Otto Liman von Sanders

Otto Liman von Sanders , 1855-1929, German general. In 1913 he was made head of the German military mission to Constantinople to reorganize the army of the Ottoman Empire. His appointment caused a diplomatic crisis between Germany and Russia, which suspected German designs on the Ottoman capital. A compromise was reached when the Germans agreed that Liman become inspector general of the army, a post with less extensive authority. In World War I, Liman commanded Turkish armies in the Gallipoli campaign (1915-16) and was given (1918) supreme command in Palestine, where he was defeated by Allenby. He wrote Five Years in Turkey (1920, tr. 1957).

Enver Pasha (b. 22 Nov. 1881, d. 4 Aug. 1922). Turkish general Born in Apana, he enlisted in the Ottoman army and was trained in Germany. He played a prominent part in the 1908 Young Turk revolution and was then military attaché in Berlin. He fought in the second Balkan War (1913) and subsequently led the 1913 Young Turk coup. He became Minister of War, and arranged the appointment of the German General Liman von Sanders as Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish army. He also played a leading role in determining the entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I in November 1914 on the side of the Central Powers. He was virtual ruler of the Empire, but also personally took the field in the Turkish campaign against the Russians in the Caucasus. He was dismissed in October 1918. He fled to Turkistan, where he was killed while leading local opposition to Soviet Russian rule.