War experiences in the autobiographies of Ottoman soldiers who participated in the First World War

The First World War is the first major total war in history. The states participating in the war tried to create organizations that encompass the whole society in order to channel all resources to the war. However, the use of weapons with the most destructive power throughout the war has been one of the fundamental facts that distinguishes the war from previous wars. These fundamental differences between the First World War and previous wars that took place up to that time were reflected in the experiences of the soldiers who experienced the war. As a result of the changes in historiography in recent years, the war experiences of common soldiers are discussed in historical studies. In these studies, the autobiographies of the common soldiers such as diaries, memoirs and letters are used as sources. This situation is seen as a development that increases the importance of autobiographical sources in historiography. Turkish historiography generally studies the First World War in the context of fronts, wars and historical personalities. Therefore, the war experiences of ordinary Ottoman citizens are not studied in historiography. Additionally, autobiographical sources are considered unreliable and are not preferred by historians as primary sources. In this study, the war experiences of ordinary Ottoman citizens were studied using the autobiographies of the soldiers as the primary source. The autobiographical sources we studied within the scope of the study reveal important anecdotes about the war experiences of Ottoman citizens. In this context, economic crisis, immigration and epidemic diseases are seen as the basic problems of Ottoman society in autobiographical sources. On the front, problems caused by logistical insufficiency, struggle against these problems, tension between ethnic identities and explicit and implicit reactions to war are at the forefront. In the light of autobiographical sources, it is seen that the Ottoman soldiers were sometimes desperate against the destructiveness of the war, and sometimes they struggled within the bounds of possibility, just like European soldiers. When the soldiers could not bear the conditions of the war, they tried to return to the back of the front by absconding, wounding themselves or surrendering. In addition, peace as a "magic word" has been longingly expressed in autobiographies.