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It has been 90 years since the First World War has come to an end. It was the first all-European conflict for a century and it brought two sets of powerful states against each other. The world burned in flames for more than four years. When it was over, 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians lay dead. Many millions survived, but nothing was the same again for them. In fact, things would never be the same for the world.
The Ottoman Empire was the sick man of Europe. This was true, after seven centuries of conquests in 3 different continents the Empire had shrunk to a large extent. Territories in Europe were long lost and the Empire was struggling to deal with the nationalist movements and keep herself intact. There was a weak Sultan and the government was in the hands of a political entity called Committee of Union and Progress, which saw an alliance with Germany as the only way out. |
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The title of this web site is “Turkey's War 1914-1918” although the entity was officially called “Ottoman Empire” in those years. Modern Turkey was founded in 1923. However I will refer to Turkey and the Turkish Army in these pages due to a number of reasons. For hundreds of years the Ottoman Empire was known in Western countries simply as “Turkey” and its army as the “Turkish Army”. It is also true that during the First World War, the Ottoman Army consisted mainly of Turkish soldiers, although however there were also Arabs, Caucasians, Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Slavs and others fighting as elements of the Ottoman Army alongside with the Turks. This web site honours all those who have sacrificed. |
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Another reason for using “Turkey” instead of the “Ottoman Empire” is that in Turkish culture, the First World War and especially the Gallipoli defense is considered as the occasion that led to the “birth of a new nation”. The war brought the Ottoman Empire to an end and the Republic of Turkey emerged from its ashes. Also, for Turks, the war went uninterrupted for 10 years, starting with the Turkish-Italian War, the Balkan Wars, the World War and finally the Independence War. In other words, it was indeed “Turkey’s War”.
There is plenty written about the First World War. Volumes of books, documentaries, diaries, poems, novels… However there is a very serious lack of resources, which tell the story of the war from the Turkish point of view. Most of the available sources are written in Turkish language and therefore inaccessible to researchers and history enthusiasts from other countries, since none of them are translated into Western languages. The fact that Turkey was using the Arabic script in those years makes the problem even bigger because some sources are inaccessible even to younger generations of Turks. I believe that this is a pity because given the overall backwardness of the empire and nature of its economy, the Turkish record in First World War was an astounding achievement, which should be studied not just by Turkish citizens, but the whole world.
That’s why I have decided to launch this web site. I want to tell the story from a Turkish point of view. You will find details about Turkish armed forces, its battles, important personalities and lots more. Many people think that Turkish involvement in the First World War is limited with the defence of Gallipoli. However, as you have already seen on the home page, Turkish soldiers fought in many different fronts.
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This is by no means a professional website. It is authored and updated as spare time permits and it is intended at a general rather than academic audience. Therefore it is not recommended that this site be used for academic reference purposes for school or university papers. This is does not mean that there is a lack of confidence in the overall accuracy of the site's content, rather it is as an acknowledgement that material on the site has not been submitted for formal peer review.
Feel free to share your comments and/or your suggestions with me. This site is open to everyone who wants to make a contribution. Please keep in mind that this site, like other sites with similar topics, is aiming at sharing knowledge and paying tribute to those who have suffered. People who use the past to breed hatred are not welcome. If that’s what you want, please choose other places, not this web site.
This site will be under continuous construction. I will add new material whenever I have the chance to do so.
So, welcome to Turkey….The year is 1914….
Altay Atlý
Editor
- Turkeyswar.com |
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This web site is dedicated to my maternal and paternal great-grandfathers... Major Mehmet Ziya Bey (1888-1944), who fought in the First World War at the Caucasian front as an |
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Note on Spelling and Place Names
In this web site, all Turkish personal names are spelled in consonance with their modern Turkish usage. Therefore, for example, instead of "Talaat Pasha", there is "Talat Paþa" or instead of "Djemal Pasha" there is "Cemal Paþa" (You need to make sure that your browser can display Turkish characters.) The following notes on pronounciation may be helpful:
c read "j" as in "job" ç read "ch" as in "chocolate" ð not pronounced, but makes the vowel before it longer ý read "e" as in "the" ö read like "u" as in "blur" þ read as "sh" as in "shirt" ü read like the French "u" as in "tu"
I have taken the liberty to use the place names in English, with the corresponding names in Turkish given in parantheses. The only exeption for this rule is the pages on the Gallipoli campaign, where I tried to avoid a confusion since the place names in English and Turkish are compeltely different due to the fact that almost all of the place names in English were given by combatants during the campaign. Another important point to note is that English place names not used anymore (although they were in use during the war) are not displayed in this web site. This means, there is no "Constantinople", but it is "Istanbul"; there is no "Smyrna", instead we have "Izmir". |
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