section_path: Progress of the war/Southern theatres/Ottoman Empire
section_name: Ottoman Empire
paragraph_text: Ottoman Empire
  
  The Ottomans threatened Russia's Caucasian territories and Britain's communications with India via the Suez Canal. The Ottoman Empire took advantage of the European powers' preoccupation with the war and conducted large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Christian populations — the Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, and Sayfo respectively.
  
  The British and French opened overseas fronts with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns (1914). In Gallipoli, the Ottoman Empire successfully repelled the British, French, and Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs). In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after the defeat of the British defenders in the siege of Kut by the Ottomans (1915–1916), British Imperial forces reorganised and captured Baghdad in March 1917. The British were aided in Mesopotamia by local Arab and Assyrian fighters, while the Ottomans employed local Kurdish and Turcoman tribes.
  
  The Suez Canal was defended from Ottoman attacks in 1915 and 1916; in August 1916, a German and Ottoman force was defeated at the Battle of Romani by the ANZAC Mounted Division and the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division. Following this victory, an Egyptian Expeditionary Force advanced across the Sinai Peninsula, pushing Ottoman forces back in the Battle of Magdhaba in December and the Battle of Rafa on the border between the Egyptian Sinai and Ottoman Palestine in January 1917.
  
  Russian armies generally had success in the Caucasus campaign. Enver Pasha, supreme commander of the Ottoman armed forces, dreamed of re-conquering central Asia and areas that had been previously lost to Russia. He was, however, a poor commander. He launched an offensive against the Russians in the Caucasus in December 1914 with 100,000 troops, insisting on a frontal attack against mountainous Russian positions in winter. He lost 86% of his force at the Battle of Sarikamish. General Yudenich, the Russian commander from 1915 to 1916, drove the Turks out of most of the southern Caucasus.
  
  The Ottoman Empire, with German support, invaded Persia (modern Iran) in December 1914 to cut off British and Russian access to petroleum reservoirs around Baku. Persia, ostensibly neutral, had long been under British and Russian influence. The Ottomans and Germans were aided by Kurdish and Azeri forces, together with a large number of major Iranian tribes, while the Russians and British had the support of Armenian and Assyrian forces. The Persian campaign lasted until 1918 and ended in failure for the Ottomans and their allies. However, the Russian withdrawal from the war in 1917 led Armenian and Assyrian forces to be cut off from supply lines, outnumbered, outgunned and isolated, forcing them to fight and flee towards British lines in northern Mesopotamia.
  
  The Arab Revolt, instigated by the British Foreign Office, started in June 1916 with the Battle of Mecca, led by Sharif Hussein. The Sharif declared the independence of the Kingdom of Hejaz and, with British assistance, conquered much of Ottoman-held Arabia, resulting finally in the Ottoman surrender of Damascus. Fakhri Pasha, the Ottoman commander of Medina, resisted for more than 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 years during the siege of Medina before surrendering in January 1919.
  
  The Senussi tribe, along the border of Italian Libya and British Egypt, incited and armed by the Turks, waged a small-scale guerrilla war against Allied troops. The British were forced to dispatch 12,000 troops to oppose them in the Senussi campaign. Their rebellion was finally crushed in mid-1916.
  
  Total Allied casualties on the Ottoman fronts amounted to 650,000 men. Total Ottoman casualties were 725,000, with 325,000 dead and 400,000 wounded.