Discover

The 'Armistice of Mudros' (30 October 1918), which ended the hostilities on Middle Eastern theatre of World War I between Ottoman Empire and Allies, was signed by the Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey) and the British Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe), on the aboard HMS ''Agamemnon'' in Moudros harbour on the Greek island of Lemnos.

Contents

The agreement

Aftermath

References

The agreement

The armistice brought about a cessation of hostilities between the Ottoman Empire on the one side and the Allies, represented by Britain, and including the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan on the other. In signing the armistice, the Ottomans surrendered their remaining garrisons outside Anatolia, granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus; and the right to occupy "in case of disorder" the six Armenian provinces in Anatolia and to seize "any strategic points" in case of a threat to Allied security. The Ottoman army was demobilized, and Turkish ports, railways, and other strategic points were made available for use by the Allies.

Aftermath

Main articles: Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottomans had to renounce all of their empire, with the exception of Anatolia and giving up to all their garrisons in Hedjaz, Yemen, Syria, Mesopotamia, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. In addition to the the allied occupation of the key sea areas around the Sea of Marmara, they also occupied Batum and the tunnels of the Taurus Mountains and had the right to occupy six provinces with Armenian populations in north-eastern Anatolia in case of disorder. By controlling the Bosphorus, the Allies also controlled the capital, Constantinople, and this forced the Young Turks, who had established a revolutionary government there, to flee. In the Caucasus, Turkey had to retreat to within its pre-war borders.
The Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which included clauses aimed at the creation of an independent Kurdistan and a wider Armenia, would have further diminished the territories controlled by the Turks, but the treaty was not enacted due to the Turkish War of Independence led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

References