Shqipëria
1
Battle of Galipoli was led by Albanian-Ottoman officers and German officers
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6503...aper_65032.pdf
i) a critical analysis from recent
observation how the Battle of Çanakkale is presented in its 100th anniversary, where a conference was organized and held by the Yunus Emre Institute in Prizren on 21st March
2015; and
ii) a case study of an individual Albanian participant from Kosovo who
survived the battle and died of natural causes in 1951. Unlike popular belief that many Moslem volunteers from the Balkans fought in Gallipoli, much of which have also fallen, the available evidence gathered from still alive eyewitnesses suggest that he did not go as a volunteer but was taken in a kind of forced mobilization. These two cases of primary sources add as new in the series of a very broad approach and stories about the Battle of Gallipoli. ''
'' 1. Neglected role of Albanians and Germans
The geopolitics in the early second decade of 20th century was marked by dramatic changes in the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman possession in the Balkans was reduced to mainly Albanian inhabited areas, known as Albanian Vilayets (Arnavutler Vilayeti).1 The Ottomans lost control in the Balkans after the first Balkan War in late
1912. The Battle of Gallipoli is presented, understood and used as a Turkish victory, and became more labeled in this way after the Turkish War of Independence.
In fact, the battle at the time was Ottoman, despite Turkey accounting to present day as the sole successor of the Ottoman Empire. It is true that the Ottoman Empire emerged from the
Seljuk Turks, but in its growth and expansion, it relied on the contribution of people who joined the rule under the system known as millet (community) were the role of
1 The four Albanian Vilayets totalling 90 170 km2 were:
i) Kosovo, the largest with 32 900 km2
(three times
larger than modern day Kosovo);
ii) Manastir 28 500 km2
; iii) Ioannina 17 900 km2
; and iv) Shkodra 10 970 km2
. See more in Miftari, Faik (2001), ”Pakëz dritë për Kosovën” (Little light for Kosovo), Prizren: NGL
“BAF”.
3.ethnicity or national identification was negligible. Ottoman Albanians became the most prominent rulers of the empire after Ottoman Turks. The first man climbing the wallsof Constantinople when it fell in 1453, was an Albanian named Mikel (Michael), who
became known as Ballaban Pasha and was appointed Sanjabey (governor) of Ohrid.
2
Between 36 and 39 grand viziers or sadriazems (prime ministers) of Ottoman Empire were Albanians by origin, the second largest number only to the Turks who accounted
for around 70
.3 However, Albanians joined later the Ottoman rule upon the latter arrival and consolidation of rule in the Balkans, and some Albanians left a little earlier due to secessionist movements on national lines in the empire that was crumbling. It only suggests what a great role the Ottoman Albanians had.
Who were they in the Battle of Çanakkale?
They were the second largest contributors in manpower after the Turks, but first or primary in command and combat during the battle.
Let us have a look at some sources which report the national identity of key commanders on the Ottoman side, and to which almost everyone agrees with.
The commander of the Ottoman Fifth Army was the German general of Jewish origin Otto Liman von Sanders (1855-1929).
4 He was appointed as German military
advisor to the Ottoman army.
The second in command of the battle was Mehmed Esat Bülkat (1862-1952) an Albanian from Ioannina, who led the Ottoman III Corps. He had earned the honorific title pasha while in Greek captivity after his defense of Ioannina.
His brother Vehib Pasha (1877-1940) led the XV Army Corps along with German colonel Hans Kannengieser.
Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938) as one of the commanders who
would later, in 1934, become Atatürk (the father of Turks) was half Albanian (from his father) and half Turkish (from his mother) and under the command of Mehmed Esat.
The only high ranking commander of Turkish ethnicity was Cevat Cobanlı (1870-1938) in charge of the Dardanelles Fortified Area Command. Mustafa Kemal began to be known as the commander of the 7th, 9th, and 19th division of the 5 th Army in Gallipoli. He
was appointed in that position by Liman von Sanders who later noted in his diaries that it was Mehmed Esat who organized the defense in Gallipoli and led the Ottoman army during the battle. Liman von Sanders would have been happier to address this merit to his appointee – Mustafa Kemal. The III Corps which Mehmed Esat was commandingproved to be the most combat effective formation during the battle, consisting ofsoldiers from the Balkan wars with fresh fighting experience.5
Who were these combatants with fresh fighting experience from the Balkans?
They were mainly Albanians, the extent of whose commitment in the battle remains to be clarified and investigated into more details. This claim can be backed by the fact that majority of Albanians in the Balkans were Moslems, and as noted earlier, their role in
the Ottoman Empire has been massive. If we are unable to name one by one every Albanian participating and falling in the battle, at least we know that all three key Ottoman commanders (Mehmed East, Vehib Pasha, and Mustafa Kemal) were from the
Balkans, they were Moslems, and they were Albanians.
This was not an accident why the key commanders were Albanians. The leader of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, Enver Pasha (1881-1922) was of Albanian origin, who prior to, in the course of, and after the battle, was the minister of war in the Ottoman Empire. Contrary to Ottoman Albanians, the Ottoman Turk majority wanted an alliance with the Allies. The Albanian alternative prevailed, thus the Ottomans found themselves aligned with Germany through a secret
agreement signed on 30 June 1914, just two days after the outbreak of WWI. In addition, Mehmet Akif, the son of an Albanian from Kosovo who as of his early 1913 poem “Ben ki Arnavudum” (My name is Albanian), in his largest poem titled “The cleric on the chair/throne” expressed a sympathy towards the Germans against the French, and
recommended that the Turks should learn lessons from the Germans.
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Originally Posted by Thracian
United States
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