So far this campaign had been conducted as one of India's little wars, which come as regularly as intermittent fever.
The Russians enter Armenia and later withdraw.
When Turkey entered the war she reckoned that Russia was so busy on the German and Austrian frontiers as to be unable to meet an attack in her rear. Turkey thereupon concentrated her main armies at Erzerum and invaded Caucasia. The Russians beat them back and entered Armenia, where the inhabitants assisted them. The same cause which led to the retirement from Poland—shortage of ammunition—compelled the Russians also to withdraw from Armenia.
Britain's reverse at Gallipoli.
Contemporary with these events, Britain met with a severe reverse on the Gallipoli peninsula, which likewise injured her prestige in the East.
An Anglo-Russian campaign from Kurna to the Black Sea.
It became a matter of first importance with both Britain and Russia that they should not only reinstate their prestige in the East in striking fashion, but that they should end once and for all time German intrigue and Turkish weakness in the East. These considerations were contributing factors in bringing about a joint war council and an Allied Grand Staff. The latter immediately took hold of the military situation in Asiatic Turkey, and the isolated operations of Britain and Russia in these parts now changed into a great Anglo-Russian campaign stretching from the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to the Black Sea.
The drama unfolding before us promises to be one of the most sensational in the great world war. The end of the Ottoman Empire appears in sight. Its heirs and successors may be the other great Moslem powers—Britain, Russia, France, and Italy. The last two have yet to be heard from on the western shores of Asia Minor.
The possible future.
The future may see the British in possession of Turkey's first capital, Mosul; the French in possession of their second capital, Konia; the Russians in possession of their third and last capital, Constantinople, and the Italians occupying Smyrna. Each of these powers is a Mohammedan empire in itself; and the greatest Moslem country in the world is the British Empire.