u/BzhizhkMard

>On 15 May 1919, the Greek army landed at Smyrna, marking the beginning of the Asia Minor Campaign. One of the most dramatic chapters of Greek history had just begun. Among the thousands of human stories unfolding amid these events, one forgotten figure, whose life was almost like a novel, stands out: Ali Sami Bey.

>He was a man who served at the Sultan's court as his chief photographer and aide-de-camp, went into self-exile in Greece because of his political beliefs, fought alongside the Greek army, was sentenced to death in absentia by the Kemalist regime, fled to Thessaloniki, and ultimately devoted his life to documenting interwar Greece through his camera.

>His story emerges from archival documents, contemporary publications, personal testimonies, and dozens of photographs that are still preserved in public collections and private archives.

>Ali Sami Bey was born in the Ottoman Empire around 1870—according to some sources, in 1866—and graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy in 1892 with the rank of engineering sub-lieutenant. His real passion, however, lay in photography, an art that was still in its early stages at the time.

>He very quickly distinguished himself through his talent and technical ability, attracting the attention of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who was an enthusiast of photography. The Sultan took a particular interest in him and bestowed upon him the title of “Chief Photographer of the Court and Aide-de-Camp to His Majesty the Sultan.”

>Ali Sami Bey photographed the Ottoman Empire during a period of transition, producing images that possessed not merely artistic value but also acquired a political and social role in the events of the time.

>When the Young Turk Revolution took place in 1908, everything at the imperial court changed. Following the counter-revolutionary operation by forces loyal to the throne, the Young Turk army attacked and occupied Constantinople, deposed the Sultan, and exiled him to Thessaloniki.

>Ali Sami Bey decided to follow him. This decision would determine the course of his subsequent life. Thessaloniki, a multicultural city in the early twentieth century, became his new refuge. There he worked as a photographer while also publishing various newspapers. According to testimonies, in 1909 he published the newspaper Hak—meaning “The Right” or “The Truth” in Arabic—while in 1916 he published the French-language newspaper Le Droit, meaning “The Law/Right.”

>His life would once again take an unexpected turn when the Asia Minor Campaign began. Driven by deeply anti-Kemalist sentiments, he left Greece and went to Asia Minor to enlist in the Greek army. He undertook confidential staff duties and is reported to have received the rank of Colonel, while simultaneously organizing a secret resistance group against Kemal. In Asia Minor he also published the newspaper Adalet (“Justice”). He had now definitively chosen his side.

>When the Front collapsed, Ali Sami Bey became a target of the Kemalist regime. His name was included on Turkey's notorious list of 150 undesirable persons, and he was sentenced to death in absentia as an enemy of the state and of Kemal. From that point onward, returning to his homeland became essentially impossible.

>Amid these turbulent developments, Ali Sami Bey returned to Thessaloniki, where he opened a photography studio at 4 Raktiván Street, behind the city's Government House. His shop quickly became known not only for its services but also for its distinctive display window, which, according to some accounts, featured an impressive photograph of a dervish with a needle passed through his cheeks. He himself acquired the nickname Bahriyeli, meaning “sailor.”

>A few years later, in 1924, he began publishing the newspaper Dikaion: Greek Democratic Newspaper, Organ of the Refugees, which also gained a presence in other cities of northern Greece, including Serres, Drama, Kavala, and Xanthi.

>A significant document from this period also survives: a remarkable letter from Sami Bey to Eleftherios Venizelos, dated September 1922, in which he describes the persecution suffered by anti-Kemalist Muslims and asks for the support of the European powers. Written with considerable emotional intensity, the letter reflects both the atmosphere of the period and his deep political commitment.

>The letter is preserved at the National Research and Studies Foundation “Eleftherios K. Venizelos.” Among other things, he states that approximately one million Muslims in Turkey and the Arab regions would “never submit to the Kemalist rabble,” which he describes as having proclaimed to the Muslim world that it was “a plundering and murdering [force] of unarmed women and children.” He concludes by asking Eleftherios Venizelos, who was then in Paris, to remind the European powers of their “unalterable decision” not to submit to the “Kemalist yoke,” while conveying their appeal that the matter be taken seriously and humanely.

>In the following years, Ali Sami Bey—the philhellene “former aide-de-camp of the Sultan,” as he continued to describe himself even twenty years after Abdul Hamid's deposition—began travelling continuously throughout Greece. Always wearing his worn military uniform covered with medals, he travelled from city to city photographing people, landscapes, ports, villages, monuments, and scenes of everyday life. His images are today valuable historical documents of a Greece undergoing rapid transformation.

>Among his most important works are the photographs he took on Mount Athos between 1925 and 1927. Through his camera he documented monasteries, monks, processions, religious festivals, and moments of monastic life in extraordinary detail. A century later, these images constitute rare testimony to a world that has disappeared forever.

>From Mount Athos, Ali Sami Bey continued his travels and reached Messenia. He took photographs, archived them in albums—many of which survive intact—and sold them to make a living.

>In 1932, he settled in Kalamata, opening a photography studio on Aristomenous Street, while also opening a photographic workshop in Gargalianoi. Documents preserved by the Messenia Department of the General State Archives testify to his presence in the region and preserve unique images of Methoni, Pylos, and Trifylia through his lens.

>He remained in Messenia until 1933. A few years later, in 1937, traces of him appear in Chios, where he maintained a photography studio in Tholopotami. Numerous photographs survive from there, constituting another part of his valuable body of work. Always carrying his camera, he later travelled to Samos, while according to testimonies he subsequently opened a photography studio in Margariti, Epirus.

>A little later, around 1938, all trace of him disappeared permanently. Nobody knows whether the man who loved Greece and documented an entire era through his lens died, or whether he ever returned to Turkey. His life seems to disappear into the very silence of his photographs—a turbulent journey through the world with an unknown ending.

Source: https://www.tanea.gr/print/2026/05/15/lifearts/o-fotografos-tou-soultanou-pou-apeikonise-tin-ellada-lftou-mesopolemou/

One of his articles went as such:

>We are in the twentieth century, Mustapha Kemal and his men are undefined criminals. You the so-called civilised France, behold the massacres of Samsoun! Your assistance to the Kemalists constitutes the greatest crime. You have been the cause of the disappearance of thousands of Greeks and Armenians beneath the feet of these criminals. You, Mr Poincaré, should be aware that the responsibility of hundreds and thousands of Greeks and Armenians in Pontus and Cilicia falls greatly upon France, whose alliance with Kemal has given rise to these atrocities. History will record in black letters this injustice committed by France. In the name of my fellow country-men, I protest against this wrong.

Source: https://www.greek-genocide.net/index.php/overview/other/ali-sami-bey