Map of the Ottoman Empire showing the travels of Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War, from his book Four Years Beneath the Crescent.
Legend for the author's travels for the years 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918.
"[Vice-Admiral Sir Somerset Gough-Calthorpe, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet was] authorised to negotiate an armistice — not a surrender, because that would require the consultation of those of the allies who were also at war with Turkey — based on the Turks giving up control of the Dardanelles and allowing the Royal Navy free passage through the Straits and into the Black Sea. When the French government learned of this there was uproar, not just because Lloyd George had given Calthorpe the go-ahead to negotiate without consulting it, but out of a creeping belief that the British were now seeking to go back on the Sykes-Picot Agreement for the distribution of spoils. . . .The armistice negotiations began at 0930 on 27 October, Turkey being represented by Rauf Bey, an army officer named Sadullah, who was Chief of Staff of the Eighth Army, and a senior functionary from the Foreign Ministry. By the evening of 30 October negotiations were over."
The Cabinet of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George authorized Calthorpe to negotiate an armistice with a Turkey that was under pressure on all fronts. The Young Turk triumvirate that ruled Turkey and the Ottoman Empire throughout the war — War Minister Enver Pasha, Minister of the Interior Mehmed Talaat, and Naval Minister Ahmed Djemal Pasha — resigned on October 13, 1918. Through the month British forces pushed north through Syria and Mesopotamia and Allied forces threatened Constantinople from defeated Bulgaria. The Sykes-Picot Agreement between France and the United Kingdom carved out great swaths of the Ottoman Empire for the two victors and helped lay the groundwork for the contemporary Middle East.
Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford, pp. 397–398, copyright © Roger Ford 2010, publisher: Pegasus Books, publication date: 2010
1918-10-27, 1918, October, Turkey, armistice, David Lloyd George, Lloyd George, Ottoman Empire
