'. The sultan assigned the task of forming the government to İzzet, though Mustafa Kemal was excluded from the new cabinet, as well as any minorities. In his speech for the opening of the new legislative year of the parliament, he wished for peace along the lines of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and that he accordingly wanted peace with the appropriate honour and dignity of the state.

When İzzet's naval minister Hüseyin Rauf (Orbay), reluctantly signed Armistice of Mudros, the Sultan said the following of the cease-fire terms: "Let’s accept these conditions, even though they are very harsh. I think that the friendship and the condescending policy of the English in the East, which has continued for centuries, will not change. We will gain their tolerance later.” Rauf himself believed the many loopholes of the terms wouldn't be exploited due to his trust in English diplomatic credit and Admiral Calthorpe. Instead, the allies exploited Article VII to continue occupying Ottoman territory, to much dismay from Ottoman anglophiles. Writing of the armistice terms during his exile, Vahdeddin believed Rauf to be responsible for all of the occupations of territory following Mudros, and Mustafa Kemal for exasperating the ensuing crisis.

Sultan Vahdeddin soon requested the resignation of İzzet, which was unconstitutional, and assigned Tevfik Pasha to form a government. Two days later, the allies occupied Istanbul, though Tevfik Pasha was able to receive a vote of confidence from a disgruntled parliament afterwards. Vahdeddin disliked the sight of the massive Allied fleet anchored in the Bosphorus from Dolmabahçe Palace, and retired to Yıldız Palace, passing Dolmabahçe to Abdul Mejid the crown prince. Sultan Vahdeddin made a press statement absolving the Ottoman people of collective guilt stating that the CUP was solely responsible for the war and its excesses, such as the Armenian genocide. He requested of his government to establish tribunals to try war criminals and that he would work with all his might to maintain friendship with England. The Chamber of Deputies, dominated by Unionists elected back in 1914, objected that only the chamber has the authority to establish special tribunals. It looked like the Chamber was drawing up a motion to censure Tevfik, Vahdeddin and the Grand Vizier decided to dissolve the Chamber on 21 December 1918. The Sultan postponed elections until a peace treaty could be signed, even though they were constitutionally mandated to occur four months after parliament's dissolution, on the grounds that the country was under occupation.

The question which immediately dominated Turkey was the fate of the war criminals and the Unionists. Sultan Vahdeddin asked Tevfik Pasha to resign and assigned him to form a new government in order to purge Unionist sympathizers from the government. The escape and suicide of the former governor of Diyarbekir, Reşid Bey, from prison (25 January 1919) renewed British interest in prosecuting war criminals. Britain ended up cooperating with the Turkish government in these arrest campaigns, though controversially demanded extradition of some criminals. British and French demands on war criminals increasingly mounted on the Tevfik Pasha government, and after the Sultan complained about the lack of progress on the matter in the last three and a half months, he resigned, and Damad Ferid Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier on 4 March 1919.

A new government, consisting of members of the Freedom and Accord Party, arrested the leaders of the CUP, including one of the former grand viziers, Said Halim Pasha. The trial of Boğazlıyan District Governor Mehmed Kemal Bey was quickly concluded. He was sentenced to death and publicly hanged in Beyazıt Square after the fatwa was signed by the sultan, which did not go over well with Turks, and he was declared a national martyr. Ferid Pasha was unable to send a Turkish delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, and the Allies increased interference in government. To calm the situation at home and shore up his popularity, Vahdeddin dispatched Commissions of Admonition 'Heyet-i Nasîha'' delegations representing the imperial family headed by royal princes to Anatolia and Rumelia.

On 15 May 1919, after receiving the necessary support from the Allies, Greece landed an occupation force in Izmir, which inflamed sectarian tensions in Turkey. This began the Greco-Turkish War. In order to calm nationalist tempers, the Sultan had Ferid, who had resigned following the Greek Occupation of Izmir, form his second government on 19 May, which included ten nationalist ministers without portfolio unaffiliated with political parties or the palace. Twenty-three jailed nationalists, whose trials had already been postponed were released. On 26 May, Damad Ferid convened a Sultanic Council 'Şûrâ-yi Saltanat'' a faux parliament akin to an '' estates general'', to formulate a response to the Greek occupation of Izmir. The delegates concluded the council demanding complete independence and the establishment of an emergency national council. Though the government did not implement the council's recommendations, in response the Allies extradited sixty-seven prisoners from the Bekir Ağa Division to Malta, making them the first of the Malta exiles. The Sultan sent a special message to the British High Commissioner Admiral Calthorpe and complained about Greek atrocities that had " turned Aydın into a slaughterhouse". He stated that if the Greeks’ excesses were not stopped, it would be impossible to hold back the Anatolian people. He said that since his army had been demobilized, he had no soldiers to maintain order, that the journey had become terrifying and dangerous, and that he saw no hope other than the British government in preventing disasters.

Mustafa Kemal's assignment

By the end of the war, conditions in Thrace and Anatolia -by all metrics- were disastrous, to the point where public order collapsed. The Allied Powers allowed officers to be assigned to the army in Anatolia to ensure public order and demobilize the army. On 30 April 1919 Mustafa Kemal Pasha was assigned to the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate, a wide-ranging responsibility which effectively gave him civil and administrative authority over all of Anatolia. In the lead up to this assignment, Kemal and the Sultan reconnected and held several audiences, with Vahdeddin trying to assess through Kemal the attitude of the army towards him, Kemal wrote later that Vahdeddin's singular concern over the army's loyalty gave him a feeling of hopelessness. Kemal also held several meetings with the Grand Vizier, Damat Ferid Pasha. In the years following though, Mustafa Kemal would tell many the story of his last audience with the Sultan at Yıldız Palace on 15 May, during which Vahdeddin was said to have implored Kemal to "save the state" in his mission, leaving Kemal shocked that the Sultan implicitly hoped for him to indeed establish a nationalist resistance. However Vahdeddin never wrote of a meeting like this occurring.

The lead up to Kemal's departure to Samsun filled the capital with tension. British officers stationed in the city distributing visas for Mustafa Kemal's party noticed his mission included many more officers and personnel necessary than an inspectorate would need. Instead of three or four people, he intended his party to include 35 officers. Liaison officer John Godolphin Bennett, reading the names of the officers, believed Kemal intended to wage war. These concerns were relayed to High Commissioner Rumbolt, who assured him that he trusted the Sultan, who in turn trusted Kemal. On 16 May 1919, Kemal and 19 officers out of the 35 officers he hoped to join him left early with the news of Izmir's occupation (See Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's voyage to Samsun). Once he arrived in Samsun on 19 May 1919, out of the reaches of Istanbul and without the Sultan's permission, Kemal indeed used his extraordinary powers to coordinate a nationalist resistance with like minded officers, which led to British demands for his recall.

Initial clashes with Mustafa Kemal

The sultan was indifferent to his activities until late June. Though the government announced Mustafa Kemal's cashiering from the army on 23 June, Vahdeddin preferred to remain silent. Following the tension between the British units stationed in Samsun and Refet Bey, the British demanded that Refet Bey be dismissed from the army and Mustafa Kemal be arrested and brought to Istanbul. Mehmed VI made an effort to prove to the British that he had no connection with the incident in Samsun. In a conversation on the night of 8–9 July 1919 over telegram with Kemal, who was in Erzurum, Vahdeddin stated that the British wanted him to come to Istanbul immediately and that they had given him a guarantee that they would not treat the general dishonorably. In a second telegram he sent without waiting for the reply to the previous telegram, he announced that Mustafa Kemal Pasha had been dismissed from his duty as the Third Army Inspector (position since renamed) and that he should return to Istanbul. Mustafa Kemal Pasha simultaneously announced his resignation from the army and that he was ready to continue the struggle as a civilian.

By the summer of 1919, the Allies finally decided to invite a Turkish delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, which coincided with the commencement of the trial and arrest of the Unionists once again. The Sultan demanded Tevfik accompany Damad Ferid Pasha, who headed the delegation, as he did not trust the Grand Vizier. At this time crown-prince Abdul Mejid sharply criticized his cousin for following such a pro-British policy and placing Ferid in a position of authority. His presentation of the Turkish position to the conference, effectively demanding ''status quo ante bellum'', produced shock and ridicule from the Allied representatives, discrediting Istanbul's diplomatic position, shuttering Turkey from the peace negotiations. The sultan nevertheless reappointed him Grand Vizier after his resignation upon returning from Paris, hoping that stacking his cabinet with even more nationalist ministers could unite the country and minimize the influence of Mustafa Kemal's burgeoning movement. Tevfik, Ahmed Izzet and Ali Rıza Pasha, who were sympathetic to the national movement, were appointed ministers without portfolio. Ferid issued a circular opposing the proceedings of the Erzurum Congress. When the Erzurum Congress (23 July) convened under the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Pasha anyway, it began its work by sending a telegram of loyalty to the sultan, and a telegram criticizing the Grand Vizier's circular.

After a long struggle instigated by British pressure, Ferid was able to obtain an arrest warrant for Mustafa Kemal Pasha and Rauf Orbay on 29 July. Crown Prince Abdul Mejid stormed the palace and criticized the sultan for blindly supporting Damad Ferid Pasha, to the point of insult. Ferid had few friends and many enemies, one of whom was the Crown Prince Abdul Mejid. The Sultan's continued reliance on Ferid prompted Abdul Mejid to independently correspond with allied leaders and send letters of advice to his cousin, one of which was to push back in the negotiations for peace terms. Vahdeddin would not reply to these letters. On 16 July, Abdul Mejid wrote to the Sultan a memorandum which he subsequently leaked to the press calling for cooperation between the government with the nationalists. In a telegram to XV Corps, Mustafa Kemal would downplay the Veliahd's memorandum as claims not to be taken seriously.

With a decree Ferid had the Sultan personally sign, all of Mustafa Kemal Pasha's decorations were withdrawn and his honorary rank of aide-de-camp to the sultan was also abolished (9 August). İzzet and Tevfik Pasha would resign from government over this event. The government was again unsuccessful in dispersing the Sivas Congress (4–11 September). Upon its conclusion, Mustafa Kemal began the Telegram War by telling provincial officials to cut communications with Istanbul until they give in to Sivas' demands, the National Pact being one of them. Within a month, all of Anatolia and Thrace, save Istanbul, pledged allegiance to Kemal's movement. The British urged the Sultan to create a national unity government, and with the resignation of Damat Ferid Pasha, on 2 October Ali Rıza Pasha, a general with nationalist credentials, was brought to the premiership and signed the Amasya Protocol with the nationalists. Vahdeddin was unhappy to have been forced to compromise with what he thought were unreconstructed Unionists rebelling against a rightful monarch.

Detente with the nationalists

In the 1919 general election, held as part of the Amasya Protocol, Mustafa Kemal's Association for the Defence of Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia won an uncontested victory. The sultan did not attend the opening of the legislative session, citing his illness as an excuse. In order not to be subject to criticism, he had reports about his health published in the press. Mustafa Kemal Pasha sent a get well soon telegram to the sultan. He cordially responded and thanked him. In an interview Sultan Vahdeddin gave to an American agency, he stated that he wanted peace as soon as possible, because delay was worse than war. He stated that the desired peace in the East could only be achieved by continuing Turkey's independence.

Despite the appearances of national unity, the sultan would always believe that the Turkish nationalists surrounding Mustafa Kemal were Unionists (most members of the movement, including Mustafa Kemal, were previously members of the CUP). This disrespect was mutual, Kemal thought of Vahdeddin as naïve and incompetent. Never-the-less, he maintained the political fiction that the Sultan's actions were done under duress of foreigners and manipulative courtiers, and he needed to be saved. The fear of losing Istanbul prevented Vahdeddin from establishing close relations with the nationalists. He considered the nationalists’ seizure of the country's administration as a rebellion, based on the fact that the sultan's prerogatives were no longer absolute. He believed that it was out of the question for a sovereign to compromise and negotiate with rebels. The nationalists imploring him to escape from Istanbul to Bursa or Ankara was also offensive to the sultan, as he thought it would make a compelling excuse for Greece or the Allies to press a claim on the imperial capital. While meeting with the British High Commissioner Horace Rumbold (23 March 1921), he said that Mustafa Kemal Pasha was "a revolutionary... Bekir Sami is a Circassian. They are all the same... My government, unfortunately, is powerless against them." He brought up the issue of the caliphate and said, “...The caliphate will become a tool in the hands of wolves who love foggy weather.” In his memoirs written years later, he would say that he had dispatched Mustafa Kemal, but that he had openly rebelled, that Damad Ferid Pasha had tried to remove him from his post and bring him to his senses, but he had failed, that he had called Tevfik Pasha to duty to reach a compromise, but he had also failed.

After the military occupation of Istanbul (16 March 1920), an action the Sultan had to accept under duress, Vahdeddin reported that he received the Allies' pronouncement with sorrow. He said that he had always desired cooperation with the Allied Powers, that he was relieved by the arrest of certain nationalist leaders in Istanbul, and that if the allies had not made such a decision, he would have had to do it himself. He expressed his appreciation for the guarantees regarding his own royal prerogatives. The Sultan and his government were trapped between the demands of the Allies and the demands of the Turkish Nationalists.

Conflict with the nationalist movement

While the Allies supported Sultan Vahdeddin against the nationalists, he understood this incident disrupted the rapprochement that had been forming between Istanbul and Anatolia for past six months. Indeed, he received a delegation from the Chamber of Deputies and advised the deputies to be careful in their speech as the British presence was overwhelming. When he was told that the nation was loyal to the sultan and that the British could not do anything to Anatolia, he stated that they could even go to Ankara tomorrow if they wanted. Rauf Orbay, who was in this delegation, asked the sultan not to sign any international treaties without a verdict from parliament. The sultan got angry at this and replied, "Rauf Bey, there is a nation, a flock of sheep! A shepherd is needed for its administration, and that is me!" and tried to explain that an occupied parliament could not do anything.

The Salih Hulusi government was forced to resign because it did not accept the Allied powers’ demands to "condemn" and "reject" the nationalists (2 April). It was understood that Damat Ferid Pasha was due to return to the prime ministry. The second president of the Chamber of Deputies, Hüseyin Kâzım Bey, stated that appointing Ferid as Grand Vizier without receiving a solid guarantee from the British would be a disaster for the country and the sultanate. This angered the sultan who said, "If I want, I can bring the Greek Patriarch, the Armenian Patriarch, and the Chief Rabbi o the Grand Vizierate" and assigned Ferid to form a government for the fourth time (5 April). Under pressure from the British, fatwas were issued declaring that the nationalists were "infidels" that they were "obligatory" to be killed, and defection of Istanbul was punishable by death. The Sultan ordered the Chamber of Deputies shuttered (11 April), and on 18 April, the Army of the Caliphate was established against the National Forces. The Constitution was retracted as well, formally ending the Second Constitutional Era, though it was practically not in effect since 1912.

On 23 April 1920 the Grand National Assembly was established in Ankara and declared itself the sole legitimate government of Turkey. A great religious ceremony was held in which Vahdeddin's name was called from the minarets of the provincial town. This created a diarchy in Turkey: the Sultan's government in Istanbul and the Nationalist government in Ankara, a situation Greece, Armenia, France, and Britain hoped to exploit. On 27 April 1920 Mustafa Fevzi Pasha defected to Ankara and delivered a speech, noting that his defection was encouraged by Sultan Vahdeddin in order to keep communication open between Istanbul and Ankara. Afterwards, a telegram of allegiance was sent to the sultan, and the new parliament announced that the national resistance was being carried out to rescue the captive sultan. A counter-fatwa was issued by Rifat Börekçi and 147 religious scholars in Ankara, declaring the nationalists' struggle against imperialism legitimate and divinely sanctioned. Istanbul's response to this was to sentence Mustafa Kemal Pasha and five of his comrades to death in a martial law court (24 May), a decision signed by the sultan. The Grand Vizier Ferid Pasha returned to Istanbul after receiving the harsh peace terms from the Paris Peace Conference on 11 July.

In a speech to the Grand National Assembly, Mustafa Kemal said the following of Sultan Mehmed VI's legitimacy as a Caliph:

“..Istanbul is officially and effectively occupied by the enemy. Today, there is no difference between saying Istanbul and saying London. Unfortunately, in Istanbul, which is like London, our caliph, to whom the entire Islamic world is devoted, and our sultan, the most precious legacy of our great ancestors, has remained."

Under British pressure, the Disciplinary Force, also known as the Army of the Caliphate, was established by Ferid on 18 April, to link up with the Circassian warlord Ahmed Anzavur and crush the nationalists. Despite it's name, European observers mocked the lack of discipline of the force, especially those among its general staff. Low enthusiasm in Istanbul's mission meant the Disciplinary Force marched off just half a division strong. Many of soldiers even joined the National Forces after being routed by Ali Fuad's men in İzmit, and the force was disbanded after some three month existence. All the Disciplinary Force gave the Istanbul government was a financial crisis due to the army's expenses.

Treaty of Sèvres

Throughout 1918–1920 the Sultan attempted several times to contact the British government through Ferid and his nephew Sami Bey to basically request a protectorate status for the Ottoman Empire under Britain, with the justification of Britain's responsible custodianship of millions of Muslims in it's empire. Calthorpe would often be the one to reject these proposals, as the British considered them "diplomatic bribery" and didn't think her allies would accept. Rumors of a secret agreement reached between the Ottoman government and Britain over a framework of a peace settlement surfaced in December 1919. In the lead up to the presentation of peace proceedings, Vahdeddin sent a telegram to King George V, asking the king to intervene in his government to ease the peace terms. King George replied "The future of Turkey is in the hands of the allied governments."
The sultan convened the last Sultanate Council of the Ottoman Empire in Yıldız Palace to deliberate over the peace terms, which he described as a "conglomerate of calamities" 'mecelle-i mesâib''(22 July). The grand vizier reported that it was understood from a telegram that Istanbul would be fully occupied by Greek troops if the treaty was rejected. After the deliberations, everyone except Topçu Feriki Rıza Pasha accepted signing of the treaty. With the approval he received from the Sultanate Council, Ferid Pasha shuffled his cabinet to suppress the Turkish nationalist movement in Anatolia and formed his fifth cabinet. Sultan Vahdeddin's representatives signed the Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 1920. This treaty detached the Arab provinces of Turkey and turned them into countries under British and French mandates, while recognizing British, French, and Italian spheres of influence in Anatolia. Eastern Thrace was to be annexed by Greece which would also control Izmir and Armenia was to be given independence. Though Turkey could nominally keep its capital, a large Allied presence would be stationed in the Turkish straits. Hundreds of articles of the treaty delved into minutia only appropriate for colonies, such as provisions for foreign excavation and archeology, protection of birds useful for agriculture, and bans on pornography. The Ottoman Empire was to remain a rump state in Anatolia under foreign influence, relegating the country as an "uncivilized" state necessary of civilizing initiatives by great powers.

In a secret session of the Grand National Assembly (25 September), Mustafa Kemal claimed that the sultan could not be considered a legitimate caliph, and accused him of treason. However, he argued that it was unwise to neglect the caliphate, the sole support of the Islamic world, and that loyalty to the sultanate and the caliphate must continue in order to achieve salvation. Never the less, the first murmurs of deposing Vahdeddin in the Grand National Assembly came about in the fall out of Sèvres. On the other hand, the signatories of the Treaty of Sèvres, including Damad Ferid Pasha, were sentenced to death by an Independence Tribunal in Ankara (7 October). Ankara denounced the rule of Mehmed VI and the command of Süleyman Şefik Pasha, who was in charge of the Army of the Caliphate; as a result, a temporary constitution was drafted for Kemal's counter-government in Ankara.

Around this time Abdul Mejid received an invitation from Mustafa Kemal to come to Ankara to join the nationalists in order to give his movement more legitimacy, but despite his misgivings with Vahdeddin's reliance on Ferid Pasha, he decided the move would be too risky, putting further distrust of the royal family among the nationalists. Upon this correspondence being found out the government innitiated the 38-day blockade of Dolmabahçe, which was only resolved with British shuttle diplomacy, and ended his relationship with Vahdeddin. Abdul Mejid would be the only member of the Ottoman family to call Vahdeddin a traitor following his exile. Other members of the royal family such as Ömer Faruk and İsmail Hakkı were inspired to betray their patriarch and join the nationalists after this incident.

Lead up to deposition

While Vahdeddin supported peace he chose not to ratify the Sèvres Treaty despite British pressure, with the justification that it would completely divide the nation. By stalling, Sèvres stayed a draft treaty and it did not enter into force. With the Treaty of Sèvres unpopular with the Turks and the Istanbul government seen as illegitimate and unable to crush the nationalists, the Greeks began an offensive to crush the nationalist movement. The Allies now hoped to draw up a new peace settlement more acceptable for the Turks, and invited Istanbul and Ankara to the Conference of London. This coincided with the Allies shifting away from Greece with the fall of Eleftherios Venizelos and return of King Constantine, the fall of Clemanceau in France, and support for Ankara throughout the Islamic world.

On 17 October, the Allied Powers sent their high commissioners in Istanbul to the sultan and requested that the government of Ferid be changed for a new government that could reach an agreement with Ankara to implement the treaty. The sultan appointed Tevfik Pasha to the premiership on 21 October, made up of ministers sympathetic to the Nationalists. Istanbul once again began a reproachment with Ankara, and a memerandum of understanding (in the form of a '' hatt-i humayun'') was published on 28 January 1921, where Istanbul recognized the Grand National Assembly. Vahdeddin put responsibility of the treaty on Ferid, who had been discredited even among anti-Unionists and royalists. He participated in aid campaigns for nationalists facing off against the Greeks. Tevfik suspended the Special War Tribunal for war criminals of the Great War, and lifted Mustafa Kemal's death penalty sentence, and pardoned nationalist prisoners. In the fallout of the Treaty of Sèvres and the escelation of the Greco-Turkish War, the Sultan came to admire Mustafa Kemal, and saught ways to escape the capital to join him in Ankara through his chief of staff Avni Pasha. However ministers like İzzet, Ali Rıza, and Tevfik advised him against doing so, and pressured Avni to resign. Around this time Vahdeddin dispaired at realizing he had been manipulated by them and Ferid. These overtures came to nothing, as Ankara did not accept the invitation to the London Conference as Istanbul (Tevfik Pasha) refused to recognize Ankara as the sole legitimate government of Turkey.

Around early summer 1921, Vahdeddin's nephew Sami Bey organized an escape attempt with the royal yacht ''Söğüt'', only to be confronted on the docks by High Commissioner Rumbold right before he was to fetch the Sultan, reminding him that if he leaves the Allies would evacuate Constantinople too, allowing the Greeks to take sole custody of the city if he fled.

In another secret session of parliament on 8 February 1922 Mustafa Kemal and the delegates discussed the feasibility of dethroning Vahdeddin with the justification that the sultan had vacated the caliphate by accepting Sèvres.

Abolition of the Sultanate

As the nationalist movement strengthened its military positions with the Great Offensive of late August 1922, Mehmed VI, his five wives, and attendant eunuchs could no longer leave the safety of the palace. On 19 October 1922, after the Armistice of Mudanya and the Chanak Crisis ending the Greco-Turkish War, from Ankara, Refet Pasha arrived in Constantinople to an exuberant city (at least the Muslims were). To one of Tevfik's sons welcoming him on behalf of Vahdeddin, Refet declared his greeting to the Caliph, not the Sultan, and met with Istanbul's ministers on a personal basis, not with their offices. This communicated Ankara's intention to not recognize the Istanbul government, and the end of the Sultanate. Refet would give speeches, announcing that sovereignty belonged to people now, no longer Khans, Sultans, and Constitutional Monarchs. In a meeting with İzzet Pasha, now Foreign Minister in Tevfik's cabinet, Refet informed him that should Istanbul send a delegate to the peace talks to be held in Lausanne, Ankara would quit the talks. Rumours that Vahdeddin would be deposed and put on trial began to circulate.

When he met with the Sultan, he requested him to dissolve the Istanbul government and recognize Ankara as Turkey's sole legitimate government. However Vahdeddin insisted on the presence of the Istanbul government to represent the throne at the conference, and rejected Refet by claiming that he was a constitutional monarch and he could not dissolve the government. Tevfik also refused to budge on not sending a representative of Istanbul to the conference. When news reached Ankara on Vahdeddin and the Sublime Porte's insistence on sending a delegation to the Conference of Lausanne the Grand National Assembly voted to abolish the sultanate on 1 November 1922. He told Refet Pasha, who notified him of the decision of the assembly, that even if the existence of such a caliphate without executive authority was enacted, no one could accept it, as a Caliphate could not exist without a Sultanate. 19 days later Abdul Mejid accepted the Grand National Assembly's election of him as Caliph.

Although the Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate and tied the caliphate to new conditions, the government did not publish any information of the Sultan's condition. The assembly accepted the proposals and voted to put Mehmed VI on trial, but the method of trial was not determined. Newspapers published news about the sultan's treason. With Istanbul ministers rapidly resigning from cabinet, in a surprise move Tevfik Pasha resigned the Grand Vizierate, making him the last Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He did not return the imperial seal and never met with the sultan again. In his memoirs, Mehmed VI accused Tevfik Pasha of being Mustafa Kemal Pasha's man, of playing a double game and of leaving him alone during his most difficult day by resigning.

When news came of the lynching of Ali Kemal in İzmit, the royal family and its supporters panicked. Those who could get visas ran away, those who could not took refuge in British barracks. The sultan was overwhelmed by those who came to the palace to provide the money to escape, and kept to his harem. On 10 November Vahdeddin went to the Friday prayers for the first time after the abolition of the sultanate, and was not mentioned in the sermon. With this experience and reading articles attacking him in the press, he decided to leave the country.

Exile and death

On 16 November 1922, Vahideddin wrote to General Charles Harington (the British General commanding the Army of Occupation) "Sir, considering my life is in danger in Istanbul, I take refuge with the British Government and request my transfer as soon as possible from Istanbul to another place. Mehmed Vahideddin, Caliph of the Muslims". He stated that he saw his freedom and life in danger due to recent events and that he expected the protection of his person from England, which had the most Muslim subjects, on condition that it preserved its legitimate and sacred rights over the Ottoman Sultanate and the Islamic Caliphate. He had requested British occupation authorities (and Lord Curzon) security of his person in the event he had to flee the country since July 1919, and made it his highest prioirity after the formal occupation of Istanbul. The day before his departure, he had lunch with his daughter, Ulviye Sultana.

Waking up to a rainy day on 17 November 1922, he took care not to take valuable items or jewellery owned by the Ottoman family, other than his personal belongings and burned many documents. He refused to bring with him the Relics of the Sacred Trust. He and his entourage of ten, including Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul left Yıldız Palace under British escort to Dolmabahçe, and with Harington himself, boarded the British warship HMS ''Malaya'' from the Tophane docks. Admiral Sir Osmond Brock asked the Sultan where he wished to go, but a despondent Vahdeddin had no preference. Osmond suggested Malta, which he accepted.

In his memoirs, Vahideddin wrote that he did not flee, but performed a ''hijra'' by following the example of the Prophet Muhammed, and that he would return to his homeland one day. He wrote that he was forced to accept a caliphate without a sultanate, that he was overwhelmed by the blind and ungrateful people surrounding him, that he decided to temporarily relocate until public opinion calmed down and the situation became clear. He left without abdicating.

The British governor-general welcomed Vahdeddin on behalf of George V in Malta. He thanked the king and reiterated that he had not given up his throne and the caliphate. An eight-room apartment was prepared for the sultan and his entourage in the Pini Barracks. On 19 November, his cousin and crown prince, Abdul Mejid, was elected caliph, becoming the new head of the Imperial House of Osman as Abdul Mejid II. Upon hearing this news Vahideddin said "Only my prophet uhammedcan do that" Beni ancak müvekkil-i zîşânım hal edebilir" Vahdeddin would say

Abdul Mejid, on the other hand, said that Vahdeddin had not only betrayed his country, but had also tarnished the honor of the dynasty and had now been expelled from the country and the dynasty's registry.

''Umrah'' to Hejaz

King Hussein of Hejaz, who had rebelled against Turkey in the Arab Revolt, invited the deposed Sultan to his new kingdom to perform ''umrah''. He took up the invitation because he thought it undignified for him to live in a Christian country with his titles. His British hosts were happy to see him leave Malta as he was an expensive guest. He was welcomed by King Hussein's son at Port Said after a voyage on the Battleship HMS ''Ajax''. After that, he reached Suez on a second-class ship and from there reached Jeddah on a third-class ship on 15 January 1923. King Hussein welcomed his guest with a 101-gun salute with fieldguns previously operated by the Ottoman army. Also waiting for him was Rıza Tevfik (Bölükbaşı) and Mustafa Sabri. He treated him as a distinguished guest, but not as a Caliph, as Hussein was working to get himself recognized as caliph recognized in the Islamic world. From there, they proceeded to Mecca. The deposed sultan stayed in Mecca until the end of February 1923 when he informed Hussein that the dry heat was too much for him, and he wanted to go to Cyprus or Haifa. Hussein wrote to the British representative in Jeddah and said that there might be ulterior motives behind this. London instructed Vahdeddin to stay in Taif. There he composed many poems about the longing he had for his homeland; in one of them he drew parallels to himself and Cem Sultan, an Ottoman prince that was similarly exiled from his empire.
The Islamic world criticized his visit to Hejaz, where it was viewed as an insincere British public relations stunt for the Muslim world. The Indian Muslim writer Mawlana Abul Kelam attacked Vahdeddin, accusing him of sentencing Kemalist heroes to death while they were saving the state and nation with their hostility towards the British, whereas he was used by the British to sow discord among Muslims. In the face of this criticism, Vahdeddin published a declaration addressed to the Islamic world with the hope to salvage his legacy. A summary of the declaration, which could not be distributed due Sharif Hussein's censorship, was published in ''Al-Ahram''. In this document, Mehmed Vahdeddin defended his actions and responded to the accusations against him. He held Rauf Bey responsible for allowing the occupations of Mosul, Adana, Antalya, Izmir, and Istanbul due to the shakey armistice terms. He attacked Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his friends, stating that he had sent him to Anatolia, but he turned a blind eye to the government that later deemed it necessary to order a military operation against him in order to punish him for not recognizing his sovereignty. He was working to normalize relations with the allies, but the Kemalists interrupted his project. Kemal's effort served to stoke discord between Turkey and the international community, resulting in Istanbul and the dynasty being harmed as collateral. He had tried to prevent the Ankara-Istanbul diarchy through his will to work with nationalist ministers. He framed Ankara as a cabal of athiests and defended his escape from Turkey as adhering to ''sunnah'' because he was being accused of treason for opposing the unholy separation of the caliphate and the sultanate. He was taking a risk being temporarily being separated from his throne, homeland, and comfort to protect the honor and dignity of the caliphate.

In Italy

When he realized that he could not stay in the Hejaz any longer, he wished to go to Palestine or Cyprus. The British vetoed this wish; British hospitality for Vahdeddin hit its breaking point and his presence could have caused unrest in British controled Muslim lands. They offered to house him in Switzerland, though he had to pay out of his own pocket for the journey. From Jeddah, he landed in Suez by sea and from there he reached Alexandria by train provided by the Egyptian government. Since the British did not allow him to stay in Egypt for more than seventy-two hours, he set off for Switzerland. But due to the Lausanne Conference the British understood his presence could raise unnecessary tensions and directed him to Italy.

The Italian government, through King Victor Emmanuel III's aid-de-camp General Laderci, welcomed Vahdeddin with an unofficial ceremony at the Port of Genoa on 2 May 1923. Damad Ferid Pasha was a part of this crowd, and met with his former sovereign for the last time. Vahdeddin previously met Victor Emmanuel in his visits to Constantinople when he was crown prince. His visit in 1900 coincided with the death of his father Umberto, and he was touched by Vahdeddin's offers of condolence. He moved to the Villa Nobel in San Remo, all expenses payed by the Italian government. He passed time playing his qanun and writing doomed petitions to England and France for permission to go to a Muslim land, and to object the attacks on the Ottoman Caliphate by the Turkish government. For sixteen months he lived there with Ertuğrul and a couple of servants. On 3 March 1924 the Turkish government abolished the Caliphate and expelled the Ottoman Family (soon to be rendered surname Osmanoğlu) and he was able to reunite with the rest of his wives, Ulviye, Mediha, and his elder half-sister Seniha Sultana. He especially appreciated Nevzad's arrival. The family moved to the larger Villa Mamolya. As fugitives of the Ottoman court gathered in San Remo a Little Istanbul emerged. The Italian government kept his household under surveillence, and after the Turkish government opened a consul in Genoa, they joined in too. Abdul Mejid and his kin chose to settle in Nice, an issue which symbolized family leadership, to recover their family's properties in former Ottoman lands (see Efforts to reclaim Ottoman properties by the Ottoman family). The dispute was settled by granting neither power of attorney, but instead two lawyers: Reşad Halis Bey and Şerif Pasha. Vahdeddin died six days after signing the paper work, and Abdul Mejid took over the legal cases and claimed sole power of attorney.In 1924, Vahdeddin also had to deal with the suicide of his personal doctor Reşad Pasha, the fallout of which, in the , lead to Ankara accusing the exiled Sultan-Caliph of planning a restoration. An investigation revealed an anti-Kemalist/pro-royalist secret society founded in 1920 known as the Tarikat-ı Salâhiye, which recruited members under the pretext of selling the drug distol, was involved in the Sheikh Said rebellion. In 1925 Reşad's son-in-law Salih Fuad went to Turkey, and in front of an Independence Tribunal claimed he was actually killed, and accused the exiled Sultan-Caliph of ordering his death so that plans for his restoration to the throne wouldn't be interfered with. The judge agreed the evidence Fuad provided of two likely fabricated letters indicated intent, and ten people were executed for their membership in the organization.

In Villa Mamolya he was visited by General Harrington and Sir Osmond Brock. Royalty came to see him too, including the Aga Khan, Faisal of Iraq, and Muhammad Ali Shah Qajar. He struck up a friendship with the latter, though he previously refused his son Ahmed's petition to marry Sabiha due to their Shiism.

With Turkey having abolished the Ottoman Caliphate, a congress was organized in Egypt to spiritually unite the Muslim world under a new Caliphate, a challenging question since no Muslim country other than Turkey was independent and influential, and the British Empire ruled over the most Muslims anyway. In the end the Caliphate Congress would be inconclusive, and no widely recognized caliph has been proclaimed since. Vahdeddin protested the preparations made for the Congress declaring to the press he had never waived the right to reign and be caliph. The congress met on 13 May 1926, but Mehmed died before hearing of the news of the congress meeting on 16 May 1926 in Sanremo, Italy.

Vahdeddin left Istanbul with £20,000 and died deep in debt. Most of the money was gambled away by his former brother-in-law, and chief aid, Zeki Bey in casinos, including Monte Carlo, and other acts of debauchery (Zeki was later discovered to be on Ankara's payroll to report on Vahdeddin's activities), a lot was given to swindlers and con-men that he felt obliged to gift. Since he was in dire financial straits, he had sold everything he had that could provide money, including some of his medals. He owed some 60,000 Italian lire to all the artisans and creditors of San Remo. Officers locked the former sultan's body in a room along with all the belongings they found in Villa Mamolya and sealed the door. The Italians did not allow for his burial until all the debts were paid. It took one month for the money to be given to the creditors.

In the meantime, a Muslim land was sought where the body could be buried. It was decided that it would be buried in the Sulaymaniyya Takiyya in Damascus, after the necessary permission was obtained from France and Sabiha found money for a burial. Once the debt was paid off the body was taken to a station by a horse-drawn carriage and from there to Trieste by train. Here, the body was loaded onto a ship and transported to Beirut under the supervision of Ömer Faruk, and from there to Damascus by train where he was buried on 3 July 1926. His funeral was attended by members of the Mevlevi Order and Syrian dignitaries, including president Ahmed Nami.

Personality

A British intellegence report written in 1920 described Vahdeddin:

He is known for being against the CUP, but he has not openly taken part in any struggle in his political life. He is a considerable intellectual and a pleasant nature. He has sincere convictions to serve his country and protect his dynasty. After he ascended to the throne, his personal influence and authority as sultan-caliph became a factor in domestic affairs. He had ideas that he knew how to use, but his weakness, timidity and caution prevented him from turning the throne into a strong element. He believed that the grace of England could save Turkey. Despite being extremely nervous, he expressed his ideas comfortably. His private life is free of scandals, but it is said that he finds solace in his sorrows in friendship with ladies.

Vahdeddin had an optimistic and patient personality according to the testimony of his relatives and employees. He was evidently a kind family man in his palace; outside, and especially at official ceremonies, he would stand cold, frowning and serious, and would not compliment anyone; he attached great importance to religious traditions; he would not tolerate rumors, nor would he allow them to circulate in his palace. Even in his informal conversations, he always attracted attention with seriousness.

Mehmed VI was talented in literature, music, and calligraphy, a tradition of his family. His compositions were performed in the palace when he was on the throne. Instead of commissioning his own anthem he signed an edict making his grandfather Mahmud II's anthem as the official national anthem of Turkey. The lyrics of the poems he composed while in Taif envision the longing of the country and the pain of not getting the news that they have left behind. He loved to play the saz and qanun. Sixty-three works belonging to him can be identified, but only forty works have signatures.

Assessment

Mehmed VI's legacy in modern Turkey has stayed moribund. His government's signing of the Treaty of Sèvres, and other actions taken during his reign, has him condemned in Turkish history as traitor and a British collaborator. Recent scholarship into his life had painted a more nuanced picture. Murat Bardakçı asserted the Sultan was more of a tragic, if incompetent, monarch faced with an incredible crisis. Some historians, principally championed by Bardakçı, assert that Vahdeddin not only provided Mustafa Kemal the resources to coordinate a nationalist resistance against the Allies but intended him to do so, but Kemal chose to betray his sovereign. Theories of why the government gave Mustafa Kemal such extensive powers in his assignment as Ninth Army Troops Inspector have remained inconclusive.

In an interview between Suat Hayri Ürgüplü and Sabiha Sultana, Sabiha would say that the man her father most admired was Mustafa Kemal and that he was not a traitor.

Those close to Vahdeddin described him as intelligent and quick-grasped, but he was under the influence of his entourage and especially those he believed in, that he had a very evident, unstable and stubborn temperament. A quality he shared with Abdul Hamid II was his knack for stalling and using time to have problems solve themselves, though in practice these strategies were disasterous when decisive action was necessary.

Honours

Turkish honours

* Order of House of Osman, Jeweled
* Order of Glory, Jeweled
* Imtiyaz Medal, Jeweled
* Order of Osmanieh, Jeweled
* Order of the Medjidie, Jeweled

Foreign honours

* Prussia: Order of the Black Eagle of Prussia, ''15 October 1917''

Family

Consorts

Mehmed VI had five consorts:
* Nazikeda Kadın (9 October 1866 – 4 April 1941). Başkadin and only consort for twenty years, she is considered the last Ottoman Empress. She was born Emine Marşania, she was Abkhazian and before marrying Mehmed she was in the service of Cemile Sultan with her sisters and cousins. Mehmed married her in 1885, after a year of insistence and the threat that he would never marry anyone else and the promise that Nazikeda would be his only consort. He kept his word until, after giving him three daughters, Nazikeda could no longer have children, which forced Mehmed to take other consorts to have male heirs. She was described as tall and beautiful, buxom, with fair skin, light hazel eyes, and long auburn hair.
* Inşirah Hanım (10 July 1887 – 10 June 1930). Born Seniye Voçibe, she was Circassian, the niece of Durriaden Kadin, consort of Mehmed V, older half-brother of Mehmed VI. She was tall, with beautiful blue eyes and very long dark brown hair. She was proposed by Mehmed in 1905. Inşirah refused, but was obliged by her father and her brother. Unhappy but still jealous, she divorced Mehmed in 1909, when she found a servant in his quarters. Having divorced before Mehmed's accession to the throne, she was never an Imperial Consort. Later she fell into depression. She tried to return to her husband in 1922, when he was in exile at Sanremo, Italy, but she was not allowed to see him and he was not notified of her presence. She attempted suicide twice. The first of hers was saved by her niece, but the second she managed by drowning herself in the Nile.
* Müveddet Kadın (12 October 1893 – 20 December 1951). Second Imperial Consort and only consort other than Nazikeda to obtain the title of Kadın. Born Şadiye Çıhcı, she was introduced to the court by Habibe Hanım, treasurer of Mehmed's harem. They were married in 1911. She was tall, with blue eyes and auburn hair and was known as a very sweet, shy, kind-hearted and hardworking woman. She was also loved and respected by her stepdaughters. She bore Mehmed her only son, whose death caused her to fall into depression. After Mehmed's death she remarried, but divorced after four years.
* Nevvare Hanım (4 May 1901 – 13 June 1992). Başikbal. Born Ayşe Çıhçı, she was niece of Müveddet Kadın, who raised her. She married Mehmed in 1918, although Müveddet did everything possible to prevent this. She was tall and beautiful, with green eyes and long black hair, of a kind but proud disposition. She filed for divorce in 1922, when Mehmed was deposed and exiled, and she was granted it in 1924. After that, she remarried.
* Nevzad Hanım (2 March 1902 – 23 June 1992). Second Ikbal and last woman to become consort of an Ottoman sultan. Born Nimet Bargu. She married Mehmed in 1921, previously she had been a Kalfa (servant) in the household of Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin, son of Sultan Mehmed V. She was Mehmed's favorite consort in his later years, so much so that it is said that he never agreed to part with her. After Mehmed's death she changed her name back to Nimet and remarried. By her second marriage she had a son and a daughter. She never agreed to talk about her years as Imperial Consort.

Sons

Mehmed VI had only one son:
* Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul (5 November 1912 – 2 July 1944) – with Müveddet Kadın. He never married or had children.

Daughters

Mehmed VI had three daughters:
* Münire Fenire Sultana (1888 – 1888, two weeks later) – with Nazikeda Kadın. Died an infant, she is sometimes regarded as twins rather than a single princess.
* Fatma Ulviye Sultana (11 September 1892 – 1 January 1967) – with Nazikeda Kadın. Married twice, she had one daughter.
* Rukiye Sabiha Sultana (19 March 1894 – 26 August 1971) – with Nazikeda Kadın. She married Şehzade Ömer Faruk and had three daughters.

See also

* Line of succession to the former Ottoman throne
* Alexandre Vallaury

References

Sources

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Further reading

* Fromkin, David, 1989. '' A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East''

External links

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