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Diplomatic History of World War 1:
Negotiations During the War
1. Japanese
Intervention
2. Turkish Intervention
3. Italy's
Entry into the War
4. Bulgaria,
Rumania & Greece
5. Plans
for Partition of the Ottoman Empire
a. Constantinople Agreement
b. Egypt
c. Nejd Treaty and McMahon Letters
d. Sykes-Picot Agreement
e. St.-Jean-de-Maurienne Agreement
Turkish Intervention
The adherence of Japan to the Allies was soon offset
by Turkey's intervention on the side of the Central Powers. Though Britain
had traditionally been a supporter of the Ottoman Empire, and British
and French firms had large investments in Turkey, German influence had
been rising steadily. The Young Turks who had seized power in 1908 regarded
the existence of British and French spheres of influence in the Levant
as inimical to their pan-Turkish aspirations; they also considered Russia
their chief enemy in the east, the Black Sea, and the Balkans. Their
leaders, War Minister Enver Pasha, Interior Minister Mehmet Talaat Pasha,
and Navy Minister Ahmed Djemal Pasha, were admirers of Germany, and
in 1913 the Turkish government had agreed to have its army reorganized
by a German general, Otto Liman von Sanders. In July 1914, Enver went
to Berlin and there negotiated a secret treaty of alliance (signed August
2), by the terms of which Turkey was to become a belligerent, receiving
in compensation portions of conquered Russian territory and, if Greece
and Bulgaria entered the war on the opposing side, parts of their lands
as well. Turkey was to remain neutral, however, until she had had an
opportunity to ready her defenses.
After the outbreak of hostilities the Allies made some
effort to induce Turkey to perpetuate her neutrality. The British government
commandeered two warships that were being built in England for the Turkish
government, but at the same time allowed two German warships, the Goeben
and the Breslau, to slip through the Dardanelles and be transferred
by Germany to the Turkish government. The British prime minister, Herbert
Henry Asquith, remarked privately that international law would require
the Turks to man the vessels with their own men, and "Turkish sailors
cannot navigate . except on to rocks or mines." Meanwhile, British,
French, and Russian diplomats suggested to the Ottoman government that
agreements might be worked out under which Turkey would receive concessions
in return for her neutrality.
But the Young Turks soon dispelled any doubts about
their ultimate intentions. They retained German crewmen on the Goeben
and Breslau, merely putting them into Turkish uniforms. When the Allied
governments protested, the Porte ordered all British seamen dismissed
from the Turkish Navy and appointed a German as commander in chief of
the Turkish Fleet. At the instigation of Enver the Turkish press opened
a violent campaign against the Allies and in favor of the Central Powers.
On Oct. 29, 1914, a Turkish fleet bombarded the Russian coastal cities
of Odessa, Sevastopol, Feodosiya, and Novorossisk. The Allied governments
demanded that the Turks make reparations and dismiss all Germans from
their forces. After the Turks had refused to do so, the major Allies
recognized a state of war (Russia on November 1, and Britain and France
on November 5), and Turkey became a cobelligerent with Germany and Austria
Hungary.
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