TNT History Archives: British Intelligence Nest in Adana (1924-1934)

türkçe  links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 16 August 2020)

In 1925, two years after the Turkish Republic was declared, the claim was

made that industrialist Rafael Gilodo and his brother Solomon Gilodo,

owners of the Gilado Vegetable Oil Factory in Adana, were both agents

of  British intelligence.  

Now, based on archival police files 11312-11336 that researcher Dr. Servet 

Avşar has brought to light, in the period following the Mondros Armistice

(1918) that imposed harsh surrender terms on Ottoman Turkey,  Rafael

Gilodo worked for the British and against Turkey, first in Istanbul and 

then in Adana. 

In the documents, it is stated that industrialist Rafael Glodo settled in 

Istanbul after the Russian Revolution. In 1924, the Gilodo brothers 

were required to settle in Adana, where they became involved in 

cotton trading.  The next year they established the Gilodo Vegetable 

Oil Factory and operated it for 10 years with machines brought from

England.

In 1934, though, after suspicions were aroused among local people

who saw foreigners coming and going from the factory, a leading 

merchant in Adana, Kıbrıslı Ahmet Rasim, sent a letter to Prime 

Minister İsmet İnönü warning about the Gilodo brothers' activities.

Consequently, the Turkish intelligence organization Milli Emniyet

Hizmet Riyaset (MAH) and the police put the brothers under strict 

surveillance.  

Dr. Avşar gleaned from the documents he found that the Gilodo 

brothers' factory was theirs on paper only - the English paid for 

everything and conducted intelligence operations from the factory,

which included "ruining the cotton business in Adana and serving

as a way-station for German Jews heading to Palestine."

The Turkish Interior Ministry in Ankara sent an order to the 

Seyhan (Adana) governorship on 5 October 1933, for the 

surveillance of workers at the Gilodo factory "to establish proof

of their espionage activities, noting that "the Gilodo factory in your

province has been established with English money and is supervised

and controlled by the English.  During the 'Mütareke' years (British

occupation of Istanbul, 1918-1923) the brothers worked with the 

English and are considered to be English agents."

One MAH document, dated 24 October 1933, contained information

about the brothers' past and the secrets they kept.  Another document,

sent by the Seyhan (Adana) governorship, dated 7 November 1933,

to the Interior Ministry, stated that "there is no doubt that by initiating

sunflower cultivation in Adana, which the Gilodo's claimed they had

to do to keep their vegetable oil factory full of raw material since 

cotton cultivation is waning, the English aim to destroy the cotton

business in Adana as part of their economic and political strategy."

//END//