ANKARA
The Turkish Historical Society has made public historical photographs of World War I to mark the 100th anniversary of the Great War.
Shots received by Anadolu Agency show Ottoman troops fighting in seven different battlefields including Gallipoli, Iraq and Yemen.
The photographs show places from the Sinai Desert in Egypt to Gallipoli, and from Galicia to Jerusalem.
Figures from Turkish history seen in the images include Enver Pasha, an Ottoman military officer seen inspecting Ottoman troops, Refet Bele (Pasha) an officer of the Ottoman Army and then the Turkish army, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, another Turkish officer and politician, and Corporal Seyit, a gunner in the Ottoman Army.
Ibrahim Ethem Atnur, a member of the Science Board at the Turkish Historical Society, said that the world is still experiencing the effects of the Great War, which was the reason for the ongoing troubles and pain in the Middle East.
Imperial struggle
Taha Niyazi Karaca, a professor from Turkey’s Bozok University, said that the most important reason for World War I was imperial struggle.
About 30 new states were formed after the war, said Karaca, adding it also resulted in an increase in nationalism around the world.
The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophie by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914, triggered the global conflict, with Austria and Serbia dragging other great powers into the war in Europe.
Tens of millions of people died during the war which ended in 1918.
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