The Young Turk Period, 1908-1918 - PSI424

314 The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808-1975
from the main war theaters in Europe. The Ottomans therefore were to advance
into Egypt and to invade the Caucasus, with an appeal for a Holy War enhancing
their efforts in these campaigns as well as undermining the enemy's ability to
mobilize its forces. Germany also attempted to secure the support of the Iranian
government against Russia, but Russia responded with an occupation of the northern
part of the country (November 1915), forcing the Germans to set up their own
puppet government and army at Kerman§ah. This stimulated the British to reply
along the Persian Gulf in the south, with Sir Percy Sykes leading the South
Persian Rifles, based in Shiraz, which, with some assent from the Tehran government,
prevented the Germans from getting help from the Persian Gulf and so forced
them to depend entirely on what they could get from the Ottomans and von der
Goltz in Iraq.
The Ottoman war aims, as elaborated by Enver and his colleagues, were mostly
but not entirely the same as those of the Germans. Enver really hoped to use the
war to regain substantial territory in Macedonia and Thrace as well as in eastern
Anatolia, Egypt, and Cyprus. As his ambitions developed, however, they also came
to include the liberation of the Turkish people of the Caucasus and Central Asia
from Russian and Armenian tyranny, the establishment of the influence of the
sultan-caliph over all other Muslims in the world, particularly those of India, and
the final liberation of the empire from the economic and political domination of all
the powers, including the Germans.
The Northeastern Front, 1914-1916
German strategy prevailed at the outset, so that Enver had to concentrate first on
his ambitions in the east. Almost as soon as he became minister of war he began
to strengthen the Third Army, based at Erzurum, which covered the entire area of
northeastern Anatolia from Lake Van to the Black Sea; thus it was ready to attack
almost as soon as war was declared. Enver made a last effort to secure the support
of the sultan's Armenian subjects, but a meeting at Erzurum with Armenian leaders
from Russia as well as the Ottoman Empire was unsuccessful. Russia already had
promised the Armenians an autonomous state including not only the areas under
Russian rule in the Caucasus but also substantial parts of eastern Anatolia.
The Armenian leaders told Enver only that they wanted to remain neutral, but
their sympathy for the Russians seemed evident. In fact soon after the meeting
"several prominent Ottoman Armenians, including a former member of parliament,
slipped away to the Caucasus to collaborate with Russian military officials," making
it appear that the Armenians would do everything they could to frustrate Ottoman
military action.
Still Enver decided that the Ottoman security forces were strong enough to prevent
any Armenian sabotage, and preparations were made for a winter assault.
Meanwhile, Czar Nicholas II himself came to the Caucasus to make final plans for
cooperation with the Armenians against the Ottomans, with the president of the
Armenian National Bureau in Tiflis declaring in response:
From all countries Armenians are hurrying to enter the ranks of the glorious
Russian Army, with their blood to serve the victory of Russian arms. . . . Let
the Russian flag wave freely over the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. Let, with
Your will, great Majesty, the peoples remaining under the Turkish yoke receive
freedom. Let the Armenian people of Turkey who have suffered for the