Orbay briefly served as Minister of Navy in October 1918, and signed the Armistice of Mudros on behalf of the Ottoman Empire.

He played an important role in the Turkish War of Independence, during which he served as the prime minister of the Ankara government between 12 July 1922 and 4 August 1923.

He was put on trial for his involvement in an alleged assassination attempt against Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and sentenced to ten years in prison.

[7] The ship broke through the Greek blockade of the Dardanelles and sailed into the Mediterranean, whereupon it became the first cruiser to carry out commerce raiding operations in history.

Returning to Istanbul from Kirkuk he was appointed Chief of the Naval Staff, where he led Ottoman marine forces during the Gallipoli campaign.

Rauf Orbay also played a role in saving Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) from a near court-martial during a feud with Cemal and Enver Pasha.

[7] After a correspondence with his counterpart: Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe, he claimed he had assurances that no Allied soldiers would be entering Istanbul or Adana, and that there would be no occupation of Ottoman territory.The independence of our state, the rights of our sultanate have been preserved in their entirety.

This is not an armistice concluded between victor and vanquished; rather it is more a situation in which two equal powers, both desiring to end a state of war, cease hostilities.

[10]On November 13 Allied soldiers landed in Istanbul to begin a partial occupation of the city, as well as take advantage of Article VII to occupy more parts of the Ottoman Empire.

One of the first things he did leaving the capital was to organize Circassian militias on the Anatolian Marmara coast, his ethnicity being a helpful asset.

After being held captive in Malta for 20 months, Rauf Bey was let go after a prisoner swap in İnebolu, his equivalent being Major Rawlinson.

Rauf finally arrived to Ankara on 15 November 1921, joining the Grand National Assembly representing Sivas.

As a result of the lobbying of Fevzi Pasha (Çakmak), before the Battle of Dumlupınar he became the Prime Minister of the Ankara Government.

During the Lausanne Peace Conference which was inaugurated after the Turkish victory in the war of independence, he was acting Minister of National Defense and Foreign Affairs from İsmet Pasha (İnönü).

After his brother-in-law passed away in 1935, he returned to the country at the insistence of his family, and eventually settled his conviction with a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence in 1941.