Why didn't the Ottoman Empire ever claim Crimea during World War I?
Why didn't the Ottoman Empire ever claim Crimea during World War I?
Why didn't the Ottoman Empire ever claim Crimea during World War I? Crimea still had a huge Muslim population in 1897, after all--with Muslims being close to a plurality, if not an outright plurality, in some parts of Crimea in 1897.
- Cantankerous
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Re: Why didn't the Ottoman Empire ever claim Crimea during World War I?
During World War I, Crimean Muslims were Tatars, a legacy of Mongol conquests of the Ukraine. To answer your question, the Ottoman triumvirate (Enver, Jemal, and Talaat Pasha) focused on conquering the Caucasus and Central Asia in order to unite all Turkic peoples under the aegis of the Ottoman sultan, and the Ottoman armies were preoccupied with unsuccessful campaigns against the British and French in Palestine and the Levant.