ABSTRACT
The Ottoman decision to enter the First World War was the single most important event in the history of the modern Near East because it led directly to the destruction of the Ottoman empire and to the emergence of an entirely new political structure in the region. The most remarkable feature of the Ottoman empire during the war was its endurance. After the heavy losses of the campaigns of 1915 and 1916 and the consequent strain on resources, the Ottomans hung on and in 1918 still could muster enough strength to attack Transcaucasia and to fight dogged defensive battles against greatly superior forces in Syria and Iraq. The principal Ottoman campaign during the early months of the war directed against the Russian frontier in Transcaucasia in the hope of inciting an anti-Russian uprising, but ended in defeat and heavy losses for the Ottomans at Sarkamsh in January 1915 and they were obliged to fall back upon the fortress of Erzerum.
