Although the Turks favored neutrality in the conflict germinating between the Central Powers of Germany and Austria and the allied countries of England, France, and Russia, Enver Pasha, who declared himself war minister in 1914, favored cooperation with the Germans. Business is business, however, and two battleships were commissioned from the British, destined to restore pride to an outdated navy. Fearful of Turkish entente with their adversaries, the British withheld consignment of the ships, and the Germans shrewdly came to the rescue with the delivery of two battleships, the Göben and the Breslau, complete with a German crew sporting fezzes.
In the summer of 1914, Enver Pasha signed a secret peace treaty with the Germans promising naval assistance in the face of Russian aggression in the Black Sea. Two months later, flying the sultan's flag, the Göben and Breslau attacked Russian ports and the Ottoman Empire was dragged into a war. The Russians retaliated by land through the Caucuses, while the British had successfully organized Arab revolts in the eastern provinces, leaving the Turks surrounded by hostile forces. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's legendary defense of Gallipoli in 1915 succeeded in saving the Straits, and therefore Istanbul, from invasion. Nevertheless, Turkish forces were no match for Allied tanks, automatic weapons, and airplanes and on October 30, 1918, the CUP government agreed to an armistice with England and France. Two weeks later British and French troops were occupying the sultan's palace. Enver Pasha, Mehmet Talat, and Ahmet Cemal fled the city on German warships, leaving the Allied forces to decide how to divide up the empire's few remaining territories.
Under the Treaty of Sèvres, all of the European territory was lost except for a small area around Istanbul. Armenia and Kurdistan gained autonomy, Greece was assigned the administration of the region around Izmir, and French and Italian troops were left to occupy portions of the rest of Anatolia. The Capitulations, suspended shortly before the war, were restored and control of Turkish finances was taken over by the Allies. The government of Mehmet VI signed the treaty August 20, 1920.
