This chapter does two things. The first quarter provides historical background, explaining why the Ottomans entered the Great War, how the war unfolded and how many prisoners were taken by other powers. The remainder of the chapter uses a comparative approach to examine the capture and captivity experiences of Ottoman prisoners in Russia and Egypt. The latter section explores the similarities and differences in the captivity experiences and analyses how they contribute to the project of nationalism. Conclusions reached in that section form the basis of the argument constructed in Chapter 2.

THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In late October of 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered what would soon be known as the Great War on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. This new conflict came soon after the disastrous Balkan Wars of 1912–13, in which the Ottomans lost nearly all of their Balkan territories, retaining only parts of Thrace. In the First Balkan War, even the city of Edirne, the former Ottoman capital and only 220 kilometres (135 miles) from Istanbul, was lost to the Bulgarians.