the beginnings of ottoman-german partnership - Bilkent University

Chapter IV discusses the telegrams exchanged between Berlin and the
German ambassador in Istanbul in order to show the German attitude towards an
alliance with the Ottomans. German efforts to lure the Ottomans to ally with them,
culminating in the secret treaty of August 2, 1914, are given considerable attention as
well as the war aims of both allies in the context of their uneasy relationship.
The conclusion summarizes and highlights the important features of the
German-Ottoman relationship before and during the First World War. I try to find
whether or not there was a sufficient partnership between the two before the war to
cause them to enter the war in alliance.
This thesis covers several aspects of the German-Ottoman partnership.
Instead of following the traditional way of evaluating the German-Ottoman relations
in relation to the Ottoman Empire’s entry into the First World War, it is designed to
understand both countries’ approach to each other until the First World War. In this
context, German Reelpolitik and the Ottoman lack rational checks and balances
comprise the most important part of the thesis. The new Ottoman documents are used
in order to understand Ottoman evaluation of the diplomatic developments in Europe
and official legitimization about the policy choices of the Empire. The last chapter of
the thesis covers an extensive use of German Foreign Office documents, which were
not used by the Turkish historians before. These documents show how German
attitude about the Ottoman Empire changed within a couple of weeks. They are also
instrumental in showing that German political and military interests prevailed more
than anything else.
In my thesis, I used several primary sources to support my ideas or to help
form new conclusions. I used documents from the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives
(Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri) in İstanbul from the sections of Ministry of Foreign
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