French Officers on Crete. Although much of modern Greece had been independent since the 1820s, Crete remained in Ottoman hands. A Greek force arrived to annex the island in 1897 and the Great Powers acted, occupying the island and dividing it into British, French, Russian and Italian areas of control. In 1898, Turkish troops were ejected and a national government was set up, still nominally under Ottoman suzerainty. Prince George, was made High Commissioner, and a joint Muslim-Christian assembly was part-elected, part-appointed.