Turkey and Iran towards the First World War

Özet

This paper intcnds to focus on somc highlights of the role that two neighbouring countrics, Iran and Turkey, played during thc First World War. While bolh had separate idcntitics and decision-making processes, although not entircly independent as one might wish, the events in Iran vvere inscparably connectcd vvith thc events in thc Asiatic part of the former Ottoman Empire and vvith thc great povver policies tovvards the Turks during that vvar. Thc beginning of the tvvcntieth century is an interesting and a complex period in thc histories of both Iran and Turkey. It vvas a period of bloodless revolutions, in 1905 in Iran, and in 1908 in Turkey. It vvas an epoch in vvhich Iran vvas dividcd up initially overtly (1907) and then sccrctly (1915). Thc Ottoman Empire, similarly, shrank, losing almost ali of its Europcan possessions. Moreovcr, great povver rivalry providcd the impulse for a general conflagration to partition thc vvorld.