Battle of Derbent (1922)

The Battle of Derbent was the major battle during the Özdemir Operation of the Anglo-Turkish War (1918–1923), which lasted with Turkish victory.

Background
on 16 December 1921, the British army had a Severely loose in the Battle of Babaçiçek. For the revenge of this loose, the British army attacked Erbil and Revandiz since January 1922. After these attacks started to increase, commander-in-chef Mustafa Kemal Pasha ordered to create a militia. The militia had been created on February 1, 1922. The leader of this milita was going to be Şefik Özdemir. Şefik Özdemir Bey left Ankara on 9 March 1922 and arrived Diyarbakır in 22 April, and after that he and his detachment arrived Revandiz on 22 June 1922, after a difficult and tiring journey. The detachment entered Revandiz amidst the enthusiastic welcome of the people, festivities were held, the tribes around came to the city and greeted Özdemir Bey and the detachment; Sacrifices were made and prayers were said. Özdemir Bey immediately established an organization in the region and acted in line with the general wishes of the people. The people, who had been without a government for a long time, applauded and loved Özdemir Bey as the representative of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. The people showed loyalty to Özdemir Bey by calling him Özdemir Pasha.

When British soldiers realized Özdemir's hegemony is increasing day by day in Al-Jazeera, the British attacked Özdemir's forces on 10 July 1922 at Rewandiz with 12 planes, but it was unsuccessful. Özdemir decided to attack Derbent -which was a strategical place in Al-Jazeera- after this battle.

Battle
During the battle, Şefik Özdemir had 700 soldiers and volunteers while British had 7,000 soldiers. Although the British had 10 times the combat power of the Turkish forces, they fell into the pincer move implemented by Şefik Özdemir. The battle was started in the early hours of the morning and ended around midnight. On the day the Battle of Derbent was won on the Al-Jazeera Front, the Battle of Dumlupınar was also won on the Western Front.

Aftermath
After this battle, Özdemir's forces liberated Şaklava village and Derbent from British occupation. Özdemir's forces entered Köysancak September 26, 1922.