ABSTRACT
During the last part of the nineteenth century the Turkish Army became more and more a citizen army, which was recruited periodically by levies from the villages throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. The performances of the Turkish Army after reorganisation during the last half of the nineteenth century were, however, creditable under the circumstances. The Turkish Command at Kars was stiffened by the presence of a British officer, Colonel Fenwick Williams. Early in the 1890’s further reforms took place in the Turkish Army, again under Prussian influence, and this time it was the mission of Marshal Von der Goltz. As a result, the Turkish Army showed increased efficiency in transport, stores and equipment, especially in the campaign against the Greeks in Thessaly in 1897. With the Third Army thus reinforced, the Turkish forces from the Black Sea coast to the Khurdistan highlands amounted to 170,000 men.
