page_title: France–Turkey relations
section_title: Franco-Ottoman alliance
hierarchical_section_title: France–Turkey relations / History / Franco-Ottoman alliance
caption_attribution_description: English: Letter of Suleyman I to Francis I regarding the protection of Christians in his states, monogram Français&#160;: Lettre de Soliman le Magnifique à François 1er au sujet de la protection des chrétiens dans ses États, monogramme
context_page_description: French–Turkish relations cover a long period from the 16th century to the present, starting with the alliance established between Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent. Relations remained essentially friendly during a period of nearly three centuries, with the resumption of intense contacts from the reign of Louis XIV. Relations became more complex with the invasion of the Ottoman territory of Egypt by Napoleon I in 1798, and the dawn of the modern era.
context_section_description: The Franco-Ottoman alliance, also Franco-Turkish alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish sultan of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent. King Francis was imprisoned in Madrid when the first efforts at establishing an alliance were made. A first French mission to Suleiman seems to have been sent right after the Battle of Pavia by the mother of Francis I Louise de Savoie, but the mission was lost on its way in Bosnia. In December 1525 a second mission was sent, led by John Frangipani, which managed to reach Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, with secret letters asking for the deliverance of king Francis I and an attack on the Habsburg. Frangipani returned with an answer from Suleiman, on 6 February 1526:. Top-level strategic relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of France started during the reigns of Süleyman the Magnificent and the Valois king Francis I in the first quarter of the 16th century, at a time when the French king was in critical need of alliance and assistance from the Ottoman Sultan.  The contacts were further enhanced, especially in a commercial viewpoint, with the capitulations granted by the sultan in 1535 and starting with Jean de la Forest in that year, France had an ambassadorial representative in Turkey ever since.  These privileged trading conditions were to mark the relations, both in commercial terms and beyond, till their abolition with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, and to gradually increasing disadvantage and decreasing leverage for the Ottomans. The first Turkish representative invested with an extended period mission to the Parisian court was Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi, in the beginning of the 18th century, at a time when the Ottoman Empire sought to grasp the reasons for its loss of prominence as compared to the European powers.
  The two countries have been in a state of war three times. The first time was during Napoleon's Egypt-Syria campaign in 1798-1800. The second time was during the First World War, especially in Gallipoli campaigns where the French forces were comparatively less heavily invested than British and ANZAC troops, and the last time between 1919-1921 in the phase of the Turkish War of Independence, in what is generally termed as the Cilicia War, where the conflicts were often localized and sporadic in character, and the diplomatic pourparlers were being pursued during the very occurrence of the clashes. With the Accord of Ankara signed on 20 October 1921 between the two countries, France became the first western power to abandon the claims that had been instituted by the Treaty of Sèvres and effectively recognize the new Turkish governments based in Ankara.
caption: Letter of Suleiman the Magnificent to Francis I of France regarding the protection of Christians in his states. September 1528. Archives Nationales, Paris, France.
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