GEORGIA IN THE PLANS OF GERMANY AND ITS ALLIES AT THE INITIAL STAGE OF THE WORLD WAR I (MILITARY OPERATIONS ON THE TRANSCAUCASUS FRONT)

Abstract

Nugzar zosidze
 E-mail: n.zosidze@bsu.edu.ge
 Associate Professor, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University 
 Batumi, Georgia
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2613-3365
  
 Abstract. In the early twentieth century, two large opposing hostile coalitions have formed in Europe: Triple Alliance and Triple Entente.
 The Triple Alliance initially included: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. After the start of the World War I, the latter withdrew from the bloc, but Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined it, thus forming the Quadruple Alliance. The countries included in it demanded a "place under the sun" and assumed to take the colonies from the Entente countries through war.  
 The core of the "Entente" consisted of the world's largest colonial empires of that time - Great Britain, France and Russia. It was between these two imperialist groups that the World War I of 1914-1918 broke out, involving thirty-eight states from different continents. 
 The war was imperialistic, unjust and conquering on both sides, resulting in the deaths and maiming of millions of people, destruction and extermination on a grand scale.
 Germany and its allies had significant plans for Transcaucasia and the expulsion of Russia from there. This unity of these interests largely led to the Ottoman Empire joining the Alliance, following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. After the Revolution, three leaders distinctively stood out in the political life of the Ottoman Empire: Enver Pasha, Military Minister and and de facto dictator of the Ottoman Empire; Talaat Pasha, Minister of Internal Affairs; and Ahmed Djemal Pasha, Minister of Marine. Those three were obviously prone to Germanophilism. 
 Young Turks, in their attempts to find ways for quickly reorganizing their army defeated in the Balkan wars, looked at Germany with hope. That is why they happily met Germany's proposal to send a military mission to the Ottoman empire, which was received. On 8 October 1913, an agreement was signed between Germany and the Ottoman Empire, which gave the Sanders military mission extensive rights (M.Larcher, La guerre Turque dans  la guerre mondiale: 609-610).
 The German military mission undertook considerable work in the Ottoman Empire prior to the war. The members of the mission had responsible positions in the local general staff, border corps and fortifications. The history of the period in question became especially relevant from the beginning of the 50s of the twentieth century. However, many details and features of these liasons have not yet been fully investigated, comprehensively studied and scientifically substantiated.