Ottoman entry into the First World War
Ottoman entry into the First World War after the Black Sea raid of 29 October 1914. The decision aligned the CUP with Germany, opened the Caucasus front, and created the military-security frame used to justify anti-Armenian measures in 1915.
- Armenian
Account
Background
The Committee of Union and Progress entered the war seeking strategic recovery after Balkan defeat, protection against Russia and a chance to revise the empire's collapsing status. German alliance offered weapons and prestige; war also gave the CUP extraordinary powers over population, property and censorship.
Entry into war
On 29 October 1914 Ottoman naval forces, including the German-origin ships Yavuz and Midilli, attacked Russian Black Sea ports. Russia, Britain and France declared war in the following days. The empire was now fighting on multiple fronts, including the Caucasus against the Russian Empire.
Link to genocide
War did not mechanically cause the Armenian Genocide, but it made the genocide administratively and ideologically possible editorial. The CUP could describe Armenians as a wartime fifth column, censor information, disarm Armenian soldiers and treat deportation as military necessity. The later Sarıkamış catastrophe intensified this frame.
The key analytical point is that wartime security language and demographic nationalism fused. The state did face real military danger, but the measures taken against Armenians far exceeded battlefield security and became group destruction editorial.
Further reading
- Donald Bloxham, The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, 2005
- Michael A. Reynolds, Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908–1918, 2011
- Ronald Grigor Suny, They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide, 2015