Middle-Eastern theatre of World War I

Middle Eastern theatre
Part of World War I
Date Oct 24, 1914-Aug 10, 1920 Location Middle East Result Overwhelming Ottoman Defeat. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of Batum, Treaty of Sèvres. Territorial changes Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Germany  Austria-Hungary[1][2]	Russia Armenia British Empire Australia India  Newfoundland New Zealand United Kingdom France Italy  Arab Rebels
Strength
2,850,000 2, max strength: 800,000
Casualties and losses
550,000 KIA 3, 891,000 WIA, 240,000 sick, 103,731 MIO, 239,000-250,000 POW 1, tens of thousands AWOL4
1 Ottoman casualties are from Republic of Turkey gov. resources. 2 Not active soldiers, but total number registered during the war. Includes units like Kuva-i İnzibatiye that had never fought against the Triple Entente. 3Total (KIA+WIA): 253,000 Gallipoli, 270,000 Caucasus Campaign which 80,000 Sarikamis, 220,000 Mesopotamian Campaign, 200,000 Sinai and Palestine Campaign, 20,000 Aden and Persia. 4 Very high in Caucasus Campaign, MIO was reported.

v • d • e Theatres of World War I European Balkans – Western Front – Eastern Front – Italian Front Middle Eastern Caucasus – Mesopotamia – Sinai and Palestine – Gallipoli – Persia African South-West Africa – West Africa – East Africa Asian and Pacific Other Atlantic Ocean – Mediterranean – Naval – Aerial

v • d • e Caucasus Campaign Bergmann Offensive – Sarikamis – Persian Campaign– Van – Manzikert – Kara Killisse – Erzerum Campaign – Trebizond – Bitlis – Erzinjan – Sardarapat – Abaran – Karakilisa – Baku

v • d • e Mesopotamian Campaign Fao Landing – Basra – Qurna – Es Sinn – Ctesiphon – Umm-at-Tubal – 1st Kut –Shiekh Sa'ad – Wadi – Hanna – Dujaila – 2nd Kut – Baghdad – Samarrah Offensive – Jebel Hamlin – Istabulat – Ramadi – Khan Baghdadi – Sharqat

v • d • e Sinai and Palestine Campaign Suez – Romani – Magdhaba – Rafa – 1st Gaza – 2nd Gaza – Beersheba – 3rd Gaza – Mughar Ridge – Jerusalem – Abu Tellul – Arara – Megiddo

v • d • e Gallipoli Campaign Naval operations – Anzac – Helles – 1st Krithia – 2nd Krithia – 3rd Krithia – Gully Ravine – Sari Bair – Krithia Vineyard – Lone Pine – Suvla – The Nek – Chunuk Bair – Scimitar Hill – Hill 60

v • d • e Persian Campaign Battle of Dilman - Occupation of Tabriz

The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I was fought between the Allied Powers, primarily the British and the Russians on the one hand, and the Central Powers, primarily the Ottoman Empire and a German Military Mission, on the other. The Allied side also included the Arabs who participated in the Arab Revolt in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, and the Democratic Republic of Armenia after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Fighting in the theatre began on October 29, 1914; hostilities ended on October 30, 1918 and a peace treaty was signed on August 10, 1920. This theatre encompassed the largest territory of all the theatres of WWI. It comprised four main campaigns: the (Sinai and Palestine Campaign, the Mesopotamian Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, and the Dardanelles Campaign). There were also minor campaigns in Arabia and Southern Arabia, Aden, and Persia.

Contents 1 Prelude 2 Activities 2.1 1914 2.2 1915 2.3 1916 2.4 1917 2.5 1918 2.6 The Armistice, October 30, 1918 3 Peace Treaty 4 Command Structures 4.1 Ottoman 4.2 British 4.3 Russian 5 Casualties 6 Timeline 7 Footnotes 8 Further reading

Prelude

The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October–November 1914, pursuant to the secret Ottoman-German Alliance^[3] signed on August 2, 1914, threatening Russia's Caucasian territories and Britain's communications with India and the East via the Suez Canal.

The Ottoman Empire's entry into hostilities occurred on October 29, 1914 when German battlecruiser Goeben and light cruiser Breslau, operating under Turkish flag, shelled the Russian Black Sea port of Odessa.

Activities

1914

Mesopotamian Campaign: The campaign was fought mainly in the Tigris River valley region of what is now Iraq, and included battles on the Persian Gulf coast, at Basra, and numerous struggles around Kut and Baghdad.

Caucasus Campaign: The Russian and Ottoman armies fought in the Caucasus and eastern Anatolia (northeastern Turkey), with the Ottoman Empire suffering a crushing defeat at the Battle of Sarikamis in November-December.

1915

Mesopotamian Campaign: Initially the Ottomans successfully repelled the British incursions. However, fortunes reversed after the disastrous Siege of Kut.

Caucasus Campaign: The Russians went on the offensive, advancing as far as Lake Van, but the Ottoman forces were ultimately able to drive them back. Ottoman repression of the Armenian population in Anatolia, who had evinced pro-Russian sentiments, grew into what is now called the Armenian Genocide. The fighting was largely inconclusive as the focus of the Ottoman and Russian war effort shifted to the Dardanelles Campaign and the Eastern Front respectively.

Dardanelles Campaign: the campaign, which began on April 25, took place at on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the European side of the Dardanelles (tr:Çanakkale Savaşları), and is commonly referred to in Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland simply as "Gallipoli". The British and French mounted a combined operation with the goal of capturing the Ottoman capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul). The campaign started with a Naval attempt to force the Dardanelles. When this failed the Allies decided to seize the European side of the Dardanelles with an amphibious assault. The troops were able to land but could not dislodge the Ottoman forces after months of battle that caused the deaths of an estimated 131,000 soldiers, and 262,000 wounded. Eventually the Allied forces withdrew. The campaigning represented something of a coming of age for Australia and New Zealand who celebrate April 25th as ANZAC Day. Kemal Ataturk, who would go on to become the first leader of modern Turkey distinguished himself as a Lieut. Colonel in the Ottoman forces there.

Arab Revolt: The British, based in Egypt, began to incite the Arabs living in Hejaz near the Red Sea and inland to revolt to expel the Ottoman forces from what is the modern-day Saudi Arabian peninsula.

Sinai and Palestine Campaign: The Ottomans launched an unsuccessful attack across the Sinai with the objective of destroying or capturing the Suez Canal.

1916

Arab Revolt: In 1916, a combination of diplomacy and genuine dislike of the new leaders of the Ottoman Empire (the Three Pashas) convinced Sherif Hussein ibn 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.

Caucasus Campaign: The Russian offensive in northeastern Turkey culminated with the capture of Erzurum in February and Trabzon in April.

Sinai and Palestine Campaign: 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, 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

Mesopotamian Campaign: British Empire forces reorganized and captured Baghdad in March 1917.

Caucasus Campaign: Russia effectively withdrew from the war in 1917; the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918 eventually restored to Ottoman Empire the territories it had lost to Russia during the war.

Arab Revolt: The revolt was a success, aided immensely by General Allenby's conquest of Palestine in 1917 (see the Sinai and Palestine Campaign for details).

Sinai and Palestine Campaign: Late in 1917, Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force smashed the Ottoman defenses and captured Gaza, and then captured Jerusalem just before Christmas. While strategically of minimal importance to the war, this event was key in the subsequent creation of Israel as a separate nation in 1948.

1918

Sinai and Palestine Campaign: Ottoman Empire could be defeated with campaigns in Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Spring Offensive delayed the expected attack. General Allenby's was given brand new divisions recruited from India. British achieved complete control of the air General Liman von Sanders, had no clear idea where the British were going to attack. Compounding the problems, withdrew their best troops to Caucasus Campaign. General Allenby finally launched Battle of Megiddo, Ottoman troops started a full scale retreat.

Arab Revolt: 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.

Caucasus Campaign: The Grand vizier Talat Pasha signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March 3, 1918 with the Russian SFSR which stipulated that Bolshevik Russia cede Batum, Kars, and Ardahan to Ottoman Empire. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk united the Armenian-Georgian block^[4]. Democratic Republic of Armenia declared the existence of a state of war between the Ottoman Empire^[4]. In early May, 1918, the Ottoman army faced the Armenian Corps of Armenian National Councils which soon declared the Democratic Republic of Armenia. The Ottoman army captured Trabzon, Erzurum, Kars, Van, and Batumi. The conflict led to the Battle of Sardarapat, the Battle of Kara Killisse (1918), and the Battle of Bash Abaran. Although the Armenians managed to inflict a defeat on the Ottomans at the Battle of Sardarapat, the Ottoman army won the later battle and scattered the Armenian army. The fight with Democratic Republic of Armenia ended with the sign the Treaty of Batum in June, 1918. However throughout the summer of 1918, under the leadership of Andranik Toros Ozanian Armenians in the mountainous Karabag region resisted the Ottoman 3th army and established the Republic of Mountainous Armenia^[5]. The Army of Islam avoided Georgia and marched to the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. They got as far as Baku on the Caspian Sea. They threw the British out in September 1918 with the Battle of Baku.

The Armistice, October 30, 1918

The Armistice of Mudros, signed on aboard HMS Agamemnon in Mudros port on the island of Lemnos on October 30, 1918, with the Ottoman Empire and Triple Entente. Ottoman activities at all the active campaigns terminated.

Peace Treaty

The negotiations for a peace treaty continued at the Conference of London, and took definite shape only after the premiers' meeting at the San Remo conference in April 1920. France, Italy, and Great Britain, however, had secretly begun the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire as early as 1915. The Ottoman Government representatives signed the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920, however, treaty was not sent to Ottoman Parliament for ratification, as it was abolished on March 18, 1920 by the British, during the occupation of Istanbul. The treaty was never ratified by the Ottoman Empire^[6][7] The Treaty of Sèvres was annulled in the course of the Turkish War of Independence and the parties signed and ratified the superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.

Command Structures

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008)

Ottoman

The Ottoman Empire fielded a large but ineffective army during World War I. Their offensive operations were failures, most of their best generals were in fact Germans (e.g. Otto Liman von Sanders, Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, Erich von Falkenhayn and Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein), with only one effective Turkish Commander, Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk), and just about all their modern war equipment (war ships, heavy artillery, machine guns, railroads, and air-planes) were built by Germans or Austrians and were maintained by German and Austrian engineers.

When holding defensive fortified positions the Ottoman Army was often able to beat back major attacks, and tens of thousands of British and Russian soldiers died making fruitless assaults on Turkish positions. However, the only successful Ottoman military operations were defensive and they suffered many defeats when attacking.

Unlike the army of Austria-Hungary which essentially fell apart in 1918, the Ottoman Army was still partially intact and partially effective to the end of the war. Despite losing its armies in Palestine and Mesopotamia in the fall of 1918, it maintained a combat-effective army based around Istanbul. In 1918, the Ottoman Army was able to recapture all their lost territory in Armenia, if against weak opposition. The Ottoman Army managed to reach Baku just before the war ended.

Despite the occasional successes and sometimes capable leaders, on the whole the Ottoman Army was a weak partner to the German Army during World War I. The Ottoman Empire almost certainly would have been defeated by the middle of 1915 without German military leadership and aid.^{[citation needed]}

British

• Mediterranean Expeditionary Force
• British Dardanelles Army

Russian

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008)

Casualties

• Ottoman Muslim casualties

Timeline

Footnotes

1. ^ Austro-Hungarian Army in the Ottoman Empire 1914-1918
2. ^ Jung Peter, Austro-Hungarian Forces in World War 1 (Part 1),(Osprey, 2003), p.47
3. ^ The Treaty of Alliance Between Germany and Turkey 2 August, 1914
4. ^ ^{a b} Richard Hovannisian "The Armenian people from ancient to modern times" Pages 292-293
5. ^ Mark Malkasian, Gha-Ra-Bagh": the emergence of the national democratic movement in Armenia page 22
6. ^ Sunga, Lyal S. (1992-01-01). Individual Responsibility in International Law for Serious Human Rights Violations. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-1453-0. 
7. ^ Bernhardsson, Magnus (2005-12-20). Reclaiming a Plundered Past: archaeology and nation building in modern Iraq. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70947-1. 

Further reading

• David R. Woodward: Hell in the Holy Land: World War I in the Middle East. Lexington 2006, ISBN 978-0-8131-2383-7
• The Anglo-Russian Entente:Agreement concerning Persia 1907
• The French, British and Russian joint declaration over the situation in Armenia published on May 24, 1915
• Sykes-Picot Agreement 15 & 16 May 1916.
• The Middle East during World War I By Professor David R Woodward for the BBC

v • d • e History of World War I by nation Armenia · Australia · Austria-Hungary · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Canada · China · Czechoslovakia · France · Germany · Greece · Hungary · India · Italy · Japan · Luxembourg · Montenegro · Netherlands · New Zealand · Newfoundland · Ottoman Empire · Poland · Portugal · Russia · Romania · Serbia · South Africa · Switzerland · Ukraine · United Kingdom · United States · Viet Nam · Yugoslavia

v • d • e World War I European theatre: (Balkans – Western Front – Eastern Front – Italian Front) Middle Eastern theatre: (Caucasus – Mesopotamia – Sinai and Palestine – Gallipoli – Persia) African theatre: (South-West Africa – West Africa – East Africa) Asian and Pacific theatre: (Siege of Tsingtao) Atlantic Ocean · Mediterranean Major participants (People) Entente Powers Russian Empire · French Empire: France, Vietnam · British Empire: United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa · Italy · Romania · United States · Serbia · Portugal · China · Japan · Belgium · Montenegro · Greece · Armenia Central Powers Germany · Austria-Hungary · Ottoman Empire · Bulgaria Timeline Pre-conflicts Mexican Revolution (1910–20) · First Balkan War (1912–13) · Second Balkan War (1913) · Maritz Rebellion (1914–15) · Indo-German Conspiracy (1914-1919) Prelude Origins · Sarajevo assassination · July Ultimatum 1914 Battle of Liège · Battle of Galicia · Invasion of Serbia · First Battle of the Marne · First Battle of Arras · Battle of Sarıkamış 1915 Battle of Gallipoli · Italian Campaign · Conquest of Serbia · Ctesiphon · Siege of Kut 1916 Battle of Verdun · Battle of the Somme · Battle of Jutland · Brusilov Offensive · Conquest of Romania · Great Arab Revolt 1917 Second Battle of Arras (Vimy Ridge) · Battle of Passchendaele · Capture of Baghdad · Conquest of Palestine 1918 Spring Offensive · Battle of Baku · Hundred Days Offensive · Meuse-Argonne Offensive · Armistice with Germany · Armistice with Ottoman Empire Post-conflicts Easter Rising (1916) · Russian Revolution (1917) · Russian Civil War (1917–21) · Finnish Civil War (1918) · North Russia Campaign (1918–19) · Wielkopolska Uprising (1918–19) · Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920) · Latvian War of Independence (1918–1920) · Ukrainian War of Independence(1917–1921) · Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) · Polish–Lithuanian War (1920) · Irish War of Independence (1919–21) · Turkish War of Independence including the Greco-Turkish War (1919–23) · Irish Civil War (1922–23) Aspects Warfare Military engagements · Naval warfare · Air warfare · Cryptography · Poison gas · Railways · Technology · Trench warfare · Total war · Surviving veterans Civilian impact / atrocities Casualties · Spanish flu · Rape of Belgium · Ottoman Empire: (Armenian Genocide · Assyrian Genocide · Pontic Greek Genocide) · Female roles · Literature Agreements / Treaties Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire · London • Sykes-Picot • St.-Jean-de-Maurienne • French-Armenian • Damascus • Paris Peace Conference · Treaty of Brest-Litovsk · Treaty of Lausanne · Treaty of Neuilly · Treaty of St. Germain · Treaty of Sèvres · Treaty of Trianon · Treaty of Versailles Consequences Aftermath · "Fourteen Points" · League of Nations Category · Portal World War I from Wiktionary WWI Textbooks from Wikibooks WWI Quotations from Wikiquote WWI Source texts from Wikisource WWI Images & media from Commons WWI News stories from Wikinews

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