The Ottoman Empire in the First World War

The German-Ottoman alliance was concluded on August 2, 1914 following the opening of hostilities in the Balkans in June 1914. By reaching an agreement with one of the great powers of Europe on equal terms, the Ottomans aimed to protect the empire from the ambitions of European imperialism and to bring an end to its semi-colonial status. In Novermber 14, 1914 the Ottoman state entered the war on the side of the Central Powers; namely, Germany and Austria- Hungary fighting against the Entente (Allied) Powers; that is, Britain, France and Russia.

From their entry into the First World War to their defeat in October 1918, the Ottomans fought on a wide geography from Caucasus to the Middle East, to the Balkans and to Galicia in Eastern Europe. They were not successful in most of their battles; however, they won a significant victory at Gallipoli. The defeat of the British and the French there prevented them from reaching İstanbul. Another notable success of the Ottoman forces was in Iraq (Kut-ul-Amara) where they were able to take captive more than ten thousand British soldiers.

There were many factors that caused the break out of the First World War in June 1914. Imperialist rivalry as well as competition among the major powers; namely, Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy, was the most significant one. By 1914, these powers had formed alliances which resulted in the rise of two broad groups. Britain, France and Russia formed the Triple Entente (the Entente/Allied Powers) while Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy comprised the Triple Alliance (the Central Powers). The main expectation of Britain and France from the alliance was to preserve their overseas empires against Germany which was in search of ambitious expansion in the way of creating a large empire. Therefore, the relations among the major powers of Europe were tense when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914.

The Ottoman leaders strongly believed that an alliance with Germany could achieve security and economic benefits for the Ottoman state. As a result, on July 22, Enver Pasha, then the minister of war, proposed that the Ottoman state join the Central Powers led by Germany. The proposal was initially rejected by the German Ambassador in Istanbul. Nevertheless, on Kaiser’s personal instructions, negotiations were reopened where Germany responded favorably to the Ottoman search for a defensive alliance.

The formal treaty of alliance was signed in Istanbul on August 2, 1914. Its terms were as follows:

The Ottoman leading political figures Enver, Talat and Cemal Pashas had four main goals that led the Ottoman state to enter the First World War. Firstly, they wanted to reach a more favorable treaty of alliance with Germany in order to have strong protection against both European and Balkan powers. Secondly, the war was to provide the Ottomans with a chance to reestablish their control over the various autonomous regions of the empire, especially over those situated in the Arabian Peninsula. Thirdly, the territories that had been previously lost to different powers had to be restored. The Ottomans expected, for example, to recover Northern Aegean islands, occupied during the Balkan Wars, from Greece, and Tripoli, Cyrenaica and the Dodecanese from Italy. They also hoped to restore the three Anatolian provinces lost to Russia in 1878 and expand further into the Caucasus. Finally, the Ottomans viewed the war as an opportunity to eliminate the economic and legal constraints generated by the capitulations granted to foreign states.

Germany initially expected the Ottoman Empire to be a deterrent force that would tie down Russian and British divisions in the Caucasus and Egypt. However, Germany had to change her expectation of the Ottomans. Their plans to knock France out of war in forty days had failed. France’s ally, Russia rapidly advanced into the East Germany. In these changed conditions, the alliance with the Ottoman state became more valuable because the Ottomans had the potential of mobilizing the Muslims in the colonial empires of France and Britain. Furthermore, the Ottomans could effectively control the Straits, and thus severing the communication between Russia in the Black Sea and her Western allies. Taking these factors into consideration, Germany increased its pressure on the Ottoman state to open hostilities against the Entente powers and have new fronts.

The Ottoman government began to shape the public opinion for war immediately after the signing of the secret agreement with Germany. The British government’s decision to confiscate two warships that the Ottomans had ordered and paid for at the beginning of August was helpful in mobilizing the public opinion. This created anger and disappointment in the Ottoman Empire and strengthened the position of Germany further.

The German influence on the Ottoman military began in the nineteenth century. It increased especially during the rule of Abdülhamid II. Abdülhamid II was under the influence of German military might. He invited German officers to reorganize and modernize the Ottoman military. One of these officers, Colmar von der Goltz, who was appointed as the inspector of military schools, would have great influence on the cadets with his teachings.

On November 14, the Ottoman şeyhülislam, the main religious authority, issued a religious decree, a fetva, to announce the religious/holy war, jihad, on the demand of the sultan. It was hoped that this would stir a global insurrection of the Muslims against their colonial masters, particularly Britain and France. In order to call upon the Muslims to support the Ottoman Empire in the war, these appeals were also made in Arabic. However, the appeals made to the Muslim world did not yield any results and they were ineffective.

The Gallipoli campaign (also known as the Dardanelles Campaign) lasted from March 1915 until the final withdrawal of the Entente powers on January 8, 1916. This operation was proposed by Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of Admiralty in order to lessen the pressure on Russia and open supply lines via the Black Sea.

Britain and France began the bombardment of the outer forts of the Dardanelles in mid-February 1915. They expected to force the Straits and pass on to İstanbul easily. They were unaware that the Ottomans had mined the waterway and mounted strong batteries on the surrounding hills. As a result, a month had passed without fulfilling their objectives.

Turks had more than 60.000 dead and about 250.000 casualties. ANZAC troops may not have lost as many lives as the Turks; however, they fought a battle which they were ill prepared for. Nearly 9.ooo Australians were killed at Gallipoli. New Zealand lost around 3000 men and the French and the British about 30.000. Many of the dead have not been recovered or identified. Today the entire battlefield in Gallipoli is considered a graveyard.

The reputation of Mustafa Kemal, the future leader of Turkey, as a brilliant soldier started during the Gallipoli campaign. He commanded the Ottoman forces that effectively repelled the offensives of the Allied Powers.

The Allied Powers concluded a number of agreements regarding the partition of the Ottoman Empire in case of its defeat. There were mainly two types of agreements in this respect. The first type of agreements were conducted among the powers themselves to divide and share the lands and riches of the Ottoman Empire. The second type aimed to secure new allies against the Central Powers. To this end, there were promises made to the inhabitants of some regions under the Ottoman administration for self-rule.

Among these agreements, the most important one with long term effects was the Sykes-Picot Agreement signed on May16, 1916. This agreement was named after Sir Mark Sykes of the Arab Bureau in Cairo and French diplomat François Georges Picot. The agreement negotiated by these two diplomats granted southern Iraq, from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, and the ports of Haifa and Acre in Palestine to Britain. In return, France would get the coastal province of Syria, including Lebanon, the province of Adana and all of Cilicia.

After the Dardanelles and Gallipoli victories, the second significant success of the Ottoman troops in the war was in Iraq. They surrounded the British Indian expeditionary force at Kut-ul-Amara and captured over ten thousand soldiers in April 1916. This was one of the worst defeats the British suffered during WWI.

The withdrawal of Russia consequently led to the revival of pan-Turkist ideas. The union with the Turkic peoples of Central Asia became a major goal of particularly Enver Pasha, who wanted to revitalize the empire on this basis. In his point of view, the lost Arab provinces could be compensated by the establishment of a Turkish Empire extending from the Caucasus into Crimea and Central Asia.

The Armistice of Moudros stipulated a total and unconditional surrender of the Ottoman state. According to the conditions of the armistice:

Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States, in the Twelfth Point of his famous Fourteen Points Declaration of January 1918, had set three main principles regarding the settlement of the Ottoman state after the end of the war. The first was the sovereignty for the Turkish portion of the empire. The second one concerned the unquestionable security of life and an absolute opportunity of autonomous development to nationalities under Ottoman rule. Finally, the third one concerned the, permanent opening of the Dardanelles as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.

Before the First World War, another field of reform was the economy. One of the primary goals of the 1908 Revolution was to create a national economy. The aim was to abolish the capitulations and dissolve the Public Debt Administration (Düyun-u Umumiye İdaresi) since they were the indicators of the semi-colonial status of the Ottoman Empire. The Unionists strongly believed that economic independence was the precondition of the political one.

Until the First World War, the Ottoman economy and finance had been dominated by the Greeks and Armenians who formed the intermediary class in the trade between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. The Turks/Muslims had dominated the state sector, that is, the bureaucracy and the army.

Forming national companies under state control was considered the most effective way of creating a national economy. In 1916, in order to achieve this goal Heyet-i Mahsusa-i Ticariye (Special Trade Commission) was founded. Another attempt in the development of national economy was the establishment of Kambiyo Muemalatı Merkez Komisyonu (the Central Exchange Commission) in 1917 and İaşe Nezareti (the Ministry of Provisions) in 1918. As a result, over eighty new joint stock companies had been founded by September 1918.

In the area of education, the Committee of Union and Progress made primary education compulsory for girls in 1913. Ministry of education greatly expanded elementary and middle school education for girls. The first high school for girls was established in 1911. Vocational schools where the girls attended equipped them with the qualifications to be a part of professional life as secretaries, nurses and the like. Urban women began to work in not only textile and tobacco factories but also businesses and stores. As mentioned earlier, the position of women within the family was also improved by the secularization of the family law- limited though it may be.