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"One misfortune is better than a thousand pieces of advice” says a Turkish proverb, and ironically, at the Battle of Cesme in 1770, during the six-year-long Turkish-Russian War, there was thrust upon the Turks the harshest of such lessons when the Turkish Fleet was badly defeated by a numerically inferior Russian Fleet.
For the surviving Turkish naval officers, there was the inarguable evidence of the disastrous weaknesses of a Fleet entrusted to ignorant and unskillful hands. For the Sultan, Mustafa the Third, there was also the conclusion that a first requirement for a strong navy must be the establishment of an appropriate academic institution in which to train its leaders.
Accordingly, and with characteristic directness of purpose, the Sultan gave to Gazi Hasan Pasha, then the Chief of the Naval Forces of the Empire, the task of beginning the education of naval officers. France at that time had close interests in the Near East and, alarmed by the consequences of repeated Turkish defeats, offered its assistance in reforming the Turkish Armed Forces. With the advice of Baron de Trott, the son-in-law of the French Ambassador to Istanbul, the first Turkish Naval School was opened by the Golden Horn on 18 November 1773—in a single room in which only mathematics was taught.
In 1776, navigation, naval architecture, and accounting were added to the curriculum, and more French instructors joined the faculty.
In 1782 and 1783, Gazi Hasan Pasha had a larger school built, and in 1784, the curriculum included all the subjects of the then known Naval Science. Soon afterward, in 1788,
Russia exploited the close familial relationship between the French and Austrian dynasties and succeeded in having France withdraw its officers, engineers, and technicians from Turkey. Their places were soon filled by native graduates and by others from England and Sweden.
As a result of improvements in Turkish-French relations, the French instructors were brought back again in 1795 and, in the same year, the Naval Academy and the Army Engi
neering School were united on the same campus, only to be separated the next year when it became apparent that the objective of educating naval officers was becoming obscured. Prior to Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition, all the French faculty members were once again withdrawn, with severely adverse affect on the Academy’s efficiency.
In 1821, the Academy burned in a great fire which swept the area, but it was soon re-established in the same vicinity. At this time, the restrictions of inadequate space required the Naval Science Department to be moved to Heybeli Island, where the Naval Academy is located today. The Engineering Department was also moved, to Gazi Hasan Pasha’s mansion, which was modified to house 400 midshipmen. The department remained there until the Crimean War.
In 1848, a four-year academic program was started. The midshipmen took the same courses during the first two years and majored in seamanship, marine engineering, and naval architecture afterwards. A school ship was assigned to the Academy and English, rather than French, became the secondary language. In 1850, all the departments were settled on Heybeli Island.
After 1873, British and German advisors were invited at different intervals. Starting in 1880, a preparatory naval school at the senior high school level was established to provide better candidates to the Naval Academy.
At the end of World War I, Istanbul was occupied by the Allies and the Naval Academy ceased its functions on Heybeli Island. The midshipmen joined the National Liberation Forces and completed their education and training at a temporary school in Sam- sun on the Black Sea whenever the situation permitted.
After the War of Independence, the Academy resumed its functions on Heybeli Island, but with important differences in the curriculum. The seaman officers received a two-year education and completed their professional skills after being commissioned by attending regular courses ashore and taking on-the-job training. Engineering officers, on the other hand, continued their education at the Academy for
two more years in order to obtain a B.S. degree in Marine Engineering.
During World War II, when the German Wehrmacht occupied the Balkan Peninsula, the Naval Academy was moved to Mersin, a harbor on the Mediterranean Coast, in order to avoid a probable Nazi occupation. It was brought back immediately after the war to the home island.
In 1953, the Academy adopted the curriculum of the U. S. Naval Academy, and since then, the Turkish midshipman’s education reflects current developments at Annapolis.
Starting in the year 1966, selected graduates have been sent to the U.S- Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and other universities in the United States to meet the requirements of the Navy in various fields. Thus far, nearly 100 Turkish naval officers have earned M.S. or Ph.D. degrees abroad.
For two centuries, the Turkish Navy has always been first among the other Services as well as civilian institutions, in starting reforms in technical fields, and in August, the Academy, the largest and oldest technical university in Turkey, is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the first naval school by the Golden Horn in 1773.
Since that time, Turkish Naval Academy graduates have played a key role in creating a new nation out of a backward society. Most recently, one, Admiral Fahri Koruturk (Retired) served as the Ambassador to Moscow for four years after his retirement and became a senator in 1968. On 15 April 1973, he was elected sixth President of the 50-year-old Republic.
Lieutenant Hayati Tezel received his B.A. from the University of Ankara and, after further graduate study, he specialized in library science, geography, general Turkish history, and statistics.
He joined the Turkish Navy in 1962 and, after taking courses in archives management and microfilming, he worked in the Naval Museum and at the Naval Academy, where he is presently in charge of the Academy Library and is restoring the Academy Museum. In addition, he has written several books and articles on Turkish naval history.
From its austere beginnings—by Gazi Hasan Pasha (below, right) then the Chief of the Turkish Naval Forces—as a single room in 1773, the Turkish Naval Academy has subsequently grown to meet the needs of the times without losing its distinctive appearance in the process. Top: The Academy as it appeared between 1834 and 1908. Center: As it was between 1908 and 1933. Bottom: The Academy as it appears today.
U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1973
>• -
Quite distinctive, too, was the appearance of the Naval Academy’s midshipmen, whether in working dress or in more formal attire. Right, midshipmen exercise in gunnery drill on board the School Ship Asari Tevfik in June 1912, and below, a group of midshipmen is shown seated in front of the ship’s officers of the A rmored Ship Barbaras during a summer cruise in 1913. Just two years later, the Barbaras was sunk in the Dardanelles by a British submarine.
As is probably true of all such institutions, the history of the Turkish Naval Academy can be chronicled, in part, in the changing lines of its training ships, fifteen of which have been given to the Academy during its first 200 years. Above, left and below: The Nuveydi Futuh was the Academy's second training ship: the TCG Hamidiyc served the Academy for many years, and the TCG Savarona is the training ship presently assigned to the Academy,
Naval
,-ih SavJ AcaJemy d'®'rS
^“h respect to religious matters, the J«r ■„ according, “
ku‘ little from its counterparts all «' er ‘ ‘ m,dshipman't life-
c°nsiderable importance to that aspect of > ‘ ,(ltj during Stored above, left, is a religious ceremony ‘ jcjpaling i” ,ht Valuation exercises in 1913. Tu« of those P Payers, as may be seen by their postures, upp
Wish instructors. left,
, , . , ,/* pholograph' »/»<
4" early example of "exchange duty' « ’tf' /tff higher
°f n group of midshipmen who were sent to Ge
’ lducation in 1914.
\ f the t^aval
1 "rfct Ataturk Monument (above) located m f""'1 the
1 ^Cademy auditorium shows Ataturk on Kmatep mosaic behind
;l n,a>or offensive in August 1922. Depicted on t e „j„
. . n ,he fam°us Battle of Preteie, between Bar aros ^ ,/#
{'B«rbarosa") and Andrea Doria. Honor guards Barharoia. foment repress the Marines (Leant) °f lbe ag
Most Academy candidates normally come from the Naval Lycee, a three-year military senior high school, and from the time he falls in for his first entrance examination, above, the life of a Turkish Naval Academy midshipman assumes a pattern of study, instruction, training, exercise and drill that is entirely familiar to his opposite numbers in similar institutions everywhere.
Other activities, equally familiar to midshipmen everywhere, serve also to occupy the hours and days of these future Turkish naval officers as they move through their Academy year—there are always occasions, such as in the flag review, above, in Tunis, to "show the flag" during the Midshipman Summer Cruise. Right, a Turkish midshipman (in white) escorts a visiting foreign midshipman about the Academy and, (below) three U. S. midshipmen and their escort are seen at the northern quay of the Academy during a visit that is a part of the Midshipman Exchange Program between the two navies.
For all the Midshipmen, there is a natural, inherent pride in excelling in competition that ranges from {left) a small arms firing team which consistently bests their arch-rival Army Cadets, through the traditional encounters in lifeboat racing (bottom), as well as participation in "conventional" sports such as basketball and volleyball (center) in which the Naval Academy has placed championship teams for many years.
^nation Day at the Turkish Naval Academy offers perhaps the ^ "npressite evidence of the colorful similarity of such ceremonies rtver they may occur. On Heybeli Island, the graduation is seen against a background that, in this instance, includes a , arme and a destroyer that have recently been provided by the States.
t^dal portion of the ceremony reflects a national tradition wherein ^^'E'ment jn the Turkish Armed Forces is given a National Flag Resident. (Far left) First Class midshipmen provide the honor the Flag of the Regiment of Midshipmen, which is handed . 0 ‘be rising First Class by the graduates.
of the Class of 1973, who number 122, receive their ““ (left) from the Superintendent, Rear Admiral Hasan /t ^ ' afltr which a sword is issued to each graduate and attached
I 11 kit by his regimental officer,
y
,,r>nally} during each year's anniversary celebration in
’ ‘be most senior graduate of the Academy lays a wreath
Ct^>ora,mg those graduates who lost their lives in battle. Above,
Cfy. ‘“'“hr Ibrahim Aski Tanik, durable and erect at age 99,
)t, Ues to perform the function which he assumed.a number of | ‘Past.
appropriate that this year, as the Turkish Naval Btyu * ^lers its third century of providing naval education in I %tjn °f lb* Naiy's tasks, it can confidently anticipate a
°S ‘be quality of its graduates that include (right)
ynrureu), urn, on
1 °f the Republic of Turkey.
I %f ^aiy leaders like Admiral Kemal Kayacan, Commander in ( ^f'ksh Nava! Forces, and national leaders like Admiral 1 KSj. '"“turk (Retired), who, on 13 April 1973, became the sixth