1915 | The Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition

Mahendra Pratap, centre, with (right to left) Maulavi Barkatullah, Werner Otto von Hentig, Kazim Bey [1], Walter Röhr. Kabul, 1916.
Mavi Boncuk |
The Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition [2] was a diplomatic mission sent by the Central Powers to Afghanistan in 1915-1916. The purpose was to encourage Afghanistan to declare full independence from the United Kingdom, enter World War I on the side of the Central Powers, and attack India. The expedition was sent as a part of the Indo-German efforts to provoke a nationalist revolution in India. Nominally headed by the exiled Indian prince Raja Mahendra Pratap, the expedition was a joint operation of Germany and Turkey and was led by the German Army officers Oskar Niedermayer and Werner Otto von Hentig. Other participants included members of the Indian nationalist organisation called the Berlin Committee, including Maulavi Barkatullah and C. R. Pillai, while the Turkish effort was represented by Kazim Bey, a close confidante of Enver Pasha.

Britain saw the expedition as a serious threat. Britain and its ally Russia unsuccessfully attempted to intercept it in Persia during the summer of 1915. Britain waged a covert intelligence and diplomatic offensive, including personal interventions by the Viceroy Lord Hardinge and King George V, to maintain Afghan neutrality.

The mission failed in its main task of rallying Afghanistan, under Emir Habibullah Khan, to the German and Turkish war effort, but it influenced other major events. In Afghanistan, the expedition triggered reforms and drove political turmoil, culminating in the assassination of the Emir in 1919, precipitating the Third Afghan War. It influenced the Kalmyk Project of nascent Bolshevik Russia to propagate socialist revolution in Asia, with one goal being the overthrow of the British Raj. Other consequences included formation of the Rowlatt Committee to investigate sedition in India as influenced by Germany and Bolshevim, and changes in the Raj's approach to the Indian independence movement immediately after World War I.

Source

[1] Rauf Bey (Orbay)

Mustafa Kemal, between other members of Heyet-i Temsiliye (right) Hüseyin Rauf (Orbay) and Bekir Sami (Kunduh) in Sivas'ta (4-11 September 1919)

Hüseyin Rauf was born in 1881 in Istanbul. He first studied at the military high school in Libya, where his father was the governor, and graduated from the Naval Academy in Istanbul. His first duties after joining the Turkish Navy involved the operations in Yemen and Samos. He also took part in the war against Italians in Libya. During the Balkan War, he gained a well deserved fame as the captain of the battle cruiser Hamidiye, which sailed around the Eastern Mediterranean for nearly 8 months disturbing the operations of the Greek Navy. Although it could not change the course of the war, the world followed the cruise of Hamidiye and its captain Rauf Bey with great admiration.

When the World War broke out, Rauf Bey was sent as a special envoy to Afghanistan to ensure Afghan support for Turkish war efforts. However, Enver Paşa appointed him as the commander of the Iran front, before he could complete his duties in Afghanistan. Upon his return to Istanbul, he became the Chief of the Staff of the Turkish Navy.

In 1917, Rauf Bey led the Turkish delegation that negotiated an exchange of prisoners of war with Russia in Denmark. He was also a member of the Turkish delegation in Brest-Litovsk in 1918, negotiating the terms of the Russian surrender.

When the new government was formed on 14 October 1918, Rauf Bey became the Minister of Navy, replacing Cemal Paşa who was soon to leave the country. Two weeks later, when the armistice was signed in Mudros he was again the head of the Turkish delegation.

In May 1919, Hüseyin Rauf Bey joined Mustafa Kemal’s efforts of organizing the national resistance in Anatolia and became one of the leaders of this movement. He was arrested by the British when Istanbul was occupied and he was kept in Malta for one year. On 16 March 1921, he was released in an exchange of prisoners, in return for Lord Curzon’s nephew Major Rawling. He joined the Turkish Grand Assembly as a deputy from Sivas and was appointed as the Prime Minister on 12 July 1922.

In time, Hüseyin Rauf Bey became a member of the parliamentary opposition against Mustafa Kemal. He had also conflicts with İsmet Paşa and resigned on 4 August 1923, becoming a co-founder of the Progressive Republican Party, chaired by Kazım Karabekir. This party was closed in 1925 and in a time when the pressure on him was increasing, Hüseyin Rauf Bey went to Austria for medical treatment. In June 1926, he was tried in absentia for his alleged participation in the assassination attempt against Mustafa Kemal and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

He returned to Turkey in 1935 and after the death of Atatürk, when İsmet İnönü became the President, his sentence was cancelled. He joined the Parliament again and was sent to London as the Turkish Ambassador in 1942. He resigned in 1944 due to his conflicts with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and returned to Turkey. Hüseyin Rauf Orbay lived the rest of his life in retirement and died in Istanbul on 16 July 1964.

[2] " At that time he was just promoted to the rank of major and was the ADC of Enver Pasa. Enver personally included him into this mission. There were other Ottoman officers and other ranks and also other Germans and even Austrians. Kazim Orbay turned out to be unlucky not on this mission only but also his second assignment to Afghanistan in 1928. He was the chief of Turkish Military Advisory Mission but he arrived just before the Bacha-i Saqao rebellion in which King Amanullah Khan was dethroned. However Kazim Orbay played an important role by defending the palace for a period of time and evacuating King and his family in the nick of time.
Regards" Mesut UYAR