The Ottoman Empire was one of the Central Powers of World War I, allied with the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria. It entered the war on 29 October 1914 with a small surprise attack on Russian ports in the Black Sea, prompting the Russian Empire—and its allies France and Great Britain—to declare war the following month.
World War I had erupted almost exactly three months prior, on 28 July, following a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The Ottoman Empire, which had no stake in the immediate causes and considerations of the conflict, declared neutrality and negotiated with nations on both sides.
Though regarded by the great powers as the "sick man of Europe" due to its perceived decline and weakness, the empire's geostrategic location and continued influence had nonetheless made it a critical consideration in any potential conflict. Decades of close economic, diplomatic, and military ties with Germany, among other factors, culminated in its decision to enter the war on the side of the German-led Central Powers.
The Ottomans were substantial contributors to the war effort. Though consistently plagued by logistical, technological, and technical limitations, they managed to mobilize over 3 million men, having started the war with only about 210,000. Ottoman forces fought in the Balkans and Middle Eastern theatres of the war, holding down large numbers of Entente troops. They were a leading and decisive participant in the Caucasus, Gallipoli, and Sinai and Palestine campaigns, and dominated the South Caucasus.
The Ottoman Empire's defeat in the war in 1918 was crucial in the eventual dissolution of the empire in 1922.
Entry into World War I
The Ottoman entry into World War I was the direct result of two recently purchased ships of its navy, still manned by their German crews and commanded by their German admiral, carrying out the Black Sea Raid on 29 October 1914. There were a number of factors that conspired to influence the Ottoman government and encourage them to enter the war. The political reasons for the Ottoman sultan's entry into the war are disputed, and the Ottoman Empire was an agricultural state in an age of industrial warfare. Also, the economic resources of the empire were depleted by the cost of the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. The reasons for the Ottoman action were not immediately clear.Balci, Ali, et al. "War Decision and Neoclassical Realism: The Entry of the Ottoman Empire into the First World War." War in History (2018),
Declaration of jihad
On 11 November 1914, Mehmed V, Sultan of the Ottoman Caliphate, declared Jihad (meritorious struggle or effort) against the powers of the Triple Entente during World War I. The declaration, which called for Muslims to support the Ottomans in Entente-controlled areas and for jihad against "all enemies of the Ottoman Empire, except the Central Powers", was initially drafted on 11 November and first publicly read out in front of a large crowd on 14 November. That same day, a fatwa (Islamic religious decree) to the same effect was declared by the Fetva Emini ("fatwa consultant", the Ottoman official in charge of dictating tafsir on behalf of the Shaykh al-Islām).
Arab tribes in Mesopotamia were initially enthusiastic about the edict. However, following British victories in the Mesopotamian campaign in 1914 and 1915, enthusiasm declined, and some chieftains like Mudbir al-Far'un adopted a more neutral, if not pro-British, stance.
There were hopes and fears that non-Turkish Muslims would side with Ottoman Turkey, but according to some historians, the appeal did not "[unite] the Muslim world", and Muslims did not turn on their non-Muslim commanders in the Allied forces. However, other historians point to the 1915 Singapore Mutiny and alleged that the call did have a considerable impact on Muslims around the world. In a 2017 article, it was concluded that the declaration, as well as earlier jihad propaganda, had a strong impact on attaining the loyalty of Kurdish tribes, who played a major role in the Armenian and Assyrian genocides.
The war led to the end of the caliphate as the Ottoman Empire entered on the side of the war's losers and surrendered by agreeing to "viciously punitive" conditions. These were overturned by the popular war hero Mustafa Kemal, who was also a secularist and later abolished the caliphate.
Military
The Ottoman entry into World War I began on 29 October 1914 when it launched the Black Sea Raid against Russian ports. Following the attack, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 2 November, followed by their allies (Britain and France) declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on 5 November 1914. The Ottoman Empire started military action after three months of formal neutrality, but it had signed a secret alliance with the Central Powers in August 1914.
The great landmass of Anatolia was between the Ottoman army's headquarters in Istanbul and many of the theatres of war. During Abdul Hamid II's reign, civilian communications had improved, but the road and rail network was not ready for war. It took more than a month to reach Syria and nearly two months to reach Mesopotamia. To reach the border with Russia, the railway ran only 60 km east of Ankara, and from there, it was 35 days to Erzurum. The Army used Trabzon port as a logistical shortcut to the east. It took less time to arrive at any of those fronts from London than from the Ottoman War Department because of the poor condition of Ottoman supply ships.
The empire fell into disorder with the declaration of war along with Germany. On 11 November, a conspiracy was discovered in Constantinople against Germans and the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in which some of the CUP leaders were shot. That followed the 12 November revolt in Adrianople against the German military mission. On 13 November, a bomb exploded in Enver Pasha's palace, which killed five German officers but failed to kill Enver Pasha. On 18 November there were more anti-German plots. Committees formed around the country to rid the country of those who sided with Germany. Army and navy officers protested against the assumption of authority by Germans. On 4 December, widespread riots took place throughout the country. On 13 December, an anti-war demonstration was led by women in Konak (Izmir) and Erzurum. Throughout December, the CUP dealt with mutiny among soldiers in barracks and among naval crews. The head of the German Military Mission, Field Marshal von der Goltz, survived a conspiracy against his life.
Military power remained firmly in the hands of War Minister Enver Pasha, domestic issues (civil matters) were under Interior Minister Talat Pasha, and Cemal Pasha had sole control over Ottoman Syria. Provincial governors ran their regions with differing degrees of autonomy. An interesting case is Izmir; Rahmi Bey behaved almost as if his region was a neutral zone between the warring states.
War with Russia
The Ottoman's entrance into the war greatly increased the Triple Entente's military burdens. Russia had to fight alone on the Caucasus Campaign but fought with the United Kingdom on the Persian Campaign. Enver Pasha set off for the Battle of Sarikamish with the intention of recapturing Batum and Kars, overrunning Georgia and occupying north-western Persia and the oil fields. Fighting the Russians in the Caucasus, however, the Ottomans lost ground, and over 100,000 soldiers, in a series of battles. 60,000 Ottoman soldiers died in the winter of 1916–17 on the Mus—Bitlis section of the front. The Ottomans preferred to keep the Caucasus militarily silent as they had to regroup reserves to retake Baghdad and Palestine from the British. 1917 and the first half of 1918 was the time for negotiations. On 5 December 1917, the armistice of Erzincan (Erzincan Cease-fire Agreement) was signed between the Russians and Ottomans in Erzincan that ended the armed conflicts between Russia and Ottoman Empire.Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan 1905–1920, page 119. On 3 March, the Grand vizier Talat Pasha signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Russian SFSR. It stipulated that Bolshevik Russia cede Batum, Kars, and Ardahan. In addition to these provisions, a secret clause was inserted which obligated the Russians to demobilize Armenian national forces.Hovannisian. "Armenia's Road to Independence", pp. 288–289. .
From 14 March to April 1918 the Trabzon peace conference was held between the Ottoman Empire and the delegation of the Transcaucasian Diet. Enver Pasha offered to surrender all ambitions in the Caucasus in return for recognition of the Ottoman reacquisition of the east Anatolian provinces at Brest-Litovsk at the end of the negotiations. On 5 April, the head of the Transcaucasian delegation Akaki Chkhenkeli accepted the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a basis for more negotiations and wired the governing bodies urging them to accept this position.Richard Hovannisian "The Armenian people from ancient to modern times" Pages 292–293 The mood prevailing in Tiflis was very different. Tiflis acknowledge the existence of a state of war between themselves and the Ottoman Empire.
In April 1918, the Ottoman 3rd Army finally went on the offensive in Armenia. Opposition from Armenian forces led to the Battle of Sardarapat, the Battle of Kara Killisse, and the Battle of Bash Abaran. On 28 May 1918, the Armenian National Council based in Tiflis declared the First Republic of Armenia. The new Republic of Armenia was forced to sign the Treaty of Batum.
In July 1918, the Ottomans faced the Centrocaspian Dictatorship at the Battle of Baku, with the goal of taking Armenian/Russian/British occupied Baku on the Caspian Sea.
War with Britain
The British captured Basra in November 1914, and marched north into Iraq. Initially Ahmed Cemal Pasha was ordered to gather an army in Palestine to threaten the Suez Canal. In response, the Allies—including the newly formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps ("ANZACs")—opened another front with the Battle of Gallipoli. The army led by Ahmed Djemal Pasha (Fourth Army) to eject the British from Egypt was stopped at the Suez Canal in February 1915, and again the next summer. The canal was vital to the British war effort. In addition, the 1915 locust plague broke out in the Palestine region; the Ottoman military hospitals record the period as March–October 1915.
The expected, and feared, British invasion came not through Cilicia or northern Syria, but through the straits. The aim of the Dardanelles campaign was to support Russia. Most military observers recognized that the uneducated Ottoman soldier was lost without good leadership, and at Gallipoli Mustafa Kemal realized the capabilities of his men if their officers led from the front.
Great Britain was obliged to defend India and the southern Persian oil territory by undertaking the Mesopotamian campaign. Britain also had to protect Egypt in the Sinai-Palestine-Syria Campaign. These campaigns strained Allied resources and relieved Germany.
The repulse of British forces in Palestine in the spring of 1917 was followed by the loss of Jerusalem in December of the same year. The Ottoman authorities deported the entire civilian population of Jaffa, pursuant to orders from Cemal Pasha on 6 April 1917. While the Muslim evacuees were allowed to return shortly after, the Jewish deportees were unable to until after the war. The events occurred simultaneously with the formation of the Balfour Declaration (published on 2 November 1917) in which the British Government declared its support for the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.Friedman, Isaiah (1971). German Intervention on Behalf of the "Yishuv", 1917, Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 33, pp. 23–43.