Editing Central Powers (section)

=== Ottoman Empire ===
{{Main|Ottoman Empire|Ottoman entry into World War I}}

[[File:Muster on the Plain of Esdraelon 1914.jpg|thumb|right|Ottoman soldiers in military preparations for an assault on the [[Suez Canal]] in 1914]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1981-137-08A, Konstantinopel, Besuch Kaiser Wilhelm II..jpg|thumb|Kaiser Wilhelm II visiting the Turkish cruiser ''Yavuz Sultan Selim'' during his stay in [[Istanbul]] in October 1917 as a guest of Sultan [[Mehmed V]]]]

==== War justifications ====
The Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of the Central Powers in November 1914. The Ottoman Empire had gained strong economic connections with Germany through the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway project that was still incomplete at the time.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jukes |first1=Geoffrey |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm52375688 |title=The First World War |last2=Simkins |first2=Peter |last3=Hickey |first3=Michael |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-96841-6 |edition= |series=Essential histories |location=New York |oclc=}}</ref> The Ottoman Empire made a formal alliance with Germany signed on 2 August 1914.<ref name="Afflerbach, Holger 2012.">{{Cite book |last1=Afflerbach |first1=Holger |last2=David Stevenson |first2=David |title=An Improbable War: The Outbreak of World War 1 and European Political Culture |publisher=Berghan Books |date=2012}}</ref>{{RP|292}} The alliance treaty expected that the Ottoman Empire would become involved in the conflict in a short amount of time.<ref name="Afflerbach, Holger 2012." />{{RP|292}} However, for the first several months of the war, the Ottoman Empire maintained neutrality though it allowed a German naval squadron to enter and stay near the strait of [[Bosphorus]].<ref name="Kent, Mary 1998. P119">{{Cite book |last=Kent |first=Mary |title=''The Great Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire''. end ed. Frank Cass. |date=1998 |page=119}}</ref> Ottoman officials informed the German government that the country needed time to prepare for conflict.<ref name="Kent, Mary 1998. P119" /> Germany provided financial aid and weapons shipments to the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="Afflerbach, Holger 2012." />{{RP|292}}

After pressure escalated from the German government demanding that the Ottoman Empire fulfill its treaty obligations, or else Germany would expel the country from the alliance and terminate economic and military assistance, the Ottoman government entered the war with the recently acquired cruisers from Germany, along with their own navy, launching a [[Black Sea raid|naval raid]] on the Russian ports of [[Odessa]], [[Sevastopol]], [[Novorossiysk]], [[Feodosia]], and [[Yalta]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=McMeekin |first=Sean |title=The Russian Origins of the First World War |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQF099JYW_EC |isbn=978-0-674-06320-4 }}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite web |url=http://www.gwpda.org/naval/turkmill.htm |title=Turkey Enters the War and British Actions |last=Miller |first=Geoffrey |date=December 1999 |publisher=Great War Primary Document Archive |access-date=1 August 2016 }}</ref> thus engaging in military action in accordance with its alliance obligations with Germany. Shortly after, the Triple Entente declared war on the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="Afflerbach, Holger 2012." />{{RP|293}}