128 ISLAM AT WAR
since 1878, was given to Romania, and Macedonia was divided between
Greece and Serbia.
At least the hands grasping the Balkan thorns would no longer be Turk-
ish. It was just as well, for the great cataclysm of World War I was about
to immolate most of the Eurasian world. Sadly, Turkey chose to join in
the conflagration.
On August 2, 1914, Germany and Turkey signed a secret alliance. When
the war initially erupted, Turkey declared its neutrality, but mobilized. The
Allies demanded that the Turks expel the crews of the German warships
GoebenandBreslau,^2 which had escaped into the Sea of Marmara and
sought refuge from the Allies. At the same time the British seized two
Turkish warships then under construction in Britain that were being paid
for by “popular subscription” of the Turkish people. The Turkish population
became furious. The Germans cleverly offered the two interned vessels to
the Turks and in a brilliant coup, by the surrender of the two warships, they
brought Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers. On Septem-
ber 8, 1914, Turkey declared herself free of the capitulations of 1878.
Turkey was thus at war with the Allies in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq)
and on the Caucasian frontier (between the Black and Caspian Seas). The
British would soon land a force of Australians on the Dardanelles, the
most treasured geographical possession of the Ottoman Empire—the pas-
sage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
The Turks successfully defended the Dardanelles, but the Russians ad-
vanced steadily south, seizing Trebizond, Erzerum, and Erzinjan, and
moving against Sivas. The Turks launched an attack against the Suez
Canal, but it failed. The British invaded and occupied Syria and Iraq. They
would push an army into Palestine and inflict numerous defeats on the
outclassed Turks.
On the Caucasian front, the Armenians created disturbances behind the
Turkish lines and threatened to cut their lines of communication. To re-
solve this issue, the Turkish government began a general deportation of
Armenians and horrible atrocities were committed on a large scale. When
the Russian general Antranik entered east Anatolia, the Armenian soldiers
under his command, the so-called “Christian Army of Revenge,” re-
sponded with equally horrible atrocities against the ethnic Turks who fell
into their hands.
First Lord of the British Admiralty Winston Churchill had conceived
of the idea of an Allied attack on Turkey that would be decisive and knock
it out of the war. To this end, he proposed that the Allies land a force on
the Dardanelles and strike directly into Istanbul, thus removing Turkey