Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
Middle Eastern threat of World War I | |
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Part of ) | |
Result |
Allied victory
|
Territorial changes |
Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire |
United Kingdom
- Russian Provisional Government (from March, until September 1917)
- Russian Republic (from September, until November 1917)
- Russian SFSR (from 1917, until 1918)
- Algeria
- Tunisia
- West Africa
- Armenian Legion
Hejaz (from 1916)
Armenia (from 1918)
Ottoman Empire
Germany
Austria-Hungary[1][2]
Jabal Shammar
Azerbaijan (from 1918)
Georgia (from 1918)
1,000,000[4]
Several 100,000's[4]
Several 100,000's[4]
70,000[3]
30,000 (1916)[5]
50,000+ (1918)[6]
Total: 4,000,000+
800,000 (peak)[7][8]
323,000 (during Armistice)[9]
6,500 (1916)
20,000 (1918)[7]
~6,000 (1918)[10]
9,000 (1918)[11]
Total: 3,100,000
105,000 dead
204,000 wounded
16,800 captured
700,000 non-combat/sick
Russia
34,000 dead
50,000 wounded
15,700 captured
France
9,000 dead
18,000 wounded
20,000 evacuated sick
Italy
5,600 killed
- Military casualties:
- 1,250,000
- Civilian dead:
- 2,275,000
Ottoman Empire
305,085 killed[12]
466,759 dead of disease[13]
763,753 wounded
242,746 captured
250,000 missing
Germany
3,200 captured[Note 1]
- Military casualties:
- 1,785,000
- Civilian dead:
- 1,200,000
The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I saw action between 30 October 1914 and 30 October 1918. The combatants were, on one side, the Ottoman Empire (including the majority of Kurdish tribes, a relative majority of Arabs, and some Iranian peoples), with some assistance from the other Central Powers; and on the other side, the British (with the help of a small number of Jews, Greeks, Assyrians, some Kurdish tribes and Arab states, along with Hindu, Sikh and Muslim colonial troops from India) as well as troops from the British Dominions of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, the Russians (with the help of Armenians, Assyrians, and occasionally some Kurdish tribes), and the French (with its North African and West African Muslim, Christian and other colonial troops) from among the Allied Powers. There were five main campaigns: the Sinai and Palestine, Mesopotamian, Caucasus, Persian, and Gallipoli campaigns.
Both sides used local asymmetrical forces in the region. On the Allied side were Arabs who participated in the Arab Revolt and the Armenian militia who participated in the Armenian resistance during the Armenian genocide; along with Armenian volunteer units, the Armenian militia formed the Armenian Corps of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918. In addition, the Assyrians joined the Allies and saw action in Southeastern Turkey, northern Mesopotamia (Iraq), northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria following the Assyrian genocide, instigating the Assyrian war of independence.[14] The theatre covered the largest territory of all theatres in the war.
Russian participation in the theatre ended as a result of the Armistice of Erzincan (5 December 1917), after which the revolutionary Russian government withdrew from the war under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918). The Armenians attended the Trebizond Peace Conference (14 March 1918) which resulted in the Treaty of Batum on 4 June 1918. The Ottomans accepted the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies on 30 October 1918, and signed the Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 1920 and later the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923.
Objectives
Ottomans and Central Powers
The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers through the secret
German advisors with the Ottoman armies supported the campaign for this reason. From an economic perspective, the Ottoman, or rather German, strategic goal was to cut off Russian access to the
Germany established an
If these nations were to be removed from Western influence, Enver envisioned a cooperation between these newly established Turkic states. Enver's project conflicted with European interests which played out as struggles between several key imperial powers. The Ottomans also threatened Britain's communications with India and the East via the Suez Canal. The Germans hoped to seize the Canal for the Central Powers, or at least to deny the Allies use of the vital shipping route.
Allies
Britain
The British feared that the Ottomans might attack and capture the Middle East (and later Caspian) oil fields.[17] The British Royal Navy depended upon oil from the petroleum deposits in southern Persia, to which the British-controlled Anglo-Persian Oil Company had exclusive access.[17]
Oxford historian (and Conservative MP) J.A.R. Marriott summarizes the British debates on strategy for the Near East and Balkan theatre:
- The War in that theatre presents many problems and suggests many questions. Whether by a timely display of force the Turk could have been kept true to his ancient connexion with Great Britain and France; whether by more sagacious diplomacy the hostility of Bulgaria could have been averted, and the co-operation of Greece secured; whether by the military intervention of the Entente Powers the cruel blow could have been warded off from Serbia and Montenegro; whether the Dardanelles expedition was faulty only in execution or unsound in conception; whether Romania came into tardily, or moved too soon, and in the wrong direction.[20]
Russia
The Russians viewed the Caucasus Front as secondary to the Eastern Front. They feared a campaign into the Caucasus aimed at retaking Kars which had been taken from the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), and the port of Batum.[21]
In March 1915, when the Russian foreign minister
Armenians
The
Arabs
The principal actor was
Assyrians
In reaction to the
During the peace conferences in Paris in 1919, the Assyrian delegation asked for a state in
Kurds
In the early twentieth century, Kurds, much like Arabs, were a diverse population, dispersed across a wide area and far from homogeneous in social status or geo-political outlook. Though many were committed proponents of Kurdish nationalism, this view was far from ubiquitous.[26] In 1914, many Kurds belonged to the Ottoman elite and Kurds often held high ranking and prominent offices within the Ottoman state.[27]
Kurdish Nationalists hoped that the Allies of World War I would aid them in creating an independent Kurdish nation if they were to fight against the Ottomans, and undertook several uprisings throughout the war. Most of these, except for the uprisings of August 1917, were not supported by any of the allied powers.[28]
Further still, many Kurds rejected remained loyal to and fought on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. The most notorious example being the Hamidiye, a mostly Kurdish elite cavalry division of the Ottoman army. The Hamidiye fought for the Ottomans in both the Caucucus and Persian campaigns and played a significant role in the Armenian genocide.[29] Regions with high Armenian revolutionary actions were targets for the Hamidiye,[30] who referred to an "Armenian Conspiracy" for killing the Armenians.[31] According to some estimates, about ten to twenty thousand Armenians were slaughtered by the Hamidiye units.[32][33]
In other instances local Kurds joined with Turkish forces not out of loyalty but to share in the spoils taken from Armenian civilians. According to historian Raymond Kévorkian, while many nomadic Kurdish tribes actively participated in the genocide, settled Kurds rarely did so.[34]
Many Kurds also opposed the genocide and undertook personal efforts to rescue Armenian civilians.[35]
Operational area
The Caucasus Campaign comprised armed conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the allies, the forces of the latter including
On 23 February 1917, the Russian advance was halted following the
The Ottoman Empire and German Empire fought each other at Batumi after the arrival of the German Caucasus Expedition whose prime aim was to secure oil supplies. On 3 March 1918, the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Russia ended with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and on 4 June 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Batum with Armenia. However, the armed conflicts extended as the Ottoman Empire continued to engage with the Central Caspian Dictatorship, Republic of Mountainous Armenia, and British Empire forces from Dunsterforce until the Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918.
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Top: Destruction in the city of Erzurum; Left Upper: Russian forces; Left Lower: Wounded Muslim refugees; Right Upper: Ottoman forces; Right Lower: Armenian refugees
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The Gallipoli Campaign, February–April 1915
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"Top:" The size of the stars show where the active conflicts occurred in 1915 "Left Upper:" Armenians defending the walls of Van in the spring of 1915 "Left Lower:" Armenian Resistance in Urfa "Right:" A seventy-year-old Armenian priest leading Armenians to battle field.
Ottomans on the Eastern European Front
Over 90,000 Ottoman troops were sent to the Eastern European Front in 1916, to participate in
The relocation of troops to the Eastern European Front was initiated by Enver. It was originally rejected by the German Chief of Staff,
In the deployment, Enver sent the
Forces
Central Powers (Ottoman Empire)
After the
From the outset, the Ottoman Army faced a host of problems in assembling itself. First of all, the size of the Ottoman Army was severely limited by division within the empire: non-Muslims were exempt from the military draft, and reliable ethnic Turks made up only 12 million of the empire's already relatively small population of 22 million, with the other 10 million being minorities of varying loyalty and military use. The empire was also very poor compared to the other powers in GDP, infrastructure, and industrial capacity. As a point of comparison the empire had only 5,759 km of railway, while France had 51,000 km of railway for a fifth of the land area. Ottoman coal production was negligible (826,000 tons in 1914 compared to 40,000,000 tons for France and 292,000,000 tons for Britain), while steel production was borderline non-existent.[38] There was only one cannon and small arms foundry in the empire, a single shell and bullet factory, and a single gunpowder factory, all of which were located in the Constantinople suburbs. The Ottoman economy was almost entirely agricultural, relying on products such as wool, cotton, and hides.[39]
During this period, the Empire divided its forces into armies. Each army headquarters consisted of a Chief of Staff, an operations section, intelligence section, logistics section and a personnel section. As a long established tradition in the Ottoman military, supply, medical and veterinary services were included in these armies. Before the war, the Turkish General Staff estimated that 1,000,000 men could be mobilized at one time and that 500,000 of these were available as mobile field armies, with the rest serving in garrisons, coastal defenses, and in servicing lines of communication and transportation.[40] Approximately 900 field guns were available for the mobile army, which was 280 below war establishment, though supplies of howitzers were generally sufficient. There were an additional 900 pieces of fixed or semifixed set-up in coastal and fortress garrisons across Adrianople, Erzurum, the Bosphorous, the Dardanelles, and the Catalca. Ammunition was low; there were only about 588 shells available per gun.[41] Additionally, the army estimated it needed several thousand more machine guns to fill its establishment; rifles were generally efficient at 1.5 million in stock, the army still needed another 200,000.
In 1914, before the Empire entered the war, the four armies divided their forces into corps and divisions such that each division had three infantry regiments and an artillery regiment. The main units were: First Army with fifteen divisions; Second Army with 4 divisions plus an independent infantry division with three infantry regiments and an artillery brigade; Third Army with nine divisions, four independent infantry regiments and four independent cavalry regiments (tribal units); and the Fourth Army with four divisions.
In August 1914, of 36 infantry divisions organised, fourteen were established from scratch and were essentially new divisions. In a very short time, eight of these newly recruited divisions went through major redeployment. During the war, more armies were established;
By 1918, the original armies had been so badly reduced that the Empire was forced to establish new unit definitions which incorporated these armies. These were the
Most military equipment was manufactured in Germany or Austria, and maintained by German and Austrian engineers. Germany also supplied most of the military advisers; a force of specialist troops (the
Recruitment
The Ottoman Empire established a new recruitment law on 12 May 1914. This lowered the conscription age from 20 to 18, and abolished the "redif" or reserve system. Active duty lengths were set at two years for the infantry, three years for other branches of the Army and five years for the Navy. These measures remained largely theoretical during the war.
Traditional Ottoman forces depended on volunteers from the Muslim population of the empire. Additionally, several groups and individuals in the Ottoman society volunteered for active duty during the World War, the major examples being the "
There were also units formed by Caucasian and Rumelian Turks, who took part in the battles in Mesopotamia and Palestine. Among Ottoman forces, volunteers were not only from Turkic groups; there were also smaller numbers of Arab and Bedouin volunteers who fought in the campaign against the British to capture the Suez Canal, and in Mesopotamia. Volunteers were considered unreliable by the organised army, due to a lack of training and a perception of mainly mercenary interests from the Arab and Bedouin volunteers. Heavy fighting also placed pressure on the Ottoman volunteer system.
Entente nations
Before the war, Russia had the
The Assyrian people of south east Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia and north western Persia also threw in their lot with the Russians and British, under the leadership of Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba.[14]
In 1914, there were some
In 1916, an
France sent the
General
The
Recruitment
Before the war, Russia established a volunteer system to be used in the Caucasus Campaign. In the summer of 1914,
The Armenian volunteers were small, mobile, and well adapted to the semi-guerrilla warfare.[46] They did good work as scouts, but also took part in numerous pitched battles.[46]
In December 1914,
From all countries Armenians are hurrying to enter the ranks of the glorious Russian Army, with their blood to serve the victory of the Russian Army... Let the Russian flag wave freely over the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. Let [...] the peoples [Armenian] remaining under the Turkish yoke receive freedom. Let the Armenian people of Turkey who have suffered for the faith of Christ receive resurrection for a new free life ....[47]
Asymmetrical forces
The forces used in the Middle Eastern theatre were not only regular army units which engaged in conventional warfare, but also irregular forces engaging in what is known today as "
Contrary to myth, it was not
Germany established its own
Chronology
Prelude
The Ottoman Empire made a secret
There was opposition to Schellendorf among the Ottoman army. The most voiced opinion was that Schellendorf planned a war which benefitted Germany, rather than taking into account the conditions of the Ottoman Empire. Hafiz Hakki Pasha presented an alternative plan, which was more aggressive, and concentrated on Russia. It was based on moving forces by sea to the eastern Black Sea coast, where they would develop an offensive against Russian territory. Hafiz Hakki Pasha's plan was shelved because the Ottoman Army lacked the resources. Schellendorf's "Primary Campaign Plan" was therefore adopted by default.[citation needed]
As a result of Schellendorf's plan, most of the Ottoman operations were fought in Ottoman territory, with the result that in many cases they directly affected the Empire's own people. The later view was that the resources to implement this plan were also lacking, but Schellendorf organised the command and control of the army better, and positioned the army to execute the plans. Schellendorf also produced a better mobilisation plan for raising forces and preparing them for war. The Ottoman War Ministry's archives contain war plans drafted by Schellendorf, dated 7 October 1914, which include details regarding Ottoman support to the Bulgarian army, a secret operation against Romania, and Ottoman soldiers landing in
Such was the German influence on Turkey's operations during the Palestine campaign that most of the staff posts in the Yıldırım Army Group were held by German officers. Even the headquarters correspondence was produced in German. This situation ended with the final defeat in Palestine and the appointment of Mustafa Kemal to command the remnants of the Yildirim Army Group.
During July 1914 there were negotiations between the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and Ottoman Armenians at the Armenian congress at Erzurum. The public conclusion of the congress was "Ostensibly conducted to peacefully advance Armenian demands by legitimate means".[48] Erickson claims that the CUP regarded the congress as a cause of Armenian insurrection.[49][clarification needed] and that after this meeting, the CUP was convinced of the existence of strong Armenian–Russian links, with detailed plans to detach the region from the Ottoman Empire.[49]
On 29 October 1914, the Ottoman Empire's first armed engagement with the Allies occurred when the German battlecruiser
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New Turkish recruits marching out to a drill before the war, 1914.
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The Turkish general staff of theSinai and Palestine Campaign, 1914.
1914
November
Following the shelling of Odessa, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 2 November 1914. The British Navy attacked the Dardanelles on 3 November. Britain and France declared war on 5 November.
First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill put forward his plans for a naval attack on the Ottoman capital, based at least in part on what turned out to be erroneous reports regarding Ottoman troop strength, as prepared by Lieutenant T. E. Lawrence. He reasoned that the Royal Navy had a large number of obsolete battleships which might be made useful, supported by a token force from the army for routine occupation tasks. The battleships were ordered to be ready by February 1916.[citation needed]
At the same time, the Ottoman Fourth Army was preparing a force of 20,000 men under the command of the Ottoman Minister of the Marine, Djemal Pasha, to take the Suez Canal. The attack on Suez was suggested by War Minister Enver Pasha at the urging of their German ally. The chief of staff for the Ottoman Fourth Army was the Bavarian Colonel Kress von Kressenstein, who organised the attack and arranged supplies for the army as it crossed the desert.[citation needed]
On 1 November, the
On 6 November, a British naval force bombarded the old fort at
On 7 November, the Ottoman Third Army commenced its Caucasus offensive with the participation of the
Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait, sent a force to Umm Qasr, Safwan, Bubiyan, and Basra to expel Ottoman forces from the area. In exchange the British government recognised Kuwait as an "independent government under British protection."[54] There is no report on the exact size and nature of Mubarak's attack, though Ottoman forces did retreat from those positions weeks later.[55] Mubarak removed the Ottoman symbol that was on the Kuwaiti flag and replaced it with "Kuwait" written in Arabic script.[55] Mubarak's participation, as well as his previous exploits in obstructing the completion of the Baghdad railway, helped the British safeguard the Persian Gulf from Ottoman and German reinforcements.[56]
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Ottoman forces preparation for the attack on the Suez Canal, 1914.
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Personnel from theArmen Garo, 1914.
December
In December, at the height of the Battle of Sarikamish, General Myshlaevsky ordered the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Persian Campaign to face Enver's offensive. Only one brigade of Russian troops under the command of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff and one battalion of Armenian volunteers remained scattered throughout Salmast and Urmia. While the main body of Ottoman troops were preparing for the operation in Persia, a small Russian group crossed the Persian frontier. After repulsing a Russian offensive toward Van-Persia mountain crossings, the Van Gendarmerie Division, a lightly equipped paramilitary formation commanded by Major Ferid, chased the Russians into Persia.[citation needed]
On 14 December, the Van Gendarmerie Division occupied the city of Kotur in the Persian Campaign. Later, it proceeded towards Khoy. It was supposed to keep this passage open for Kazım Bey's 5th Expeditionary Force and Halil Bey's 1st Expeditionary Force, who were to move towards Tabriz from the bridgehead established at Kotur. However, the Battle of Sarıkamısh depleted the Ottoman forces and these expeditionary forces were needed elsewhere.
On 29 December, the Ottoman Third Army received the order to advance towards Kars. Enver Pasha assumed personal command of the Third Army and ordered his forces to move against the Russian troops, beginning the Battle of Sarikamish. In the face of the Third Army's advance, Governor Vorontsov planned to pull the Russian Caucasus Army back to Kars. General Nikolai Yudenich ignored Vorontsov's order.
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1st battalion of Armenians were scattered throughout the Salmast and Urmia districts in the early parts of the Persian Campaign, December 1914.[57]
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The initial British offensive during the Mesopotamian campaign, 1914
1915
January–March
On 2 January,
On 3 January, at the Battle of Qurna, Ottoman forces tried to retake the city of Basra. They came under fire from Royal Navy vessels on the river Euphrates, while British troops managed to cross the river Tigris. Judging that Basra's earthworks were too strong to be taken, the Ottomans surrendered the town of Al-Qurnah and retreated to Kut.
On 6 January, the Third Army headquarters found itself under fire. Hafiz Hakki Pasha ordered a total retreat at the Battle of Sarikamish. Only 10% of the army managed to retreat to its starting position. Enver gave up command of the army. During this conflict, Armenian detachments challenged the Ottoman operations at the critical times: "the delay enabled the Russian Caucasus Army to concentrate sufficient force around Sarikamish".[57]
The British and France asked Russia to relieve the pressure on Western front, but Russia needed time to organise its forces. The operations
On 19 February, a strong Anglo-French fleet, including the British battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth, bombarded artillery positions along the coast around the Dardanelles. Admiral Sackville Carden sent a cable to Churchill on 4 March, stating that the fleet could expect to arrive in Constantinople within fourteen days.[58] On 18 March the first major attack was launched. The fleet, comprising 18 battleships and an array of cruisers and destroyers, sought to target the narrowest point of the Dardanelles where the straits are just a mile wide.
The Bouvet exploded in mysterious circumstances, causing it to capsize with its entire crew aboard. Minesweepers, manned by civilians and under constant fire from Ottoman guns, retreated leaving the minefields largely intact. The battleship HMS Irresistible and battlecruiser HMS Inflexible both sustained critical damage from mines, although there was confusion during the battle whether torpedoes were to blame. The battleship HMS Ocean, sent to rescue the Irresistible, was itself mined and both ships eventually sank. The French battleships Suffren and Gaulois were also badly damaged. The losses prompted the Allies to cease any further attempts to force the straits by naval power alone.
In February, General Yudenich was promoted to command the Russian Caucasus Army, replacing
The Ottoman Empire tried to seize the Suez Canal in Egypt with the
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The Third Army lost soldiers to frost at the Battle of Sarikamish during the Caucasus Campaign, January 1915.
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6th Army field HQ during the Mesopotamian campaign, 1915.
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The camel corps at Beersheba during theSinai and Palestine Campaign, February 1915.
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TheGallipoli Campaign, March 1915.
April–June
Following their unexpected success in the
On 12 April, Süleyman Askeri attacked the British camp at Shaiba with 3,800 troops early in the morning. These forces, mainly provided by Arab sheiks, achieved nothing. Süleyman Askeri was wounded. Disappointed and depressed, he shot himself at the hospital in Baghdad.
On 20 April, the
The Allies began their amphibious assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the European side of the Dardanelles the following day. The troops were able to land, but could not dislodge the Ottoman forces even after months of battle that caused the deaths of an estimated 131,000 soldiers, and 262,000 wounded. Eventually they withdrew. The campaign represented something of a coming of age for
On 6 May, General Yudenich began an offensive into Ottoman territory. One wing of this offensive headed towards
On 6 May, the Russian second wing advanced through the Tortum Valley towards Erzurum after the weather turned milder. The Ottoman 29th and 30th Divisions managed to stop this assault. The X Corps counter-attacked the Russian forces. On the southern front, the Ottomans were not as successful as they had been in the north.
The city of
On 27 May, during the high point of the Russian offensive, the Ottoman parliament passed the
On 19 June, the Russians launched another offensive northwest of Lake Van. Commanded by Oganovski, they advanced into the hills west of Malazgrit, but had underestimated the size of the Ottoman forces. They were surprised by a large Ottoman force at the Battle of Manzikert. They were not aware that the Ottoman IX Corps, together with the 17th and 28th Divisions, was moving to Mush also.
The 1st and 5th Expeditionary Forces were positioned to the south of the Russian offensive force and a "Right Wing Group" was established under the command of Brigadier General Abdülkerim Paşa. This group was independent from the Third Army, and Abdülkerim Paşa was reporting directly to Enver Paşa.
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Armenian troops holding a defence line at the Siege of Van, April 1915.
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Armenian resistance members from the Adapazarıcommittee, 1915.
July–September
On 24 September,
On the other side the situation was very different; the Ottoman High Command failed to make up the losses during this period. The war in Gallipoli was using up all available resources and manpower. The IX, X and XI Corps could not be reinforced, and the 1st and 5th Expeditionary Forces were deployed to Mesopotamia. Enver Pasha, after failing to achieve his ambitions in the Caucasus, and possibly recognising the dire situation on other fronts, decided that the Caucasus front was of secondary importance.
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Mustafa Kemal at Gallipoli with his soldiers, 1915.
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A trench at Lone Pine after the battle, showing Australian and Turkish dead on the parapet, 1915.
October–December
The rapid advance of the British up the river[clarification needed] changed some of the Arab tribes' perception of the conflict. Realising that the British had the upper hand, many of them joined the British efforts. They raided Ottoman military hospitals and massacred the soldiers in Amara.
On 22 November, Townshend and von der Goltz fought the
In December, the British government continued their attempts to cultivate favour with Ibn Saud via its secret agent, Captain
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Defenders of theUrfa Resistance, July 1915.
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The trenches during the Siege of Kut, December 1915.
Battle of Robat Karim
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Organizer of the popular forces against the Russian forces was Heydar Latifiyan who had been one of the supporters of the
From one side, the Russian troops reach the village of Kolmeh (Fajr town), which is located between the Rabat Karim road and Tehran, and the local fighters are surrounded from three sides. The Russians start bombarding the area from almost a mile away. It is possible, but all the people survive. However, in the evening, the infantry riders of the Russian army come closer and the war with swords begins, and after a bloody clash, 70 people are killed.
Heyder was also killed like the rest of his comrades. According to the traditions of the local people, the Russians made it difficult to identify the bodies by cutting off the heads of the dead. The only identifiable body among the 70 people was Heydar Latifiyan, whose body was buried near an Imamzadeh above the village of Vahnabad.
1916
In 1916, a combination of diplomacy and genuine dislike of the new leaders of the Ottoman Empire (the Three Pashas) convinced Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca to begin a revolt. He gave the leadership of this revolt to two of his sons: Faisal and Abdullah, though the planning and direction for the war was largely the work of Lawrence of Arabia.
The Russian offensive in northeastern
The Ottoman forces launched a second attack across the Sinai with the objective of destroying or capturing the Suez Canal. Both this and the earlier attack (1915) were unsuccessful, though not very costly by the standards of the Great War. The British then went on the offensive, attacking east into Palestine. However, in 1917 two failed attempts to capture the Ottoman fort of Gaza resulted in sweeping changes to the British command and the arrival of General Allenby, along with many reinforcements.
1917
British Empire forces reorganised and captured Baghdad in March 1917. On 16 December, the Armistice of Erzincan (Erzincan Cease-fire Agreement) was signed which officially brought the end of hostilities between the Ottoman Empire and the Russians. The Special Transcaucasian Committee also endorsed the agreement.
The
1918
The Allied Supreme War Council believed the war weary Ottoman Empire could be defeated with campaigns in Palestine and Mesopotamia,[60] but the German Spring Offensive in France delayed the expected Allied attack.[60] General Allenby was given brand new divisions recruited from India.[60]
T. E. Lawrence and his Arab fighters staged many hit-and-run attacks on supply lines and tied down thousands of soldiers in garrisons throughout Palestine, Jordan, and Syria.[61]
On 3 March the Grand Vizier
Assyrians attacked the Fortress of Charah on March 16, 1918, after the murder of Mar Benyamin Shimun (killed on March 3). Simko Shikak, who was responsible for the murder of the Assyrian patriarch Mar Shimun was staying in the fortress. The fortress had never been conquered despite numerous attempts by the Persian government. During the battle, Simko was panic stricken after seeing the Assyrians rip apart his forces. While the battle was going on, Simko managed to flee, abandoning his men. After one day of fighting, the Kurds were decisively defeated. It is said that the river in Charah was completely red from the dead Shikak fighters.[63]
Under the command of Agha Petros, the Assyrians had quite a few successful engagements over the Ottoman forces. Most notably at Suldouze where Petros' 1,500 horsemen overcame the forces of Kheiri Bey's (8,000 men).[64][65] Petros also defeated the Ottomans in a major engagement at Sauj Bulak and drove them back to Rowanduz.[66]
The
Although the Armenians managed to inflict a defeat on the Ottomans at the
In September 1918, General Allenby launched the Battle of Megiddo, with the Jewish Legion under his command,[69] forcing Ottoman troops into a full scale retreat.[70]
Aftermath
On 30 October 1918, the
Military occupation
On 13 November 1918, the
Peace treaty
On 18 January 1919, peace negotiations began with the
Abolition of the Caliphate
On 3 March 1924, the
Casualties
Allied military losses are placed between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 including killed, wounded, captured or missing.[citation needed] This includes 303,000 British Empire and French casualties in Gallipoli,[74] 601,000 British Empire casualties in Sinai-Palestine,[75] at least 140,000 Russian casualties in the Caucasus, and 256,000 British Empire casualties in Mesopotamia,[76] as well as additional Russo-British losses in Persia. Most of the British casualties were non-battle casualties; total British battle casualties inflicted by the Ottomans were estimated as 264,000 by Field Marshal Lord Carver.[77]
Estimates for Ottoman military casualties vary widely, as the disintegration of the Ottoman bureaucracy and government meant 1,565,000 men simply became unaccounted for in the records following the end of the war.[78] The Ottoman official casualty statistics published in 1922 were 325,000 dead (50,000 killed, 35,000 died of wounds, 240,000 died of disease), 400,000 wounded, and an unknown number of prisoners. The United States War Department used the same killed and wounded figures, and estimated that 250,000 Ottoman soldiers had gone missing or become prisoners before the end of the war, for a total of 975,000 casualties.[79] American historian Edward J. Erickson, based on non-published individual World War I campaign histories in the Ottoman Archives, estimated Ottoman military casualties at 1,680,701: 771,844 dead/missing (175,220 killed in action, 68,378 died of wounds, 61,487 missing action, and 466,759 deaths due to disease), 695,375 wounded (total of 763,753 wounded including those who died of wounds and 303,150 actually listed in records; the author assumes these are only the seriously wounded, and estimates the rest), and 145,104 prisoners of war. The very high ratio of disease deaths to combat deaths is attributed to the breakdown of the Ottoman medical services, which resulted in afflictions that would normally be treated after evacuation from the theater in the British army often being fatal in the Ottoman army.[80] Including those who died of disease, 3,515,471 Ottoman troops fell sick during World War I.[81]
The significance of disease on this front can be best illustrated by comparing British the number of hospitalizations from disease/injury (frostbite, trench foot, etc.) in this theater to the Western Front. In France and Flanders, 2,690,054 British Empire troops were killed, wounded, died of wounds, missing, or captured, while there were 3,528,486 hospitalizations due to "non-battle casualties", a rate of 1.3 NBCs for every 1 battle casualty. In Mesopotamia there were 82,207 troops killed, wounded, died of wounds, missing, or captured, and 820,418 hospitalizations for sickness or injury, while in the
Total Ottoman losses including civilians are recorded as being almost as high as 25% of the population, approximately 5 million deaths out of population of 21 million.[83] The 1914 census gave 20,975,345 as the population size of the Ottoman Empire. Of these 15,044,846 were from the Muslim millet, 187,073 were from the Jewish millet, 186,152 did not belong to any millet and the remainder were spread across other millets.[84] Turkish professor Kamer Kasim has stated that the cumulative percentage was actually 26.9% of the population (1.9% higher than the 25% reported by Western sources), the highest proportion of all the countries that took part in World War I.[85] This increase of 1.9% represents an additional 399,000 civilians in the total number.[citation needed]
Not counting those later lost to the enemy, the Ottomans captured 1,314 pieces of artillery in World War I (mostly pieces in the 87 mm to 122 mm range). Most of these were Russian pieces, but this also included some of Romanian, German, and Japanese origin. Captured guns made up a significant portion of overall Ottoman artillery strength by the end of the war.[86]
Timeline
See also
- Caucasus Campaign
- Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres of World War II
- Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition
General:
- List of conflicts in the Middle East
- List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
- Unification of Saudi Arabia
Notes
- ^ Russian Empire during 1914–1917, Russian Republic during 1917. The Bolshevik government signed a separate peace with the Central Powers shortly after their armed seizure of power, resulting in a Central Powers victory on the Eastern Front of the war, and Russian defeat. However, this peace treaty was nullified by an Allied Powers victory on the Western Front, and the end of the war.
- ^ POWs held by the end of the war are given as 5,703 officers and 96,133 other ranks, broken down by ethnicity. However that total also includes "over 3,000" Austro-German men and 206 Austro-German officers, which are listed below separately. Ottoman POWs alone would therefore be 5,497 officers and about 93,000 other ranks. Of these 8,000 were captured by the Arab insurgents under King Hussein.[Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War 1914–1920, The War Office, p. 633.]
Footnotes
- ^ Austro-Hungarian Army in the Ottoman Empire 1914–1918 Archived 18 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 1841765945.
- ^ ISBN 0521620961.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-77099-6.
- ^ Murphy, p. 26.
- ISBN 1-59784-054-8, p. 29. Number refers only to those laying siege to Medina by the time it surrendered and does not account for Arab insurgents elsewhere.
- ^ ISBN 0521852129.
- ISBN 3825283968, p. 761(in German).
- ^ A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, M. Sükrü Hanioglu, page 181, 2010
- ^ "MK/QİO ilə işğalçı qoşunların say tərkibi, silah və hərbi texnikasına BAXIŞ (FOTOLAR) - I Yazı".
- ISBN 0195360702.
- ^ Ordered to Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, Edward J. Erickson. p. 211.
- ^ Erickson, Edward J. 2001. p. 211
- ^ a b Naayem, Shall This Nation Die?, p. 281
- ^ The Treaty of Alliance Between Germany and Turkey Archived 16 November 2001 at the Library of Congress Web Archives 2 August 1914
- ^ a b Hinterhoff, Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia, pp.499–503
- ^ a b c The Encyclopedia Americana, 1920, v.28, p.403
- ISBN 071464580Xp 176
- ^ ISBN 0-7146-4580-X, archived from the originalon 26 March 2009, retrieved 4 April 2009
- ^ J. A. R. Marriott, Modern England: 1885–1945 (4th ed. 1948) p.365
- ^ a b R. G. Hovannisian. Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967, pg. 59
- ISBN 9781785334993.
- ^ Naayem, Shall This Nation Die?, p. 281
- ^ Wigram, William Ainger (1920). Our Smallest Ally ; Wigram, W[illiam] A[inger] ; A Brief Account of the Assyrian Nation in the Great War. Introd. by General H.H. Austin. Soc. for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-1375-1.
- ISBN 1850436533.
- S2CID 144607707. Archived from the originalon 11 October 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2007 – via Turkish Weekly.
- ^ Eskander, Saad. "Britain's Policy Towards The Kurdish Question, 1915-1923" (PDF). LSE Theses Online. p. 45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 January 2024.
- ISBN 9789004225183.
- ^ Klein, The Margins of the Empire, 26.
- ^ Janet Klein, Joost Jongerden, Jelle Verheij, Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1975, 153.
- ^ Ernest Edmondson Ramsaur, Jr. The Young Turks: Prelude to the Revolution of 1908, Beirut, Khayats, 1965, p.10.
- ^ Klein, Janet. The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-85771-930-0.
The major role played by "the" Kurds, which is stressed by Turkish historiography and also by many Western scholars, turns out, upon examination, to be much less clear-cut than has been affirmed. Indeed, it comes down to the active participation of nomadic Kurdish tribes and only rarely involves sedentary villagers, who were encouraged by the Special Organization to take what they could from deportees already stripped of their most valuable assets. There can be no doubt that Turkish historiography ultimately contaminated independent scholars who were not necessarily in a position to assess the accuracy of this dogma that had its practical uses for those seeking to shake off the burden of a violent past at the expense of a group that is itself stigmatized in our day.
- ^ Henry H. Riggs, Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal Experiences in Harpoot, page 158, 1997.
- ^ Erickson 2001, page 119
- ^ Erickson 2001, page 140
- ^ Erickson 2001, p. 15-16
- ^ Erickson 2001, p. 17
- ^ Erickson 2001, p. 7
- ^ Erickson 2001, p. 8
- ^ The Washington Post, 12 November 1914. "Armenians Join Russians" the extended information is at the image detail)
- ^ Joan George "Merchants in Exile: The Armenians of Manchester, England, 1835–1935", p.184
- ^ Stanley Elphinstone Kerr. The Lions of Marash: personal experiences with American Near East Relief, 1919–1922 p. 30
- ^ The Hugh Chisholm, 1920, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Company ltd., twelfth edition p.198.
- ^ a b Avetoon Pesak Hacobian, 1917, Armenia and the War, p.77
- ^ (Shaw 1977, pp. 314–315)
- ^ Richard G. Hovannisian, The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, p. 244
- ^ a b (Erickson 2001, pp. 97)
- ^ Historical dictionary of the Ottoman Empire, p.Ixvi. Selçuk Akşin Somel, 2003
- S2CID 159652479.
- ^ A. F. Pollard, "A Short History Of The Great War" chapter VI: The first winter of the war.
- ^ (Erickson 2001, pp. 54)
- ^ Slot 2005, p. 406
- ^ a b Slot 2005, p. 407
- ^ Slot 2005, p. 409
- ^ a b (Pasdermadjian 1918, pp. 22)
- ^ Fromkin, 135.
- ^ Peter Mansfield, The British Empire magazine, Time-Life Books, vol 75, p. 2078
- ^ a b c A Global Chronology of Conflict, Vol. 4, ed. Spencer Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2011), 1669.
- ^ Neil Faulkner, Lawrence of Arabia's War: The Arabs, the British and the Remaking of the , (Yale University Press, 2016), 188.
- ^ ISBN 0312101686.
- ^ Ismael, Yaqou D'Malik. Assyrians and Two World Wars: Assyrians from 1914 to 1945. p. 152.
- ^ "Shall This Nation Die?". Assyrian International News Agency. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
- ^ Naayem, Joseph (1921). Shall this Nation Die?. Chaldean rescue.
- ^ "آغا بطرس: سنحاريب القرن العشرين" (PDF). نينوس نيراري. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2018.
- ^ a b Mark Malkasian, Gha-Ra-Bagh: The emergence of the national democratic movement in Armenia, page 22
- ^ A Global Chronology of Conflict, Vol. 4, ed. Spencer Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2011), 1658.
- ^ Martin Watts, The Jewish Legion during the First World War, (Springer, 2004), 182.
- ^ Ernest Tucker, The Middle East in Modern World History, (Routledge, 2016), 138.
- ^ Mustafa Kemal Pasha's speech on his arrival in Ankara in November 1919
- ISBN 0-7923-1453-0.
- ISBN 0-292-70947-1.
- ^ Erickson 2001a, p. 94.
- ^ Hart, Peter. "The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War". Oxford University Press, 2013. Page 409.
- ^ Tucker, Spencer (28 October 2014). World War 1: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. ABC-CLIO. p. 1079.
- ^ Edward J. Erickson. "Ottoman Army Effectiveness in World War I: A Comparative Study". Routledge, 2007. Page 166.
- ISBN 90-04-22520-Xpp. 113–114.
- ^ "Military Casualties-World War-Estimated," Statistics Branch, GS, War Department, 25 February 1924; cited in World War I: People, Politics, and Power, published by Britannica Educational Publishing (2010) Page 219.
- ^ Ordered to Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, by Huseyin (FRW) Kivrikoglu, Edward J. Erickson, Page 211.
- ^ Erickson 2001, p. 240
- ^ T. J. Mitchell and G.M. Smith. "Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War." From the "Official History of the Great War". Page 15.
- ISBN 978-0-521-61804-5Page 77
- ^ Stanford Jay Shaw, Ezel Kural Shaw, "History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey", Cambridge University page 239-241
- ^ Kamer Kasim, Ermeni Arastirmalari, Sayı 16–17, 2005, page 205.
- ^ Erickson 2001, p. 234
Bibliography
- Erickson, Edward J. (2001). ISBN 978-0-313-31516-9.
- Naayem, Joseph (1921). Shall This Nation Die?. New York: Chaldean Rescue. OCLC 1189853.
- Pasdermadjian, Garegin; Aram Torossian (1918). Why Armenia Should be Free: Armenia's Role in the Present War. Hairenik Pub. Co. p. 45.
- Pongiluppi, Francesco (2015). The Energetic Issue as a Key Factor of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire. in "The First World War: Analysis and Interpretation" (edited by Biagini and Motta), Vol. 2., Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 453–464.
- Shaw, Stanford Jay; Shaw, Ezel Kural (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge University Press.
- Murphy, David (2008) The Arab Revolt 1916–18 Lawrence sets Arabia Ablaze. Osprey: London. ISBN 978-1-84603-339-1.
- Slot, B.J. (2005). Mubarak Al-Sabah: Founder of Modern Kuwait 1896–1915. London: Arabian Publishing. ISBN 9780954479244.
- Faik, Bulut (2005). Dersim Raporları (in Turkish). Istanbul: Evrensel Basım Yayın. ISBN 978-975-6106-02-0.
- Dersimi, Nuri (1952). Kürdistan Tarihinde Dersim (in Turkish). Aleppo: Ani Matbaası. ISBN 975-6876-44-1.
Further reading
- Allen, W.E.D. and Paul Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, A History of Wars on the Turco-Caucasian Border, 1828–1921, Nashville, TN, 1999 (reprint). ISBN 0-89839-296-9
- Erickson, Edward J. Gallipoli & the Middle East 1914–1918: From the Dardanelles to Mesopotamia (Amber Books Ltd, 2014).
- Fawaz, Leila Tarazi. A Land of Aching Hearts: The Middle East in the Great War. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2014. OCLC 894987337
- Johnson, Rob. The Great War and the Middle East (Oxford UP, 2016).
- Knight, Paul. The British Army in Mesopotamia, 1914–1918. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2013. OCLC 793581432
- Silberstein, Gerard E. "The Central Powers and the Second Turkish Alliance, 1915." Slavic Review 24.1 (1965): 77–89. in JSTOR
- Strachan, Hew. The First World War: Volume I: To Arms (Oxford University Press, 2003) pp 644–93.
- Tanielian, Melanie Schulze (2018). Charity of War: Famine, Humanitarian Aid and World War I in the Middle East. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9781503603523.
- Ulrichsen, Kristian Coates. The First World War in the Middle East (Hurst, 2014).
- Van Der Vat, Dan. The ship that changed the world (ISBN 9780586069295)
- Weber, Frank G. Eagles on the Crescent: Germany, Austria, and the diplomacy of the Turkish alliance, 1914–1918 (Cornell University Press, 1970).
- Woodward, David R. (2006). Hell in the Holy Land: World War I in the Middle East. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2383-7.
External links
- Yanıkdağ, Yücel: Ottoman Empire/Middle East , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Baş, Mehmet Fatih: War Losses (Ottoman Empire/Middle East) , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Maksudyan, Nazan: Civilian and Military Power (Ottoman Empire) , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Criss, Nur Bilge: Occupation during and after the War (Ottoman Empire) , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Smith, Leonard V.: Post-war Treaties (Ottoman Empire/ Middle East) , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- The Anglo-Russian Entente:Agreement concerning Persia 1907
- The French, British and Russian joint declaration over the situation in Armenia published on 24 May 1915
- Sykes-Picot Agreement15 & 16 May 1916.
- The Middle East during World War I By Professor David R Woodward for the BBC
- Turkey in the First World War web site