The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East by Eugene Rogan

Basic Books

Essay by Brian Tanguay

Many of the books and articles I’ve read about the Middle East during the past year make passing reference to the Ottoman Empire, often noting the diplomatic agreements European powers proposed or struck in the wake of the Empire’s dissolution. Two of these agreements, Sykes-Picot and the Balfour Declaration, echo in the background over the region to this day as examples of imperial meddling. Seeds of the endless conflict in Palestine, the blunted hopes of Egyptians and Libyans, and Syria’s long period of strife and suffering were planted more than a century ago. Turning the tables a few degrees, today it is Turkey that is determined to play a prominent role in post-Assad Syria, with some observers describing its aspirations as neo-Ottomanism. 

Can the past tell us anything that might prove useful in understanding a shifting present?

If one lives in the West, it’s not unusual to think of the First World War — the Great War as it’s also known — as a European war which took place in the trenches of the western front, where the armies of the Central Powers faced off across No-Man’s Land against their British, French and, later, American enemies. The rain and mud, trenches and barbed-wire, rats and mustard gas, and machine guns that mowed down soldiers when they “went over the top” is the typical tableau. But there was another front and other combatants, who fought in the Caucasus mountains, the Dardanelles, Mesopotamia, Syria and Jerusalem. This less appreciated front was the scene of Great Power intrigue and scheming, horrific casualties, an Arab uprising, and the first genocide of the twentieth century. 

A majority of the world’s 240 million Muslims lived during this period under British, French or Russian colonial rule. Consequently, the military leaders of the Entente Powers were haunted by the specter of an Islamic jihad, fearing it might spark ruinous revolts among their Muslim subjects. This fear persisted throughout the war, in conjunction with a desperate reliance on troops drawn from the colonies and dominions. It would have been impossible for Britain, France, and Russia to fight on multiple fronts without these troops. Muslims from France’s North African colonies, Indians — Muslim and Hindu — fought alongside soldiers from New Zealand and Australia. There were desertions, but the widespread jihad that many in Britain and France feared never actually materialized. 

As Eugene Rogan writes in his outstanding history, The Fall of the Ottomans, published in 2015, the Ottomans surprised their allies and enemies alike by remaining in the war until the very end. This was all the more remarkable given that at the outset of the war, the Ottoman Empire was vulnerable to attack all along its 7,500 miles of borders and coastlines spanning the Black Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean. After nearly six centuries of rule, the Ottoman Empire wasn’t exactly thriving — it was known as the Sick Man of Europe — and had suffered territorial losses in the Balkans and internal political upheaval. Seeing opportunity for territorial advantage in the Empire’s decline, Britain, France, and Russia were busy dividing up Ottoman territory before a single shot was fired. 

Beside providing a rare view of the First World War from an Ottoman perspective, and illustrating the extent to which the Entente Powers worried about an Islamic jihad, Rogan also gives readers a useful explanation of events that led to the Armenian genocide. Armenians were a minority in every Ottoman province, but it was no secret that they harbored nationalist ambitions. What the Armenians lacked was a geographic base and the support of a great power. It’s somewhat analogous to the plight of Palestinians who are dispersed in Gaza and the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Istanbul’s Armenian community was large and well-established, and when the Allies attacked the Dardanelles, many Armenians mistakenly believed their liberation from Ottoman rule was at hand. But open celebration quickly gave way to abject terror. The Turks repelled the Allies and initiated reprisals and mass arrests of Armenians. The Young Turk government issued orders to begin deportations and executions. Provincial governors who refused to go along were removed from office. Compliant governors recruited gangs to kill the deportees, mobilizing Kurds and other groups with a history of antagonism toward the Armenians. Death marches. Massacres. Starvation. The number of Armenians killed remains in dispute, with estimates ranging from 600,000 to 1.5 million.

Rogan articulates the bitter irony of these crimes against humanity: “The annihilation of the Armenians and other Christian communities in no way improved the security of the Ottoman Empire.” By spring 1915, the empire faced invasion on three fronts simultaneously. 

Nonetheless, the Turks fought with valor and bravery and inflicted several humiliating defeats on the British and French, most notably at Gallipoli and during the siege of Kut in Mesopotamia. Time and again British war planners underestimated the Turks, routinely failing to appreciate the full consequences of  the Ottoman front. 

The terms of surrender exacted by the victors at the war’s end — in particular the British and French mandates over Palestine and Syria, respectively — reverberate to our day. “The contradictions raised by the Balfour Declaration,” Rogan notes, “in its declaration of intent to create a national home for the Jews that would not adversely affect the rights and interests of the indigenous non-Jewish population were already apparent.”

Those contradictions remain in play more than a century later, as does fear in the West that Muslims might rise up in a collectively fanatical manner. The Fall of the Ottomans highlights the hubris of the European powers, their calculated betrayal of their Arab subjects and allies. One could argue that when it comes to hubris, little in the Middle East has fundamentally changed.