3 December 2024: Coup in Constantinople, Betrayal in the Balkans, Conniving in the Caucasus
In January 1913 there was reason to hope the First Balkan War was winding down . After the Ottoman Empire suffered crushingdefeatsat the hands of the Balkan League — Bulgaria , Serbia , Greece and Montenegro — the two slope fit in to a ceasefire and entered into peace negotiations at theConference of Londonbeginning in December 1912 .
As might be expect , these negotiation were a bit rocky : On January 1 , 1913 , the Turks tell they were willing to give up almost all of their European dominion , but not the fundamental metropolis of Adrianople , where the Turkish William Lloyd Garrison was still holding out against a Bulgarian besieging . The Bulgarians would n’t make peace if they did n’t get Adrianople . This conflict threatened to deadlock the negotiations , which were suspend on January 6 .
On January 17 , Europe ’s Great Powers intervened by monish the Turkish representatives that if they did n’t make peace soon , the Ottoman Empire faced the personnel casualty of its Asian soil as well — a bold - faced scourge . This arm - twisting paid off ; on January 22 , the Turkish negotiator think better of their earlier refusal and agreed to give up Adrianople . Everyone heaved a sigh of relief .
But their relief was premature . On January 23 , 1913 , the Turkish “ Liberal Union ” government that agreed to the quite a little was overthrown by military officers from the rival Committee of Union and Progress , intimately known as the Young Turks , leave by Enver Pasha , the commander of the Constantinople reservation army .
embolden by their defensive triumph atChataldzhaand horrified by the hurt of some 400,000 Turkish refugee stream in from the Balkans , the nationalistic officers refused to give up Adrianople before it had even been lose . alternatively , they deposed the Grand Vizier , Kamil Pasha , and shot the Minister of War , Nazim Pasha , as punishment for his failure in the First Balkan War . hop to reinvigorate the Turkish military machine , the officeholder appointed a non - political general ( andrecentMinister of War ) , Mahmud Shevket Pasha , as the young Grand Vizier . The First Balkan War would sweep up on .
The Balkan League Begins to Fray
The Turks had reason to be hopeful . Although the member of the Balkan League deliver a united front in their ataraxis dialogue with the Ottoman Empire , tensions were heighten over the air division of spoils from the First Balkan War . In June 1913 these dispute would conduct to the Second Balkan War , pitting Bulgaria against its former allies Serbia and Greece ( plus Turkey and Romania for unspoilt measure ) .
The trouble was already brewing in January 1913 , as intervention by Europe ’s Great Powers triggered a chain chemical reaction of conflicting territorial demand . Fearing the maturation of Serbian mogul , Austria - Hungary wasdeterminedto prevent the small Slavonic kingdom from gaining access to the ocean , raise the possibility of war with Serbia ’s angel Russia . To void a wider European conflagration , the Great Powers propel to appease Austria - Hungary by convincing Russia to harmonize to the instauration of a Modern , independentAlbania , which would jam Serbia from the ocean .
Albanian independence was of the essence to defusing broad European tensions , but it did so at the price of local stability in the Balkans . Because Serbia was forced to give up its conquests in Albania , it became even more dictated to hold on to its conquests to the east , in Macedonia – including district also claimed by Bulgaria . On January 13 , 1913 , Serbia sent Bulgaria a diplomatic short letter formally call for to retool their pact of March 1912 to give Serbia a bigger chunk of Macedonia , noting that Bulgaria had n’t commit the promise number of troops to their joint operations in Macedonia .
Of course this was bind to infuriate the Bulgarians , who matte that their focus on defeating the Turks closer to domicile , in Thrace , had benefited the whole Balkan League . Meanwhile Bulgaria also had a osseous tissue to peck with Greece over the city ofSalonika , the southern gateway to the Balkans . To top it all off , Romania was also demand territorial compensation from Bulgaria in return for recognizing its conquests in Thrace . A new coalition was come into being , this clip direct against Bulgaria .
Russia Uses Kurds and Armenians as Pawns
In improver to lose its Balkan territorial dominion , far east the beleaguered Ottoman Empire faced the menace of Russian aggression in the Caucasus . Here the Russians apply a time - tested artifice , combining covert action and diplomatic insistency , as cynical as anything dreamed up by a forward-looking word agency in the twenty-first century .
The ruse entailed using the Armenian and Kurdish population of the Ottoman Empire as pawn to rationalize Russian interference . Essentially , the Russians secretly arm the Muslim Kurds and Christian Armenians and encouraged them to fight each other as well as the Turkish government , thus make a pretext for the Russians to step in as the “ protectors ” of the Armenians , integrate the Armenian region into the Russian Empire while they were at it .
On November 26 , 1912 , the Russian embassador to Constantinople , Baron von Giers , demanded that the Turks institute “ reforms ” granting more liberty to the Armenians – a preamble to Russian annexation of the region . Meanwhile on November 28 , 1912 , Russian foreign minister Sergei Sazonov sent a secret directive to Russian consuls in easterly Anatolia severalize them to work to combine the Kurdish kinship group ( never an soft task ) , and between December 1912 and February 1913 several Kurdish chiefs secretly swear allegiance to the Russians .
In short , the Russians were creating a problem so they could solve it . Of course , by set themselves up as the Armenians ’ saviors , the Russians also stoke Turkish paranoia about Armenian loyalty ( or miss thereof ) , laying the groundwork for the horrific Armenian Genocide during the coming Great War .
The other Great Powers were mindful of what was plump on , at least to some level : on January 23 , 1913 , the German embassador to St. Petersburg , Count Friedrich Pourtalès , wrote a letter to the German prime minister , Bethmann Hollweg , warning him that Kurdish atrocities against Armenians would make an opening move for Russia to expand into eastern Anatolia . As noted previously , this wasunacceptableto the Germans , who venerate they would lose out if the other Great Powers get going dividing up the Ottoman Empire ; a Russian advance in Anatolia would also threaten the propose “ Berlin to Baghdad ” railway , a key part of Germany ’s push to increase its influence in the Middle East .
See all installments of the World War I Centennial serieshere .
