Ottoman Empire Enters the War
Two German warships shelled Russian Black Sea ports on 29 October 1914 flying the Ottoman flag, and brought the empire into the First World War. The ships were the Goeben and the Breslau, which had escaped a British squadron in the Mediterranean in August and reached Constantinople. The Ottomans were formally neutral, and the legal difficulty was resolved by a fictitious purchase — the ships were declared Ottoman property, renamed, and their German crews put in fezzes while Admiral Souchon retained command. The decision to use them was taken by a faction rather than by the government. Enver Pasha, the war minister, authorised the raid without the cabinet's knowledge, and presented it as a Russian provocation. The alignment had been forming for years. Germany had trained and equipped the Ottoman army since the 1880s, built the Baghdad railway, and offered an alliance in August 1914; Britain had confiscated two battleships being built in British yards and paid for by public subscription, which caused enormous offence in Constantinople. The empire's territorial grievances all pointed at Russia. The consequences were out of proportion to the cause. The Dardanelles closed, cutting Russia off from Allied supply through its only warm-water route — which contributed materially to the Russian collapse in 1917. Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus and Palestine became fronts. The Armenian genocide followed in 1915. The empire that had existed for six centuries was partitioned by 1920, and the republic that replaced it dates from the war it lost. Souchon's two ships arguably did more to change the course of the war than any others afloat.
- Year: 1914 CE
- Category: Political
