the beginnings of ottoman-german partnership - Bilkent University

In 1893, the Germans completed the railway running from İzmit to Ankara. This led
Abdulhamid to grant the Germans the right to construct a commercial port and
railroad station in Haydarpaşa, on the shores of the Gulf of İzmit across the Sea of
Marmara from İstanbul, and the concession in principle of the right to extend their
railway from Konya to Baghdad and the Persian Gulf in 1899, a grant which was
made official in 1903. Wilhelm II tried hard to get these concessions for his subjects.
He visited the Ottoman Empire second time in 1899. During his visit, he traveled to
the Arab provinces of the Empire, and in Damascus he declared that he was the
friend and protector of 300 million Muslims in the world.
The construction of railways was of major importance to the Ottoman
Empire. They would bring prosperity to its backward districts and at the same time
enable the government to move troops more rapidly to defend the frontiers or deal
with internal revolts. The economic and diplomatic support of a distant and
disinterested Germany was therefore preferable for such projects to the imperialist
minded empires of Britain and France. For Germany, the Baghdad railway would
connect Berlin to Istanbul and it would block Russia’s possible line of expansion to
the Mediterranean through the Balkans. Russia did not want the Ottomans to prosper
and regain their power since this would make it far more difficult for it to gain
control of the Straits and thus secure free access to the open sea. The Berlin-Baghdad
axis was also seen as a menace to British imperial interests in Egypt, Iran and India 42
as well as to French interests in Syria and Levant.
42 Die Bagdadbahn, Rohrbach in W. W. Gottlieb, Studies in Secret Diplomacy (During the First
World War), (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1957), p. 23. “England can be attacked… on
land in one place only… in Egypt. With the loss of Egypt, England would lose not only the mastery
over the Suez Canal and the link with India and Asia, but presumably also her possessions in Central
and East Africa. The conquest of Egypt by an Islamic power like Turkey, moreover, could have
dangerous repercussions on England’s sixty million Moslem subjects in India, and also on
Afghanistan and Persia. But Turkey can only think of India if she has a developed railway system in
Asia Minor and Syria… German railways, if the need arose, would be the direct instrument… for
pressure upon England in the direction of Egypt.”
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