One of the debated topics of the late Ottoman history is the occupation of Istanbul and Anatolia at the end of World War I, despite the victory achieved in the Gallipoli Campaign.
Following this period, the Ottoman Empire would disappear from history, and a new state would be established after the War of Independence fought against the occupiers.
OTTOMAN FRONTS
At the beginning of World War I, the Ottoman Empire declared its neutrality but later formed an alliance with Germany. As a result of this alliance, in late October 1914, the Ottoman Empire, along with Germany and Austria-Hungary, entered the war against the Allies, consisting of England, France, and Russia.
The Ottoman army suffered a major defeat within a month during the Balkan Wars, resulting in the complete loss of Western Thrace, which had been under Ottoman control for centuries. In World War I, Ottoman forces had to fight on different fronts from 1914 to 1918, both to defend their own territory and to assist their allies.
The first front opened was the Caucasus Front against the Russians. The Third Army, commanded by Minister of War and Acting Commander-in-Chief Enver Pasha, had to withdraw to the west of Erzurum after the failure of the Sarıkamış Campaign. Russian forces also captured Van in the south.
In January 1915, the target of the Ottoman armies was Egypt. The operation, conducted with great hopes under the command of the Minister of Navy and the Commander of the Fourth Army, Cemal Pasha, was not successful. In 1916, the Second Canal Campaign also failed, and the advance of the British forces in Ottoman territory began.
At the beginning of the war, the British aimed for the Ottoman Empire to remain neutral. However, despite the Ottoman government initially declaring itself “neutral,” it later joined the war against the British, increasing the fronts the Allies had to fight on. The Allied powers, led by the British, sought to capture the Straits and occupy Istanbul to compel the Ottoman Empire to withdraw from the war.
To achieve this goal, they first initiated naval battles. When they were unsuccessful in crossing the Dardanelles, they began landing troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula starting from April 1915. During the land battles that lasted from April to August, the Ottoman army did not allow the advance of the Allied forces. The Fifth Army, commanded by Liman von Sanders, was composed of the Northern Group commanded by Esat Pasha and the Southern Group commanded by Weber Pasha.
Later, Vehip Pasha, the brother of Esat Pasha, was appointed as the commander of the Southern Group. The Gallipoli Campaign was a matter of life and death for the Ottoman Empire. Losing the battles would have meant the loss of Istanbul as well. In these battles, both sides suffered approximately 250,000 casualties (killed, wounded, and sent to hospitals).
As a result, the Allied forces had to withdraw from Gallipoli. However, the Ottoman army missed the opportunity to annihilate the allied forces, which were evacuated in two stages in December 1915 and January 1916. These forces would later face the Ottoman forces on other fronts.
The Ottoman General Staff had successfully fought in Gallipoli and gained experience, and they planned to use these experienced forces on other fronts. However, due to strategic mistakes and logistical problems related to transportation, they could not fully utilize these forces.
WERE THE GERMANS DEFEATED, OR WAS IT THE OTTOMANS?
Enver Pasha’s goal after the Gallipoli Campaign was to recapture Erzurum. For this purpose, he appointed Vehip Pasha as the commander of the Third Army, replacing Mahmut Kâmil Pasha. Field Marshal Ahmet İzzet Pasha was also appointed as the commander of the Second Army. Thus, the Second Army would move from the south, and the Third Army from the north, driving the Russians back from the territories they had occupied.
The Ottoman armies, which set out with great hopes on the Caucasian Front, were not successful, and the Russians continued to advance. Russian forces even reached as far west as Erzincan while occupying the entire Black Sea coastline. The end of Russian occupation in this front would only be possible with the Bolshevik Revolution.
One of the fronts where the Ottoman armies fought was the Iraq Front. The British, who had landed troops in Basra at the beginning of the war, started advancing northward. With the withdrawal of the Ottoman army, the British captured Kut al-Amara on September 28, 1915. During this time, Colonel Nurettin Bey (Sakallı Nurettin Pasha), who was appointed as the commander of the Iraq and Dependencies Command, managed to withdraw his forces without significant losses.
The Battle of the Dujaila Redoubt fought on November 22-24, 1915, was won by the Ottoman army. Subsequently, the British army, which had retreated to the south, was besieged at Kut al-Amara. During this time, Major General Charles Townshend, the commander of the British troops, and nearly 14,000 British soldiers surrendered in the Kut Al Amara Campaign, which was the second major victory achieved by the Ottoman army after Gallipoli. After the victory, Townshend was taken as a prisoner and transported to Büyükada.
After their defeat at Gallipoli, the British used Sharif Hussein, Emir of Mecca, as a new card in June 1916 against the Ottoman Empire. After capturing Mecca and Taif, Hussein tried to expand his rebellion. Despite declaring himself the “King of the Arab Lands,” the Ottoman armies did not attempt to recapture Mecca.
The Ottoman Empire’s goal in the Hejaz was to protect Medina and keep the connection between Medina and Damascus open. Even after the Armistice of Moudros, “the defender of Medina,” Fahrettin Pasha, continued to defend Medina. Medina was not surrendered until January 1919.
AND MOUDROS…
Despite their defeat in Kut, the British advanced again and captured Baghdad on March 11, 1917. Enver Pasha later made plans to recapture Baghdad but never realized this goal. After the Armistice of Mudros, on November 8, 1918, the British also occupied Mosul. Thus, the Ottoman Empire lost all of Iraq.
In 1917, the British turned their attention to the Palestine Front. Launching an attack on Gaza, which was strategically important, the British were forced to retreat against the Fourth Army in the First Battle of Gaza on March 26-27, 1917, and the Second Battle of Gaza on April 17-20, 1917. Thus, despite significant losses, the Ottoman army achieved another success against the British forces, who were also supported by warships, after the victories at Gallipoli and Kut.
After these events, the British won the Third Battle of Gaza, which began on October 30, 1917, and occupied Gaza on November 7 and Jaffa on November 16. After the Yıldırım Army Group Headquarters moved to Nablus, Jerusalem fell on December 9. The solution found by Enver Pasha was to appoint Sanders as the Commander of the Yıldırım Army Group instead of Falkenhayn.
By 1918, the Ottoman armies were approaching the end of their capabilities. In September 1918, the British defeated the Ottoman army in the Battle of Nablus, marking the start of a 34-day retreat. With the support of the Syrian Arabs, the British army advanced against the Ottoman army, and, upon the orders of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the Seventh Army withdrew north of Aleppo. Thus, Syria was lost after Palestine.
In response to the defeat in Syria and Palestine in 1918, Russian forces, influenced by the Bolshevik Revolution, were forced to withdraw from Eastern Anatolia. This situation would lead to the liberation of all of Eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea coast by the Third Army, commanded by Vehip Pasha. In this operation, Vehip Pasha advanced as far as Batumi, extending beyond the borders set by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878.
During the same year, another significant success was the Azerbaijani Campaign. The Caucasus Islamic Army, commanded by Nuri Pasha (Killigil), managed to advance as far as Baku. Thus, the Ottoman Empire, which had lost the lands inhabited by the Arabs, at least recovered Eastern Anatolia and reached as far as Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, there were also units fighting in Trablusgarp, Asir, and Yemen.
The Ottoman armies also fought on the Macedonian, Galician, and Romanian Fronts to assist their allies during World War I. When Germany suffered defeat on the Western Front and Bulgaria signed an armistice on September 29, 1918, it was the Ottoman Empire’s turn. Helpless, the Ottoman government accepted the Armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918.
When we look at the overall situation at the time of the armistice, the Ottoman armies had lost all of Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. In the Hejaz, only Medina remained with Ottoman forces. The country’s resources were depleted, and its army was in a dire situation. These conditions led to the “unconditional” surrender of the Ottoman Empire.
During the war, the Allied powers had already divided the Ottoman territories through various secret treaties. The biggest dispute was over Istanbul and the Straits, while the oil regions also pitted the British against the French. These secret agreements are one of the significant reasons why the Armistice of Moudros was so harsh.
The combination of the Ottoman army’s defeats on various fronts, the division of Ottoman territories through secret treaties, and the Allied powers’ desire for revenge due to the spread and prolongation of the war caused them to force the Ottoman Empire into an extremely harsh armistice.
Provisions such as the demobilization of the army, surrendering of weapons, and the occupation of the Straits, Toros tunnels, and other territories not yet occupied by October 30, 1918, were included alongside the famous seventh article, which stated that “in the event of a situation arising which threatens the security of the Allies, they shall have the right to occupy any strategic points in the event of a situation arising which threatens the security of the Allies, they shall have the right to occupy any strategic points.”
Although the British occupied Mosul on November 8, they continued to occupy Istanbul after Lozan, along with the French, Italians, and Greeks. In addition, the Allied powers, following Lozan, continued to control the administration of the Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits with the “flag and budget-holding” Straits Commission established in accordance with the Montreux Straits Convention signed on July 20, 1936.
