Çaka bey gathered many brave men from Turkmen tribes as soon as he arrived in İzmir. He made an assault on Izmir and succeeded in seizing it from the Romans. The first conqueror of Izmir is Çaka Bey, one of Turkmen beys.
Çaka bey established a Turkish Emirate in Izmir city and proclaimed his rule. In the same period, Efes city was conquered by another Turkmen Bey, Tanrıvermiş Bey. Çaka Bey married in Izmir. He had a daughter after some time. Çaka Bey had a brother named Yalvaç. He felt that he needed a navy to possess Izmir and Aegean Islands. Therefore, he constructed a navy at the hands of masters he found in Izmir port.
Çaka Bey is the first seamen of Turks in the Mediterranean. He put to Aegean Sea with this Turkish navy he constructed. He became our first sea hero with Turkish flag in the Mediterranean. His navy consisted of forty ships. The ships were covered at the top. Çaka Bey captured Foca city first thanks to his navy. Then he aligned his ships in war order in front of Midilli island. He sent a message to Midilli Governor that he should surrender the island. He informed him that it was better for them to surrender the island without shedding blood. Midilli Governor, being afraid of this Turkish navy, escaped to Istanbul on a ship. Turkish soldiers landed in Midilli island and planted Turkish flags on the castles of the city.
Çaka Bey, after having conquered Midilli, landed soldiers in Sakiz Island and seized the same. He landed on Sisam and Rhodes Islands one year later. So, either small or big islands of Aegean Sea passed to the possession of Izmir Turkish Emirate.
Upon Çaka Beys capturing the islands one by one, Byzantine Emperor Aleksi Kommen sent the Byzantine navy to Mediterranean Sea under command of two commanders. The navy captained by Çaka bey warred with Byzantine ships and sank most of them. Others passed the strait and escaped to Marmara. A few of their ships were captured by Turks. This is the first victory of Turks in Mediterranean against Byzantium. Turks, who always came out victorious on Land, became seamen in a short time.
Byzantine Emperor, seeing Çaka Beys success, appointed an admiral named Konstantin, one of his famous captains, and sent a second navy against Turks. There were about 500 knights from Flandr in these ships. The navy approach Sakiz island and landed soldiers, and besieged the castle. The Turkish soldiers defending the castle did not allow the enemy in. Çaka Bey was in Izmir at that time. As soon as he heard that enemy was there, he set off for Sakiz Island. He advanced toward the enemy in the form of a crescent by binding the ships to each other with chains. Byzantine commander, seeing that, almost got afraid of this new war style. Turkish soldiers were playing drums and shrill pipes on the ships, turned their swords in the air.
Turks seemed to be celebrating a festival more than they were going to a war. Such joy and rage of Turks influenced Byzantine soldiers morale very much. These ships approached Byzantine ships in near order like a castle and shot thousands of arrows. Then they started to throw oily clothes to fire their sails. Byzantine commanders, seeing this condition, took back their ships to another port.
Upon that, Çaka Bey landed on Sakiz Island. Armored knights on horses appeared with their long spears before Turks. Turks, seeing them, put their swords in their sheaths and kneed in three rows and began to shoot the horses of the knights one by one. They were all left on foot. Turkish soldiers, seeing that, attacked on the enemy knights with bare swords shouting Allah! Allah!. Two forces mingled and fight got more and more violent. Three to five enemy soldiers each time were falling on the ground with strong blows of Turkish swords. The enemy soldiers panicked.