At the turn of 1913, the
Ottoman Modern Army failed at counterinsurgencies in the periphery of the empire, Libya was lost to Italy, and Balkan war erupted in the fall of 1912. Freedom and Accord flexed its muscles with the forced dissolution of the parliament in 1912. The signs of humiliation of the Balkan wars worked to the advantage of the CUP. The cumulative defeats of 1912 enabled the CUP to seize control of the government. The Freedom and Accord Party presented the peace proposal to the Ottoman government as a collective démarche, which was almost immediately accepted by both the Ottoman cabinet and by an overwhelming majority of the parliament on 22 January 1913. Sami Pasha al-Farouqi arrived in Damascus in August 1910, leading an Ottoman expeditionary force of some 35 battalions. In 1911, Muslim intellectuals and politicians formed "
The Young Arab Society", a small Arab nationalist club, in Paris. Its stated aim was "raising the level of the Arab nation to the level of modern nations." In the first few years of its existence, al-Fatat called for greater autonomy within a unified Ottoman state rather than Arab independence from the empire. Al-Fatat hosted the
Arab Congress of 1913 in Paris, the purpose of which was to discuss desired reforms with other dissenting individuals from the Arab world. They also requested that Arab conscripts to the Ottoman army not be required to serve in non-Arab regions except in time of war. However, as the Ottoman authorities cracked down on the organization's activities and members, al-Fatat went underground and demanded the complete independence and unity of the Arab provinces. Nationalist movement become prominent during this Ottoman period, but it has to be mentioned that this was among Arab nobles and common Arabs considered themselves loyal subjects of the Caliph. Instead of Ottoman Caliph, the British, for their part, incited the
Sharif of Mecca to launch the
Arab Revolt during the First World War. In October 1912,
George V of Armenia engaged in negotiations with General
Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov to discuss Armenian reforms inside the Russian Empire. In December 1912, Kevork V formed the Armenian National Delegation and appointed
Boghos Nubar. The delegation established itself in Paris. Another member appointed to the delegation was James Malcolm who resided in London and became the delegation's point man in its dealings with the British. In early 1913, Armenian diplomacy shaped as Boghos Nubar was to be responsible for external negotiations with the European governments, while the Political Council "seconded by the Constantinople and Tbilisi Commissions" were to negotiate the reform question internally with the Ottoman and Russian governments. From the end of July to 2 August 1914, the
Armenian congress at Erzurum happened. There was a meeting between the Committee of Progress and Union and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Armenian liaisons
Arshak Vramian, Zorian and
Khatchatour Maloumian and Ottoman liaisons Dr.
Behaeddin Shakir, Omer Naji, and Hilmi Bey were accompanied by an international entourage of peoples from the Caucasus. The CUP requested to incite a rebellion of
Russian Armenians against the Tsarist regime in
Russian Armenia, in order to facilitate the conquest of
Transcaucasia in the event of the opening up of the
Caucasus Campaign. Around the same time, a representative meeting of Russian Armenians assembled in
Tiflis, Russian Armenia. The Tsar asked Armenian's loyalty and support for Russia in the conflict. The proposal was agreed upon and nearly 20,000 Armenians who responded to the call of forming
Armenian volunteer units inside the
Russian Caucasus Army, of which only 7,000 were given arms. On 2 November, the first engagement of the Caucasus Campaign began (the
Bergmann Offensive), and on 16 December 1914, the Ottoman Empire officially dismantled the Armenian reform package. Ottoman intelligence services detected a plot by Hunchakian operatives to assassinate leading CUP members, and but foiled the plot in a single operation in July 1914. In 1908, after the overthrow of Sultan, the Hamidiye was disbanded as an organized force, but as they were "tribal forces" before official recognition by the Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1892, they stayed as "tribal forces" after dismemberment. The Hamidiye Cavalry is often described as a failure because of its contribution to tribal feuds.
Shaykh Abd al Qadir in 1910 appealed to the CUP for an autonomous Kurdish state in the east. That same year,
Said Nursi travelled through the Diyarbakir region and urged Kurds to unite and forget their differences, while still carefully claiming loyalty to the CUP. Other Kurdish
Shaykhs in the region began leaning towards regional autonomy. During this time, the Badr Khans had been in contact with discontented Shaykhs and chieftains in the far east of Anatolia ranging to the Iranian border, more in the framework of secession, however. Shaykh Abd al Razzaq Badr Khan eventually formed an alliance with Shaykh Taha and Shaykh
Abd al Salam Barzani, another powerful family. In 1914, because of the possible Kurdish threat as well as the alliance's dealings with Russia, Ottoman troops moved against this alliance. Two brief and minor rebellions, the rebellions of
Barzan and
Bitlis, were quickly suppressed. In 1914, General Muhammad Sharif Pasha offered his services to the British in Mesopotamia. Elsewhere, members of the Badr Khan family held close relations with Russian officials and discussed their intentions to form an independent Kurdistan.
Yemeni politics Yemen Vilayet was a first-level administrative division of the Empire. In the late 19th century, the
Zaidis rebelled against the Empire, and Imam
Mohammed ibn Yahya laid the foundation of a hereditary dynasty.
Ahmed Izzet Pasha concluded a treaty with Imam Yahya in October 1911, by which he was recognized as temporal and spiritual head of the Zaidis, was given the right to appoint officials over them, and collect taxes from them. The Ottomans maintained their system of government in the Sunni-majority parts of Yemen. In March 1914, the Anglo-Turkish Treaty delimited the border between Yemen and the Aden Protectorate. Before the First World War, Herzl's attempts to reach a political agreement with the Ottoman rulers of Palestine were unsuccessful. But on 11 April 1909,
Tel Aviv was founded on the
outskirts of the ancient
port city of
Jaffa. The World Zionist Organization supported small-scale settlement in Palestine and focused on strengthening Jewish feeling and consciousness and on building a worldwide federation. At the start of World War I most Jews (and Zionists) supported the German Empire in its war against the Russian Empire. The
Balfour Declaration (dated 2 November 1917) and
Henry McMahon had
exchanged letters with
Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca in 1915, a shift to another concept (Jewish national home vs. Jewish state) which is explained under
Homeland for the Jewish people.
Foreign policy The interstate system at the beginning of the twentieth century was a multipolar one, with no single or two states pre-eminent. Multipolarity traditionally had afforded the Ottomans the ability to play-off one power against the other. Initially, the CUP and Freedom and Accord turned to Britain. Germany had supported the Hamidian regime and acquired a strong foothold. By encouraging Britain to compete against Germany and France, the Ottomans hoped to break France and Germany's hold and acquire greater autonomy for the Porte. Hostility to Germany increased when her ally Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. The pro-Unionist
Tanin went so far as to suggest that Vienna's motive in carrying out this act was to strike a blow against the constitutional regime and assist reaction in order to bring about its fall. Two prominent Unionists, Ahmed Riza Pasha and Dr.
Nazim Pasha, were sent to London to discuss options of cooperation with Sir Edward Grey and Sir Charles Hardinge. Foreign Minister Tevfik's successor, Mehmed Rifat Pasha was a career diplomat from a merchant family. The CUP, who were predominantly civilian, resented the intrusion of the army into government. The CUP, who seized power from Freedom and Accord in January 1913, were more convinced than ever that only an alliance with Britain and the Entente could guarantee the survival of what remained of the Empire. In June, therefore, the subject of an Anglo-Turkish alliance was reopened by Tevfik Pasha, who simply restated his proposal of October 1911. Once again the offer was turned down. Sir Louis Mallet, who became Britain's Ambassador to the Porte in 1914, noted that The CUP felt betrayed by what they considered was Europe's bias during the Balkan Wars, and therefore they had no faith in Great Power declarations regarding the Empire's independence and integrity; the termination of European financial control and administrative supervision was one of the principal aims of CUP's policies. Though these imperial powers had experienced relatively few major conflicts between them over the previous hundred years, an underlying rivalry, otherwise known as "
the Great Game", had exacerbated the situation to such an extent that resolution was sought.
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 brought shaky
British-Russian relations to the forefront by solidifying boundaries that identified their respective control in
Persia,
Afghanistan. Overall, the Convention represented a carefully calculated move on each power's part in which they chose to value a powerful alliance over potential sole control over various parts of Central Asia. The Ottoman Empire lied on the crossroads to Central Asia. The Convention served as the catalyst for creating a "
Triple Entente", which was the basis of the alliance of countries opposing the
Central Powers. Ottoman Empire's path in
Ottoman entry into World War I was set with that agreement, which ended the Great Game. One way to challenge and undermine the army's position was by attacking Germany in the press and supporting friendship with Germany's rival, Great Britain. But neither Britain nor France responded to CUP's advance of friendship. In fact France resented the government's (Porte) desire to acquire financial autonomy. In early 1914 the Constantinople was concerned with three main goals. The first was improving relations with Bulgaria; the second was to encourage support from the Germans, and the third was to settle negotiations with Europe about the Armenian reform. With regard to the first, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria showed sympathy to one another because they suffered as a result of the territories lost with the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). They also had bitter relations with Greece. They would eventually sign a
secret treaty of alliance, and during World War I, fight on the same side. With regard to the second, there were three military missions active at the turn of 1914. These were the
British Naval Mission led by
Admiral Limpus, the French Gendarme Mission led by General Moujen, and the German Military Mission led by
Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz. The German Military Mission become the most important among these three. The history of German-Ottoman military relations went back to the 1880s. The Grand Vizier
Said Halim Pasha (12 June 1913 – 4 February 1917) and Ottoman Minister of War
Ahmet Izzet Pasha (11 June 1913 – 3 January 1914) were instrumental in developing the initial relations. Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered General Goltz to establish the first German mission. General Goltz served two periods within two years. In early 1914, the Ottoman Minister of War became the former military attaché to Berlin,
Enver Pasha. About the same time, General
Otto Liman von Sanders was nominated to the command of the German 1st Army. With regard to the third, an Armenian reform package was negotiated with the Russian Empire. Russia, acting on behalf of the
Great Powers, played a crucial role introducing reforms for the Armenian citizens of the Empire. The
Armenian reform package, which was solidified in February 1914 and was based on the arrangements nominally made in the
Treaty of Berlin (1878) and the
Treaty of San Stefano. According to this arrangement the inspectors general, whose powers and duties constituted the key to the question, were to be named for a period of ten years, and their engagement was not to be revocable during that period.
World War I The Ottoman Empire entered WWI with the
attack on Russia's Black Sea coast on 29 October 1914. The attack prompted Russia and its allies, Britain and France, to declare war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914. The Ottoman Empire was active in the
Balkans theatre and
Middle Eastern theatre – the latter had five main campaigns: the
Sinai and Palestine Campaign, the
Mesopotamian Campaign, the
Caucasus Campaign, the
Persian Campaign, and the
Gallipoli Campaign. There were also several minor campaigns: the
North African Campaign, the
Arab Campaign and the
South Arabia Campaign. There were several important Ottoman victories in the early years of the war, such as the
Battle of Gallipoli and the
Siege of Kut. The
Armistice of Mudros was signed on 31 October 1918, ending the Ottoman participation in World War I.
Genocide of minorities == Mehmet VI (1918–1922) ==