The Ottomans in World War I and the Albanians' alignment with them

From: Agron Islami

One of the most talked about, but most unprofessionally treated events in Albanian history-writing, is the participation of Albanians on the Ottoman front during the First World War (1914-18). Quite rightly, the question arises as to why Albanians felt the need to participate in a war that, in today's logic, could be considered a "foreign war". Especially since, in the narrative of general opinion, the Ottomans are the five-century-old invaders.

How did World War I start?

The assassination of the Austro-Hungarian crown prince and his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, on June 28, 1914, is just one of the reasons that justifies the opening de facto of a chain war, which in historiography is known as the First World War. This is because the real reason for this event is related to the struggle for economic and political dominance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Thus, in 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary created the Dual Alliance and, in 1882, Italy joined this bloc. The aim was to exert influence in the surrounding regions and create colonies outside the continents of Europe and America. The tendency of the latter was opposed by Britain, France and Russia, which had in a way agreed on the division of the world's resources. France, in 1893, had made an agreement with Russia. This agreement was also followed with England (in 1904), while in 1907 Britain signed a cooperation agreement with Russia. Thus, naturally, the Triple Alliance was formed between England, France and Russia, which is known as the Entente bloc. And when the assassination attempt in Sarajevo occurred, the parties were ready for war. As a result of the elimination of the Austro-Hungarian crown prince and his wife, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary entered the war against Serbia, and Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, France on August 3, and Belgium on August 4. On August 4, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany as part of the treaties. Later, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, the United States, and Greece also became part of this war. The war was fought on the fronts of Western, Eastern, Galician, Balkan, and Southern Europe. With the participation of the Ottoman Empire, there were continuous battles in the Caucasus, Palestine, Iraq, and the Dardanelles. Asia and Africa were not spared from the war either. The war ended with the victory of the Entente bloc consisting of Britain, France, and Russia, against the Central Bloc consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

Why did the Ottoman Empire enter the war?

At the time when the winds of the beginning of the First World War were blowing, the Ottoman Empire had just emerged from the Balkan Wars, where, with the exception of the Edirne region, it had lost all its lands in Rumelia (today's Balkans). Thus, the government of the Young Turks, who in 1909 had seized the throne from Sultan Abdylhamit II (1876-1909), were aware that even maintaining neutrality in the coming war would not save them from the fragmentation of the lands that were still under Ottoman jurisdiction. Later, they even learned about the hidden articles of the Franco-Russian agreement (1907), which provided for leaving Istanbul and the straits under Russian rule. In these conditions, it was necessary to side with a power that would be a guarantee for the preservation of the territories. Especially since at that time, it was thought that it was impossible to create a friendship with the small Balkan states that had recently gained independence from the Ottomans.

On this concept, the Ottoman government, as early as 1911, established communication with Winston Churchill, who was the minister responsible for the Royal Navy, expressing their demands to establish an Ottoman-British alliance. Despite the refusal, the Ottomans' insistence continued in the following years. In fact, they aimed to achieve this alliance by making economic concessions in favor of England. In July 1913, England and the Ottomans signed an economic facilitation agreement in the Kuwait region, then the construction of the Baghdad-Basra railway was given to English companies. At the same time, the English were also given the right to explore for oil in the Middle East. After all this cooperation, the English government rejected (January 1914) the proposal of the Ottoman Minister of Finance and the Ottoman ambassador in London, Haki Pasha, for their admission to the tripartite alliance. The Ottomans tried to reach out to the French, but they also refused the meeting (July 1914).

The Entente powers demanded that the Ottomans remain neutral. However, the latter were aware that the British in the East and the Russians in the North posed a serious threat to the Ottoman Empire. Thus, it was intended to establish a rapprochement with Greece and Bulgaria, which were once Ottoman sanjaks, but open disputes with Greece over the islands in the Aegean, as well as Bulgaria's claims to the Edirne region, did not lead to any agreement.

After all these attempts, the Ottoman government had no choice but to submit to pressure to join the German-Austro-Hungarian front, which had united against Great Britain, France and Russia. It was the Austrian diplomat Johann von Pallavicini who arranged the meeting with the Ottomans a few days after the start of the war (July 18); a day later the German diplomat Hans von Wangenheim also arranged a meeting with Talat Pasha.

The Austrians, in addition to the Ottomans, aimed to attract the Bulgarians to their side, in order to prevent the unification of the Slavic world and if this was not achieved, then this would be partially done through the Ottomans who still had a positive influence on the Muslims of the Balkans - Albanians and Bosniaks. On July 22, 1914, the Ottoman Prime Minister, Said Halimi, met with the ambassadors of Germany and Austria who requested the unification of the fronts. On August 2, 1914, at 16 p.m., the German-Ottoman agreement was reached, which was valid until December 31, 1918.

Why did Albanians and Muslims of the Balkans participate in the Ottoman throne?

The biggest blow to the Ottoman existence in the Balkans was the loss of the Albanian and Bosnian territories, which had a Muslim majority and also constituted a large human resource for the Ottoman army. This shortage became even more noticeable during the First World War, when the Ottoman government was unable to cover its fronts with human resources, despite the declaration of general mobilization. Thus, in full coordination with the ally, the sultan on November 21, 1914 issued the firman for The Great Jihad (Cihad-i Akbar) and within days the Muslims of the Balkans were mobilized to answer this call. Alongside the sultan, Albanian leaders such as Hasan Prishtina and Ferhat Draga were also engaged in recruiting Albanians for the Austro-Hungarian front. Ottoman officers also came to the Albanian lands that were at that time under Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian occupation to attract Albanian men for the war.

What the Ottoman documentation of the time reveals is that the largest number of Muslim volunteers known as Gynyly, including the Albanians who had taken the road to Istanbul, were from the territories of present-day Kosovo, then Jenin Pazar, Prijepol, Kumanovo, Skopje, Manastir, Kavala, Drama, Serez, Plevna, etc., areas which after the fall of the Ottoman Empire remained under Serbian, Bulgarian, Montenegrin and Greek occupation.

The Sultan's call for Holy War constituted a political message for Muslims to come to the defense of the Ottoman state that was officially led by the Sultan, who was also the Caliph, or representative of all Muslims on earth. On the other hand, as a result of the Ottomans' union with the Tripartite Pact, which also included the two powers that occupied the former Muslim-populated territories of Ottoman Rumelia, the Ottoman intelligence and military had created the opportunity to engage directly in the recruitment of Muslims from these regions.

In Prizren, Mitrovica, Tetovo and elsewhere, special offices were opened where registration was done and then they were sent to the Ottoman front. In places where there were no such offices, volunteers were reported to Austrian military authorities and their requests were directed to Istanbul and then followed by the journey to the front determined by the Ottoman command. The majority of these volunteers belonged to the young ages of 19-30, so they were initially trained for war in military camps in Bulgaria. For example, in September 1915, the colonel of the Ottoman headquarters in Bulgaria announced that there were 14 thousand Muslim volunteers from the Balkans who were aged 19-25 in the training centers in Bulgaria.

Although there is a tendency to look for traces of Albanian volunteers only in the Throne of Çanakkale, which was one of the most important and decisive thrones for the Ottomans, Ottoman documentation shows that it was not up to the volunteer soldiers to decide on which front they would fight, so we find them in Romania, Galicia, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Macedonia, Iraq, and even in Burma. /Telegraph/