Turks' Fire Sinks Italian Warships

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 20, 1912:
Other Torpedo Boats Which Attacked Dardanelles Forts Crippled, Says Constantinople.
WILL CLOSE STRAITS AGAIN
Rome Scoffs at Turkish Reports and Says It Is All a Pretext for Stopping Commerce.
    CONSTANTINOPLE, July 19.— Eight Italian torpedo boats attacked the entrance of the Dardanelles at 1:30 o'clock this morning. The Turkish forts replied vigorously, sinking two of the Italian war vessels, and damaging the other six.
    The cannonade lasted forty-five minutes.
    Press dispatches from the Dardanelles assert that after the Italian torpedo boats retired twenty-two large and small war vessels were sighted from the straits steaming on a southerly course. These dispatches add that five cruisers are still reported off the Dardanelles.
    The Cabinet Ministers were hurriedly called this morning to the Palace, where, at a council of War, it was decided, according to report, to close the Dardanelles.
    Another report says the Government has decided to reduce the width of the free channel between the mine fields in the Dardanelles in order to permit a continuance of navigation and increase the defences of the straits.
    The grave nature of the Government's difficulties is revealed in a proclamation of the Sultan to the army, which was read to the garrison here to-day. After announcing the appointment of Tewfik Pasha as Grand Vizier, the proclamation reminds the troops of their oath of loyalty, and referring to the demands made by certain officers as contrary to the Constitution and supreme rights of the Khalifate, exhorts the army not to mix in politics but to devote itself exclusively to the defense of the country.
    The proclamation concludes by pointing out that the officers' treasonable attitude had encouraged the enemy to the extent "that the enemy dared last night to approach the very gates of the capital. This should constitute a warning."
    This proclamation was provoked by a meeting of officers at the War Office, which delegated Nazim Pasha and Had. Pasha to submit to the sultan the officer's demands for the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies and the appointment of Kiamil Pasha as Grand Vizier.