Ottoman fronts stretched from Caucasus oil dreams to Arab revolt
The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I ran 30 October 1914 to 30 October 1918, pitting the Ottoman Empire—with Kurdish, Circassian, and many Arab allies—plus other Central Powers against the Allies. Local irregulars fought on both sides, including the Arab Revolt and Armenian units backed by Russia.
Of all the war's theatres this one spanned the most ground. Britain fought with Indian Hindu, Sikh and Muslim troops, soldiers from Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and smaller numbers of Jews, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and Arab states, while Russia fought in the Caucasus. The Ottomans drew on many Kurdish tribes, Circassians and much of the Arab population, with some help from their Central Power partners.
Strategy revolved around oil and routes. Germany set up an Intelligence Bureau for the East to stir trouble in Persia, Egypt and Afghanistan, and Enver Pasha, the Ottoman war minister, dreamed of breaking through Persia to Azerbaijan and linking new Turkic states. The Ottomans also menaced the Suez Canal, Britain's lifeline to India, and Britain feared for the southern Persian oilfields on which the Royal Navy depended through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Russia, which regarded the Caucasus as a sideshow, laid out its own ambitions in March 1915, when Sergey Sazonov told the British and French ambassadors that Moscow must hold Constantinople and the straits after the war.
Local movements seized the moment. King Hussein of the Hejaz led the Arab Revolt to end Ottoman rule. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation achieved an internationally recognised First Republic of Armenia in May 1918, after short-lived Armenian-run bodies from 1915 onward. Following the genocide committed against them, Assyrians under Mar Shimun XXI Benyamin, Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba joined the Allies, who called them Our Smallest Ally.
The endgame dragged well past the fighting. The Ottomans accepted the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, then signed the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920 and the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923. At Paris in 1919 an Assyrian request for a homeland was turned down by British and American delegates.
Source: Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
