Why didn't the Ottoman Empire ever claim Crimea during World War I?

Discussions on the final era of the Ottoman Empire, from the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 until the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
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Futurist
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Why didn't the Ottoman Empire ever claim Crimea during World War I?

#1

Post by Futurist » 25 Oct 2020, 06:18

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.

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Cantankerous
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Re: Why didn't the Ottoman Empire ever claim Crimea during World War I?

#2

Post by Cantankerous » 19 Jan 2021, 03:30

Futurist wrote:
25 Oct 2020, 06:18
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.
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.


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