CHAPTER XI

TURKEY, CRUSHED TO EARTH, RISES AGAIN

NATIONALISM AND MILITARISM TRIUMPH AT CONSTANTINOPLE

The outbreak of the Great War precipitated a serious political crisis at Constantinople. Decisions of the utmost moment to the future of the Ottoman Empire had to be taken. Chief among these was the choice between neutrality and entry into the war in coöperation with the Central Powers. Pacifists and Entente sympathizers, of whom Djavid Bey was perhaps the foremost, counseled non-intervention in the struggle. Militarists and Germanophiles, headed by Enver Pasha, the distinguished Minister of War, advocated early and complete observance of the alliance with Germany, which called for active military measures against the Entente. In support of the pacifists were the great mass of the people, overburdened with taxes, worn out with military service, and weary of the sacrifices occasioned by the Tripolitan and Balkan Wars. In support of the militarists were German economic power, German military prestige, and the powerful emotion of Turkish nationalism.

The case of the pacifists, like that of their opponents, was based frankly upon national self-interest. A great European war seemed to them to offer an unprecedented opportunity for setting Ottoman affairs in order without the perennial menace of foreign interference. Ottoman neutrality would be solicited by some of the belligerents, Ottoman intervention by others; during the war, however, no nation could afford to bully Turkey. By clever diplomatic bargaining economic and political privileges of the greatest importance might be obtained—the Capitulations, for example, might be abolished. Neutral Turkey might grow prosperous by a thriving commerce with the belligerents. After the peace both victor and vanquished would be too exhausted to think of aggression against a revivified Ottoman Empire. To remain neutral was to assure peace, security, and prosperity. To intervene was to invite defeat and dismemberment.

Militarists, however, appraised the situation differently. National honor demanded that Turkey go to the assistance of her allies. But, more than that, national security demanded the decisive defeat of the Entente Powers. As contrasted with the firm friendship of Germany for Turkey, it was pointed out, there was the traditional policy of Russia to dismember the Ottoman Empire and of France and Great Britain to infringe upon Ottoman sovereignty whenever opportunity presented itself. A victorious Russia would certainly appropriate Constantinople, and as “compensations” France would take Syria and England Mesopotamia. By closing the Dardanelles and declaring war, Turkey could deal Russian economic and military power a blow from which the empire of the Tsars might never recover. By associating herself with the seemingly irresistible military forces of Germany, Turkey might once and for all eliminate Russia—the feared and hated enemy of both Turks and Germans—from Near Eastern affairs. In addition, British security in Egypt might be shaken, and the French colonial empire in North Africa might be menaced by a Pan-Islamic revival. In these circumstances the war might be for Turkey a war of liberation, from which only the craven-hearted would shrink.

For a time, however, practical considerations led to the maintenance of Ottoman neutrality. “To Germany the ‘sphere of influence’ in Turkey was of far greater economic and political importance than all her ‘colonies’ in Africa and in the South Seas put together. The latter, under the German flag, were an obvious and quick prey to Great Britain’s naval superiority, but so long as Turkey remained out of the war the German sphere of influence in Anatolia and Mesopotamia was protected by the neutral Crescent flag. As soon as Turkey entered the war, however, Great Britain’s naval superiority could be brought to bear upon Germany’s interests in the Near East as well as upon her interests in Africa and Oceanica. If German imperialists were devoted to a Berlin-to-Bagdad _Mittel-Europa_ project, there were British imperialists whose hearts and minds were set upon a Suez-to-Singapore South-Asia project. The Ottoman Empire occupied a strategic position in both schemes. A neutral Turkey, on the whole, was favorable to German imperialism. A Turkey in armed alliance with Germany presented a splendid opportunity for British imperialism.”[1]

Turkish mobilization, furthermore, was a tediously slow process. The construction of the Bagdad Railway, as we have seen, had not been completed before the outbreak of the Great War.[2] There were wide gaps in northern Mesopotamia and in the Amanus mountains which made difficult the transportation of troops for the defence of Irak, an attack on the Suez, an offensive in the Caucasus, or the fortification of the Dardanelles. The entry of Turkey into the war before the completion of mobilization would have been of no material advantage to Germany and would almost certainly have brought disaster to the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, while the war went well for Germany on the French and Russian fronts, German influence at Constantinople was more concerned with creating sentiment for war and with speeding up mobilization than with encouraging premature intervention. After the Teutonic defeats at the Marne and in Galicia, however, active Turkish support was needed for the purpose of menacing Russian security in the Caucasus and British security in Egypt, as well as for bolstering up German morale. During the latter part of September and the month of October, Marshal Liman von Sanders, Baron von Wangenheim, the commanders of the _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_, and other German influences at Constantinople exerted the strongest possible pressure on the Ottoman Government to bring Turkey into the war on the side of her Teutonic allies.

On October 31, 1914, the Turkish Government took the fatal step of precipitating war with the Entente Powers, after Enver Pasha, Minister of War, and Djemal Pasha, Minister of Marine, were satisfied that Ottoman preparations were sufficiently advanced to warrant the beginning of hostilities. The outcome of the Bagdad Railway concession of 1903 was the entry of Turkey into the War of 1914![3]

Discouraged by their failure to maintain the peace, and fearful of impending disaster to their country, Djavid Bey and three other members of the Ottoman ministry resigned their posts. There were other indications, also, that intelligent public opinion at Constantinople was not whole-hearted in support of war. But the nationalists—playing upon the “traditional enmity” toward Russia—had their way, and with an outburst of patriotic fervor Turkey began hostilities. In a proclamation to the army and navy the Sultan affirmed that the war was being waged for the defence of the Caliphate and the “emancipation” of the Fatherland: “During the last three hundred years,” he said, “the Russian Empire has caused our country to suffer many losses in territory. And when we finally arose to a sentiment of awakening and regeneration which was to increase our national welfare and our power, the Russian Empire made every effort to destroy our attempts, either with war or with numerous machinations and intrigues. Russia, England, and France never for a moment ceased harboring ill-will against our Caliphate, to which millions of Mussulmans, suffering under the tyranny of foreign domination, are religiously and wholeheartedly devoted. And it was always these powers that started every misfortune that came upon us. Therefore, in this mighty struggle which we are undertaking, we once and for all will put an end to the attacks made from one side against the Caliphate and from the other against the existence of our country.”[4]

Turcophiles in Germany were enthusiastic over Ottoman participation in the Great War. The Turkish military contribution to a Teutonic victory might not be decisive, but neither would it be insignificant. And German coöperation in Ottoman military ventures would certainly strengthen German economic penetration in the Near East, even though Turkish arms might not drive Britain out of Egypt or Russia out of the Caucasus. “Over there in Turkey,” wrote Dr. Ernest Jäckh, “stretch Anatolia and Mesopotamia—Anatolia, the ‘land of sunrise,’ Mesopotamia, an ancient paradise. Let these names be to us a symbol. May this world war bring to Germany and Turkey the sunrise and the paradise of a new era. May it confer upon a strengthened Turkey and a greater Germany the blessings of fruitful Turco-Teutonic cooperation in peace after victorious Turco-Teutonic collaboration in war.”[5]

ASIATIC TURKEY BECOMES ONE OF THE STAKES OF THE WAR

Whatever may have been the European origins of the Great War, there was no disposition on the part of the belligerents to overlook its imperial possibilities. A war which was fought for the protection of France against German aggression, for the defence of Belgian neutrality, for the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine, for the democratizing of a bureaucratic German Empire—this war was fought not only in Flanders and Picardy and the Vosges, but in Africa and Asia and the South Seas; not only in Poland and Galicia and East Prussia, but in Mesopotamia and Syria and the Dardanelles. Anatolia, Palestine, and the region of the Persian Gulf were as much the stakes of the war as _Italia irredenta_, the lost provinces of France, or the Serbian “outlet” to the Adriatic.

Of all the spoils of the war, Turkey was among the richest. Her undeveloped wealth in minerals and fuel; her potentialities as a producer of foodstuffs, cotton, and other agricultural products; her possibilities as a market—these were alluring as war-time necessities and peace-time assets. Her strategic position was of inestimable importance to any nation which hoped to establish colonial power in the eastern Mediterranean. Her future as a sphere of influence promised unusual opportunities for the investment of capital and the acquisition of exclusive economic rights. It was no accident, therefore, that brought men from Berlin and Bombay, Stuttgart and Sydney, Munich and Marseilles, to fight bitterly for possession of the cliffs of Gallipoli, the deserts of Mesopotamia, and the coast of Syria. Turkey-in-Asia was a rich prize upon which imperialists in Berlin and Vienna, London and Paris and Petrograd, had set their hearts.

No sooner had Turkey entered the war than the imperial aspects of the struggle became apparent. Germany was deluged with literature designed to show that Ottoman participation in the war would assure Germany and Austria their legitimate “place in the sun.” Business men and diplomatists, missionaries and Oriental scholars[6] combined in prophesying that the Turco-German brotherhood-in-arms would fortify the Teutonic economic position in the Near East, disturb Russian equanimity in the Caucasus, menace Britain’s communications with India, and end once and for all French pretensions in Syria. Moslem sympathizers predicted that the Holy War would shake the Entente empires to their foundations. Pan-Germans frankly avowed that the war offered an opportunity to make Berlin-to-Bagdad a reality rather than a dream—some went so far as to believe that German domination could be extended from the North Cape to the Persian Gulf! Mercantilists foresaw the possibility of creating a politically unified and an economically self-sufficient Middle Europe.[7]

As a means of promoting closer relationships with Turkey numerous societies were established in Germany for the purpose of disseminating information on the Near East and its importance in the war. For example, Dr. Hugo Grothe conducted at Leipzig the work of the _Deutsches Vorderasienkomitee_—_Vereinigung zur Förderung deutscher Kulturarbeit im islamischen Orient_. This organization published and distributed hundreds of thousands of books, pamphlets, and maps regarding Asiatic Turkey; conducted a Near East Institute, at which lectures and courses of instruction were given; maintained an information bureau for business men interested in commercial and industrial opportunities in the Ottoman Empire; and established German libraries in Constantinople, Aleppo, Bagdad, Konia, and elsewhere along the line of the Bagdad Railway. A similar organization, the _Deutsch-türkische Vereinigung_, was maintained at Berlin under the honorary presidency of Dr. von Gwinner of the _Deutsche Bank_ and the active supervision of Dr. Ernest Jäckh. The two societies numbered among their members and patrons Herr Ballin, of the Hamburg-American Line, General von der Goltz, Baron von Wangenheim, and the Ottoman ambassador at Berlin.[8]

The watchdogs of British imperial welfare, however, were not asleep. Lord Crewe, the Secretary of State for India, was busily engaged in plans for safeguarding British economic and strategic interests in Mesopotamia. Early in September, 1914, General Sir Edmund Barrow, Military Secretary of the India Office, prepared a memorandum, “The Rôle of India in a Turkish War,” which proposed the immediate occupation of Basra on the grounds that it was “the psychological moment to take action” and that “so unexpected a stroke at this moment would have a startling effect” in checkmating Turkish intrigues, encouraging the Arabs to revolt and thus forestalling an Ottoman attack on the Suez, and in protecting the oil installations at the head of the Persian Gulf.[9] Supporters of a pro-Balkan policy, in the meantime, were urging an attack on Turkey from the Mediterranean. Winston Churchill, Chief Lord of the Admiralty, for example, in a memorandum of August 19, 1914, to Sir Edward Grey, advocated an alliance with Greece against Turkey; by September 4 he had completed plans for a military and naval attack on the Dardanelles; on September 21 he telegraphed Admiral Carden, at Malta, to “sink the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_, no matter what flag they fly, if they come out of the Straits.” Mr. Churchill, with whose name will ever be associated the disastrous expedition to the Dardanelles, believed that, whatever the outcome of the war on the Western Front, the success or failure of Germany would be measured in terms of her power in the Near East after the termination of hostilities. To destroy German economic and political domination of Turkey it was necessary to have an expedition at the head of the Persian Gulf and, possibly, another in Syria, but the commanding strategic position was the Straits. The capture of Constantinople would win the war.[10]

There were others who considered that a purely defensive policy should be followed in the Near East. Lord Kitchener, for example, believed in concentrating the maximum possible man power in France and advocated restricting Eastern operations to the protection of the Suez Canal and other essential communications. Influential military critics, like Colonel Repington, were firmly opposed to “side shows” in Mesopotamia, at the Dardanelles, or elsewhere, which would divert men, matériel, and popular attention from the Western Front. Sir Edward Grey appeared to be more interested in Continental than in colonial questions. Lord Curzon was swayed between fear of a Moslem uprising in India and the hope that British prestige in the East might be materially enhanced by outstanding military successes at the expense of the Turks.[11]

The Near Eastern imperialists, however, had their way. During September, 1914, the Government of India was ordered to prepare an expeditionary force for service in the region of the Persian Gulf. Early in October, almost four weeks before Turkey entered the war, Indian Expeditionary Force “D,” under General Delamain, sailed from Bombay under sealed orders. It next appeared on October 23, at Bahrein Island, in the Persian Gulf, where General Delamain learned the purposes of the expedition which he commanded. His army was to occupy Adaban Island, at the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab, “with the object of protecting the oil refineries, tanks and pipe lines [of the Anglo-Persian Company], covering the landing of reënforcements should these be required, and assuring the local Arabs of support against Turkey.” For the last-named purpose Sir Percy Cox, subsequently British High Commissioner in Irak, was attached to the army as “political officer.” In addition, General Delamain was to “take such military and political action as he should consider feasible to strengthen his position and, if necessary, occupy Basra.” Nevertheless, he was warned that the rôle of his force was “that of demonstrating at the head of the Persian Gulf” and that on no account was he “to take any hostile action against the Turks without orders from the Government of India, _except in the case of absolute military necessity_”![12]

Meanwhile, Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, subsequently first High Commissioner in Egypt under the Protectorate, entered into an agreement, dated October 23, 1914, with the Sherif of Mecca, assuring the latter that Great Britain was prepared “to recognize and support the independence of the Arabs within territories in which Great Britain is free to act without detriment to the interests of her ally, France,” it being understood that “the districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab.” In other words, an independent Arab state was considered to be feasible insofar as it did not conflict with the sphere of interest in Syria developed by French railway-builders and recognized by the Franco-German agreement of February 15, 1914.[13]

Even before Turkey formally entered the war, therefore, a British army was “demonstrating” in the Shatt-el-Arab; Sir Percy Cox was coöperating with the Sheik of Koweit for the purpose of precipitating a rebellion among the Arabs of Mesopotamia, and a British representative had sown the seeds of a separatist movement in the Hedjaz. It was a short step from this, after the declaration of hostilities, to the occupation of Basra, on November 22, and of Kurna, on December 9. The close of the year 1914 saw Turkey in the unenviable position of having to choose between increasing German economic and political domination, on the one hand, and dismemberment by the Entente Allies, on the other.

The political and military situation of Turkey did not improve during the year 1915. By mid-January, the rigors of a Caucasian winter and the absence of adequate means of communication and supply brought to a standstill Enver Pasha’s drive against the Russians. Early in February, Djemal Pasha’s army, which had crossed the Sinai Peninsula in the face of seemingly insuperable obstacles, attacked the Suez Canal only to be decisively defeated by its British and French defenders. During March a secret agreement was reached between Great Britain, France, and Russia for the partition of the Ottoman Empire, including the assignment of Constantinople to the Tsar. On April 26, by the Treaty of London which brought Italy into the war, the Entente Powers bound themselves to “preserve the political balance in the Mediterranean” by recognizing the right of Italy “to receive on the division of Turkey an equal share with Great Britain, France and Russia in the basin of the Mediterranean, and more specifically in that part of it contiguous to the province of Adalia, where Italy already had obtained special rights and developed certain interests”; likewise the Allies agreed to protect the interests of Italy “in the event that the territorial inviolability of Asiatic Turkey should be sustained by the Powers” or that “only a redistribution of spheres of interest should take place.”[14] To give greater effect to these secret imperialistic agreements British troops were landed at the Dardanelles on April 28. The bargains were sealed with the blood of those heroic Britons and immortal Anzacs who went through the tortures of hell—and worse—at Gallipoli![15]

In the meantime, British activities were resumed in Mesopotamia. In March, 1915, General J. E. Nixon was ordered to Basra with renewed instructions “to secure the safety of the oilfields, pipe line and refineries of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company,” as well as with orders to consolidate his position for the purpose of “retaining complete control of lower Mesopotamia” and of making possible a subsequent advance on Bagdad. On May 29, in accordance with these instructions, the Sixth Division, under General Sir Charles Townshend, occupied Amara, a town of 12,000 lying about fifty miles north of Basra on the Tigris, seat of the Turkish provincial administration and one of the principal entrepôts of Mesopotamian trade. Beyond this point General Nixon refused to extend his operations unless assured adequate reënforcements, which were not forthcoming. Nevertheless, because of the insistence of Sir Percy Cox that some outstanding success was necessary to retain support of the Arabs, another advance was ordered in the early autumn. On September 29, General Townshend occupied Kut-el-Amara, 180 miles north of his former position.

Then followed the decision to advance on Bagdad—a move which will go down in history as one of the chief blunders of the war, as well as a conspicuous instance of the manner in which political desiderata were allowed to outweigh military considerations. The soldiers on the ground were opposed to the move. General Nixon believed it would be disastrous to advance farther than Kut without substantial reënforcements. General Townshend was convinced that “Mesopotamia was a secondary theatre of war, and on principle should be held on the defensive with a minimum force,” and he warned his superiors that his troops “were tired, and their tails were not up, but slightly down,” that they were fearful of the distance from the sea and “were going down, in consequence, with every imaginable disease.” But the statesmen at London were thinking not only of winning the war but of eliminating Germany from all future political and economic competition in the backward areas of the world. “Because of the great political and military advantages to be derived from the capture of Bagdad,” and because the “uncertainty” of the situation at the Dardanelles made apparent “the great need of a striking success in the East,” Austen Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India, telegraphed the Viceroy on October 23, 1915, that an immediate advance should be begun. Fearful of the consequences, but faithful to his trust, General Townshend began the hundred-mile march to Bagdad. Worn out, but heroic beyond words, his troops drove the Turkish forces back and, on November 22, occupied Ctesiphon, only eighteen miles from their goal. This, however, marked the high tide of Allied success in the Near East during 1915, for General Townshend was destined to reach Bagdad only as a prisoner of war.[16]

GERMANY WINS TEMPORARY DOMINATION OF THE NEAR EAST

Allied military successes in Turkey were not looked upon with equanimity in Germany. There was a realization in Berlin, as well as London and Paris and Petrograd, that the stakes of the war were as much imperial as Continental. Nothing had as yet occurred which had lessened the importance of establishing an economically self-sufficient Middle European _bloc_ of nations. In the event that the German oversea colonies could not be recovered, Asiatic Turkey—because of its favorable geographical position, its natural resources, and its potentialities as a market—would be almost indispensable in the German imperial scheme of things. As Paul Rohrbach wrote in _Das grössere Deutschland_ in August, 1915, “After a year of war almost everybody in Germany is of the opinion that victory or defeat—at least political victory or defeat—depends upon the preservation of Turkey and the maintenance of our communications with her.”

The dogged defence of the Dardanelles had convinced Germany that, granted proper support, Turkey could be depended upon to give a good account of herself. The problem was one of supplementing Ottoman man power with Teutonic military genius, technical skill, and organizing ability. The enlistment of Bulgaria and the obliteration of Serbia made possible more active German assistance to Turkey, and during the latter months of 1915 and the early months of 1916 strenuous efforts were made to bring the Turkish military machine to a high point of efficiency. Large numbers of German staff officers were despatched to Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia, and Turkish officers were brought to the French and Russian fronts to learn the methods of modern warfare. The Prussian system of military service was adopted throughout the Ottoman Empire, and exemptions were reduced to a minimum. Liberal credits were established with German banks for the purchase of supplies for the new levies of troops. Field Marshal von der Goltz was sent to Mesopotamia as commander-in-chief of the Turkish troops in that region.[17]

Perhaps the chief handicap of the Turks in all their campaigns was inadequate means of transportation. The Ottoman armies operating in the vicinity of Gaza and of Bagdad were dependent upon lines of communication more than twelve hundred miles long; and had the Bagdad Railway been non-existent, it is doubtful if any military operations at all could have been conducted in those regions. But the Bagdad Railway was uncompleted. Troops and supplies being despatched from or to Anatolia had to be transported across the Taurus and Amanus mountains by mule-back, wagon, or automobile, and then reloaded on cars south or north of the unfinished tunnels. To remedy these deficiencies, herculean efforts were made by Germans and Turks during 1915 to improve the service on existing lines and to hurry the completion of the Bagdad Railway. Locomotives and other rolling stock were shipped to Turkey, and German railway experts coöperated with the military authorities in utilizing transportation facilities to the best advantage. In September, 1915, the Bagtché tunnel was pierced; and although through service to Aleppo was not inaugurated until October, 1918, a temporary narrow-gauge line was used, during the interim, to transport troops and matériel through the tunnel. Commenting on the importance of the Bagtché tunnel, the American Consul General at Constantinople wrote: “With its completion the most serious difficulties connected with the construction of the Bagdad Railway have been overcome, and the work of connecting up many of the isolated stretches of track may be expected to be completed with reasonable rapidity. In spite of delays occasioned by the war, this most important undertaking in railway construction in Turkey has passed the problematical stage and is now certain to become an accomplished fact in the near future.”[18]

The effects of German assistance to Turkey soon made themselves apparent. Field Marshal von der Goltz, commanding a reënforced and reinvigorated Ottoman army, supported by German artillery, compelled General Townshend to abandon hope of occupying Bagdad and to fall back toward Basra. By December 5, 1915, Townshend’s army was besieged in Kut-el-Amara; and although the Turks failed to take the town by storm, they did not fail to beat off every Russian and British force sent to the relief of the beleaguered troops. About the same time, December 10, evacuation of the Dardanelles was begun, and the last of the British troops were withdrawn during the first week of January, 1916. On April 29, Townshend’s famished garrison surrendered. Shortly thereafter the offensive of the Grand Duke Nicholas in Turkish Armenia was brought to a standstill. During July and August a second Ottoman attack was launched against the Suez Canal; and although it was unsuccessful, the expedition reminded the British that Egypt was by no means immune from danger. By the end of the year 1916 Turkey, with German assistance, had completely cleared her soil of enemy troops, except for a retreating Russian army in northern Anatolia and a defeated British expedition at the head of the Persian Gulf.[19]

As for Germany, she “was unopposed in her mastery of that whole vast region of southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia which goes by the name of the Near East.... She now enjoyed uninterrupted and unmenaced communication and commerce with Constantinople not only, but far away, over the great arteries of Asiatic Turkey [the Bagdad and Hedjaz railways], with Damascus, Jerusalem, and Mecca, and with Bagdad likewise.... If military exploits had been as conclusive as they had been spectacular, Germany would have won the Great War in 1916 and imposed a _Pax Germanica_ upon the world.... With the adherence of Turkey and Bulgaria to the Teutonic Alliance, and the triumphs of those states, a Germanized _Mittel-Europa_ could be said to stretch from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf, from the Baltic to the Red Sea, from Lithuania and Ukrainia to Picardy and Champagne. It was the greatest achievement in empire-building on the continent of Europe since the days of Napoleon Bonaparte.”[20]

If Germany had been alarmed during the summer of 1915 at the prospect that she might lose her preponderant position in Turkey, the world was now alarmed at the prospect that she might maintain that position. Nor was that alarm easily dispelled, for the Bagdad Railway and the power and prestige it gave Germany in the Near East were pointed to by statesmen as additional evidence of the manner in which the Kaiser and his cohorts had plotted in secret against the peace of an unsuspecting and unprepared world. In fact, the Bagdad Railway came to be considered one of the fundamental causes of the war, as well as one of the chief prizes for which the war was being fought. President Wilson, for example, in his Flag Day speech, June 14, 1917, stated the case in the following terms:[21]

“The rulers of Germany ... were glad to go forward unmolested, filling the thrones of Balkan states with German princes, putting German officers at the service of Turkey to drill her armies and make interest with her government, developing plans of sedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, setting their fires in Persia. The demands made by Austria upon Serbia were a mere single step in a plan which compassed Europe and Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad....

“The plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power and political control across the very centre of Europe and beyond the Mediterranean into the heart of Asia; and Austria-Hungary was to be as much their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the ponderous states of the East.... The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had a heart nowhere else!...

“And they have actually carried the greater part of that amazing plan into execution.... The so-called Central Powers are in fact but a single Power. Serbia is at its mercy, should its hands be but for a moment freed. Bulgaria has consented to its will, and Roumania is overrun. The Turkish armies, which Germans trained, are serving Germany, certainly not themselves, and the guns of German warships lying in the harbor at Constantinople remind Turkish statesmen every day that they have no choice but to take their orders from Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the net is spread!”

As late as November 12, 1917, after some spectacular victories by the Allies in Mesopotamia and Syria, President Wilson made it plain that no peace was possible which did not destroy German military power in the Near East. Addressing the American Federation of Labor, at Buffalo, N. Y., he said:[22]

“Look at the map of Europe now. Germany, in thrusting upon us again and again the discussion of peace, talks about what? Talks about Belgium—talks about Alsace-Lorraine. Well, these are deeply interesting subjects to us and to them, but they are not talking about the heart of the matter. Take the map and look at it. Germany has absolute control of Austria-Hungary, practical control of the Balkan States, control of Turkey, control of Asia Minor. I saw a map the other day in which the whole thing was printed in appropriate black, and the black stretched all the way from Hamburg to Bagdad—the bulk of the German power inserted into the heart of the world. If she can keep that, she has kept all that her dreams contemplated when the war began. If she can keep that, her power can disturb the world as long as she keeps it, always provided ... the present influences that control the German Government continue to control it.”

In the light of all the facts, this diagnosis of the situation is incomplete, to say the least. Had President Wilson been cognizant of the contemporaneous counter-activities of the Allied Powers, he might not have been prepared to offer so simple an explanation of a many-sided problem. For it was not German imperialism alone which menaced the peace of the Near East and of the world, but _all_ imperialism.

“BERLIN TO BAGDAD” BECOMES BUT A MEMORY

Germany may have been determined to dominate the Ottoman Empire by military force. But from the Turkish point of view domination by Germany was hardly more objectionable than the dismemberment which was certain to be the result of an Allied victory.

Indeed, confident that they would eventually win the war, the Entente Powers had proceeded far in their plans for the division of the Ottoman Empire. During the spring of 1915, as has been indicated,[23] Russia had been promised Constantinople, and Italy had been assigned a share of the spoils equal to that of Great Britain, France, or Russia. To give full effect to these understandings, further negotiations were conducted during the autumn of 1915 and the spring of 1916, looking toward a more specific delimitation of interests.

Accordingly, on April 26, 1916—the first anniversary of the Treaty of London with Italy—France and Russia signed the secret Sazonov-Paléologue Treaty concerning their respective territorial rights in Asiatic Turkey. Russia was awarded full sovereignty over the vilayets of Trebizond, Erzerum, Bitlis, and Van—a vast area of 60,000 square miles (about one and one-fifth times the size of the State of New York), containing valuable mineral and petroleum resources. This handsome prize put Russia well on the road to Constantinople and in a fair way to turn the Black Sea into a Russian lake. And at the moment the treaty was signed the armies of the Grand Duke Nicholas were actually overrunning the territory which Russia had staked out for herself! For her part, France was to receive adequate compensations in the region to the south and southwest of the Russian acquisitions, the actual delimitation of boundaries and other details to be the result of direct negotiation with Great Britain.[24]

Thus came into existence the famous Sykes-Picot Treaty of May 9, 1916, defining British and French political and economic interests in the hoped-for dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The Syrian coast from Tyre to Alexandretta, the province of Cilicia, and southern Armenia (from Sivas on the north and west to Diarbekr on the south and east) were allocated to France in full sovereignty. In addition, a French “zone of influence” was established over a vast area including the provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, Deir, and Mosul. Administration of this stretch of coast and its hinterland would give French imperialists what they most wanted in the Near East—actual possession of a country in which France had many religious and cultural interests, control of the silk production of Syria and the potential cotton production of Cilicia, ownership of the Arghana copper mines, and acquisition of that portion of the Bagdad Railway lying between Mosul and the Cilician Gates of the Taurus.[25] Aside from its satisfaction of French imperial ambitions, however, “the French area defied every known law of geographic, ethnographic, and linguistic unity which one might cite who would attempt to justify it.”[26]

Great Britain, by way of “compensation,” was to receive complete control over lower Mesopotamia from Tekrit to the Persian Gulf and from the Arabian boundary to the Persian frontier. In addition, she was recognized as having special political and economic interests—particularly the right “to furnish such advisers as the Arabs might desire”—in a vast territory lying south of the French “zone of influence” and extending from the Sinai Peninsula to the Persian border. Palestine was to be internationalized, but was subsequently established as a homeland for the Jews. In this manner Britain, also, had adequately protected her imperial interests—she had secured possession of the Bagdad Railway in southern Mesopotamia; she had gained complete control of the head of the Persian Gulf, thus fortifying her strategic position in the Indian Ocean; she was assured the Mesopotamian cotton supply for the mills of Manchester and the Mesopotamian oil supply for the dreadnoughts of the Grand Fleet; she had erected in Palestine a buffer state which would block any future Ottoman attacks on the Suez Canal. All in all, Sir Mark Sykes had driven a satisfactory bargain.[27]

Italian ambitions now had to be propitiated. For a whole year before the United States entered the war—while the Allied governments were professing unselfish war aims—secret negotiations were being conducted by representatives of France, Great Britain and Italy to determine what advantages and territories, equivalent to those gained by the other Allies, might be awarded Italy. In April, 1917, by the so-called St. Jean de Maurienne Agreement, Italy was granted complete possession of almost the entire southern half of Anatolia—including the important cities of Adalia, Konia, and Smyrna—together with an extensive “zone of influence” nort-heast of Smyrna. With such a hold on the coast of Asia Minor, Italian imperialists might realize their dream of dominating the trade of the Ægean and of reëstablishing the ancient power of Venice in the commerce of the Near East.[28]

These inter-Allied agreements for the disposal of Asiatic Turkey were instructive instances of the “old diplomacy” in coöperation with the “new imperialism.” The treaties were secret covenants, secretly arrived at; they bartered territories and peoples in the most approved manner of Metternich and Richelieu. But they were less concerned with narrowly political claims than with the exclusive economic privileges which sovereignty carried with it; they determined boundaries with recognition of their strategic importance, but with greater regard for the location of oilfields, mineral deposits, railways and ports of commercial importance. They left no doubt as to what were the real stakes of the war in the Near East.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the secret treaties with the pronouncements of Allied statesmen regarding the origins and purposes of the Great War. Certainly they were no part of the American program for peace, which promised to “the Turkish portions of the Ottoman Empire a secure sovereignty”; which demanded “a free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined”; and which announced in no uncertain terms that “the day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by” as is also “the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world.”[29]

Allied diplomacy was to have its way in the Near East, however, for the goddess of victory finally smiled upon the Allied armies and frowned upon both Turks and Germans. As 1916 had been a year of Turco-German triumphs at the Dardanelles and in Mesopotamia, 1917 brought conspicuous Allied victories along the Tigris and in Syria, and 1918 saw the complete collapse of the Ottoman Empire. On February 24, 1917, General Sir Stanley Maude, in command of reënforced and rejuvenated British forces in Mesopotamia, captured Kut-el-Amara, retrieving the disaster which had befallen Townshend’s army a year before. Deprived of the services of Field Marshal von der Goltz, who died during the Caucasus campaign, the Turks retired in disorder, and on March 11 British troops entered Bagdad—the ancient city which had bulked so large in the German scheme of things in the Near East. Although the capture of Bagdad was not in itself of great strategic importance, its effect on morale in the belligerent countries was considerable. British imperialists were in possession of the ancient capital of the Arabian Caliphs, as well as the chief entrepôt of caravan trade in the Middle East; therefore their prestige with both Arabs and Turks was certain to rise. At home, pictures of British troops in the Bagdad of the Arabian Nights appealed to the imagination of the war-weary, as well as the optimistic, patriot. In the Central Powers, on the other hand, the loss of Bagdad created scepticism as to whether the German dream of “Hamburg to the Persian Gulf” was not now beyond realization. This scepticism became more confirmed when, on April 24, General Maude captured Samarra, northern railhead of the uncompleted Bagdad line in Mesopotamia.[30]

Scepticism would have turned to alarm, however, had Germans been fully aware of the significance of the British advance in the Land of the Two Rivers. For behind the armies of General Maude came civil officials by the hundreds to consolidate the victory and to lay the foundations of permanent occupation. An Irrigation Department was established to deal with the menace of floods, to drain marshes, and to economize in the use of water. An Agricultural Department undertook the cultivation of irrigated lands and conducted elaborate experiments in the growing of cotton—the commodity which means so much in the British imperial system. A railway was constructed from Basra to Bagdad which, when opened to commerce in 1919, became an integral part of the Constantinople-Basra system. There was every indication that the British were in Mesopotamia to stay.[31]

Germans and Turks were sufficiently aroused, however, to take strenuous measures to counteract General Maude’s successes. In April, 1917, Field Marshal von Mackensen, hero of the Balkan and Rumanian campaigns and strong man of the Near East, was sent to Constantinople to confer with Enver Pasha regarding the military situation. It was decided, apparently, that Bagdad must be retaken at all costs, for throughout the summer quantities of rolling stock for the Bagdad Railway were shipped to Turkey, enormous supplies of munitions were accumulated at Haidar Pasha, and a division of picked German troops (including machine-gun and artillery units) made its appearance in Anatolia. Command of all the Turkish armies in Mesopotamia was conferred upon General von Falkenhayn, former German Chief of Staff. Germany was not yet prepared to surrender her sphere of interest in Turkey.

The great expedition against Bagdad, however, had to be abandoned. In the first place, Turkish officers were loath to serve under von Falkenhayn. Turkish nationalism was beginning to assert itself, and German supervision of Ottoman military affairs was resented—Mustapha Kemal Pasha, for example, refused to accept orders from German generals and resigned his commission. Von Falkenhayn himself was disliked because of his dictatorial methods and was held in light esteem because of his responsibility for the disastrous Verdun offensive. Furthermore, many Turks deemed it inadvisable to dissipate energy in a Mesopotamian campaign, the avowed purpose of which was a recovery of German prestige, when all available man power was required for the defence of Syria. Djemal Pasha was so insistent on this point that he received from the Kaiser an “invitation” to visit the Western Front! In the second place, Providence or, perhaps, an Allied spy intervened to thwart the German plans, for a great fire and a series of explosions (September 23–26, 1917) destroyed the entire port and terminal of Haidar Pasha, together with all the munitions and supplies which had been accumulated there by months of patient effort. And finally, the spectacular campaign of Field Marshal Allenby in Palestine, which opened with the capture of Beersheba, on October 31, convinced even von Falkenhayn that an expedition in Mesopotamia, while Aleppo was in danger, would be the height of folly. German energies were thereupon diverted to the defence of the Holy Land.[32]

During the autumn of 1917, Great Britain and France, to assure their possession of the territories assigned them by the Sykes-Picot Treaty, began a Syrian campaign which was not to terminate until Turkey had been put out of the war. Under Field Marshal Sir E. H. H. Allenby, British troops, reënforced by French units and assisted by the rebellious Arabs of the Hedjaz, captured Gaza (November 7), Jaffa (November 16), and Jerusalem (December 9). The triumphal entry of General Allenby into Jerusalem was hailed throughout Christendom as marking the success of a modern crusade to rid Palestine of Ottoman domination forever. Jericho was occupied, February 21, 1918, but Turkish resistance, under Marshal Liman von Sanders, stiffened for a time, and it was not until the autumn that large-scale operations were resumed. On October 1, Damascus was occupied by a combined Arab and British army; a week later Beirut was taken; and on October 25, Aleppo, the most important junction point on the Bagdad Railway, capitulated. Five days afterward, Turkey gave up the hopeless fight by signing the Mudros armistice, terminating hostilities.[33]

Thus ended a Great Adventure for both Turkey and Germany. Germany lost all hope of retaining any economic or political influence in the Ottoman Empire; the dream of Berlin-to-Bagdad became a nightmare. Turkey faced dismemberment. “The Bagdad Railway had proved to be the backbone of Turkish utility and power in the War. Were it not for its existence, the Ottoman resistance in Mesopotamia and in Syria could have been discounted as a practical consideration in the War, and the sending of Turkish reënforcements to the Caucasus would have been even more materially delayed than was in fact the case.”[34] For Turkey, then, the war had come at a most inappropriate time. Had hostilities begun ten years later, after the completion of the Bagdad system, military operations in the Near East might have had an entirely different result. As it was, the Bagdad Railway—and the international complications arising from it—proved to be the ruination of the Ottoman Empire.

TO THE VICTORS BELONG THE SPOILS

During 1919, the Allied Governments set about possessing themselves of the spoils which were theirs by virtue of the secret treaties and by right of conquest. In April, Italian troops occupied Adalia and rapidly extended their lines into the interior as far as Konia. In November, French armies replaced the British forces in Syria and Cilicia. Great Britain began the “pacification” of the tribesmen of Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. And in the meantime there was plentiful evidence that German rights in the Near East would be speedily liquidated in the interest of the victorious Powers. For example, on March 26, the Interallied Commission on Ports, Waterways, and Railways announced at Paris the adoption of “a new transportation agreement designed to secure a route to the Orient by railway without passing through the territories of the Central Empires.” Accordingly, a fast train, the “Simplon-Orient Express,” was to be run regularly from Calais to Constantinople _via_ Paris, Lausanne, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Agram, and Vinkovce. Later this service was to be extended into Asiatic Turkey, over the lines of the Anatolian, Bagdad, and Syrian railways. To meet a changed situation one must provide new paths of imperial expansion, and the French press spoke glowingly of the prospect that the slogans “Hamburg to the Persian Gulf” and “Berlin to Bagdad” would be speedily replaced by “Calais to Cairo” and “Bordeaux to Bagdad”![35]

All German rights in the Bagdad Railway and other economic enterprises in the Near East were abrogated by the Treaty of Versailles, signed June 28, 1919. The German Government was obligated to obtain and to turn over to the Reparation Commission “any rights and interests of German nationals in any public utility undertaking or in any concession operating in ... Turkey, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria” and agreed, as well, “to recognize and accept all arrangements which the Allied and Associated Powers may make with Turkey and Bulgaria with reference to any rights, interests and privileges whatever which might be claimed by Germany or her nationals in Turkey and Bulgaria.”[36]

The Treaty of Sèvres, August 10, 1920—together with the accompanying secret Tripartite Agreement of the same date between Great Britain, France, and Italy—carried still further the liquidation of German interests in the Near East. The Turkish Government was required to dispose of all property rights in Turkey of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, or their respective nationals and to turn over the proceeds of all purchases and sales to the Reparation Commission established under the treaties of peace with those Powers. The Anatolian and Bagdad Railways were to be expropriated by Turkey and all of their rights, privileges, and properties to be assigned—at a valuation to be determined by an arbitrator appointed by the Council of the League of Nations—to a Franco-British-Italian corporation to be designated by the representatives of the Allied Powers. German stockholders were to be compensated for their holdings, but the amount of their compensation was to be turned over to the Reparation Commission; compensation due the Turkish Government was to be assigned to the Allied Governments toward the costs of maintaining their armies of occupation on Turkish soil. German and Turkish property in ceded territories of the Ottoman Empire was to be similarly liquidated. The Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Sèvres left hardly a vestige of German influence in the Near East.[37]

The Sèvres settlement, furthermore, destroyed the Ottoman Empire and sought to give the Allies a stranglehold upon the economic life of Turkey. Great Britain and France received essentially the same territorial privileges as they had laid out for themselves in the Sykes-Picot Treaty, with the vague restrictions that they should exercise in Mesopotamia and Palestine and in Syria and Cilicia respectively only the rights of mandatory powers. Great Britain was confirmed in her oil and navigation concessions in Mesopotamia, France in her railway rights in Syria; in addition, the Hedjaz Railway was turned over outright to their joint ownership and administration. Italy received only a “sphere of influence” in southern Anatolia, including the port of Adalia, but, as a consequence of one of the most sordid of the transactions of the Paris Conference, she was deprived of the bulk of the privileges guaranteed her under the Treaty of London and the St. Jean de Maurienne Agreement.[38] Greece was installed in Smyrna—the most important harbor in Asia Minor, a harbor the control of which was vital to the peasantry of Anatolia for the free export of their produce and for the unimpeded importation of farm machinery and other wares of western industry. Constantinople was put under the jurisdiction of an international commission for control of the Straits, and the balance of the former Russian sphere of interest was assigned to the ill-fated Armenian Republic. The Hedjaz was declared to be an independent Arab state. The Ottoman Empire was no more.

Even the Turkey that remained—a portion of Anatolia—enjoyed sovereignty in name only. The Capitulations, which the Sultan had terminated in the autumn of 1914, were reëstablished and extended. Concessions to Allied nationals were confirmed in all the rights which they enjoyed before Ottoman entry into the Great War. Because of the reparations, and because of the high cost of the Allied armies of occupation, the country was being loaded down with a still further burden of debt from which there appeared to be no escape—and debts not only mortgaged Turkish revenues but impaired Turkish administrative integrity. To assure prompt payment of both old and new financial obligations of the Turkish Government, an Interallied Financial Commission was superimposed upon the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. The Financial Commission had full supervision over taxation, customs, loans, and currency; exercised final control over the Turkish budget; and had the right to veto any proposed concession. In control of its domestic affairs the new Turkey was tied hand and foot. Here, indeed, was a Carthaginian peace! And all of this was done in order “to help Turkey, to develop her resources, and to avoid the international rivalries which have obstructed these objects in the past!”[39]

“THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE TURKEY!”

In the meantime, however, while the Sèvres Treaty was still in the making, there was a small handful of Turkish patriots who were determined at all costs to win that complete independence for which Turkey had entered the war. These Nationalists were outraged by the Greek occupation of Smyrna, in May, 1919, which they considered a forecast of the kind of peace to be dictated to Turkey. During the summer of 1919 they held two conferences at Erzerum and Sivas and agreed to reject any treaty which handed over Turkish populations to foreign domination, which would reduce Turkey to economic servitude to the victorious Powers, or which would impair the sovereignty of their country. Upon this program they won a sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections of 1919–1920. For leadership they depended largely upon that brilliant soldier and staunch Turk, Mustapha Kemal Pasha, who had distinguished himself by his quarrel with Liman von Sanders at the Dardanelles and his defiance of von Falkenhayn in Syria. Mustapha Kemal Pasha, who had bitterly contested the growth of German influence in Turkey during the war, was not likely to accept without a struggle the extension of Allied control over Turkish affairs.[40]

In Constantinople, January 28, 1920, the Nationalist members of the Turkish Parliament signed the celebrated “National Pact”—frequently referred to as a Declaration of Independence of the New Turkey. “The Pact was something more than a statement of war-aims or a party programme. It was the first adequate expression of a sentiment which had been growing up in the minds of Western-educated Turks for three or four generations, which in a half-conscious way had inspired the reforms of the Revolution of 1908, and which may dominate Turkey and influence the rest of the Middle East for many generations to come. It was an emphatic adoption of the Western national idea.”[41] It was based upon principles which had received wide acceptance among peoples of the Allied nations during the war: self-determination of peoples, to be expressed by plebiscite; protection of the rights of minorities, but no further limitations of national sovereignty. As regards the Capitulations and the Ottoman Public Debt Administration, the Pact is explicit: “With a view to assuring our national and economic development,” it reads, “and with the end of securing to the country a more regular and more modern administration, the signatories of the present pact consider the possession of complete independence and liberty as the _sine qua non_ of our national existence. In consequence, we oppose all juridical or financial restrictions of any nature which would arrest our national development.” Rather that Turkey should die free than live in slavery! Foreswearing any intention of recovering the Sultan’s former Arab possessions, the Pact proceeded to serve notice, however, that Cilicia, Mosul, and the Turkish portions of Thrace must be reunited with the fatherland. “The Ottoman Empire is dead! Long live Turkey!”[42]

With this amazing program Mustapha Kemal Pasha undertook to liberate Turkey. In April, 1920, the government of the Grand National Assembly was instituted in Angora and proceeded to administer those portions of Anatolia which were not under Allied or Greek occupation. The proposed Treaty of Sèvres—which was handed to the Turkish delegates at Paris on May 11—was condemned as inconsistent with the legitimate national aspirations of the Turkish people. The Allies and the Constantinople Government were denounced—the former as invaders of the sacred soil of Turkey, the latter as tools of European imperialists. Then followed a series of successful military campaigns: by October, 1920, the French position in Cilicia had been rendered untenable, the Armenian Republic had been obliterated, the British forces of occupation had been forced back into the Ismid peninsula, and the Italians had withdrawn their troops to Adalia. In the spring of 1921 separate treaties were negotiated with Russia, Italy, and France, providing for a cessation of military operations and for the evacuation of certain Turkish territories.[43] Then came the long, bitter struggle against the Greeks, terminating with the Mudania armistice of October 10, 1922, which assured to the Turks the return of Smyrna and portions of Thrace. On November 1, the Sultanate was abolished, and Turkey became a republic. Four days later the Turkish Nationalists entered Constantinople in triumph. The struggle for the territorial and administrative integrity of a New Turkey seemed to be won.

The victory of the Nationalists scrapped the Treaty of Sèvres and called for a complete readjustment of the Near Eastern situation. When the first Lausanne Conference for Peace in the Near East assembled on November 20, 1922, there were high hopes that a just and lasting settlement might be arrived at. The conference was only a few days old, however, when the time-honored obstacles to peace in the Levant made their appearance: the rival diplomatic policies of the Great Powers; the desire of the West, by means of the Capitulations, to maintain a firm hold upon its vested interests in the East; the imperialistic struggle of rival concessionaires, supported by their respective governments, for possession of the raw materials, the markets, and the communications of Asiatic Turkey. Once more the Bagdad Railway, with its tributary lines in Anatolia and Syria, became one of the stakes of diplomacy!

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

[1] C. J. H. Hayes, _A Brief History of the Great War_ (New York, 1920), pp. 71–72; “A Rival to the Bagdad Line,” in _The Near East_, May 25, 1917.

[2] _Supra_, Chapter V.

[3] Regarding the diplomatic situation at Constantinople during the critical months of July to November, 1914, _cf._ “Correspondence respecting events leading to the rupture of relations with Turkey,” _Parliamentary Papers_, No. Cd. 7628 (1914); C. Mehrmann, _Der diplomatische Krieg in Vorderasien_ (Dresden, 1916); J. Aulneau, _La Turquie et la Guerre_ (Paris, 1916); C. Strupp, _Diplomatische Aktenstücke zur orientalischen Frage_ (Berlin, 1916); Historicus, “Origines de l’alliance turco-germanique,” in _Revue_, 7 series, Volume III (Paris, 1915), pp. 267 _et seq._; Ostrorog, _op. cit._, Chapters XII-XVI; footnote 40, Chapter X, _supra_.

[4] Quoted from _Current History_, Volume I (New York, 1915), p. 1032.

[5] _Die deutsch-türkische Waffenbrüderschaft_, p. 30.

[6] Notably Dr. Ernst Jäckh and Dr. Hugo Grothe.

[7] The following list of books is given without any pretence that it is a complete bibliography of German publications on the Near Eastern question during the year 1914–1915: A. Ritter, _Berlin-Bagdad, neue Ziele mitteleuropäischer Politik_ (Munich, 1915) and _Nordkap-Bagdad, das politische Programm des Krieges_ (Frankfort a. M., 1914); Hugo Grothe, _Die Türken und ihre gegnerkriegsgeographische Betrachtungen_ (Frankfurt a. M., 1915), _Deutsch-türkische wirtschaftliche Interessengemeinschaft_ (Munich, 1915), and _Deutschland, die Türkei und der Islam_ (Leipzig, 1915); C. A. Schäfer, _Deutsch-türkische Freundschaft_ (Stuttgart, 1915); Carl H. Becker, _Deutschland und der Islam_ (Leipzig, 1914); J. Ritter von Riba, _Der türkische Bundesgenosse_ (Berlin, 1915); J. Hall, _Der Islam und die abendländische Kultur_ (Weimar, 1915); Ernst Marré, _Die Türken und wir nach dem Kriege_ (Leipzig, 1916); Tekin Alp, _Türkismus und Pantürkismus_ (Weimar, 1915); R. Schäfer, _Der deutsche Krieg, die Türkei, Islam und Christentum_ (Leipzig, 1915); W. T. Vela, _Die Zukunft der Türkei in Bundnis mit Deutschland_ (Berlin, 1915); W. Blanckenburg, _Die Zukunftsarbeit der deutschen Schule in der Türkei_ (Berlin, 1915); H. Schmidt, _Das Eisenbahnwesen in der asiatischen Türkei_ (Berlin, 1914); H. Margulies, _Der Kampf zwischen Bagdad und Suez in Altertums_ (Weimar, 1915); M. Horten, _Die islamische Geisteskultur_ (Leipzig, 1915); Fritz Regel, _Die deutsche Forschung in türkische Vordasien_ (Leipzig, 1915); M. Roloff, _Arabien und seine Bedeutung für die Erstärkung des Osmanenreiches_ (Leipzig, 1915); A. Paquet, _Die jüdische Kolonien in Palästina_ (Weimar, 1915); C. Nawratzki, _Die jüdische Kolonisation Palästinas_ (Munich, 1914); D. Trietsch, _Die Juden der Türkei_ (Leipzig, 1915). Two notable magazine articles are: R. Hennig, “Der verkehrsgeographische Wert des Suez- und des Bagdad-Weges,” in _Geographische Zeitschrift_, 1916, pp. 649–656; A. Tschawisch, “Der Islam und Deutschland—Wie soll man sich die Zukunft des Islams denken?”, in _Deutsche Revue_, 1915, Volume III, pp. 249 _et seq._

[8] See advertisements regarding the society and its work in a series of pamphlets _Länder und Völker der Turkei_, edited by Dr. Hugo Grothe (Leipzig, 1915, _et seq._), and descriptions of similar organizations in a series _Orientbücherei_, edited by Dr. Ernst Jäckh (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1914, _et seq._).

[9] “Report of the Commission Appointed by Act of Parliament to Enquire into the Operations of War in Mesopotamia,” _Parliamentary Papers_, 1917, No. Cd. 8610.

[10] W. S. Churchill, _The World Crisis, 1910–1915_ (New York, 1923), pp. 529–535; A. MacCallum Scott, _Winston Churchill in Peace and War_ (London, 1916), Chapter X.

[11] C. C. Repington, _The First World War, 1914–1918_ (2 volumes, London, 1920), Volume I, pp. 42, 51, etc. _ad lib._; Churchill, _op. cit._, pp. 537–538.

[12] The italics are mine. The proposed debarkation of troops, however, was certain to involve a breach of Persian neutrality. _Cf._ _Parliamentary Papers_, 1917, No. Cd. 8610.

[13] _Ibid._ Regarding the Franco-German agreement of February 15, 1914, _cf._ _supra_, pp. 246–250.

[14] The text of the agreement between England, France and Russia regarding the disposition of Constantinople and other portions of Turkey is to be found in _Full Texts of the Secret Treaties as Revealed at Petrograd_ (New York, _The Evening Post_, 1918); _cf._, also, R. S. Baker, _Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement_ (3 volumes, Garden City, 1922), Volume I, Chapter III. The text of the Treaty of London between Italy and the Allies is to be found in _Parliamentary Papers_, 1920, No. Cmd. 671, Miscellaneous No. 7.

[15] The best single work on military operations in Turkey during the Great War is Edmund Dane’s _British Campaigns in the Nearer East, 1914–1918_ (2 volumes, London, 1919). Regarding the Caucasus campaigns of 1914–1915 _cf._ M. P. Price, _War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia_ (London, 1918), Chapter I; R. Machray, “The Campaign in the Caucasus,” in the _Fortnightly Review_, Volume 97 (1915), pp. 458–471. Excellent accounts of the first Turkish offensive against the Suez Canal are to be found in G. Douin, _Un épisode de la guerre mondiale: l’attaque du canal de Suez, 3 Fevrier, 1915_ (Paris, 1922); C. Stiénon, “Sur le chemin de fer de Bagdad,” in _Revue des deux mondes_, 6 series,