The offensive was part of the Greco-Turkish War and was one of several engagements where British troops assisted the advancing Greek army.

[8] In May 1920, the Kuva-yi Inzibatiye, backed by the British, had been sent to seize the area of Geyve and İzmit, but they were repelled by the Turkish irregular forces.

[10][11] Since they couldn't depend on the Kuva-yi Inzibatiye as the situation was a stalemate, the fighting around İzmit was key to the British deciding to bring in the Greek army for assistance and to punish the attacks on their troops.

During the offensive against these areas, several clashes occurred between the advancing British-Greek troops and the defending Turkish irregular forces.

There were many instances of successful delaying operations of small Turkish irregular forces against numerical superior enemy troops.