The role of the tribes in the Ottoman State's battles on the Iran Front (1916-1918)

During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was thinking of saving the Turks in the Caucasus from Russian captivity and reaching India via Afghanistan to revolt the Muslims there. For this, the Ottoman Empire had to dominate Iran. The Iranian Front was opened in order to achieve the mentioned objectives. While the front was opening, the authorities thought of taking advantage of the tribes in the region as much as possible. The main purpose of our study is to determine the role of the tribes in the region during the implementation of this plan. In the first stage, small detachments consisting of Turkısh-German forces were formed and sent to the region. With these detachments sent, it was aimed to organize the tribes in the region and deal a blow to the British and Russians. The fact that there were many tribes in the region and that these tribes were pro-Turkısh, German, British and Russian made it difficult to achieve this goal. Turkısh authorities sent the 13th Corps to the Iranian front because the British entered a period of stagnation after the Kutülamare victory. The 13th Corps also tried to benefit from tribes in its battles with the Russians. The Ottoman Empire initially fought against the Russians on the Iranian Front but with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Russian forces left Iran. In 1918, Turkısh forces fought mostly with Armenian-Nestorian and British forces. During this struggle, Turkish forces benefited from Iranian tribes as much as possible. Most of the Iranian tribes sided with the Turkish forces in the battles. The Iranian Front collapsed for the Ottoman Empire as the British gathered on the Tigris Front and captured Baghdad.